The last couple.........

For tonight - Here is miss Molly opening her christmas dolly with a bit of help from her daddy.

Grandpa in the boat at Kingston, I did remind him just after this that he might want to put on a lifejacket!

I found this one when I was searching for a photo Jase wanted. It was take 2yrs ago but I love it so I thought I would share. That is Daniel on Peters stallion Jock.

And last but not least - Jumbo the elephant. The circus was in town when we were at Wanaka so we visited Jumbo. Sam was astounded and loved him.

Then today I took the oldest 4 to the circus as it was in our town too. It was great fun. Jumbo made an appearance along with acrobats, a trapeze artist, clowns and a little 6yr old girl who can hula hoop with 20 hoops at the same time!

The other thing we promised to do

Was take the kids to the Dinosaur park. Which is a big playground that has a huge slide that is shaped like a dinosaur. Didnt actually get a picture of the slide but there is some of the kids coming down the slide.

Oh and here is the hand at the entrance to the park.

Knee boarding

Unfortunately we only got the boat out once on Waitangi weekend but Laura did get a go at knee boarding ( I think she might be getting a wee bit addicted)

Setting off.........

Up up and........

Away.

Wanaka at Waitangi..........

We decided to head back on up to Wanaka for Waitangi weekend. We promised the kids that this time we would go to the puzzling world. Puzzling world is an place full of amazing images, optical illusions, holograms and a huge maze (more on that later)

Here are the kids in the roman toilets....... (literally!)

The perspective room - big Laura and little Daniel........................

Oops hunny I shrunk the kid - she got shorter!

Jase and Laura in a predicament

So after a trip round the puzzle rooms the girls challenged the boys to a race around the maze. The object of the maze is to visit 4 towers one after the other and then find the exit. The boys headed off and were ahead the whole way, they got all the towers. Laura, Jess and I (oh and we had Charlie in the backback too) raced up to the last tower and sped out after the boys, ready to be gratious in our defeat. We got out and........no boys, hmmm, we though where are they. Then voices were to be heard heading through the maze. We beat them - GO GIRLS (and not only did we beat then but we did it by 10mins and they had to cheat and go through one of the emergency exits to get out. hehehehehehe!)

Yarn Swap V.3

You may remember back in October (I think!) I participated in a yarn swap on an online forum I am part of. (The Nappy Network for any MCN users) Well there was another one and I couldnt resist. Basically the swap consists of some hand dyed yarn, a pattern, a gift and a piece of paperwork. All of which have to fit a theme. As my swappee likes bright colours I decided that Elmer the elephant would be a great swap theme. Now my recipient has recieved her package and (I think) knows who I am I can post it here.

Here is my yarn all dyed and hanked ready for balling

And I managed to find a cheap ball winder on trade me so I could do nice, professional looking balls. Five colours (because that was how many the pattern needed) and one rainbow ball that incorporates all the colours. ( I love this one, oh and the yellow one and I really like the blue one too - hell actually I was quite proud of the whole darn lot and my recipient was lucky I sent them cos I wanted to keep them ;-)

And I couldnt resist playing around with the camera and getting a few nice shots to show of my new found addiction, um I mean talent.

And this is the whole swap all together. I made extra wool (the swap called for up to 200g and I included 300g of cleckheaton 100% wool 8ply.) so this extra was part of my gift along with a little elefante (pattern of ravelry) whom I knitted up from scraps of yarn I had in my stash. The paperwork was a copy of an Elmer story and some Elmer colouring pages (and pens) for my recipients children. The pattern I included is for sticklegged girls cotton ease baby blanket. The blanket is knitted in squares and is very colourful (just like Elmer) you can find it here http://http://stick-leggedgirl.blogspot.com/2007/11/color-block-baby-blanket.html

I really had fun making this swap up. There have been some wonderful themes already recieved. I am waiting on mine with baited breath. It was posted last week so fingers crossed it will be here soon cos I am really impatient to see what wonderful yarn I am to recieve.

Things I have made........

