Bee School

The first Sunday of every month there is a free natural bee keeping school. We attended the February session a couple weeks ago and it was informative and inspirational. Now that we have the ngahere at Mangawhai we need to learn as much as we can before we embark on this new adventure of having our own hives. Jef and I have been wanting hives for years, but due to so many other priorities in our lives we've not managed it. The more knowledge we gain in this area though will drive us to realise this goal sooner.





Kien was bored in the first half of the session when we were inside the classroom learning theory, but as soon as we stepped outside to open up the hives he was into it.

Cycling Stanley Park

The day before our cruise out of Vancouver we hired bikes and rode around Stanley Park and the waterfront area. Good thing Kien likes to ride, because it was actually quite a loop around, and we stopped at little bay areas and rested as required.





















Quite a fun way to spend a day (actually, just a few hours in reality) in a city that feels very similar to Auckland. We were still trying to adjust our body clocks, so one afternoon felt like an entire day.

For the love of bees

I took Kien to Bee School at Vic Park yesterday. This is our first step in the journey to becoming beekeepers, which Kien is very keen for. He's been asking when we are getting hives, and I've been putting him off for years - yes, years. We'll get there soon! Here's his story for the week.

In the weekend...

Saturday

Sunday

Kien wrote his story with his dad in bed last night and texted it to me.

I look at these pics below and see the future flash before my eyes!

What's been happening

March is almost over! Wow. Thought I'd drop in some pictures to let you know what's been happening.

We took Kien bowling. He's been asking and asking and we've been putting him off, so it was about time we followed through. I didn't know how he knew about bowling and thought it was something he had watched. Then when we got to Metrolanes in the city he said he was here the last time he went bowling. We thought he was making it up, but I had forgotten that he went with the folks from school holiday programme - so he wasn't just telling stories again hehehehe.

We've finished up cricket for the season - well actually we are away for the final 2 games and when we come back we are hoping to make it to prize-giving. It has been a great season. Kien has really enjoyed it (for the most part).

We've been harvesting strawberries from the garden. Season is over so we are getting stragglers, but anything is good.

It's also been raining so much! The garden enjoys the soaking, as does the Venus Fly Trap. I hope it will be alright while we are away. We've been really looking after this plant since our last one shrivelled up and died through lack of watering.

Speaking of the weather, in the weekend there was finally a break from the rain so I got Kien on his bike and down to the park for some much needed running around.

Wednesday night we took off - destination LA. Sunday is the marathon!

This is the enclosed "outside" area of the Air New Zealand Koru lounge.

Landed in LAX yesterday to relive Wednesday all over again.

Making Tuesdays count

Now that it's the school holidays I felt like how I used to feel on Tuesdays when I had Kien with me all day. Depending on what time of the day, it was either the best thing ever, or when the heck is Jef getting home so I don't have to deal with this kid's whining anymore! On Tuesday I experienced both of those phenomenons, and my only solution was to take him out and burn off as much energy as possible. So we set out early (as soon as the first whine occurred, basically).

Cornwall Park

If you haven't gathered already by the many posts in the past, I love Cornwall Park. I forget just how beautiful it is until I go back and then I love it even more. Kien on his bike, me and my running shoes - perfect situation for exercising. We did a nice loop which we both enjoyed consisting of tracks, side walks and some off roading.

It didn't take long and we covered a good distance. Kien wasn't keen on pushing for the summit, although I told him I would push him all the way up the volcano. I had told him we could go climb another mountain if he was not tired, and he was enthusiastic about that.

Hamlins Hill

Well it's not exactly a mountain but it's fun nonetheless, and it's close to my dad's restaurant where we were planning to have lunch. It is a mixture of farmland and bush, and is really easy to walk.





He collects "treasures" along the way and wants me to take pictures of them.







After the walk we got to my dad's for a late lunch. They usually have a giant bag of feijoas for Kien since they know how mad he is about the autumn fruit, but they didn't know we were coming so didn't have any. To keep us in full supply for a week we drove over to dad's house and got a bucketful of lovely, fat and juicy beauties. Kien was so happy!