Summer Holiday

Last week we hired a house at Mount Maunganui and headed to the beach for a few days of rest and relaxation.  I left the planning and booking up to Jonathan this time and he managed to find a great beach house just a few minutes up the road from beautiful Omanu Beach.  We were lucky enough to have three days of sunshine - even though the weather forecast told us it was going to rain the whole time we were there.

Well, a picture paints a thousand words so heres a few photos to show what we got up to:

Hiked to the Top of Mount Maunganui - it felt like Mount Everest!

Enjoyed the spectacular views from the top - what a pretty country we live in!

Ate way too many oh-so-delicious Copenhagen Cones



Soaked at the Hot Pools and laughed at their sign afterwards



Had a lovely visit from Mum and Dad - just in time for the kids to convince them to buy them another copenhagen cone

Had dinner looking out over the beach



Spent hours in the water and emerged covered in seaweed!



Went swimming at McClaren Falls

Relaxed with a good book

Ate too much food

Discovered some weird sea creatures

Spent quality time together.



Little {Business} Women

Elle and her cousin Maddison have been busy little sewers for the last couple of days. They decided to sew aprons and sell them to their aunties, grandmas, neighbours and friends. With a little help from me they churned out a whole bunch of cute aprons in different colours and sizes and sold them for $5 each! They even made some matching Mum & Daughter ones which were very cute indeed.  Today they made $70 and they have plans to sell more tomorrow.   Give them a call if you want one!

Busy at work

Off to sell their wares

Freaking Out

About a month ago Paul came up with the wild idea of entering a family team to run the Great Lakes Relay in February. We all got excited/deluded and commited ourselves to running sections of the entire length of Lake Taupo. What was I thinking??? I'm not a runner. In fact I hate running. The last time I took up running I gave up after three months because my toenails fell off, I got shin splints, approximately 1,078 blisters and perpetual foot cramps.

Anyway, I guess I just got caught up in the hype of it all. So far our team consists of Paul, Nakita, Tania, Kim, Nigel, Sam, Jonthan, Me and a few others I'm not sure of. Come February 19th at 2am Paul will begin the first leg of the 155km course around Lake Taupo.

On a good note - I do happen to own the best running shoes in the world which have changed my LIFE! I love them. Asics Gel 1250. Training has begun and so far no shin splints, no foot cramps, no blisters - and I still own all my toenails.

Wish me luck people. I will need it.

New Years Resolution #1 - Re-start our blog

Aaaand here I am. There's so many useless excuses as to why I haven't blogged since May 2009 so I will not bore you with those. Truth is, I've felt a bit sad lately that I have missed recording so many great things - so I've made it a New Years goal to do better. Hmmm, I wonder how long it will be before anyone notices I've posted.

Anyway - Christmas has come and gone and here we are in January 2011! We had a fantastic New Years eve party at our place with 25 other people who had no where better to go. Thanks for coming guys - none of our neighbours have been giving me strange looks so I guess our singing wasn't that bad. Unfortunately I have no photo's of the epic fun-ness so you will have to read Crystals blog to see those. (New years Resolution #2 - take more photo's)

New Years day was spent at Jonathan's brothers house who just so happens to have a pool which was perfect for the hot sunny day. We had a spectacular BBQ lunch followed by sunbathing, swimming, spa pooling and silly antics. See silly antic photo below.



So we have an exciting year ahead - here's some of the things we've got going on:
1. Jonathan will start his new job at Sacred Heart Girls College
2. Elle has just 16 more Sundays in Primary before she starts Young Womens
3. I have just 4 weeks left of sleeping in before I begin teaching early morning Seminary!
4. Elle will start her last year of Intermediate School before she starts High School next year (This one scares me the most)
5. Ryan is in his last year of Primary School

Ryan's Baptism

I can't believe my little boy is 8 already! It seems like just yesterday he was making his hurried entrance into the world. (He was a very speedy 45 minute labour, born on the bedroom floor, delivered by Jonathan and Mum).

Ryan was so excited for his big day to arrive. When it finally he did got really nervous - mainly because Elle teased him that the Bishop was going to ask him hard questions in his interview!

The service was short and sweet. Grandpa conducted and talks were given by Ma, Mum, Uncle Laugharne and Uncle Paul. Elle was bribed with $5 to sing a song and did a lovely job. While Ryan and Jonathan were getting changed we played a little slide show of his life so far which was really cute.

It was a lovely night shared by family and friends and hopefully one which Ryan will remember for the rest of his life.

Rock Stars

I am not sure if it is a good idea to post this picture as I know I look quite ridiculous! But it was fun to dress up so I will anyway.

I went to a Rock Star themed Birthday Party at my sister-in-law Kelly's house which was quite fun and hilarious to see everyone dressed up...although i think I went a little overboard! Thanks to Crystal for the great make-up and to Carly for the loan of her studded belt which I think really made the outfit.

The next night the kids had a Rock Star Party and had fun dressing up too.

Elle and Ryan with their cousins Logan and Maddy

One a penny, Two a penny, Hot Cross Buns

On Good Friday we decided to have a Hot Cross Bun making competition - this was mostly a round-a-bout way of getting lots of hot cross buns to eat! Crystal and Sam aren't fans of hot cross buns so she made cinnamon rolls, Elle's buns were raisin-less as she hates them, Mum and I made normal hot cross buns and I made custard buns aswell. All were delicious but I think everyone agreed that Mums were definately superior.

The Yellow Eyed Bunnies I made for the kids classes at school.

Elle called them "Boggly Eyed Bunnied"