Uncle Paul and the Art Gallery.....

Uncle Paul cracks me up, because he always brings his own coffee, his own cup, and his own breakfast whenever we have the privilege of him staying the night (nice photo, by the way!):



A10 had a day in town today earning a badge for Scouts. They had to do all sorts of things in and around their community. Here they are visiting the Art Gallery:

You Can Tell Nana and Grandad Have Been Visiting Because.....

We have a ton of gorgeous, flavourful parsley from Grandad's garden:


We also have gigantic leeks, sweet capsicums, crisp cabbage and giant cauli from Grandad's garden:


And Grandad's famous spinach (I *love* Grandad's spinach):


Feijoas from my cousin's back yard:


Pumpkin, squash and kumara from Grandad's friend's garden:


Grandad replenished the alcohol stash from his home brew:


Nana made the kids' week with the fizzy and chips:


And the lollies:


And the fridge is full, along with the freezer:


And we have loads of leftovers from the lamb they bought up to roast on the spit last night:


We owe you BIG, Nana and Grandad, because that's only what's still left here after the truckload you bought with you and the many feasts we've all been having while you were here xoxoxo

A Bit of a Gathering.....

Nana and Grandad came to visit Melissa at our house, and then Uncle Graeme, Aunty Sokchea and James came to visit Nana and Grandad at our house - yay for us! Aunty Jan came up for morning tea:


Sokchea and Graeme:


James with the remainder of his rash from when his dad shared his peanut butter toast with him this morning! Man, he had a fast reaction! Luckily we had some Phenergan on hand and it did nothing more than make him swell up impressively, and we could literally see the rash developing:


Grandad with his new computer:


I tell you, she's well worth visiting, she's pretty special:

Anzac Parade '08.....

We did our usual march in the Anzac Parade this morning, Melissa came and was chief photographer for me. We met up with Jordan, Rose and Karan (Jordan was marching with the Air Training Corps):


Some of our Scouts, taking their time getting into formation:


After we have finished the Dawn Parade, we have a hot milo at the RSA, then we head off to shout ourselves brekky (this year it was Burger King - the only thing open before 7am we discovered), before doing it all again in the Civic Parade:


One of my Scouts with the pre-Parade entertainment:


The Three Gun Salute:


The chopper flying overhead:


The parade proper, headed up by the Vets:


Here's us:


Can you guess what A11 is looking at on the side of the road on our trip home?:


It's the brekky the hawk left behind in a hurry as we drove round the bend:


We also appreciated the live wildlife, one of L10's - the Kotare (Kingfishers) that are numerous along our road:

Special Delivery.....

Aunty Sokchea, Uncle Graeme and James dropped off Melissa to us for a week today. We love to have her visit as she's always such fun. Aunty Sokchea bought us some chrysanthemums from her garden (she always brings us something from her luscious garden!):


How can you not adore a niece who brings you in this at lunchtime?:



A11 snapped the sun as it was about to go to bed:

David Attenborough.....

After watching a few BBC documentaries lately, L5 made himself a pair of binoculars and got A11 to 'crew' for him as they went around the forest documenting their findings ;o)



It's been a bit funny these past many days, being mostly just me and the boys, doing boy stuff amid boy noise (although there is the odd time I get to play hairdresser, lol):

Fishing Competition Results.....

I decided to have a go at taking the boys fishing off the wharf in Dive Cres by myself this morning, to see if I really was the jinx it appears I am. We were cracking up at these three boys trying unsuccessfully to have hooning races on their little 50cc scooters - great entertainment for us:


I'm getting a slight complex, we did catch a shot of this boat moored next to us though:


A11 entered his fish he caught this morning:


As you can see, he was having difficulty holding it up for the photo, and it took him a few hours of fighting to finally land it:


The upshot was, he won a primo rod and reel for the "Smallest Fish":


We were all pretty lucky actually, we got a lucky dip prize just for entering, and the girls even got their prizes even though they weren't even there (The Lad had entered us all weeks previously). Among the things we drew out were some binoculars, two other rod and reels, a frisbee and a t-shirt:

Fishing From Sunrise to Sunset.....

The Lad took the boys out early this morning to see if they could catch anything for an entry in the fishing competition we have entered. You'll note that I wasn't with them, and they were successful fisher-folk:


We decided to try our luck off the rocks at Pilot Bay this evening, to see if we could advance on their earlier efforts:




We had our usual Mum's-come-with-us-and-we've-caught-nothing luck, but tomorrow is another day! (and the last for the competition, too, lol!)

School at Ours.....

Looks something like this today. H8 has made a Tea Party for One:


L10 is practicing drawing eyes:


And L5 is looking somewhat confused as he's trying to decipher the orders he took:


In order to make us all lunch in his 'Cafe':