A cap for spring

Found - a sun hat both Haeata and I can agree on! Even better, it's just $12 at The Warehouse! 

National Geographic for Kids

I came across the amazing National Geographic website for kids yesterday while looking for something for Haeata to do online. We haven't had a chance to look through the whole site yet but we found the most important feature - cool games!

The graphics are great and a little quirky, while the music is surprisingly really good. 

Haeata spent ages helping a giant ape recycle rubbish found in a park and then raced around a rain forest saving endangered species. Fun and educational!

It's our new favourite. You can leave the kids to play on their own or sit down and play some games together. Actually found myself nodding along to the music instead of wanting to smash a hole in my speakers  discreetly push the mute button. 

Auckland Symphony Orchestra for free!

This Sunday the Auckland Symphony Orchestra is putting on a free concert in the Town Hall. It's on from 2:30 - 4pm but make sure you get there nice and early and these things tend to be crazy popular and seriously packed out. 

Celebrating Margaret Mahy

When Margaret Mahy died last month one thing I kept hearing people commenting on was how magical she was. It made me a little sad to think my children would never have then chance to hear her read a story. 

Well, this Saturday at the Auckland Town Hall Storylines is putting on a free event to celebrate writer Margaret Mahy's life.

There will be dramatised readings and songs from some of her most popular books like The Lion and the Meadow, together with recordings and videos of Margaret reading her own poems and stories

Amazing writers like Lynley Dodd, Tessa Duder, Betty Gilderdale and Dorothy Butler will all be there to read too!

Come dressed as your favourite Margaret Mahy character! Or maybe just wear a crazy wig.

Doors open from 2pm. FREE!

She Loves You - Snoopy's Beatles

Shout out to our friend DJ AD.1 from Kfm (and the other parenting half behind Fluffy ... Not So Fluffy) for this discovery!


This is kinda cute you guys. Beatles classics done on toy instruments and sung by kids. I can't tell exactly what it has to do with Charlie Brown except for a clever marketing angle but it sure beats the hell out of Dora. Which is playing on my TV as I type this. We've just got Sky and I am NOT on top of the scheduling yet. You put something safe on and type a couple of sentences, look up again and your 3 year old is deeply engrossed in some horribly repetitive cartoon. 


So, back to this! A refreshing cup of green tea to the insipid football headed tunes coming out of my TV screen at present. And while we're here, why not some classic Charlie Brown from the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Why more guys didn't turn out to be like Joe Cool I'll never know.

Wynyard Quarter 1st Birthday Party!

Can you believe it's been a year already?! On the other hand, can you believe there was a time when this wonderful space was just all industrial wasteland?!


The Wynyard Quarter is one of those places that has helped to put some more soul into Auckland in the last year or so. The soul of any city is in it's people so Auckland has always had heaps of it, but without anywhere for all those souls to gather it's hard to feel. 


It's so nice to be able to get out the house with the kids and instead of going to some fluorescent lit indoor playground/hellhole or some shadowy, empty suburban playground actually go to a place where there is life, activity and all kinds of people. 


If you feel the same as me about the Wynyard Quarter then get down there on Saturday and help them celebrate. If you still haven't been down there yet (it's ok, I won't tell anyone) then this will be the perfect introduction. 


There will be free activities all day, starting with a sing-a-long Dawn Chorus (cute) in Karanga Plaza at 7am. Then for the rest of the day there are free harbour cruises, tours inside classic yachts, $1 trips on the SS Puke, Silo climbs and free rides on the tram. 


From 2 - 5 you can make and decorate a lantern in a free workshop and then at 5:30 there will be launching ceremony from the tidal steps at dusk. Special!


The website also says there will be party games and "food suitable for a first birthday party" all day so I'm thinking piles and piles of fairy bread and sausage rolls. 


And then at 6pm they're screening "The Incredibles" on to Silo 7! What a nice way to wind up a massive day.