Earthquake!

On Tuesday night (5 July), we were in bed reading when the bedroom door suddenly started rattling on its hinges for no apparent reason! My first instinct was 'uh-oh, earthquake' and said as much to Izzy, who thought differently - that someone had broken in and the Wellington wind was blowing up the stairs causing the movement!
We jumped out of bed to investigate and both felt the floor shaking quite violently beneath us. Izzy realised then what it was, and said 'get into the doorframe' - which I did, and when the movement had subsided a little, we ran to the back of the house (which is built into a hill), where there is a door to the patio, and nothing much above or below our heads.
It didn't last all that long - probably 40 seconds or so - but it was really scary. All I could think about was whether another part of the country was being completely devastated, and whether there would be aftershocks in the night. It made me realise how powerful the earth is too, and how we should really be more prepared for having to survive if a big one hit. We're going to start putting together an emergency pack.
It turned out that it was a magnitude 7.0 quake - a real whopper (the devastating Feb 2011 Christchurth earthquake was 6.3), but the epicentre was 230 km underground and 60 km out to sea, so no damage was done thankfully. This picture from the Geonet site shows how far across the country it was felt..

Weekend with the babies

Last weekend we went to Otaki for a much-needed catch up with the family and escape from the city. Not all of the adult members of the Pritchard whanau were there, but all of the junior ones were, and, as always they provided us with much entertainment and collective cooing. Here are some shots..

Maapihi cuddling Arlo and Arlo cuddling her back!
Maapihi was quite focused on the babies, being careful not to hit them or be too loud, it was lovely.
This was also the weekend Jonah woke up to find Maapihi had brought him a clean nappy and a box of wipes because she'd done a poo! Clever girl!

Meika and Arlo hanging out on the sofa. They're both just about sitting up on their own - Arlo more so at 2 months older. They didn't interact too much, I wonder what they make of each other? Little baldies.

Sam and Arlo woke up, got dressed, and realised they had put on the same thing! Ha! No, Sam did this on purpose I think... wonder how long it'll be before Arlo's embarrassed by the thought of wearing the same thing as his dad?

JB had been given a box load of girly baby clothes for Meika and I couldn't resist putting these pink Bonds panties on her! They looked so funny - she clearly thought she looked a bit like a superhero too, so I took her down a peg by adding a massive woolly hat and some fluffy boots, mean auntie.