Run along now dear, man talk......

And "''Well, I'm afraid you've caught me with more than my hands up.'' - He is *so* misogynistic! Of course I'm talking about "Bond - James Bond" and I've just finished watching all 20 recently re-released, digitally enhanced, yadda, yadda movies. SO - I've gone from not having seen *any* of the official movies, to having seen them all (except now I need to find a date to go to Casino Royale with me).

I must say, I far prefer Sean Connery in his latter years, all sexy and thickly-accented (I think he must have had to tone his accent down a lot to appear like the good British spy in his movies), but I must give him the Best Bond award, in my humble opinion.

For anyone who's interested, here's the "official" list of films:

Dr. No (1962, Sean Connery)
From Russia With Love (1963, Sean Connery)
Goldfinger (1964, Sean Connery)
Thunderball (1965, Sean Connery)
You Only Live Twice (1967, Sean Connery)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969, George Lazenby)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971, Sean Connery)
Live and Let Die (1973, Roger Moore)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974, Roger Moore)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977, Roger Moore)
Moonraker (1979, Roger Moore)
For Your Eyes Only (1981, Roger Moore)
Octopussy (1983, Roger Moore)
A View to a Kill (1985, Roger Moore)
The Living Daylights (1987, Timothy Dalton)
Licence to Kill (1989, Timothy Dalton)
GoldenEye (1995, Pierce Brosnan)
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997, Pierce Brosnan)
The World is Not Enough (1999, Pierce Brosnan)
Die Another Day (2002, Pierce Brosnan)
Casino Royale (2006, Daniel Craig)
"Bond 22" (2008)

But there is also:

Casino Royale (TV program, 1954, Barry Nelson)
Casino Royale (1967, David Niven and Peter Sellers)
Never Say Never Again (1983, Sean Connery)
Goldeneye (1989) & Spymaker (1990), films about the life of Ian Fleming

(which I may or may not get round to watching.....)

9 for 9.....

Well, L8 is now L9! Go figure - I'd have thought she was turning at least 14, lol! We had 9 kiddos for a sleepover party yesterday and we're still going strong today! Unfortunately the planned horse party (it was nearly an exact replica of the plan for last years party) didn't eventuate as the riding arena people were away at a wedding for the weekend and the Tuesday didn't suit 3 of the girls, etc. so we spent the afternoon at Marshall's Animal Park instead and had a splash at McLaren's Falls on the way home. The goats were keen for the food:


Really keen:



This was an interesting enclosure - don't they all look so happy in their paddock, lol:


Look, surprise, surprise, there's L9 with the ponies:


Hey, look, there she is with the Shire horse:


The flying fox, as always, was a big hit:


Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear in their rocking chairs:


The stilt antics:


The little furry animals were all *sooo* cute:




Talk about sticking your beak in:



There was a fair bit of noise as you can imagine, what with all the giggling and the planning and the squealing! There were ice cream spiders and banana splits with chocolate sauce and coffee-pecan birthday cake and popcorn for the DVD marathon, there were berry picking expeditions and kiddy wine and hot cross buns for breakfast, there was the world's biggest watermelon to devour and a whole bucket of plums, and did I mention the noise?




We just *had* to play the flour game again:




With all the horsey stuff you got for your birthday and for Christmas it's all getting very exciting as we edge ever closer to the goal of having your very own horse. Happy Birthday, miss xoxoxo

"Keep true to the dream of thy youth" - Friedrich Von Schiller

Saying 'See Ya' to Our Mate.....

Well, his parents came to pick him up and take him back home, and all our fun was spoiled:


Thanks for letting us borrow him for a bit;


There was his car on the lawn:


Separating the competing badges:



Tramp went for a walk with The Lad:


And he kindly took a photo of the pheasants nest for us that we missed the other week:

"Happy Anniversary, Baby....."

12 years of married bliss today - "Doesn't time fly when you're havin' fun?" - that's what The Lad told me on our first anniversary all those years ago (dripping with sarcasm, he was!)

I was thinking about some of the lyrics to the songs we chose - mine "You know I love you, I always will. My mind's made up by the way that I feel. There's no beginning, there'll be no end. 'Cause on my love you can depend" and his "Hey, I got a lot of faith in you. I'll stick with you kid- that's the bottom line. Yeah, you have a lot of fun don't you. And living with you is a ball of a time" and I still smile when I hear them.

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of moments that took your breath away" - Unknown

You're the best husband I've ever had ;o)

A&P Show and A Cool Down.....

At the Rotorua A&P Show The Cousin was raring to get going to look round the joint, but his 'entourage' was slowing him down ;o)


L4 had a few slides on the giant bouncy slide:



While L8 took Our Mate for a few trillion bounces in the bouncy castles:


And A10 and H7 whirled themselves silly on the Chair-o-Plane:



And The Twins (4yo) drove themselves round in the Mini Jeeps:


We had a chat with Cherry The Clown (we felt he was talking down to us, though):


On our way to practice "Get Down and Get Out" at the NZ Fire Service display:


We saw the cutest little Highland calves:


And saw plenty of majestic Clydesdales:


Had some Pony Rides:







Saw some Boer goats:


Some *brown* Black Sheep:


Some Miniature Horses:


Some fat little Beagles?:


Some Bullocks and a wagon:


After all that action we were keen to cool down at the lake:


A10 thinks he's the Kayak King now:


Unfortunately for us, he didn't even fall out with all that showing off!:


There was a lot of pollen on the lake, but the stream was beautifully crisp and cool:


And amazingly clear:


The Cousin looks like he's done this all before:


The effort on his face tells you something about his helpful load on the back, I think ;o)


And a well-earned rest:


While Our Mate waited on shore after his little dip:


L8 took this photo of him and his Mum:


An opportunity not to be missed, The Lad and I ventured out together - usually one of us would stay on shore with the kids that couldn't fit, lol: