Player of the Day.....

The lovely H7 got the Player of the Day award at netball yesterday, she played really well by all accounts and really deserved it - You Go Girl!:

Little Cafe Cakes.....

I love Julie Le Clerc at the moment (well, I have for a while really) and am often caught perusing one of the many cookbooks of hers that I own. H7 was reading one with me today and loved the picture of the little girl's hands holding these Little Lemon Meringue Cakes and wanted to make them and have her photo taken holding one, just like in the picture:

Mid Winter Carolling.....

We went along to sing Christmas Carols in June again this year to help the local Steiner School in their annual midwinter Christmas fundraiser. Kate and her Gang, Sophie and Caroline's brother joined us this year:


It was *really* cold outside as we greeted the diners with voices like angels (well, that was Kate, R14 and Caroline anyway), so the lovely warm tomato-with-a-secret-ingredient soup (and I wheedled the secret ingredient out of Caroline, too) was very, very welcome while we waited till it was time to dish out the pressies:


The present giving is always something my girls love doing, they had the gifts arranged male on one side of the tree and female on the other side, so the children took the presents from under the tree and then gave them out to the diners:



Can you imagine how hard it was getting those 9 kiddos off to sleep when we all got home? The Lad is getting used to me leaving home with four and returning with more ;o)

Happy Birthday, Jo. And Happy Engagement, too, while I'm at it! Go Rawiri, proposing at your party like that xoxoxo

Throwing The Baby Out With The Bathwater.....

Well, he's not quite a baby, but I understand that the origins of this saying were in the tradition of Daddy having the first bath, then Mummy, then the children in age order so that by the time the baby got his turn the bath water was very sludgelike - yecch!

He's actually the only one who's been in the bath, but he managed to find a HUGE mud puddle in the forest and had the fun of Cork leaping in and out of it, so with all the mud and all the soap (and the carrot to boost his energy after all that scrubbing) he finally emerged again, all scrumptiously clean:

Beds and Buns.....

L9 and H7 were busy hand-sewing little beds for their babies this morning:


And we had some fun making our own bread shapes for lunch. They were really yummy, fresh out of the oven with a little butter and honey, yummy:

Melissa.....

Happy Birthday, ya big spunk :o)

We love how you don't mind hanging with your pesky little cousins and your tuneless aunty when you have holidays in the North Island, we always look forward to being able to kidnap you from your Daddy for a few days whenever we are able.

Hope you had a fab time at the Museum xoxoxo

Busy Before Breakfast.....

Sometimes, I've been known to stay in bed until I hear The Lad actually driving off for the morning ;o) and this morning was one of those mornings.

When I did get up and stagger out to the kitchen to pour myself a coffee (that had very kindly been made for me before The Lad left), I found A10 engrossed in the Horrible Science magazines:


L9 was working very dilligently on her Crime Scene project:


And I had to backtrack back up the hall to find H7 reading The Elves and The Shoemaker to L4:


After they had made these numbers and letters from Lego:

Multi-Tasking in the Kitchen.....

We had takeaways for dinner tonight (Noodle Canteen and Mumbai Masala - yummm!), because while I was out doing the weekly grocery shop L9 was busy baking these:


The trick was, H7 and The Lad were painting the kitchen around her!



PS: Happy Birthday Aunty Sheryl - 34 today :o)

The New Rugby Ball.....

A10 couldn't wait till we saw Grandad again (who had some rugby balls to give him) and absolutely *had* to buy a new ball to practice his passing and kicking:

Slime, Glorious Slime.....

As someone who isn't very tactile, slime is not really something I love, but the kids certainly had a ball:






H7 discovered she could make bubbles between her arms if she pulled them apart slowly enough:



L4 scrubbed the deck sparkling clean for me while H7 cleaned the table:


And I learned a valuable lesson about rinsing slime containers *before* they go in the dishwasher:

Clay Birds, Key-Guarding Dogs and an Apartment Block.....

We've been creating again ;o) Somebody had the idea that they could use the chicken feathers off the lawn as tail feathers on a bird, and it was all on! There were fabulously coloured birds of all shapes and sizes 'nesting' while they dried:




H7 sawed, cut, sanded, painted and screwed our new key holder over the weekend (it looks just like the one in the book!):


L9 and L4 ganged up to make these 'starter' buildings for an entire city they thought they might construct, I'm hoping the city's expansion isn't too rapid ;o)

Kate Couture.....

Happy Birthday To Me:

Some Wise Words.....

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life:

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.

"The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

"This same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather which wolf would win.

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Swimming in June?.....

Gisborne hasn't had rain for a v-e-r-y long time, and even the days are still very mild. The boys did their hair up (to blend in with the locals, maybe?), and then all the kiddo's set off for a walk with The Lad from Nana's round to Our Mate's:



While I picked up Our Mate's mum and went shopping (for, among other things, a very sexy stainless steel plunger that I *needed*, lol! - you know what us girls are like let loose, childless, in the CBD), those mad kids took advantage of the sun and the pool:



At least Our Mate and L4 had the sense to hoon round the concrete on their vehicles to while away the time:

The Growing-Up Boy.....

You can tell Our Mate's growing up to be a Big Boy, because now - instead of watching the ruckus from the sidelines, he's right in there amongst it all!:




And in true "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do, Too" style - handstands were a breeze:



It's like those Simon and Garfunkel lyrics "Slow down, you move too fast, you gotta make the morning last". I can't believe how fast you're growing up:

The Gizzy Cuzzy.....

One of the things we absolutely love about Gizzy is the fact we can walk to most places we want to go. Living where we do, walking to the dairy or to your mate's place would be an all day trek ;o) So, whenever we're there, and we want to give Nana and Grandad a bit of 'quiet time', we take off round the corner to The Cuzzie's place and hang there for a while (man, you're growing up, chick!):


And you know what? She could even be in the same room with me *without* being attached to her mummy by the end of the weekend, lol:



As long as I didn't actually look at her, she let me take a photo of her "funny face" while she was outside and I was in:


Guess which franchise this boy's whanau hail from?:



And this isn't a very clear photo, but it *was* just a fresh tattoo, all covered in cream, that she had just come back from getting done. The top left represents her and her heritage, the top right represents her husband and his heritage, and the three scales at the bottom are for the three children: