Te Atatu Santa Parade

Saturday morning we headed off to the Santa Parade.  This year we were able to park at Lisa's new house and walk up.  The kids enjoyed themselves especially all the lollies they were given.  Maia loved it, she was pointing at everything and waving her Merry Christmas Flag.  We waved extra hard when the kids PreSchool float went by and of course when the Big Red Guy went past on a fire Engine to finish off the parade.

My brave friend Jan

Last Friday evening we went along to support my friend Jan who was taking part in Shave for a cure.  www.shaveforacure.co.nz  She raised an awesome $2400.  You may still be able to donate on the website if you want.  I was happy to support her having lost my Grandfather earlier this year to Cancer.  Isn't she a brave woman and doesn't she still look great with her new hairdo!

SOLD

Well there you go, we have sold our house after 5 weeks on the market which is probably a great run in this slow market.  Not exactly the price we were originally after but again in this market probably a realistic sale price.  Soooo...  Where to next???  Te Atatu Peninsula is the plan, so we have to go serious house hunting or rent until we find something suitable.  We have to be out of here on the 19th December but we plan to be homeless until the end of January though as we'll be away on holiday for a fair chunk, so will be cruising round different family members spare rooms in between camping trips ;)

I have enjoyed my little house it has been a blessing.  I hope it will bless the woman who has bought it as it has our little family.  But on to the next phase, we'll keep ya'll posted.

Our Mainly Music Moves

Christmas came to Mainly Music

My Santa Babies

Boogying on down

Kael in on the parachute action

No Santa this year, apparantly too many kids were scared of him last year?!?

Tired Fairy

Maia with her beloved Moo Cow all bathed and ready for bed.

Slurping up a Storm

Here's someone who knows how to enjoy an iceblock!!!

Visiting Cadence and Rico

Today we ventured out to Mangere to Visit Talei, Cadence and Rico.  The boys had a great time as always, they have lots in common i.e cars, cars and cars!!  The girls played good too, although the picture below looks like they're having a little wrestle I think they were more gearing up for a hug.  It will be good when the new motorway out west is finished we could visit more often and be there in a flash!!

The camera has revived

Our camera has decided to stop making that ridiculous noise and start working again, Yay!!  Here are some snaps it's taken to celebrate it's comeback...

Saturday we went to Breeze's 3rd Birthday Party, Maia is a fairy and Nathan was a T.Rex (although not dressed as one he said he was one, so he was one? :)

Later in the afternoon we had to get out of our house for the open home and found ourselves in Te Atatu at Lisa's and Troy's where the kids got to have a play and we ended up staying for a bbq.

Baking Day

After a big day out yesterday and a bit of rain it was a stay home and chill day.  We decided to try out the Christmas tree and Angel cutters I bought last week.  I found a cool painted biscuit recipe and I'm not much of a baker but they turned out ok?  Anyway I'll trial a few recipes with them before Christmas...  Thanks to having Nana's camera on hand we could get some pics...

Maia was asleep during the baking process but did get to taste test

A T.Rex Named Sue

On Sunday after church we met up with the rest of the whanau for a trip to the Auckland Museum.  We wanted to go and check out the T.Rex exhibition.  Nathan is sooooo into Dinosaurs at the moment.  He only ever gets Dinosaur books out of the library.  I'm actually on the hunt for some Dinosaur books that don't talk about Dinosaurs from a evolution THEORY perspective only.  

Anyways, we had a lovely afternoon out.  The kids were a bit freaked by the life sized replica fossil bones and Nathan needed a bit of encouragement to come in and get used to it.  Once inside he seemed to like it.  We did a cruise around some other parts of the museum too.  We were about to head home when Dean suggested we check out a burger bar he hadn't been to for ages, Al and Petes in Parnell.  They did awesome burgers, I chose the Chicken, Camembert and plum sauce and it was ooozing with Camembert!!! Yum yum yum!!  We went back to the Domain to eat them and let the kids have a run around before heading home stuffed from a great afternoon out.

Kaput Camera

It seems the Canon Camera we have had for the last 4-5? years has finally died.  It has had near death experiences over the last little while but soldiered on.  Now you turn it on and it turns itself off and makes a really bad sound.  So its given up, finished, over and out like Helen Clark, got no spark.  Hmm bad rhyming, sorry.  

Soooo, no more pics on the blog for a while, until we look at the budget and do some twiddling and tweaking for a new camera...

Election Day

Saturday was election day so off we walked to the local High School to cast our votes, it was a beautiful day but a little windy.

Later that day we had a visit from Batman and a Fairy aka Kael and Ayla who had been to a dress up birthday party.  

Guy Fawkes

We haven't bothered to buy Fireworks for the last couple of years as we get quite a good view from our house of everybody elses.  That and Nathan is a bit scared of loud things at the moment.  But he didn't mind them from inside.

Ice Blocks at the zoo

With the sun out we thought we better get out too.  We decided on the zoo.  Nathan would never get sick of the zoo and Maia enjoys it aswell, she likes animals and points and waves at them.  She did a lot of walking around and running away and so with all that and the sun being so hot it was Ice Block Treat time...

A treat of a different kind?

Randoms

Nathans new 3D dinosaur book, it was so funny watching him try and grab the pictures which looked like they were coming off the page at him.

On Friday we went to the Stars Party, put on by the churches as a Halloween alternative.  It was pretty cool they had free sausage sizzle, ice creams, lollies, horse ride jumpy castle etc.  Nathan got to make his own sugar overload bikkie too.

Nathan and Ayla playing at Nana and Poppy's house, frying up some leafy lunch.  Isn't this a nice photo of Ayla.  
Maia loves swings and slides here she is on the swing at Nana's house, she did not want to get off

New Carpet

We got new carpet the other week and here is Maia giving it a test run...