Calving time at the farm!

Today our playgroup had arranged to go out to Mel and Lewis's dairy farm to see the baby calves. I let Luke have the day off daycare to join us for this adventure. It was amazing, driving through lush beautiful farm land, patting day old calves  and feeding them bottles of milk. It wasn't easy feeding these babies - had to straddle them between legs to keep them at it as they aree still learning to take a bottle!! It was funny. Luke loves splashing in the puddles, seeing where they milk the cows, covering calves in sawdust and exploring. We will definitely be back with the girls to see the milking process one day, thanks so much Mel and family for letting us play at country family! We loved it. 

Slumber party

Jaimee has been planning a slumber party for her birthday since her birthday party last year. She has read books on the subject and collated a list of things that must be done, from movies and midnight feasts to scary stories and makeovers. She insisted it must take place in the lounge, and invited 3 of her closest friends. Kate was not invited, but we got around that one by letting Kate have a friend stay the night in their very own party space. 

We kicked off the fun after school, with the girls tagging along to swimming lessons! Then it was home for pizza and chips, joined by the extended family for a chaos few hours of food, present opening and cake blowing. Jaimee had asked for a "spooky" cake this year, guess she is over the many years of princess themes! I asked if a spiderweb full of bugs would suffice and was thankful that was spooky enough! 

Once all the family departed it was time to get the kids snuggled up with movies so Marty and I could clean the messy kitchen up! The younger 3 (Kate, Ariel and Luke) settled down in front of their favourite movie "animal United" and the older 4 girls soon swapped out scary "jumanji "for a gymnastics themed movie called "a second chance". There was lollies and popcorn for all! 

After the movie, the younger ones were straight to sleep and the older ones told funny stories (spooky stories were decided too scary) before I told them it was time to settle down at 10pm. By 11pm the last children were fast asleep. 

The next morning at 5:30am I heard a voice "hey, wake up". I yelled out "no, too early!" And all was quiet for another hour. Whew. It was pancakes and fluffy hot chocolates for breakfast, followed by the games jaimee has arranged. None of the girls realised that putting lipstick on your whole face is not easy to get off. Lots of flannels later they soon learnt...

The girls finished off their party with a round of pictionary and making felts with one of jaimees gifts. Lots of fun! Now where is that coffee....

Jaimee is 9

Jaimee was very excited about her birthday.  She left me this note beside my bed the night before.  I giggled, and made sure to say "Happy B.Dad" to her in the morning....

 When Jaimee woke up she wandered into my room.  Luke was already there, and said to her: "wait a second Jaimee". He wrapped his arms around her. "I need to see how tall you are". I smiled and said "is She taller?" Luke replies; "yep. So She's definitely 9!!!".  We all giggled.  He is certain that taller comes with birthdays!

Jaimee had the choice of when to open her presents (the party is Friday), and chose this morning.  She was happy with her coloured modelling clay, puzzle book, sewcool sewing machine, pictionary game and new top.  But her favourite present was her animal print shorts she said.  

For a special treat, daddy and I took jaimee out of school for a lunch date today. She said she felt weird walking around with us on a school day! We had a yummy muffin break lunch together. 

After school, she was delighted to have Paige come to play  (who sadly missed our snow trip last weekend with her brother sick). With phone calls from grandparents, as well as reading her all her Facebook messages - she said "so many people! Tell them all thank you mum". I think she felt super special and loved today. 

It was pancakes for tea tonight: her choice! Yum yum! And with that we have. 9 year old in the house. Love you jaimee. 

SNOW weekend!

We had been planning to visit the snowy mountains this year since last Winter.  Luke had never seen snow before, we hadn't taken him on our last trip (when he was just 2 years old).  When we invited our good friends to join us, it soon became a very exciting adventure weekend to look forward to.  We have had a close friendship with these families for longer then our relationship has been alive - Marty and these 2 guys have been friends since they were teenagers, and God granted us a huge blessing when the 3 guys married 3 girls who were destined to become close friends too.  Our kids are practically cousins, growing up together.  It seemed natural to have a weekend at a bach together, and we were all looking forward to it.  Sadly, 14 year old Dylan ended up with a really bad virus in the month before we went, and had to go to Starship hospital for almost 2 weeks of testing.  It left the Dempsey family pretty wiped out, and they weren't able to join us after all.  However, we felt this year was a great success and can't wait to fill the beds properly next year with the whole group of us.  

Here are the kids watching the Lion King bright and early on Saturday morning together 

Pancakes for breakfast!! It took a while...of course we found the non-stick electric frypan AFTER we made them all!

 

The children were SO excited to be heading to the snow.  It POURED with rain for our entire journey to Kuratau on Friday evening and kept raining all night.  We were a little worried, but praying that God would give us a spot of respite on Saturday.  Us adults stayed up till midnight, chatting around the fire and catching up.

Boy, did God answer our prayers! Saturday started clear and fine.  In fact, we got HOT at the snow.  It didn't start snowing/raining until we headed home again.  Thank You GOD!

 As we approached the snow, the kids watched excitedly out the window.  "Its like cookies and cream" the girls squeeled and "I have more snow out my side then you do" (typical competitive girls).  Luke tried to count the pockets of snow.  "There is 200 million and one!" he exclaimed!

 We had a blast at Whakapapa, finding an entire crisp and untouched side of a hill right by a carpark to claim as our very own.  It was knee deep fresh powdery snow for us.  We sledded again and again, made deep snow angels, built a snowman (complete with carrot nose) and climbed the hillside to explore the other side.  We ate our packed lunch sitting in the snow and 3 hours later, we were all happily content with our time....and ready to go to the hot pools!

beanie hair! 

The thick wooly socks Granma had knitted the kids kept their toes toasty and dry.

After a soak at the local hot springs, it was home for showers and nachos for dinner, followed by hot apple pie and icecream.  The kids settled down with a movie (Annie) while us adults played a game of "Forbidden Island".  Later we roasted marshmellows around the fire and then when the kids were in bed (they crashed out!) we watched a movie and sipped Wine.  Aahhhhh..

On Sunday, the day was gloriously sunny.  We decided to spent our morning exploring the area, and walked down to the boat ramp at the bottom of the hill after a big breakfast of scrambled eggs.  Chatting to the locals, playing with cameras, finding pumice and exploring in the sun.  It was so relaxing...we all agreed it would be nice to come back in summer.

Finally it was time to pack the cars up, clean the bach and head into Taupo for lunch and a swim.  Fish and chips on the lakefront was delicous, followed by a swim at the AC Baths, where the kids had a blast on the hydroslides again and again.    We headed home, relaxed and happy -  Thanks for a marvellous weekend to the Winters Family, we can't wait to do it again...and next time we will bring the Dempsey family too!