Spring Skiing

Two weekends ago, we ran away from Election Day, packed up the car, the kids and headed for the mountain.  That would be Mt Ruapehu for those not familiar with New Zealand’s favourite, and arguably, most active volcano.
The intention was to introduce Kate and Tom to snow and skiing.  And the gods were smiling on [...]

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The Photo

The photo we have as a banner on our blog is something special.  It’s a photo of my great uncles and cousins a number removed in the annual Waiheke boat race.  My grandmother’s family had a place there when she was a child. She even spent much of the time that the the influenza epidemic hit [...]

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Catching Up

So much for this being a regular, weekly thing! Wow!  We’ve had a pretty full on couple of months, which is a poor excuse but the only one I can offer up. 
Ideas Shop has been going full tilt.  We have new staff, a new chair of our board and are doing our first exporting – working with the head office of [...]

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Twinkle Twinkle

Kate has started piano lessons. She is learning through the Suzuki method which basically means by ear. 
It’s great fun for all the family, particularly as it requires considerable parental practice, which is proving to be something of a challenge, mainly for Anna. We are all perfecting Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Tom on the xylophone, Dean singing [...]

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Monkeying Around

Can’t resist putting this up.  Tom got a Monkey Suit from his Grammy Madeleine for his birthday so our house is now overrun with a Tiger and a Monkey.  Great fun!

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Playing Catch Up

A lot has happened in the past month so this is catch up! 
Anna spent a week days in Sydney in late May doing a communications workshop for a Melcrum conference. All very exciting and possibly the start of a new line of work! Those left at home survived quite happily, although Tom now asks Anna [...]

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There’s a lion in the meadow…

Last Sunday we celebrated Kate and Tom’s 4th and 2nd birthdays with a combined “event” at the Wellington Zoo.  It can only be called an “event” because it took about as much organising as any of the client events we do at Ideas Shop! It was a mission in planning and management but, boy, was it [...]

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Tree Tree by any other name

We have a dog.  To be precise a Welsh Springer Spaniel. Her name is variably Tree-Tree, or Poppy, depending on who in the family you talk to.  Kate, and Tom by default are calling her Tree-Tree: Kate because she decided that was what the puppy’s name was going to be, and Tom because he has been [...]

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Something to really care about

Last Tuesday my colleague Emma did a fantastic job promoting a report into child poverty in New Zealand called Left Behind. The report has been put out by Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG). They are one of our Ideas Shop pro-bono clients and one that we really care about.
Child poverty is one of those unspoken issues [...]

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Kate turns 4

Monday 5 May was Kate’s birthday.  It was also the day that Dean chopped part of his finger off with the axe chopping kindling.  Dramatic doesn’t even begin to describe our household at times. 
On the upside, I had to stay home and look after the kids as Dean had his arm in a sling for [...]

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