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...

Labour Weekend in Te Kaha

Well it was off to Te Kaha again for the long weekend to get a few jobs done before the Christmas holidays.  Mum and I set off a couple of days earlier so we could take our time with the kids.  We headed to the Mount on Wed and then off to the Coast on Thursday.  We stopped in Opotiki for lunch and a visit to Aunty Leti and Aunty Bari.

Borrowing Aunty Leti's shovel

First stop on arrival is checking out the creek

When Dani and the boys arrived Friday night, Nathan raced over saying Ruka Ruka woo hoo woo hoo, and from then on the boys played together the whole time

Ethan zooming down on the tractor

Miss Thang taking a stroll around the grounds

Getting into job number 1, putting soaker rings in to filter our grey water

Maia and Aunty Bari

Ruka and boyboy

Aunty Leti giving Maia cake, the girl knows how to get people to feed her, she gives the most appreciative sounds and smacking of lips when eating

Kumara Salad duty

The look says it all about this job

Boys helping get the Eel ready for smoking

The boys on sweeping duty

Job number 2, making a platform for the loo, was pretty slippery around there when wet

Nanny Louies slide kept them entertained for ages

Platform completed, awesome job boys!!

Smoked Eel on the menu - yum yum!

A few sing songs round the fire after a hard days work