party tricks

The forklift

Lucas finding a good use for Gegen.....


Gegen finding a good use for my mop!!!!

And of course a party.............

As always the family came around to celebrate - Daniel had order McRobsons (homemade version of McDonalds!) for tea. So that is what we had.

He was of course spoiled with presents too - there was much fun and hilarity to be had over punch balloons (balloons with a elastic band that you hold and hit with your hand)

Uncle Gruff helped to make the forklift truck out of Meccano from Nana and Gegen.

The Cake - Daniel ordered a space rocket!

A HUGE box of lego (which we are about to put together) and a meccano set which convieniently comes in its own carry case.

The cake - we had to go to plan B. I decided to make it of egg and dairy free and Daniel had decided he would like marble cake - although the egg and dairy free marble cake tastes delish it turned out kind of flat and crumbly and not space rocket ship friendly. Plan B resulted in a trip to the supermarket and a rather large amount of lolly cake!

The cake was also supposed to be red and blue but after putting all the red food colouring we could find it it was still a nice magenta pink - so the cake became green and blue!

Sam enjoying the dairy free butter icing (or should that be olivani icing!)

Daniel is 6!!!

Oh my goodness - where has the time gone. Daniel is 6 already! This is starting to get scary - all my babies are growing up!

So Daniel got a bike for his birthday - there is a wee story to this bike, so here it is....

When Laura got her bike Daniel had a wee look around the shop and discovered a lovely bike with blue flames on it - he decided that was the one for him. But given that he already had a bike that had been handed down to him from a friend we decided he really didnt need another one. (Even if it did have blue flames on it!) So with his birthday looming we took to discussing what we might get him. As usual there was no specific request. Jase nows someone who has a paint shop so he stripped Daniels bike down and took it in to get it repainted - at least in blue and maybe with flames if we could do it.

So a week or so later the guys gets to looking at it and decides that it is going to be quite hard to sandblast down and repaint and cost more than he thought. We decided it was cost prohibitive, given that it was an old bike he would grow out of in a year or so.

So we are back to the drawing board - our biggest problem being that Daniel had seen Jase with his old bike so Jase had to let on what was going on - so we now have a little boy who is expecting his old bike all shiney and new looking.

Mum left him some money for his birthday when she was here in October so we decided to look at the original blue flame bike in the shop - and the cost wasnt too high when we split it with mums contribution.

So on his birthday morning he runs through to the lounge and we hear "theres no presents on the table" Now on thier birthdays before I go to bed the night before I always arrange thier presents on the table so they get to see them when they get up. But given that the bike is too big for the table and I didnt want Daniel to see it if he got up in the night I had put it around behind the door. So the disappointed little boy turns to go back to bed and sees a shiney bike behind the door - "my bike" is now the cry which quickly turns into "its a new bike, its my blue flame bike - look Laura I got a new bike"

One happy little boy!

Opening Auntie Ginas present - meccano - I think dad might like to help with this one!

Funny Face

Jessa has discovered how to cross her eyes and thinks shes pretty funny!! She has been perfecting her funny face look. Isnt she pretty!

Just had to throw this one of Charlie in too - do you think he would make a pretty little girl?

MaryLosa's new nappies

Jessa won the marbles (they get marbles in a jar for being good - whoever has the most at the end of the week can choose a prize) So Jessa chose to get some new nappies for MaryLosa. So the sewing machine came out and I managed to scrounge enough scraps to make some little nappies. I had to measure and fiddle to get a closer fit. A hard body doll is harder to fit to than a squishy tummied baby!!!

I did forget to put the leg elastic in though. I thought they would be a tight enough fit but apparently not - we have had a few small puddles out the sides! So I may have to redo them at some point!

Check out the unique dual colour nappies!!

Darned emails!!

Just a quick message for you mum, I am trying to send you emails and they keep bouncing back - I am working on it!! I think it may be to do with my firewall or my new ISP. I seem to be able to send to some people and not others but appear to be recieving as normal. Obviously I dont know that I am recieving them all cos I dont know what is coming!!
Anyway just so you didnt think I had abandoned you and hopefully after the weekend I can get onto someone to help me fix the problem!

