Day 14 | Today's photo follows on well from yesterday's, with two more cousins who love hanging out together! It's New Year's Eve, and it has been a perfect night for family and friends to get together with a BBQ and drinks. Austin really wanted his photo taken with Eden while they ate their sausages! A great way to end 2015!

Day 13 | Whenever we get together, Hayden and his cousin, Imogen, have always gotten on so well together. Unfortunately with them living in Dubai, we don't get to see them as often as we'd all like. So with us all being in Auckland together over Christmas this year, it has been wonderful seeing all the kids playing together and brings back many memories of spending holidays with my cousins when I was younger too. There's also been lots of sleepovers happening, which Hayden is absolutely loving of course!

I love this photo of Hayden and Imogen together : )

Day 12  |  Well, all I can say is that taking 6 kids to the Zoo is fun but pretty exhausting - even if there are 3 adults to look after them!  In fact I think the adults are even more tired than the children tonight!

It was great to head back to Auckland Zoo today though.  We usually make it to the Zoo on our trips to Auckland, so it's just over a couple of years since we've been.  The boys and their cousins all had a great time running finding all the animals, playing in the playground and not to forget ice creams!  It turned into a lovely hot day, so they were well needed by lunchtime!

Three cousins in the photo today - Hayden, Imogen and Austin - at the entrance to the Zoo : )

Day 11  |  I think all these late nights have caught up with the boys, well Austin at least!  This wee boy actually slept in till 10.00am this morning, which he never does!  And then he pretty much spent the rest of the morning lying on the couch in his pyjamas watching TV.  Sometimes you just need a morning like that!

We did actually make it to Orewa beach this afternoon to try out the boogie boards in the waves - Hayden was keen, albeit cold; Austin not so much.  In fact Mum and Dad were keener to stay in the water longer than the boys!

Then it was back to our place for a BBQ with the 'cousins'.  Hayden is pretty happy tonight as his cousin Imogen is staying the night!  I wonder how early they'll be up in the morning!

Day 10  |  Another absolutely gorgeous summer's day today, and an afternoon at another beach.  This time we headed up slightly further North to Sullivan's Bay, a beautiful bay, and the perfect spot for some swimming and playing in the water.  The kids loved playing on Aunty Rachy's new paddle board, mostly trying to tip Aunty Rachy into the water : )

We all headed up to Aunty Rachy's for home made pizzas and BBQ (yummy!) before heading home. It was another late night for the boys, but what amazing memories these holidays are making!

Day 9  |  Boxing Day, and what better than a picnic on the beach with Christmas leftovers, along with some cricket - and a swim of course!  We don't really go to the beach very often at home, so the boys were very excited about finally making it to the beach today.  It also meant that they got to try out their new boogie boards that all the kids got from Aunty Pauline from Christmas!

There was also a great park next to the beach, where the kids hung out lots, hence today's photo.  I love these two of Austin - so much fun!

Day 8  |  Merry Christmas!  After months and weeks and days of waiting, Santa has been!  The boys were awake at 5.30am this morning - well, the 'big' boy woke up and then woke the 'little' boy up too!  By 6.00am, there was paper being ripped off presents and happy boys playing with their new toys, games and books.  It's so much fun seeing their faces as they dive into their Santa sacks!

We spent the day with Steve's family, with a Christmas lunch for 20 adults and 6 children!  The kids had so much fun opening more presents, playing with new toys, taking over the spa pool, and a water balloon fight with some of the adults!  It was a big day for everyone, and ended up a very long one for the boys who finally made it to bed about 10pm.  I think the adults were pretty tired too after all the excitement!

So many photos taken today, but because it is well overdue, here is the first ever whole family photo from Steve's side of the family!

Day 7  |  It has been a big day for the boys today.  The countdown til Christmas is nearly over, and this morning we flew up to Auckland to spend Christmas with Steve's family.  It's actually been 7 years since we've had a Douglass Family Christmas up in Auckland, and the boys have been super excited about coming up and seeing their only cousins who actually live in Dubai, but have also flown over for Christmas.  The boys can't wait to see everyone tomorrow!

