We’ve planned a fun late afternoon party this year at Stoneridge Cafe & Maze in Redwood Valley.  There will be a bouncy castle, a sausage sizzle and a bike trail if you bring your bike.  Bring your family and a picnic if you like!  If the weather isn’t great, check here or on facebook for a cancellation notice.  Please RSVP using the following form so we make sure there is a sausage for you all!

Isn’t five years old an awesome age for Christmas? Poppy chose and decorated the tree herself, prepared all the traditional things for Santa, had wonderful conversations with the mall & retail Santas she met and was fully engaged in the whole process of the countdown – including identifying the date with her advent calendar every morning in December.

Having her Uncle Christopher arriving on Christmas Eve was an excellent addition to the excitement of the season.  Singing carols at the cathedral steps in Nelson on Christmas Eve was really fun. Lots of presents delighted her this year…. especially the amazing playhouse GranJan and Yogi built at the farm, complete with shop window and all the frills for a little girl.  She also loved the mermaid bike from Santa and the pogo stick from Uncle Chris.  The candy necklaces in Santa’s sack were a wide-eyed surprise on Christmas morning… she had asked every Santa she met for some, including the Santa who called from Santa Call – a wonderful experience she talked about a lot.

A big thank you to GranJan for the lovely Christmas dinner at the farm.  We had a relaxing time playing in the sun and enjoying all the family time without rushing anywhere.

Unfortunately, nothing arrived from her Dad in time for Christmas (apparently it’s on the way) – so she was a little disappointed about that.  We sent an awesome gift over to America that I recommend to anyone with relatives they don’t see a lot – a photo book which we picked up from Grab One on sale [a big 30cm x 30cm hard cover photo book with 50 pages, incl. nationwide delivery] from Photo Deals. We made two books, one also for GranJan and Yogi with photos from activities and highlights throughout the year.

Here is a Christmas wish from Poppy to her relatives overseas – and video of her opening her presents.

Poppy sang her heart out in the rain today at the Motueka A&P Show stage where the Tasman Karaoke Superstar Finals were being held.

All the winners from the different regional heats got together for a karaoke sing-off and Poppy took out the Junior Champion prize.  She sang a Lady GaGa Tribute and Sweet About Me by Gabriella Cilmi.

Afterwards we were going to walk around the show and meet all the animals and see the entertainment, but it was really starting to pour so we dashed to the car with just a quick stop at Mr Whippy for a creamy celebration.

Thanks to Jason from Orange Dog for helping us with the GaGa Girl t-shirt transfer… I might have to start taking orders!

Awesome evening with Mayor Richard Kempthorne awarding certificates of achievement to all our wonderful home education kids at their prizegiving. I was very proud of Poppy and all her friends. Yahoo, the holidays are almost here!

Poppy and I love stopping for a flat white & a fluffy at The Boulevard Cafe in the Richmond Mall now and then.  We discuss our thoughts about things and sometimes flick through a magazine together.

Tonight Poppy desperately wanted to swim so we went off to the ASB Aquatic Centre after dinner and swam until it closed!

Poppy had a great time entering a photo competition and took lots of shots at the little church down the road from the farm where the neighbours just had a wedding.  We also explored some of the blooming poppies in GranJan’s garden and submitted a few of the best ones for judging.

Lucky escape on Annesbrook roundabout
By Nelson Mail writer: BILL MOORE

A Richmond woman is counting her lucky stars after a large digger tumbled off a truck and landed right where she and her small daughter had been moments before in their little commuter car.

Adrienne Ford said “everything just went into slow motion” as a truck came around the Annesbrook roundabout where she had stopped “right on the white line” on her way to Nelson yesterday afternoon.

“I could see that huge big yellow thing coming directly at me. It was absolutely heart-stopping. My instincts kicked in. I quickly glanced back – there wasn’t a car behind me. I slammed my gear shift into reverse. It definitely would have hit me.”

Ms Ford snapped a photo of the scene before being waved on by the truck driver, who she said looked “absolutely furious” when he got out of his cab. In her view, however, he should be facing charges. “It was incredibly dangerous.”

She said she was very lucky that there were no other vehicles behind her Toyota Echo at the usually busy time on Whakatu Dr. If there had been, she would have had no option but to reverse into them to avoid the falling digger.

The accident happened about 3.10pm, and the truck and digger’s owner, Duane Whiting, said he had the road cleared before 4.45pm. The truck had been on its way to the Duane Whiting Contractors yard in nearby Beatty St, and he organised a crane to retrieve the digger.

It was too soon to tell how badly the digger was damaged, or what caused the accident, Mr Whiting said. “We don’t know whether it was a mechanical fault or driver error.”

He said police attended the accident but it was too early to say whether any charges would be faced.

The driver was “a wee bit” shaken up, but pleased that no-one had been harmed.

Poppy’s first theatre performance at the Theatre Royal was a fabulous success with three sold out shows and three others almost full! Poppy loved every second of every rehearsal and totally blended in with the wonderful theatre people we met. I made several awesome new friends in the process too.

A little note about the Heidi dress Poppy wore in the production – I bought that dress off Trade Me for one dollar when Poppy was little.  Here is a photo of her wearing it as Little Red Riding Hood for a book character day at preschool when she had just turned 2 years old…. with an inset of her wearing the same dress on stage at five years old!

Poppy has really loved going to our local Aquatic Centre’s Wave Raves on Friday nights.  It’s a riot of colour & music along with splashing and swimming fun with hundreds of other kids.  The lifeguards are amazing and run ‘holiday-programme’ style games and competitions - often with prizes and sweets.

• Wave Rave Nelson facebook page
• ASB Aquatic Centre website

Occasionally they will have a theme night and this week was a GLOW PARTY.  They ran a facebook competition beforehand to give away a VIP party and Poppy won!  She wrote a song (with lots of help from Yogi) to the tune of Amy Winehouse’s Rehab.  The competition asked to provide the reason she wanted to win a VIP party at the Glow Night…..

My Mummy said what kind of party
and I said “Glow, Glow, Glow”
Don’t you want to go to Mackers?
And I said “NO, NO … GLOW!”
I want to be a VIP
Come on Mummy, come on PLEASE!
I wanna win a Wave Rave party
So we can **GLOW**GLOW**GLOW**

The Edge radio station (88.8) did a crossover on the radio and Poppy sang her song on air.

• Poppy singing her Glow Party Song on the Edge radio station

The prize consisted of the winner and three friends being picked up in the Edge Roadrunner (radio station SUV) and delivered to the pool; bypassing the long queues of kids and being escorted straight into the VIP party area roped off in the cafe.  It was decorated with balloons and glow stuff and the kids were presented with a party dinner from the cafe along with lots of glowsticks to wear.  Then they had lots of fun in the pools with no waiting in line at the inflatable…. and heaps of sweets!

Glow Party VIPs - Jesse, Ella, Poppy & Alice

Poppy invited her friends Ella, Jesse and Alice and they all had a blast.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPn6gjmeb28