Diana

Happy 9th Birthday Diana!

Over the past year Diana has

• played {recorder} in her first concert
• begun cooking meals {alone} for the family occasionally
• learned to knit

Leave her a message in the comments section below!

Danielle's Birthday || Ice Skating

Danielle organised to go ice skating with some of her friends and our family for her birthday this year. In fact, she sent the invitations before we knew what exactly she was planning!

: :Rachel | Happy skater : :

: : Monique : :
Do you like her dress?

: : Friends : :
Left to right: Monique, Danielle, Esther, Diana, Rachel, Lucy, and Abby 

: : And another group photo :) : :

: : Yes, I was there too : :
Why won't photos of me skating turn out well though?!

: : Rachel & Danielle : :

: : Gifts : :

: : Cake : :

A Homeschool Family || Tim Hawkins

Mum's Birthday

: : Scrapbook paper : : 

Umm, well Mum's camera has this mode where it snaps a photo every time a smile is detected . . . and that can result in some pretty crazy shots :P

Wow funny lolz . . . !

Pfft hehe gotta have some fun :P

Attempt at new family photo

: : haha Laura : :

: : Crack-up : :

: : Cake : :

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.

Yesterday

To the Americans on here...
Happy thanksgiving for yesterday!

Some things I am thankful for:

• blog readers ;)
• family
• friends (love you :))
• computers/internet
• pets
• music

Dinner out!

My cousins' family and mine have jointly owned a business since late 2007. Dad and Uncle Paul had been saying for a while that the business should fund dinner out for both our families. That became a reality on February 25th, when we drove in convoy (yes I was behind the wheel too!!! :P) to a Japanese/Chinese restaurant in the City.

The waiters and waitresses seemed very taken with all the young children!

It took a few minutes to get us all sitting around one table, but finally it was accomplished, and we proceeded to view the menu and decide on dishes. One of my favourites was the riblets we got. =) What cracked me up was how, with one of the dishes, some of my siblings and cousins energetically complained about how awfully spicy it was. However, I tried it myself and detected that there was some spice in it, but I didn't think it was over-the-top spicy!

Left to right: Diana, Aunty Yvonne, Madison, Uncle Paul and Abby

Any lingering hopes of a quiet meal were dissolved, and dinner was consumed.

Finally it was decided that dinner had ended, and the table could be cleared. 

Much careful examination of the menu was done before ordering desserts!



before ordering desserts! I'm afraid that with such a large order, the staff had a few difficulties remembering each individual request, but eventually all was sorted, photos were taken, and the dessert was eaten. Yum!

My mocha =) Isn't it pretty?

At some point it was decided that we should leave, first though we had to gather everyone, pay, and (of course!) take a group photo. =)

Hope that wasn't too boring to read!! :P

<3 Bee



Group photo with Aunty Yvonne




Group photo with me





Our New Year Gifts

In our family, we always exchange gifts in the New Year. Here are some pics from this year's gift-giving cermony.



Maria (22 months) Lots of pressents!




Monique (10yrs) New necklace




Uncle Pete with his new earphones
-black so now he doesn't have to borrow my pink ones!




Danielle (8yrs) Butterfly necklace




Diana (6yrs) New doll carrier for her bike




My collection!
Diary (Uncle Pete), backpack (Mum), bookmark (Monique),
cookbook (Mum), sewing kit (Mum),  tri-pillow case (Mum),
pen (Danielle), and purple glass jar (Jarrod).



Eltham - Day 2 - Saturday December 24th

Written December 24th


On Saturday, December 24th, I woke up all too early considering my late night. I was awake around 6am I think, then went back to sleep. About 9 I asked someone what the time was, but I had already been awake for a little while before that. Not ready to get up and brave the camp bathrooms, I picked up my book, Courageous, and read until I had finished it, about 11 or so! I’m considering writing a book review about it, seriously, it is SUCH a great book! Can’t wait to see the movie……..! =D

Finally, I got up and organised, had a shower, and...yeah I got back on my laptop... *grin* Late morning, more people started arriving, suddenly we weren’t the only people at the campsite! We had lunch, after which we intended to go out, but it just so happens that it never became more than an intention! After a bit of time doing who-knows-what Uncle Bill, Aunty Melissa, Olivia and Harry arrived, and I (along with some of my siblings and a couple of other people) helped them erect their tent. Unfortunately I didn’t remember sunscreen then either, so part of me looks like a beetroot as I write this...lol! Actually what has me baffled is that my sunburn is slightly splotchy where all the skin is white????!

