Art Deco 2014

Another amazing Art Deco weekend for our family.  Since Jaimee was born, we have dressed up every year and enjoyed the festivities. It's become quite a family tradition to have our photo taken by a vintage car, I think I might shed a tear the year one of the kids decide they don't want to do this anymore.  But for now, I still manage to get everyone dressed up! 

On Friday night we did an Art Deco first though - we joined Marty's family for a picnic tea in Napier and watched the planes fly over and do an awesome show.  It was fun to get our evening gear on, we haven't really done evening events much as it requires babysitters or taking the kids.  Mum said I look rather Spanish in this outfit, what do ya rekon?! Jaimee wasn't with us, she had her very first ever sleepover at her friends house. This night out was a good distraction for poor Kate, who hates sleeping without her sister, and for poor me, who was letting her little girl go away for the first time overnight without family! 

The kids were excited to be with their cousins as always! 

Our picnic tea was rather noisy - the old army helicopter decided our picnic spot was the perfect place to hover right over-  for about 10minutes!!! 

Luke loved the plane show as they went "up, up, up....down, down down!"

On Saturday we were very happy to stay home - it was the hottest day of the year at 35 degrees.  The kids swam...and I baked up at storm in the heat for the Gatsby picnic the next day.  Yuk! 

It was fun to go to church in the morning all dressed up, there were a number of people dressed up for the occasion.  I think having such a special annual unique event in the place we live is so fun, people come from all over for this weekend and we get to LIVE here. That's why I embrace it! This year I  felt properly dressed for the first time, not just hodge podge from the closet.  I had brought the dress and gloves off trade me for a bargain last year for the occasion, and picked up the hat the week before to complete the outfit.  My friend Abbie had given me the vintage parasol, it was broken but a bit of kiwi ingenuity made my outfit a real kiwi deco outfit (an Allen key poked in the side to hold it up!)! 

The breeze in Napier made the temperature beautiful for the picnic, hot but we are blessed to join in with mums friends who faithfully come down and set up a nice spot under the trees at 7:30am each year! We just rock up in the afternoon and get to enjoy it.  Of course, I pay them well - they love my homemade bread, slices, quiche and muffins I add to the luncheon spread! We agree it's deal worth keeping, and always say cheerfully as we depart "see you next year!" 

Caption this photo!? I wonder what Marty is showing Kate? The girls played cards before lunch, and after lunch we strolled the busy area, laughing at the rock n roll dancers in the fountain and the man dressed as a gorilla being chased by authentically dressed safari hunters.  We gasped at the tables lavishly set up with gramma phones (I told Kate they were olden day iPods!!!!), silver ware and crystal.  

Thanks Napier, another awesome picnic day outing.  We will be there next year for sure!

Satisfaction.

You know you are not a DIY normal kiwi when you get up on the day you have "paint windows" in your diary, stumble out of bed..and have a shower, wash hair and glam up for a Saturday.  Oh right.  By about 10am I was covered in sanding dust and primer.  In my old clothes of course by now! 

Yeah, this is a job I have been putting off since we moved in.  We just chose to ignore the cracking peeling paint and the widening gaps of wood showing through.  But I'm a big girl now, and this job really couldn't be left any longer.  You would think growing up watching my parents paint endless window frames would have rubbed off on me.  But it's really not my fortay. Give me dirty nappies over sanding and puttying windows that look like they haven't been touched for about 40 years any day.  

I won't put a photo on, because I didn't take a before shot..and the after would look a shocker to anyone who hadn't seen the before.  Or if you didn't know that this was a total DIY job - a clueless kiwi girl who has never done this before and just jumped in and gave it a go.  Seriously, some of those windows were awful, no amount of sanding was going to fix those cracks.  One lovely friend suggested "why not just make new ones?" I laughed for several minutes at that one.  Her husband can bung together a window in an afternoon....She hasn't met my husband.  

Oh well, I think they look ok. From a distance. Lol.  I am sure I will improve -  I have only done the windows of our detached rooms...still got the entire house to go yet. (Oh, and by "I", I do mean "we" - Marty did help!!!!)

Anyho, to add to the chaos it was one of the hottest days we have had this summer.  And as always when I am busy, I skipped lunch.  And the window (it opens vertically) dropping on the back of my head didn't help.  And jaimee had a whopper tantrum (never remind a 7 year old she has to do the dusting chore and then catch her lying when she said she did it- not pretty).  By 3pm I was parched, dizzy, hungry, sweaty, dusty and hot.  And beginning to feel much more authentic DIY kiwi-ish.

I gulped water and a yoghurt, showered, got re-prettied and then collapsed on the bed and fell asleep. Marty woke me at about 4pm to tell me we were all going to the bike park and then have a lovely picnic tea on the beach.  "Do I have a choice?" I mumbled with my eyes still shut.  "No, not really" he replied. Sigh.  