While mum was here we managed to fall into Spotlight after the car threw a steering problem and drove itself into the carpark there. Several rolls of fabric fell in my trolley and the magnetic field on my credit card clung to the eftpos machine and somehow I found myself the proud owner of several metres of gorgeous fabrics! ;-)

So I made the girls some new clothes. Laura wanted a shorter top and I made a headband to match.

And Jessa wanted to wee dress (I know its white, but its got ladybirds on it!)

And also got a matching headband. I think I might even have enough left of this fabric to make another wee top for her too. Might try ruffles next time too. (just need to get my sticky little hands on one of them ruffler attachments for my sewing machine!)

And this little dolly is called Polly. I made her as a christmas gift for my neice, Molly, in the UK. The kids named her.

and finally.........

The family photos..........

And a rainbow in my garden........

Kaka Point

So in keeping with the theme of summer and water we went to Kaka Point which is a lovely little beach down in the Catlins on the South Coast. A friend of Jasons had use a of a wee house down there so we popped down for the afternoon.

The kids had so much fun at the beach.

Jumping waves......

Charlie trying out the sand (no wiches!)

Jess on the boogy board. Laura and Daniel had a great time out in the surf - it was a fantastic wee beach becuase even 200metres out it was only up to the waist but with great wee waves to surf on.

My little surfer chick!

And while we are talking about views and scenery

We went to Wanaka for a week while mum and dad were here. We took the tent and camped in a campground up there. (Mum and Dad took a motel - come on you didnt think mum would camp did you ;-)

This is the view from the top of the Crown Range looking back toward Arrowtown and Queenstown. This Range basically joins Queenstown and Wanaka by going over a mountain. There is an easier road that goes around the mountain but it is longer (apparently!) and not such stunning views. What the long route does have going for it is that it goes through all the orchards so you get buy yummy fresh, ripe, picked off the tree fruit. All of which you can eat on the way home (I do recall some spitting of Cherry pits out of the car windows too. ) So on the way home we gorged on fresh apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums and cherries. mmmmuummmmm.

Right, back to the view - spectacular isnt it.

Just down to the left of this picture you can see Jase and the kids who scrambled down to look off the end of the little cliff.

This is Jess in Lake Wanaka. Everytime we drove past this point (which was a lot - it was on the way into town from the campground!) she would say "we went there didnt we"

I dont really have many more photos of our time in Wanaka becuase we took mostly video. I will see (one day!) if I can download some and put it up.

We had a fantastic time. We got out with the boat several times. We had friends up there too who were camping just up the road from up and also have a boat - they also happen to have kids who go to school with ours so lots of fun was had.

Daniel got up on the kneeboard first, much to Lauras disgruntlement! She decided she would have to have a go now becuase she couldnt let her 6yr old brother do it and not her! So she got up too.

By the end of the trip we had Laura up on waterskis and Jessa up on the kneeboard! I will have to put some footage of that up - she was such a wee dude!

Kingston

At the beginning of January (umm about the 10th or there abouts, can't be bothered to check) we took the boat up to Kingston to make sure everything was working ok.

It was a lovely day and even I donned a wetsuit and got in the water (eek the mental images I have just given you - yuck!)

Check out the clear water - we are so lucky to live in a country that has such great natural resources. Wait till you see the next photo.............

I mean how can you not love this - blues skies, fluffy white clouds and crystal clear lakes with scenery to die for.

Charlie Boomba just chilling on the shores

Finally photos - YAY!

Darn it I added them backwards again (which is becuase if you upload them in the right order they actually appear on the screen as the other way around!)

Charlies Birthday

Ok so it was a month ago now but here are the photos of my gorgeous boomba on his first birthday.
Ok so hold this space - the photos dont seem to want to upload - I may have forgotten to compress them. *rolls eyes*

mmmmmmmm so it has been 6wks since my last update!

Sorry to all you lovely people who have been waiting for an update. We seem to have been a tad busy in the last month. But I have been slack slack slack about updating so hold onto your hats for a few posts in the next few days.........................

Guess who is coming tonight.........

Thats right the Tooth Fairy - Daniel has had his first wobbly tooth for a while now but today it finally fell out. YAY - he is very excited!