Good times, Great friends

I feel I have been truly blessed with amazing friends.  Childhood friends, my sisters who are my best friends, and friends I have today.  When I first became pregnant I wondered what would happen when it came to friends and children.  None of my close friends had kids, and I thought that I may well be quite lonely.  Till I discovered a forum on a website.  A group of us all were due to have babies in April 2008.  For some of us, it was our first. Others it was a second baby. And some had more than one child already.  We lived NZ wide...a group of us in Auckland, then others further a field-Christchurch, even Invercargill.  We followed the highs and lows of our pregnancies, or birth stories and photos of our beautiful babies.  I think we knew each other pretty well.  We even all got together in 2009, in Auckland so we could all meet in real life.  I found out I was pregnant that weekend with Maddie so for me it was an amazing weekend!

Anyway...due to being in close proximity to each other, the Auckland girls have many get togethers.  A group of us attend a playgroup on a Wednesday.  Some of us have gone onto have another child...three of us have second babies that were born within 6 weeks of each other.

Not only have the Mums become firm friends, so have the children.  Bella adores her friends and asks each night if she will be seeing them the next day.  It is lovely to see her finally playing with others, rather than alongside them, as the do when they are young.  They all have the odd tiff, but never anything serious!


Today we went to the Grey Lynn pools, which is a fab location for swimming with little ones.  There is a single shallow wadding pool, a life guard on duty, and a park with playground right outside.  It is free entry too-pretty much unheard of in this day and age.
It was stinking hot.  Bella had not been swimming for almost a year as it is difficult with two kids at our local pool.  She was a bit hesitant in talking, but I hoped she would come around. We took a picnic to share with Claire, Ang and the kiddies.

Bella and Lukey

Testing the waters

Water babe

Loving it!

Bella giving Zach a dunking

Maia and Maddie

Anyway...the pool was a hit. Bella loved it.  Maddie was not too sure at first.  It was rather cold and this her first swim, but she was happy to sit in the shallows and "paddle"
The picnic went down well...and both girls were fast asleep before we even got home!