Gatsby Picnic 2015

Where does the time go?! Once again it was time to done our Art Deco threads and head out to the great Gatsby Picnic, a family tradition and great community day out. It's so much fun to dress up as a family and join the approx 40,000 others in Napier for a picnic lunch! I really love how everyone is smiled at, no matter if you dress up or not - it's just a great atmosphere of festivity and fun. 

Someone asked me why we "celebrate" the earthquake that collapsed Napier in the 1930s. We don't. We remember the tragedy, and celebrate the community spirit of perserverance, the coming together to rebuild a whole city. And coming together is exactly what the Gatsvy picnic is all about. Love living here and being able to be a part of such a wonderful community.  

Summer makes me spontaneous!

Today was a stunner. Beautiful. And being the end of Feb, I knew this wasn't going to last forever. I was in the mood for some outdoors enjoyment, so after swimming lessons I finally did one of our "one days" the kids ask for. 

Luke got rely upset the other day cause I told one of the girls "one day" yet again when they asked to do something rather. He piped up "hey mum, no! We are going to zealand end (rainbows end) and the skate park one day. So we can't do that one day!!" Us girls giggled, clearly luke doesn't realise there is more then one "one day!". 

Anyway, back to today. "One day" we could go to flaxmere park to try out their splash pad. Today was that day. Kids had a blast, I sat and crocheted and felt all was right. 

But it was Friday night, and better still, the famous Napier Artdeco weekend so let the spontaneous mummy stuff continue! 

After a quick check in with marty, we got ourselves all dolled up in our evening Art Deco gear and headed out to have hot chicken and chips by the beach. Yum. 

We then headed over to marine parade, which was jam packed of people out enjoying the party atmosphere. From jeans and a hat to the whole nine yards, everyone is accepted with a smile on Art Deco weekend. I love the community spirit of fun. There were countless vintage cars, steam engines and the special air display to enjoy, but people watching is the most fun of course. We got lots of smiles and comments, the dress mum brought me from the UK years ago fits in perfectly. Although the girls kept giggling that "mummy's bottom wobbles" in it. Hmmf. (At least I can still wear it after 12ish years girls - they just don't understand that is an achievement yet). 

We finished the fun off with an Icecream at McDonald's before home time. Ahh spontaneous family night out at its best. And we still have the main event - the great Gatsby Picnic on Sunday!  

Jungle fever

Animal mad Kate just had to have a jungle party this year - she picked her jungle dress out 2 months early!! It was a super easy cake - cut straight from the garden, plonked on a choc cake with some animals!

With 11 children and 9 adults at the party, I was gutted it was cold (so much for the pool entertaining them) but thankful it wasn't raining and the kids could run around outside between activities! 

We had 3 hours of party, but it flew by with crafty animal mask making keeping everyone busy, a big 2 course lunch spread to get through and then presents and cake time....and iceblocks...before more jungle games planned by Kate: pin the tail on the tiger and hunters (boys with nerf guns) get the animals (screaming girls).

Kate had a ball and was so blessed to have her friends and family there. Earlier in the week we had celebrated her "real" birthday with Katie joining us for McDonald's tea after a swim on a very hot day!

Introducing our 3 new girls

When we got the news that our dear rabbit Misty passed away at Christmas, poor luke burst into sobbing tears. Until then, we hadn't realised how important our rabbits were to our children! I love animals, and with that prompt, and with our animal mad Kate about to have a birthday...well, it seemed a good time to think about someone new!

Hmm...but who? I didn't really want more rabbits, dear old Bella probably wouldn't appreciate a new young thing joining her, and the outdoor pets hadn't been given too much attention on the whole. An indoor pet then. A "toy" dog crossed my mind, I'm sure our placid cats wouldn't mind a bit..but at $600 each plus registration and a heck of a lot more...I think that was aiming too high for our finances. What about guinea pigs? The research began....and I was hooked. Did you know that guinea pigs are best kept indoors and that most cages are too small for them? So unheard of in NZ but HUGE elsewhere as i learnt!

We took the kids to a pet shop to gauge their thoughts on guinea pigs. It was "I want" at first sight. I learnt that guinea pigs are highly social and quite tame when kept indoors as part of the family. An indoor home can be made with very cute polar fleece, and the cost to set up a proper cage was cheap. Finding 3 sisters who would be one month old for February (and that were a third of the price as pet shops) clinched the deal. We were getting guinea pigs!

I tried hard to keep it a secret, telling the girls I was making a metal bookcase as I put together the cage. Jaimee nodded and thought it was cool. Kate gave me a smug look and said "looks like a guinea pig cage to me". Hmm that girl is onto it!!! Jaimee helped me sew fleece pads, thinking she was making doll blankets. Kate kept hinting that guinea pigs would make a great birthday gift. 

Finally, the day came to pick up the baby girls, born Dec 31st and only 4 weeks old. Fitting inside my hand, with the softest fur and white tufts on their foreheads, these girls are beautiful. I was delighted! We brought them home and settled them into their new cage in the old dining room, where they promptly hid in the boxes and tunnels for that day. We picked up the kids and you can see the whole surprise here - watch the video). 

We were as restrained as we could be with 3 wafer children itching for cuddles, only getting them out for 5 minutes holds every few hours. The darlings just quietly sat in our laps and let us. They are so quit and placid!

It's been fun watching Coco (shy fluff ball), latte (brave beauty) and Millie (tiny tiny one) come out of their shells more as they learn to know our voices. They are eating more, wheeking more and hiding less. They have these super fun moments when they get all excited and zoom around madly for several minutes, doing little "popcorn" jumps in the air and chasing each other! (watch the vid-they get crazier and crazier).  They don't willingly come to us yet, but do "talk" when they hear us a bit now, and are happy to sit and have snuggles a few times a day on our laps. 

The cats spent quite some time trying to work out how to get into the cage, walking on top and peering in. They love to sit and stare at them racing and squeeking, but when we hold them the cats keep their distance which is fine by us... Maybe we will "introduce" them when the guinea pigs are a bit bigger!

So welcome Coco, Latte and Millie! With your numbers, the humans are now the minority. (We now have 7 critters: one fish, one rabbit, 2 cats and 3 piggies!