Player of the Day

Ryan joined the school Basketball team this year.  His Aunty Jodhi and Uncle Uki are the coaches and four of his cousins are in the team.  They all practice together every day and are improving each week.  Unlike Softball we think its great that the games are on Friday afternoon and they only last for 30 minutes - haha.

Today Ryan got player of the day!  Woohoo go Ryan.

The Cross Country Race

The kids had their Cross Country Race on Tuesday.  They all got bused out to Church College to run around the #1 field.  How that is considered cross country and why they couldn't have run around their own fields I will never know.  But I'm sure they had fun on the bus ride!  It was raining off and on but the clouds managed to hold back while the kids had their runs. 


Elle and her long legs - she came 2nd for her year group



The head students also ran with the junior kids

Ryan has gotten a lot fitter since he started basketball and managed to run the whole thing with only a few stops

Ryan turns 10

Ryan was born 8 days after Elle's 2nd birthday.  Back then it seemed pretty cool to have their birthdays close together.  Now its stressful!  Two kids to shop for (which, I might add is waaaay harder now that they've grown out of Barbies and Batman and Bob the Builder), two cakes to cook, two breakfasts in bed, two parties to plan - and carry out - all within 8 days of eachother!  So yes, it is a little stressful, but I love their excitement and anticipation and the happiness all my hard work brings.

Ryan's birthday was May 11th.  He has just joined a Basket Ball team so requested a basketball cake for his birthday.  We had it after school with his cousins and again at night with Paul & Nakita, Crystal, Sam & Preston and Ma.
 

The Basket Ball cake.



Ryan, Connor, Mason, Sarsha, Logan, Nevaeh, Maddy, Elle

On the weekend he had some friends sleep the night.  They had KFC, ice cream sundaes, lots of munchies, watch movies and played xbox until 5am!  After a pancake breakfast they headed out for fish and chips at the lake and mini golf with Jonathan.  That night he had another sleepover with his cousins.  Whoa, what a weekend!

Ryan and his mates

At Mini Golf

Book Character Dress-up Day

Book Character Dress-up day was back in March but a friend took the photos for me and I only just got them.  I'm usually a lot more organised with these type of things - but Crystal had just had Preston and I was helping out at the hospital with them.  Plus the kids couldn't decide what to dress up as!  I managed to pull these costumes together in the morning - thankfully The Warehouse opens at 8am.  Elle is Silky from The Folk of the Faraway Tree and Ryan is Grandpa Joe from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I thought Ryan especially looked great!  He borrowed his Papa's walking stick and I put cornflour in his hair to make it look grey.

Elle's Birthday Party

Since Elle's Birthday was on a weekday she waited til the weekend to have her friends over for a slumber party.  8 girls to entertain seemed a bit daunting - especially after I asked Elle if she wanted to play pass-the-parcel and she looked at me like I was the latest freak show at the circus.  Apparently you don't play games like that at 12 year old birthdays.  Luckily for me they were happy to entertain themselves with movies, pedicures and xbox kinnect Dance Central.  I also did a little craft class and had them all make heart shaped bath bombs to give to their Mums for Mothers Day.

Elle requested Coconut Lemon Cake

Clockwise Elle, Letitia, Maddy, Julia, Tyra, TeMaire, Raine, Kalyna

9 toppings for the ice-cream sundaes!

Ready for movie watching

Happy Birthday Elle

Photo taken by the very talented Kimberley Farthing

Elle turned 12 on Tuesday.  12 I say!  How did that happen?  When did that happen?  How am I suddenly the mother of a 12 year old?  Wasn't it just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital on a cold and stormy night?  Wasn't it just the other day that she had her first day at kindergarten?  People always said to me when she was a baby to "enjoy the moment because they grow up too fast" - it surely didn't seem that way when there were endless nappies to change and clothes to wash and sleepless nights.  But now it feels like I blinked and I missed it all and now here she is, no longer my little girl but a beautiful, mature young lady.

She'll be taller than me soon - but lucky for her she inherited skinny genes from somewhere so she'll never be fatter than me :)  We won't ever share clothes but maybe shoes.  I love that she talks to me about everything.  If she's got a question - she asks it, no matter what the topic!  I hope that never changes. I think about when I was 12 and how different I was from her.  She is so confident and out going.  I'm glad she didn't inherit my shyness.  She is my number one shopping buddy.  No matter what we're shopping for she'll come along happily - so long as we can spend 10 minutes or so in BLING or DIVA.  I love her gentle nature and her soft spirit.  I love that she cries if she sees me crying.  I love the fact that even though Ryan can be her worst enemy, she will protect him no matter what.  I love that she is honest and pure and always tries to do what is right.  I love that when she thinks she has done something wrong she comes and talks to me about it - and it usually turns out she hasn't done anything wrong at all!

On Saturday I booked tickets to America for me and her to go to conference with Mum and Dad in October.  How fun will that be?

One day old at Waikato Hopital.  We called her frog legs.

Easter and ANZAC all rolled into one

Easter was super late this year - infact it was so late in the month that we all got ripped off on holiday pay from work because ANZAC day, April 25th, fell on Easter Monday.
The weekend mainly involved eating.way.too.much.  We started off with our traditional hot cross bun making competition.  Dad was the judge and I have to say that I think he was biased in his judging.  He chose Mum's buns even though they had no raisins!  haha.  Oh well, the proof was in the eating - I also made CUSTARD BUNS which were all gobbled up in no time.

The buns.  Please disregard messy kitchen in the background.

On Sunday we had a lovely Easter lunch of chicken salad croissants and delectable desserts.  The idea was for everyone to make a dessert they had never made before.  It was quite fun but I was rather disappointed in mine.  It was a recipe I had wanted to try for a long time and was quite tricky as it involved making your own pasty, caramel and ganache all from scratch!  So while I think I executed the recipe perfectly, it just wasn't that nice.  It looked great though - so here's a picture.

First and last time I will be making Dorie Greenspans chocolate peanut caramel tart

On Monday we headed off to Memorial Park to watch Elle lay a wreath on behalf of her school for ANZAC day.  It was pouring with rain but it somehow seemed quite fitting to make a little sacrifice to stand in the rain for an hour to honor those who sacrificed so much for our country and our freedom.

Elle and the head boy Malachi Leslie.  These two were born a few weeks apart and we
have photos of them together as babies.  I made the wreath.