Monday's doings

Monday is Jett's day off so we went to the Museum.  They had an exhibition on Moana -my ocean and the children are always keen on seeing things there anyways!  So, here is Owen...

And Keith.

 And Amelia and Owen.

 And Bridget a model of a real life great white shark.  The kids thought this was pretty neat. Not at all scary.

 Daddy giving the fake penguin a tickle.

 After the museum we went to the North Shore.  Long Bay has a lovely adventure park, and they have expanded it since we were there last year with John and Naomi.  The kids of course REALLY enjoyed this part.

 And of course the next bit was just as exciting...the beach!

 Looking out.

 Hahaha, I look thrilled.  It was very hard keeping track of two boys who wanted to run straight in the water!!

 As you can see!

 They thoroughly soaked their pants but they had such fun I couldn't hold them back!

 Splash splash!

 Our only daughter.

 And look what Aaron found!

 I thought he was joking at first, but nope it was a real life starfish!

 We tried taking our own portrait and agreed this one looked nice.

And of course this is supposed to be winter here in NZ!  And instead we've been enjoying spring temps and gorgeous sunny days.  Soo nice! :)  

We've been stressed (or maybe it is just me) over our visa's because they were returned...we have to get medicals for another two of our children so hopefully Monday we can send it all back to them....such stressful times! 

Randomness again

It has been another busy week here.  Schooling the kids...and uhm, not much else.  There has been a couple of nice days this week and we took advantage of the sunny weather.  

Owen really took to Amelia's helmet and to her bike, and to her pillow she got...uh yeah. :)

 

He also has a dirty mouth here...but who is checking? :)

These are my kefir grains which are starting to multiply...ahh!  I make it instead of buying lots of buttermilk for a certain person in our family.  ;)  I want to find a good recipe for blueberry kefir... that would be yum.

Here is Amelia doing a science experiment.  Actually it was another birthday present she kindly received from a friend.  They really make you "dress up" for this.

 She found it fun, and Aaron found it interesting too.

 Owen enjoying a wee ride on Amy's bike.  He has to be pushed around because his legs aren't quite long enough to reach the pedals.

And here is my 1 yr old going on 3 or 4...*sigh* he just has to be doing what the older ones are doing!

My son giving me a goofy grin finally!  Very hard to get him to smile at the camera lately.

 Whereas this guy has the opposite problem... :D  And yes that is my pointed nose.  I inherited from my mother lol!

Right, and the last thing I should say is we submitted our visa's this week...so hopefully within a couple of weeks we'll hear back to see whether we can stay or ...  

Right, I'm done my hokey pokey ice cream (think vanilla ice cream with the crunchie bar in it minus the chocolate...very yum) on to other things. :)

Amelia's birthday

Well it was a tiring communion season with having sick children (and me recovering from a cold) but I still wanted to do something for Amelia's birthday.  So I invited a couple of her friends, whipped out a cake (have no idea how that happened) and had lunch ready for them all today.  Here she is being spoiled with so many gifts! Thank you to her friends!  She felt very special!

Aaron, Diana, Amelia, Aaron, and Chelsea

And here she is opening the strange little gift from Daddy and Mommy....a empty box with a note in it??  The note said that Amelia could find her present in the back shed but since it was raining, Daddy kindly got it out for her to see...she is a very happy girl. :)

 The present! :)

Amelia wanted a Ladybug cake so I made one for her...it turned out quite cute I thought.  This was my first time using fondant instead of traditional buttercream icing. I really like fondant. :)  Sorry it is on the side, I really don't know how that happened (and no it isn't because I forgot to turn it clockwise).

 

Anyways, I'm exhausted!  I'm off to get some peppermint tea... :)

Family Life

We are nearly half way through the school year!  Yippie!  We might be a week behind in the lessons but we've nearly made it there. :)  Term 2 ends in another week or so (I'm still trying to get used to terms instead of semesters).  We have our communion coming up in another two weeks or less and I should be ready...ahem!  I've got a bit of baking done but not near the amount I should have, and I haven't even started on a couple of freezer meals.  Oh well.

We've been pretty busy trying to just do our normal stuff and then figuring out what we all need for the visa's, applying for the extra documents, passport photos and now today Amelia's medical.  So yes, we are busy. :)  Good news is, we received Jett's criminal record check!  We are currently still waiting for mine which likely won't come in time and therefore I'll be trying to apply for a waiver.  We are also waiting for Keith's passport to come in, I'm hoping it will be next week.  

Anyways here is my little boofy! :)

 And the next boof in Daddies coat.

 Owen is trying it on for size.  And by the way Keith is holding his very special chipmunk from Oma.

 Amelia and Aaron working on mosaics that Oma sent over.  Thank you Mom!

 Who goes and takes a photo with flash on, of a sleeping baby?  I do! :)  Isn't he cute...

 This was supposed to look nice...sorry Owen!

 And Keithies newest accomplishment.  *sigh*  I don't think any of our children have been this adventurous! 

Randomness

Lydia was with us for about 2 weeks. The kids wouldn't leave her alone!  :)

 Keith had his first hair cut. ;(

 He has such cute curls too.

 And now he looks like a little boy...*sigh*

 Lyddy and Amy were chasing Pukeko's at Ambury Park Farm.

 I guess Jett is a popular name for a pet?

 And here he is.

 Monday we went to Duder Regional Park for a nice walk.

 We had a lunch there...was a chilly day but the sun peeked through a bit.

With a new camera...

...one can take lots of interesting photos.  Some are silly faces...

 Or of a certain little man...can you believe this is Keith?!

Or photos that need funny captions to.

Some are cute and well posed (minus the lack of hair-doing ahem).

Others were supposed to be cute but ended up being funny (Keith was yawning).

With a new camera you can take numerous of those lovely landscape photos that you won't ever use...

 

...or at least you won't likely print them. 

 

You can capture action shots like of my son being strapped in, or the other son doing some kind of 'dance'.

Here is another action shot of sorts.

Another thing I need to learn about this new camera is that is doesn't take half a minute to take the photo (yes our old cam took a long time to take one picture)...but then why does it still end up taking photos of kids with their eyelids half open?  

We don't really follow any rules when it comes to photo taking...we just shoot when we feel like it.  Which is probably why we end up with these kinds of photos. :D

But in the end, we are still happy with our new camera.