Don’t you just love it when you are with a group of other families and you all seem to have the same stories to tell?

• the woes of packing the “house” in the car when you want to go out with the kids.
• how the children seem to put on your sunglasses as if their head were the size of a giant (and often end up snapping them!)
• difficulties when sharing one room when you’re travelling. Like when you try and pretend you are sleeping while the child just peers through the portacot at you.
• the coordination needed when you have the youngest in the pram, and the oldest child runs off in front, and you have to try to hurry up the middle child dawdling behind you.

We have been spending time with hubby’s extended family the last couple of days. 3 young families with 7 kids between them, all 5 and under, with grandparents in tow. The kids are all soooo cute! We were all in one house for dinner the last couple of nights. So, when you add our family to the mix, you have 11 kids, 10 adults…and it actually wasn’t that chaotic!! Sure there were some tantrums and tears (they are young kids after all!), but overall the kids played good together and the adults just relaxing and chatted the night away (and some of the adults were great playmates to the kids too!).

Today we went to Te Papa and then we all split off and our family walked over to Fran Kitts Park. Last night was sooo gusty (even for Wellington’s standards), we were very surprised to see the sun greet us this morning!

It is always great to spend time with other families, because you see that you share a lot of similar ups and downs. It gives you perspective and helps you feel like you aren’t the only one doing the “family thing”.

I think that is why I love reading blogs. I love the feeling that we’re all in this together!