House Has Exchanged! Woohoo!!

After a lot of stress, sleepless nights and furniture crammed into our tiny rental apartment to save on storage costs, we have finally exchanged on our house! Not an easy or pleasant process, but oh so satisfying to get to this point.

We are set to complete on Monday, so fingers crossed there'll be no delays. But so far, all has not run smoothly, but let's just hope this one goes off without a hitch.

13 years in the UK, 8 in our lovely wee North London pad. Needless to say it will be a bittersweet goodbye. So many memories and wonderful experiences. Both our babies were born here and brought home to this little flat. Georgie is quite upset about 'her house' being sold. So there's been lots of talk of all the exciting things New Zealand has to offer and the cousins she'll get to know and be able to hang out with. So the blow is being softened, but it's still a lot for a little 7 (almost 8) year old to take in.

Georgie lost another tooth on Wednesday during the day at school and was so proud to show us when she got home. She forgot to take it out of her book-bag though and I fell asleep when I was putting Zac to bed that night, as I was so shattered from racing around with stressful things relating to the house sale. She was so crest-fallen the next morning and buried her head under the covers refusing to get up until the tooth fairy visited. Guilt trip well and truly laid on Mama, you'd think I would be on the ball the following night. But no, the tooth fairy had to visit (in drag) because I fell asleep again putting Zac to bed! To put this in context, I'm a night-owl, so I don't usually fall asleep at that time and it's only that I'm so shattered from all the stress of preparing and selling the house, that I have been falling asleep putting Zachy to bed and just haven't been able to get up again, even when Greg's tried to wake me!! Totally out of character for me. So when Greg realised I hadn't done the tooth fairy visit again, he made sure that it was sorted, even venturing out to the car (where he thought there was small change) in the freezing conditions we've had the past few nights! Basically being my hero - love that!!!

So much going on right now, it's hard to keep track of everything, but I know I have to keep up with the little things, because that's what mama's do... but right now, my pillow's calling, so night y'all xxx

 

Pics of my wee girlie and her yummy hot chocolate from a little 'movie with mama date' last Saturday morning. She was so chuffed with her treats that day and we had a really lovely outing just the two of us. :)

House Stress

Mmmkay, so it's fair to say this lil' house is full of stress right now. Can't book the tickets home until the house is actually sold, and the selling process has not been as smooth as we'd hoped. 

So just wanna be booking our tickets to New Zealand and planning our last days here in the wonderful UK which has well and truly become a second home to us these past 13 years. The parting will be bittersweet, so many beautiful friends we are leaving behind and so many wonderful memories we are taking home. But the pull of home gets stronger for me each year and with two little British babies to teach the ways of the Kiwi clans, it's definitely time to return down under!

Off to Sweden next week, probably for the last time before going home. Our heartstrings are tethered to that country now thanks to a certain wonderful Scandinavian family. But don't get me started, no tears, no tears, no tears, oh dang, you know it's gonna happen!!!

Right, lawyers to phone, estate agents to wrangle, on with the day...

Just for a little eye candy, here's a 'blast from the past' pic of my sweet Georgie aged about 4 taken in our old apartment. She used to love fairy dress up! Sweet sweet memories in that lil' home.

Moments of Joy

I have been looking through some of the pics from our lovely family trip to Wales recently and came across this lovely little moment. I love the connection that my hubby shares with our kiddies, they both have their own very special bond with their papa and I just think these pics captured this so well...

I hope you enjoy sharing this special lil' moment now as much as we did on the day. 

Hugs from us all, Wends xxx

Boxed In

I'm so frustrated with all the boxes in the house right now. We are in limbo, packing up to go home, but it's too early yet to send anything!!! Aaarrrgh!!! I just feel like I can't move. But perhaps this is a good thing. It's making me really anxious to get home and have some 'space'. I miss New Zealand like crazy now, not so much the place, but the people. My mama is 70 in January and my nieces and nephews are growing up so fast. It will be so good for the soul to be back amongst them all, I just can't wait now.

But this is not to say I won't miss London. 13 years is a long time to have lived here, away from 'home'. The UK has most definitely become our second home and we have loved living here. Being a part of our local community, joining in with activities for and through the kiddies at the school etc, has given us a real sense of 'belonging'. Yet, I have always felt a little 'in limbo', never quite settled. New Zealand is home and always will be, but now the question is, what will my British babies make of all this!!!

Georgie & Zac in Wellington, New Zealand ~ August 2011

Family Haircuts

It's way overdue! So today, was family haircut day. Even Papa got involved. We cut a lock from Zac's gorgeous blonde locks (which Georgie covets!) for the scrapbook. Here are a few pics from the fun...

Poor wee fella, he has such a nasty cold right now,
no sooner do I wipe, the boogey's are back!

Our lil' dude, looking beyond cute with his
new haircut and rather chuffed with himself too! :)

He looks so sweet here, such an expectant face. :)

When we asked Zachy if he liked his new haircut, he shook his

head and said no! He was a little disillusioned with the process!! 

I snapped him here just as he was saying no with a big 'harumph', LOL. 

My big girl was vehemently against having a haircut, until the process 

was essentially done and she realised how lovely she looked!!

Then it was mama's turn...


My mad mop well overdue a chop!

My self portrait trying to capture the layers of the new cut...

The hubby's shot of my new locks is a tad better than mine :)

I've had Georgie off school with a fever for the last two days, so hadn't been out to get pennies sorted for our lovely hairdresser, so I had to make a mad dash to the money machine whilst Greg was getting his haircut. So there are no photos of that, but I did manage to tear him away from his recording, long enough to snap a few pics of my gorgeous hubby too.

He'll be horrified that I've put up two pics of him, but I couldn't choose which was best and he's not looking bad for an old fulla! LOL :)

Hello World

Today my hubby was playing around with blog templates etc, and we tried a few just for fun, then it occurred to me, I'd really love to blog about my babies adventures in life and share the joys and challenges of a sleep deprived mama, so Monkeys and Moonbeams was born. I hope you'll enjoy visiting my blog and reading about the fun and drama that is life with my two cheeky monkeys! Hugs, Wends x