Others to Wellington

My dad flew to Wellington with three of my siblings (Jarrod, Monique, and Danielle) for a week over the holidays; from December 24th to 31st. They went to see my dad's side of the family, who live down there. For some reason we thought their flight down was late at night, so we were out shopping late that afternoon; since it was also Bryce's birthday, we had planned to have a dinner and dessert for him, and give his presents. When we got home though Dad said they needed leave for the airport in about half an hour...oops! We gave Bryce his presents and got him to open them at break-neck speed (ok, maybe not quite!) before Mum took the others off to the airport. Diana and I stayed home, and with Bryce's permission we constructed his new wooden garage. (And I only had to take things apart and redo them in the right place about three times!! hehe :P)

We thought the rest of us might have a bit of a 'holiday' while the others were away; Mum had wanted to go to the zoo as well. One week gets booked out pretty quickly though! Although one would think that with four family members away there would be less to do around the house, we soon realised that since the ones away were the most capable ones, it felt like there was a lot more work! Throughout the week, we spent a fair bit of time at the business - checking emails, picking, packing, and dispatching orders. Oh yeah, and waiting for the courier (to pick up the orders). We also spent time tidying the house, relaxing, doing the clothes boxes (which I already mentioned in a previous post, along with the cards I made). 

I read a few books (I almost never make time for that during school terms, so better get a year's worth of reading into the summer holiday, right?) and we decided to hit the Boxing Day sales for the first time. There were some really good specials, and others were pretty average I'm afraid. By the end of the day we were exhausted and I just wanted to go to bed. Mum, however, had thought of something else she wanted to buy and we had planned to drop by work to check for orders. Since we were already home (it was really late when we left the shops so I said we needed to come home and have dinner! :P) I convinced Mum to look online to see how long the sale she was interested was on for (three days...) so we left that for another time, and decided work would be ok...lol. Mrs. Smith looked after four of the littlies one day (thanks!) so Mum could have a break. She ended up deciding it was the perfect time to wrap some of her New Year's presents. 

On Saturday, Auckland had really nice weather, so we went for a walk at the Botanical Gardens with Becks. Well at least, Becks and I walked; Mum took a picnic blanket and sat down with the little ones' since Maria wasn't feeling well. Just for the record, I remembered sunscreen! :P Afterwards Becks came here for dinner: sausages and salads. We made a pecan cake or something (a Tupperware recipe we got around eight years ago . . .) for dessert. YUM!! Punch seems to make the dishes easier to do as well. {smile}

We never made it to the zoo; before we knew it New Year's Eve was upon us...and the others arrived back from their trip.

Rainbow's End!

My friend Becks and I went to Rainbow's End together in November on the day homeschoolers could get in for only $16. Although the weather looked a bit dodgy in the morning, it soon cleared up - to the point that we got sunburnt! We spent much early part of the day queuing for rides, so it was nice when the schools all left at 2pm - suddenly we managed a whole lot of rides in a much shorter time! Somehow, though, there were few enough people there that I managed to be the only person on the Invader once! (awkward lol). Anyways, we had an AWESOME day!! :D

: : Me, Becks, Katherine : :

: : Ruth and me : :

: : About to ride the {18-storey}Fear Fall : :
Do I look nervous? lol

: : EEEK! About to drop! : :

Operation Christmas Child

A skirt I made to go in a box.
I almost wanted to keep it for one of my sisters!

Back in October (OCC's national collection month), my dad came with my friend Becks and me (and a few other home-schoolers) to volunteer at Operation Christmas Child for a few hours one Saturday.

Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan's Purse, provides underprivelaged children aged 2-14yrs with a shoebox containing various gifts for Christmas. Some of the impact stories are very moving!

My boxes all packed up!

I figured since we were going to the warehouse anyway, we should take the boxes I was filling, rather than having to drop them somewhere else. So on the Friday we went from one shop to another, buying the rest of the fillers I needed; I ended up spending most of the day working on the boxes! 

Becks and me

We left home around 9am Saturday morning, so we could be at the (OCC) warehouse in Henderson by 10 o'clock. We spent the next few hours unpacking boxes, checking the contents for anything that wasn't supposed to be in them, making sure (as best we could) that there was something from each of the listed categories, removing unnecessary packaging, and filling (from stocks they have there) any that didn't have enough 'stuff' in them. 