WoW - well done Laura

Laura is in the school choir and they have been practicing the last wee while for the Kids4Kids concert in Invercargill. It is run by World Vision as a fundraiser and tours the country. In each area hundreds of children sing with NZ renown singer Suzanne Prentice (who incidentally hails from the south herself) Yesterday morning the choir went into town to practice with Suzanne and 18 children from the schools (about 12 schools were there I think) had been chosen to audition for a solo part. Laura was one of them and she was one of 6 chosen for a solo for the song 'Dont rubbish the children'

My gorgeous 9yr old stood up infront of the Civic Theatre full of people and sang. How awesome is she!!

With Suzanne getting ready

All dressed up in her new outfit and ready to go.

Here is the singing sensation herself - sorry about the poor quality.

Another clip of the choir

Look what we woke up to this morning......

Yesterday we were wearing t-shirts and shorts, it was lovely and warm. Today we woke to snow - about 2-3inches of it!!! Well actually we were woken by two little girls leaping onto the bed in excitement yelling "its snowing, its snowing" They have been waiting for snow all winter and we never got any - so now we are heading into summer we get snow. Go figure!

This is what the kids made while I was feeding the calves.

Jessie just hanging out

So while on holiday you do need to have a couple of ice creams - this kayak is next to the dairy at the visitors info centre and Jessie popped in for a perfect fit.

It was thiiiiiiiisssssss big!!!

Yes we caught a fish! Here is the process! Netted................

Gutted.....................

Ready to cook................

Cooking.......................

Eating - yum, enjoyed by all.

Labour Weekend

So for Labour weekend (public holiday here in NZ) we decided to go to Te Anau. We packed up the tent and all the kids, got the boat on and headed off. The kids thought it was great. Saturday was a little bit rough to go out so we stayed around town, walked out for ice cream, had a look in the shops and got Sammy some new sneakers (and me some $1 balls of 3ply wool for making singlets - bargain!) Played some piggy in the middle and rugby style catch with the kids, had a drive (weather got rough!) and got Charlie a life jacket, looked at the 3m swell on the lake and all the white caps, brrr!

That night we got the kids to bed and then it started snowing - more BRRRR! Kids were all snuggly in thier thick fleece suits and -5 rated sleeping bags. So we popped into the kitchen area at the campsite and watched widescreen TV and drank whisky to keep us warm.

Next day was lovely so we hooked up the boat and headed out onto the lake.

Sammy driving - check out the lips - brrrrmmmmmmmmm brummmmmmmmmm

Laura soaking up some sun and fresh air

Charlie trying out his new life jacket and sitting on the passenger seat - wee cutie, he actually slept for most of the trip.

Daniel was the first to take the wheel - what you cant see is the big grin on his face. (we were just trawling at 2knots and I was right there so no danger of crashing!)

See the next post for the really exciting bit!

Pet Day 2008

So last Friday was pet day at school. We took 4 lambs - Laura and Daffy, Daniel and Tulip, Jessa and Prince Vince (she named it!) and Sam and Boss. The showed thier lambs to the judges, did laps and got certificates. Laura got a 3rd for her lamby entry. The day was finished off slip sliding on the slippery slide (with lollies as prizes!) tug o war-ing, sack racing, eating lollies, having sausage sizzles, lamb drinking races and lots of laughter.

Daniel and Tulip
Laura and Daffy

Jessa and Prince Vince (complete with pink bow!)

My birthday present

Somehow I have managed to get the pictures the wrong way so you will just have to go to the bottom and scroll up!

I got a tunnel house for my birthday from Jase and all the famdamily. It is an 8m Morrifield. It looks really good and is planted already with Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Capsicum, Courgette, Sweetcorn and lettuces. We used the soil from my old vege garden, it was a layered or lasagne garden - no dig type garden so it is a really nice compost now after a couple of years of use. We still needed some more so we picked up a trailer of compost from the nursery. Sam and Jess helped me bucket it in from the trailer. Sam got his little bucket from the sandpit and I would lift him up onto the trailer and he filled his little bucket, then I lifted him down and he would climb into the tunnel house and potter down to the end and upend his little bucket. It was so cute, all these little handfull sized piles. Jessa had her little trowel and would fill her bucket with compost and then clamber down and tip it in. They did a good job.

Sam with the watering can
Strawberry plants, the kids ones from last year and some new ones, Jase is going to make a frame and net up to stop the birds once they get bigger.

All finished and checking it out.

Frame up

more photos.........

Digging holes and putting in stays.

More helpers

The helpers

The boys (Daniel and Lachie) helping Anton work out what is what.

Marking it all out and working out what goes where.