Mother's Day Mmmmnnn!

 

We had such a delicious morning!! You ladies turned it on!
Layered Butter Cake, Cupcakes, Macarons, Afgans, Choc & Lemon Tarts, Cheese & crackers,
Chocolate Cake, Belgium Biscuits, Sushi, Loafs & some cute as chicken eggs...

You name it, it was likely there.

Check out Mary's adorable Chicks!!

We have been looking forward to this week and the opportunity to do something a little bit special for you. You ladies do an awesome job of mothering, and we're proud to be on this journey with you. We hope you enjoy the little crocheted heart, and that it reminds you that you're loved...

Celebrating Easter!!

The Mummies Loot

At WonderMums, we love Easter! It's such a special time of year where we remember the greatest gift given to mankind: the real and accessible opportunity to have relationship with God. (See here for what Easter means to each of us on the team). So we celebrated with a bit of a party in The Gardens. The weather was amazing with a sunny, clear, warm day. The kids enjoyed tearing around following the trail to find the chocolate!

The Egg Hunt

Have you ever met a child who doesn't instinctively know that chocolate is awesome? Me either. Here's some evidence of pure enjoyment. :)

Enjoying the Loot

 We all sat on blankets to listen to Jayne tell our children a special story of new life using a ball of fabric (cacoon) in which was hidden a pretty butterfly. Everyone wanted a piece of the butterfly :)

Story Time!

 And we Mummies enjoyed some lemon cupcakes. We hope you really enjoyed Easter.

General Sweetness & Cuteness!

Happy Easter Mums!

We wanted to take this opportunity to share our hearts & faith a little bit with you...

A note from Jo: "I have always loved the chocolate side of Easter and still do! But it wasn't until I became a Christian as an adult that Easter really became special to me. I am loving seeing my boys, Josh in particular wrap his head around what it actually means that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. That God required a sacrifice for all the sins of all mankind, and so instead of taking the sacrifice from us bit by bit each and every time we do something wrong, he provided the sacrifice himself and came to earth in human form and took the ultimate punishment, the worst and most final punishment for any and every sin possible - death and in that death separation to God even, so that instead, not by anything we could possibly do except acknowledging what Jesus did on our behalf we get to live in right relationship with God on earth and spend all of eternity with him when our time on earth is over too!"

A note from Lisa: "My most memorable Easter was back in 1997 when I was fourteen, and I went along (reluctantly!) to an Easter Camp with friends from our youth group.  At that camp I experienced for the first time a loving God who died for me, through Jesus.  I was so overwhelmed that I decided to become a Christian that Easter.  It was a very meaningful time for me, it marked a massive change in my life, and it has shaped me into the person I am today as a follower of Jesus.  I find Easter to be such an amazing time to reflect and be SO grateful that Jesus did the hardest thing ever on our behalf - taking our mess upon himself and overcoming death.  I'm so glad he did!"

A note from Monique: "As a child, my family celebrated Easter each year by gathering round my father as he shared the story of Jesus' precious gift to us. I realise now as a Mum, that this is a challenging thing to help your kids to understand and relate to! That God, as a Father, sent His only son to take the punishment for my sin, so that I could go free. One of the ways I try to unpack this to my boys is along these lines: 'When you do something wrong... like... breaking another child's toy, something happens. The person who broke the toy needs to pay the consequences. We might have to buy another toy with all your pocket money to make it right, and you also might have to be in time-out to think about what you did... Imagine, if before you had to pay that price, your best friend offered to buy the new toy with his money, and go into time out for you so that you were free to play. That would be pretty special!' Even though they are not all old enough to understand it completely, I want to build on that foundation in their lives by giving them parallels they can latch onto. And the gem that they can catch, is that Easter is all about God's incredible, huge, amazing love for us! He delights in us, and we are all so very precious to Him...

We hope you all have a special Easter together with your families! From the WM Team x

Ardmore Airport Visit

 Each year that we visit this little cafe, it's a hit. They do lovely food, and the outdoor area is so child friendly. Our kiddies were fascinated watching the planes take off and land. Us Mummies were able to sit in the sun and enjoy an 'almost-quiet' coffee *wink*.

St Annes Reserve & Beach Visit

Our visit to the reserve was soo lovley! The tide was in so the kids were able to get in and have a little splash around (while we cooled off our tooties too!). We all kicked back and sat around chatting and watching our small darlings have some beach fun. There's a playground here too - you should definitely check it out! We have been so blessed with great weather this term, and our offsite weeks have felt a bit like a mini-holiday...

(P.S. Just email us if you would like a copy of any of our photos we post)

Totara Park Visit

Lots of fun was had at the Totara Park Playground visit! You can easily get a pram up there if you take the Bridle Track. There is lots to keep various ages interested too. So if you're looking for a different park set quietly in amongst native trees, this is worth a visit!

If swimming's your thing, take your gear and have a swim in the free pool on your way home.

We were sad to have Belinda with us for the last time this week before she flew out to join her hubby in making a new life in Canada. It's been so great having her with us last year. We will miss you heaps, Bee!!

Welcome to 2013!

Our new year kicked off with a coffee & cake week. This term we have a few outings lined up, so be sure to check the calendar to see where we'll be.

At the end of last year, we sadly farewelled Jo W & Julia from the team.  There were flowers, small gifts, and quite a few tears!
Jo has been a part of the team for about 5 years and her friendliness and amazing design skills will be sorely missed. Jo and her family moved to Pakuranga at the beginning of this year. Now that Nathan has started school and Sophie is in kindy she'll be doing more Graphic Design work from home. She said she'll come and visit us again though as WMums has been very special to her over the years.
Julia re-joined our team when she moved back from Melbourne. But did you know, that Catherine & Julia started this mothers group back when they had their first children, and before it was even named WM. So we've been lucky enough to have her for about 7 years in total. We will miss Julia on our team, but she needed to focus her time on running Mainly Music. As you may have noticed, she hasn't gone 'far' and we're blessed to have her help out with things from time to time (Thanks Julia!).

At the end of 2012, Lisa C joined Jo P & I on our team.  We want to extend a HUGE welcome to you, Lisa! We are so excited to have her on board, and love the chance to have fresh input and new ideas.

On that note, remember if you have any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to let us know (email, txt, phone etc). We love having feedback from you all, and this is what helps us to shape this group to better serve you.

Christmas & New Years seems to get people thinking about their life from a slightly bigger perspective. Some people are brave enough to make resolutions too. This year, I've been thinking about something a little different. I love having that long break. 31st Dec gives way to the 1st Jan...  With it, something often shifts in our thinking.  It's just a date change though, and often in the middle of a week. What is it that clicks our minds over into 'new' things? We tend to stop and take stock of things. We look behind to assess where we've come from. Maybe we decide on things we want to change, do better. But we also look ahead; wonder about what God has in store for us.

It occurred to me, that year ends are really a gift. They have the ability to give us fresh starts, fresh hope and the chance to learn new things. I found myself feeling thankful that God saw fit to package our 'time' into seasons, months, weeks and days. No matter how a day (week, month, year etc) goes, we can choose to start over. We can use those moments in time to make changes and choose to move forward. What a blessing to start each day fresh with our kids! And kids are so great at waking up with a clean slate aren't they? We could learn a lot from them.

I am thankful for this gift of new beginnings...