fairy godmother aka squirt flies solo

you're in your room 

packing a huge bag for the bus trip,  

observed by favourite girlfriends and brothers, 

poncying around in your sundress and heels, 

talking pig latin, singing crazy lyrics,

flicking things at each other down the hallway,

guffawing great belly laughs.

you're trying to squeeze your sewing machine

 in with your teddy bear and all the necessities

of the first few months of independence 

and i am remembering the day you were born: 

flying down the motorway at a hundred, 

a perfect birth, a rosebud girl,

lipstick still on my lips.

daddy's voice, "belle, you will marry me!" 

as you flew shrieking around the lounge

in the days of a thousand dress-ups

and now, you're flying solo.

ain't gonna lie, i'm gonna miss you every day.

your intuitiveness, your culinary rescues, your song.

outrageous fortune and sherlock marathons,

minions and facebook funnies and 

mum, read this book: i think you'll really like it.

you've taught me so much about the world:

finding strength in the hard moments,

 icing on cupcakes, long-distance love.

i snapped this photo earlier in the secret garden:

the white irises thought you look stunning

inside and out, which you do.

my fairy godmother, always remember:

there is music in you...

happiness-making

what a difference a (holi)day makes!

there's a reason that teachers + kids have six weeks off in the summer.. after arriving on the doorstep of Christmas completely bah humbug, we've experienced the wonderful therapy of beach days, friends + family visits, little espressos in the secret garden, a bavarian sausage fest, the arrival of my very own sewing machine (squee!) and a youth production of Alice in Wonderland, which was mike's theatre début. raych is now half way to her new life in The Windy City and joel heads to The Big Smoke in a couple of weeks!

it seems that insty has become my new photo album: the hols started with a fab week at the beach, the instant skool was over:

swimming with the fishies

at Goat Island

the gentle rhythm of swim, read, eat:

rinse + repeat

our fave little spot at matakana:

pimms for mama, fanta for Mousey

the pre-christmas shenanigans

(oh, hello snapchat!)

dress-ups for Christmas eve at work

the engineers

rapping wrapping it up

you look like Christmas morning

boyz in the surf

bears to stay

my, how you've grown..

the four biggest kids were missing!

 

and... i got my sewing machine out, cut a pattern off one of my fave dresses, and voilà!

but wait..there's more!!! cos you can never really get too much of a good thing..

unless it's food and riotous living.. am now booked in for bootcamp and the cycle of losing the last ten kilos again... funny how we suddenly realise that everything else has come first for far too long + we need to re-prioritise self.

which brings me to my ABCs.. cos skool starts again tomorrow..

(a) sleep, exercise, eat

(b) i can't  make everyone happy

(c) slow down, slow down, slow down

cos really, even though life continues to deliver absolute fabulousity:

in the form of Cheshire Cats

and March Hares

those ABCs are to be the priority in 2014, cos the rabbit hole is fine during the summer, but we can't be falling down it again in real life. #antijinx

because, that ^

moustachio disguiseying, though,

is to be encouraged.