By dinner time, there was a fairly large group of us here, and a few of the fathers went to pick up fish and chips for us all. I kind of wonder what the takeaway shop thought when they got our order?! Lol Ours was a tired and slightly short-tempered family who gathered around on the grass to devour our meal!

After dinner we pretty much just talked, while some worked in the kitchen, or played with the balls outside. Nine o’clock Aunty Melissa txt Aunty Denise to see how far away they were, about half an hour, so we decided not to wait, and just called everyone inside to sing happy birthday to Bryce, and have his cake (it was delicious!! Thank you Uncle Mike! =))



Bryce's new toy...




When you eat something yummy,
make sure you try wearing it too!




Uncle Marty, Aunty Denise, Mitch and Kurt arrived at 9:20, and we all continued to talk for a while longer, while some of the children watched movies on a projector, until some of us decided to hit the sack. I ironed some of our clothes for tomorrow (I miss my ironing board!), and each member of the Auckland Jago Family prepared for bed. It’s now 11:44 and everyone is in bed, and I’m just typng this before join them.

Good night everyone! =)

Bianca

Family Dance

Hi everyone,

A group of homeschoolers do folkdancing during term 3 each year, this year Mum decided we would do it as well. It ran for the first 8 weeks of the term.

I did Scottish Country Dancing, which they had for 13+ year olds. Each week we worked on perfecting steps (slip-step, skip-change), timing, as well as learning a few dances. One of the main ones was The Kingston Flyer.
Last week Saturday we had the 'Family Dance' when each group presents a few of the dances they learned during the term.

We arrived at 2:45pm, and got organised (mostly trying to remember how our dances went!) Then at 3pm, the dances started. The youngest group - up to 5/6yrs present their two - one being We're going on a bear hunt, next the 5 - 7 year old group, then the 8+ folkdance group. Then it was us!
We marched on in couples, and got into sets of 4 couples for Sandy Butterly, next into 3 couple sets for The homeschool reel, written (or whatever) especially for us!
Lastly we went back to 4 couple sets, and danced The Kingston Flyer through twice, then most peaple chose another partner from the audience, and danced it through 4 times (which fits the music).



After this everyone had to get up for Are you sleeping, Yes, i know it's boring! which we had to do in three circles, inside, middle, outside, as a round. You had to sing as well. So two circles would be singing Are you sleeping, while the last circle was singing Brother John.

Afternoon tea was next, and we were allowed to go and get it in our age groups - youngest first.
To aid the food in being digested, we spun in a circle - crossing arms and joining hands, then leaning back and spinning until you got dizzy (or the other person did!!)

For the last couple of hours a square dance instructer guided us in some more dancing - He would say circle left, circle left, circle left, circle right, circle right, circle left, right, left, left, right, right turn with partner, alamanzo (or something to that effect) left with corner (holding each others elbow, lower arms together), right pull by, left pull by and so on, which was basically walking around the circle. etc, etc.
It also included the boys joining hands high (star) and turning that 'star' in a circle; head ladies swapping back and forth; advance, and step back two steps; walking single file in a circle 'indian style' after a bit 'ladies' would cast away and walk in the opposite direction. I can't think of everything, but hopefully you get the basic idea from this muddle!


We also had a big circle (everyone) at the end and were doing heel, toe, heel, toe, side close side, and somewhere clapping with right hands, left hands, both hands, knees, and then turning in a circle and moving on to next partner.

Anyway, it is 12:07 am, and i should go get the Double Choc Chip Muffins out of the oven, and then go to bed.

CYA,
Bee