2 o'clock came all too soon and we left since we didn't want to be home too late. We stopped in at The Coffee Club for afternoon tea before dropping Becks home. :)

Afternoon tea...

And I won't mention what the house looked like when we got back...suffice it to say my mum and siblings were in the midst of a massive cleanup/out, which involved taking everything out from under the beds in the girls room...!

My Sweet 16th :)

I wanted a memorable celebration for my sixteenth this year, and initially I thought something 'big'. Time slipped away on me though (and I couldn't really think of anything...), so we didn't actually finish organising this until the day before it all took place! 

In the end, the Sonnevelds came to our place around 12:30, and we piled into our people-mover {which I cleaned the night before - go me! :P} to pick up Middy and Becks before heading out to the Hunua Falls/Ranges.

Because we didn't end up having enough time for a long walk, we just went to the falls and then up to the lookout. Afterwards we got the food out of the car and headed for one of the picnic tables. Despite being somewhat gloomy, the weather held up throughout the afternoon, allowing us to enjoy ourselves without getting drenched!

Middy had previously committed to something else later in the afternoon, so dropped her home, then went to Manna Christian Bookstore while we waited for Anne Roos to be ready (she flew back to Auckland that afternoon), at which point we met her at Tenpin Manukau.

Two games later a tired lot of us came back to my place for the rest of the evening. 

While we had been all over town, my mum and siblings had been busy getting the house ready for us to arrive. They made beef casserole for dinner, along with dessert and cake (which we didn't end up icing or eating...oops!). They also pulled out our second dining table and set it up in the lounge for us {since you can't exactly fit five extra people around one!}. 

After dinner and dessert we claimed the lounge suite to watch Saving Sarah Cain. The food leftover from afternoon tea was completely forgotten but near the end we remembered the drinks ;)

By then end of the movie it was 10-ish and time for home and bed.

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This was actually from another day;
it's the mud cake I made and decorated myself.
Yep, tough stuff making my own birthday cake! lol

Gifts from my family

Gifts from friends
See, 16 really is sweet!!!! :P :P

 

17th Birthday Celebration: Mini-Golf

: : Birthday Girls - Middy & Ruth : :

My friends Ruth and Middy both turned 17 in June this year. The following is a description of the celebration that took place on the 23rd (a Saturday).

Since only one of us (Suzanne) has a full driver’s license, we all went in one vehicle; Becka was picked up first, I was next; then we went to get Middy and her mum, before heading out to Treasure Island Mini-Golf (near the airport).

Sometimes it’s really handy being the height I am. For example, when you go somewhere that says ‘ID required’ to get in at student pricing, but I can get it without ID or questions! Haha :P

  

: : Me, Es, Middy : :



I hadn’t really played mini-golf before, so I guess you could say I was a bit disadvantaged in that regard, since everyone else knew how it all worked while I had to learn! We had heaps of fun though, and took loads of photos (mini-golf with friends = photo session, right? Lol).





: : Es and I : :



Some holes were ok, some were cool, and some were just plain annoying, because you could get the ball so close multiple times, but it just wouldn’t go in the hole! I think each of us got one (not the same) hole in a single shot. Mine came on one where we had all said “Oh no, this is gonna be a hard one!” because it was a longer distance than some of the others, and there were two steep rises, and near the hole was just on a slight slope; if you missed the hole, your ball would roll right back to where you’d started from! Also when I got it, the floodlights were off and it was quite dark.





: : Ruth and I : :





: : Me, Ruth, Becks, Es, Middy, & Suz : :



By the end we were freezing and glad to get back to the car. We went to Pak n Save, then to Middy’s. We quickly ate dinner, butter chicken, before going downstairs to watch a movie. After much debating we had chosen All A Girl Could Want, and we managed to squeeze five of us on one couch to watch {good times!}. Because we’re so great at planning (haha), we had piles of chips, lollies, chocolate, and soft drinks, as well as a delicious (well done, Es :) ) birthday cake – which boasted of more variety in icing than I could have dreamed of!

We had heaps of fun, and were a tired lot when it came to home-time! Again, happy birthday Ruth and Middy!