But we did have a lovely evening, and spending the time with my family in the beautiful Napier sun overlooking the sea DID kinda add to the satisfied, work-well-done, feeling after a good days work.  A walk along the boardwalk with ice creams afterwards was the ultimate treat for the kids, and the bonus - they all went to bed exhausted for all the exercise and fresh air!

 Now, I'm off to lie on the couch and watch tv for a bit. Finished my book this morning while Marty took the kids to swimming lessons (I know, my day was very satisfying!!) so might start the sequal too. Goodnight! 

Now you are 6!

Kate celebrated her 6th birthday just the way that her big sister did when she turned 6 - with a trip to Onekawa indoor pools.  She had originally said she wanted to go to Splash planet, but after we told her she would only be able to take 1 friend (or take 3 friends but get no presents as they would need to buy a ticket)...she changed her mind and was happy to go to the cheaper pool!  With indoor water slides that even Luke can go down (with daddy) and pools that the kids can stand in easily, it was the perfect choice for the 10 children we had in our group.   And I was delighted because i didn't need to do any party game/food planning - the kids were far too busy swimming to be bothered standing around dripping wet eating much- a couple of bags of chips,a packet of biscuits, some fruit and drinks were all we needed to take.  Oh and the lolly filled Pinata /choc-sheet-over-a-bowl for this party (which you will need to read the previous blog post to really understand THAT saga!).  The kids (and adults) had a great time, and they were exhausted by the time we left after the 2 hours of water fun. 

Jaimee and her cousins go down the slide all at once in a ball of giggles

SO cool to be able to smash the cake top off!!!!

Kate and all her party friends!

 ....but the party fun didn't stop there!!! As we waved goodbye to the last child, grandparents started arriving for a BYO takeaway dinner.  The tradition in our house is that the birthday child (or adult) gets to pick what we have for dinner on our birthdays.  Kate told me she was choosing KFC, because she knew I liked it.  Bless.  Guess the healthy eating can go out the door for a night (Hey, I ordered a wrap so that counts right?)

Kate was spoilt for love and presents, getting the MUCH desired "Tummy Stuffer" that she had been begging us for since before Christmas.  Poor Gramps, It took him a whole week of shop hunting to find the thing!  But it certainly was her favourite present, coming to church this morning and going to bed with her each night.  She got lots more Lego Friends too, the girls have quite a collection of the girls branded Lego now...and to be honest, I don't know who has more fun setting it up - me or them!  I told Jaimee today that I wished it had been around when I was a little girl.

 Everyone loved the Pinata Cake, which Kate had GREAT delight in smashing it open to reveal a sponge cake underneath.  Now all the other kids are begging for one for their birthdays (although Jaimee was worried that that would be too much stress for me after witnessing my meltdown...I assured her I would try again for her!).The cousins had come to the pools with us, so we had 4 very tired and sugured up children that evening, and there were more than a few tears and drama, but I am pretty sure Kate had a blast on her special day.  Happy Birthday my precious life-of-the-party giggle girl....I love you.

The kids and their cousins with the smashed open cake!

I don't do cakes.

I have always been very open in sharing my aversion to making flashy cakes.  "What a waste of time, they just eat it anyway" I think, meanwhile enviously eying up the most amazing edible art I have ever seen and feeling so jealous of the smug grinning mother that I just want to slap her and run away crying cause I just can't do it. Who am I kidding? I really love all your 7 turrets, swirling icing peaks and pretty fondant. 

My kids either get a round or a square cake each year, decorated cunningly with pretty candy flowers from countdown, or with a few carefully placed marshmallows and artificial flowers. Some years I feel guilty they don't get flash cakes from their incapable mother, so I ask a friend to make one for them.  

This year Kate wanted a piñata cake.  I decided I would give it a go.  After all, it's just chocolate hardened in a mold to be a cake shape.  Bung some lollies under the shell and there's the cake.  Surely I could do that.  Sounded easy enough.  So I merrily brought up large chocolate melts, pretty glass bowls and lollies.  Little did I know the nightmare that would come.

I watched a YouTube tutorial.  Love YouTube tutorials.  Use them all the time for ukelele, pilates, crochet and cross stitch.  This one looked ok.....

"Melt the chocolate melts according to packet" says the perky super mum on YouTube. Hate her. 

Righto.  30 secs on medium, stirring until melted.  It started well, but somewhere in the 30 seconds between swirls of gradually melting velvet and the next 30 seconds - my melts turned into what strongly resembled the window putty I was using last week.  Hmm.  I used up 2 packets of melts and 2 blocks of chocolate throughout the four hours of attempts that followed, my attempted molds getting lumpier, smaller and thicker each time. 