But for now as I sit here writing this late into the night, the milk and cookies are out for Santa, and two very tired and excited boys have finally fallen asleep curled up side by side in great anticipation for the morning! 

Day 6  |  It's the day before Christmas Eve, the day before we board the plane to Auckland for Christmas.  So today has been a day of cleaning and packing and pretty much getting ready for the big trip tomorrow!

I like to take a photo of the boys by the Christmas Tree each year, so it was the last chance to grab one today.  Funnily enough, our Christmas Tree photos always seem to catch the boys in a good moment!  Not that I'm complaining!

Day 5  |  Wow, Christmas is getting close!  Not many sleeps left now!  Today we headed into the city to the Christmas Grotto.  This is the third time for the boys, but we also took Granma and Dea with us today.  It is a fantastic Grotto to visit, and so much fun watching the boys faces, although Hayden was more interested in finding all the yellow stars that were hidden in the displays!  I think the model train set along with the Disney and Star Wars characters (amongst others) was definitely the favourite though!

I knew the lighting would be completely not suitable for taking photographs of the boys, but I still had to get just one photo!  The quality isn't great as it is really dark in there, and this was taken with no flash (2500 ISO for the photographers!)  Add to that the fact that Hayden wanted to go and find his next star, and Austin was too busy singing - literally - and you get a pretty typical photo for us anyway!  Sometimes just capturing a memory is more important than a 'perfect' photo though!

Day 4  |  Last year we started the "Elf on a Shelf" tradition, so on 1 December again this year, the mischievous "Zak" made his appearance once again!  Hayden especially loves getting up in the morning and seeing what Zak has been up to!  Last night the boys stayed at Granma and Dea's, so Zak decided to take over Hayden's bed and have a sleep over with his friends!

If you have got little ones and haven't heard of Elf on a Shelf, then definitely look it up!

Day 3  |  The boys have taken off with Granma and Dea for the day as they have come up to Christchurch for a few days before Christmas.  So, it's a good time to introduce our newest family member to the blog. 

This is Alfie, our Australian Labradoodle, who is 9 months old now.  He is still a crazy puppy at heart ,and his favourite game is to steal anything he can (the bench is usually the best!) and take off at speed, hoping you'll chase him and play!  He is absolutely fantastic with the boys and loves to run around outside with them, stealing their balls and toys of course!

I'm sure you'll see lots more Alfie photos on here this summer!

Day 2  |  Well it was actually a pretty dull, cool and wet start to the holidays today, which meant an inside morning and the boys taking over the dog's new bed with the iPad. (It is pretty comfy!  Although I have to say that it seems more like a winter holidays photo than a summer one!

Day 1  |  I can't believe that another whole year has gone past and the Summer Holidays are here!  And of course, it's time to embark on another 'Photo A Day' project!

It has been an incredibly busy year for me with a huge pile of work to still do before I even think about 'holidays' as such, so Steve did say to me today, you're not doing that this year are you?  (He knows that it means that I do 'have to' take a photo every day, which sometimes means a dash at the end of the day to 'find' a photo to take, along with uploading images and writing this blog of course!)  But it has become a tradition that I really love.  I don't take nearly as many photos of the boys now during the year with life and work seemingly getting busier and busier, so this project literally becomes a snapshot into the boys' lives as they grow.  Plus, I simply love looking back on past years' photos and, yes, have been know to get lost in reading back through this blog late at night when I stumble across it!  And for the record, I asked Hayden if he was in for another year, and the answer was yes ;)

As in past years, we've decided to make the first day of our project the last day of school for Hayden, mainly because I love how when you look back you see the first day of school for the year then the last as we start a new summer holidays.  (It's like my starting and finishing point that all makes sense to me!)

So at lunchtime today, after a year that has seen my 'big boy' grow 5 centimetres, not really put on much weight, and go through about 6 pairs of shoes, Hayden completed his final day as a Year 3 - after literally counting down the days til school finishes for weeks!  Although he does well at school, he's pretty much a typical 8-year-old boy and would much rather not have to go to school at all!

And for the next 45 days, the holidays it is!

For our first photo, Hayden wanted to do as we've done the past couple of years and take his photo outside his classrooms for the year, which incidentally will be his classrooms next year too!