"Spread a thin layer around inside of a bowl" says perky super mum on YouTube.  Grrrr. Envy. 

Her layer was like flowing liquid perfection.  Mine was lumpy, full of holes and finally, I just resorted to thick globs of putty pressed into place with my fingers.  That will do.  

"After freezing until set, just pop it out of the bowl....easy".  Seriously. She did it in one simple move.  

Nope.  The first two attempts never even budged from the bowl, no matter how much I tugged at the edges or coaxed with a warm cloth on the outside.  I had glued the chocolate somehow to the bowl.  Finally, I did it the way a friend had told me to do this morning - used a glad wrap layer in the bowl.  Much better. Should have ignored YouTube perky pest to start with.  

By this stage I am crying, cursing and stomping my foot. I am ranting about how I am a useless stupid mother, pathetic cause all the other mums do cool cakes.  And going on about poor neglected Kate who just wanted a special cake and I can't give her the one she wants.  Woe is me. Etc etc.  

I was meant to make 2 cakes - one for the party (at the indoor pools tomorrow) full of lollies, and the other for the family dinner afterwards with a cake inside.  

The cake was another fail - first time making a bowl shape and it sunk in the middle when I tested it.  Sigh.  I fixed it by cutting out the middle and filling it with marshmellows (double piñata!?).  So this is the end result: 

The other cake....well, I ran out of chocolate by this point, and it was nearing midnight.  And by now I had yelled at Marty, who had offered to help/do it for me. (In my state of feeling like the dumbest mother ever I may have screamed at him kinda loudly for suggesting he could do it better then me). I had cried....enough to wake Jaimee up and have her in tears too at seeing mummy in tears (and very worried that Kate wouldn't have a cake). It really wasn't a very good evening! And then I screamed at Marty again for not comforting me and giving me a hug when clearly I was upset.  Poor man.  

In the end I saved enough chocolate to do the one below- a chocolate sheet on top of a bowl full of lollies.  She can still crack it open with the hammer.  It will have to do.  

What did I learn?

 That when Jaimee breaks down in a fit of tears and emotion cause she can't do her times tables.... Well, that may be a trait from her mother.  

And that I can't. Do. Cakes. 

Which I already knew and really shouldn't have gone there.  Next year I will embrace the square cake with the decorations and realise...my talents lie elsewhere!! 

The numbers 32 and 11 were mine this weekend.

32 is the age I turned on Friday.  I don't mind in the least. I think I'm on a roll actually, life is proving quite cool at the mo.  i have a lot of awesome vision, goals and dreams. God is doing big stuff in my role at church, in my role at school, and in my personal faith walk. Big big growing. Love love it.  I am fitter then ever and for the first time Ever i have found myself enjoying exercises, now that I am settled into gymnastics and pilates. My family is growing together, we have a blast of fun daily. Marty and I are totally in love still and enjoy each other's company.   Yep, 32 is pretty good i reckon. Here's a pic of me on my birthday. 

We celebrated with ice cream at rush munroes, Hastings famous ice cream

parlour.  Ok, no we didn't - but that was the plan!! However, the weather was so dreadful on Friday that they closed early and didn't bother to tell us, we so ended up at mcdonalds much to the kids delight.I share my birthday with my lovely sister in law, Shona (she says it was hers first cause she's older!)so we often have a shared family treat, much to the cousins delight! 

The other special number this weekend is number 11. 

The day after my birthday, i celebrated 11 happy married years with my best friend. That's Marty by the way. We are blessed to have awesome grandparents who understand the importance of protecting our marriage carefully with an annual weekend away together, and they always happily take the kids for us so we can spend some alone time.  

It was my turn to plan our trip this year, and since options are limited for a short trip away, and I have never been to gisborne, it seemed a good plan. We watched movies and ate takeout on Friday night after dropping the kids off, and left for gisborne at 8am the next day.    I envisioned lying on the beach in the sun playing cards with Marty. What we got was gale force winds and rain. (Much to Marty's sisters amusement) oops.  Managed a little shopping, but We were more then happy to bunk down in our flash motel room with downton abbey, blogilates and scorched almonds!!! Oh, and the spa bath of course! 

 On Sunday we visited a church on dads recommendation. It was certainly different - church started with a rap band concert (we giggled at all the old people waving their hands in the air like they just don't care) and then later church ended with a lolly scramble! I love visiting churches, it reminds me that Jesus in not able to be popped in a little box stereotype in my heard - Jesus is loved by all kinds of people who show that love in all kinds of ways. Church is not one size fits all, but Jesus does fit all churches. 

We had a lovely weekend eating out, and hanging out.Even the 3 hour road trip each way is fun, just us and the road. So 32 and 11 it is for me this year. And I like it!