Diana's Birthday Party || 9yrs || Part 3

Several of us have had Stampin' Up! parties in the last several years, and Diana wanted to have one as well. {Trying to remember now} I think she checked with our favourite demonstrator, who wasn't available, so asked me to demonstrate instead. In the end I managed to design two cards and prepare all the materials (with Mum's help) the night (aka early am ;)) before the party. I went with a pink design and a purple one to match the them colours for the party (picked by guess who).

: : All set up for the second card : :

: : Busy crafters : :

: : Cake time . . . : : 

: : Umm . . . scary : :

: : For dinner I made pizza (hooray for breadmakers that prepare the dough) : :
Monique and Katie made a salad (and I threw a dressing together)
Mum made chicken nuggets, and we bought a couple bags of potato wedges.

Sewing with Mummy

Haha cutie! #trainingthemwhilethey'reyoung lol ;)

Mum

Happy Birthday, Mum!

"Laura Had A Little Lamb"

So we need to work on our videography . . . and the best renditions always happen off camera, right? But here is a clip of Laura (now two years, nearly seven months) singing a spinoff of Mary Had A Little Lamb. Actually, I just remembered I posted another clip of the same song here, but in this one she does all the singing. Enjoy!

She's pretty good at holding a tune and her volume sure isn't lacking! Recently she was in the bike seat on the back of Mum's bike belting out Ode to Joy as the cyclists made their way around the block! She actually knows several tunes (or parts of them) including Ode to Joy, National Anthem, Botany Bay, Barney's I Love You, Amazing Grace . . . so hopefully I'll be uploading more clips in the future!

Seat Installation

Once upon a time . . . (before there were eight of us), a table and several chairs were kept on the deck for those beautiful sunny days. In recent years, though, we've sat on the banister or steps. But when you're on the banister, the neighbours feel like your audience, and the steps are low and annoying if people are constantly using them for walking. So with summer again approaching, Mum asked Jarrod to build a seat for the deck. Jarrod worked with Uncle Paul (a builder) and got this done in an afternoon.

: : Before : :

: : Process : :

: : After : :

Monique's Birthday || Stampin' Up! Party

For Monique's 13th this year, she organised a Stampin' Up! party which she ended up having at the manse, since our pastor was away and Monique really wanted to have Mrs. Smith (our pastor's wife) at the party. It turned out to be great for us because when Mum and Monique left, we had baking utensils, ingredients, you name it (just about . . . ) all over the kitchen and dining table (lol). 

Overall I think the cake turned out pretty good, no?

: : Talking before making cards : :

: : Cardmaking! : :

: : Treble Clefs!! : :
{Guess who piped those lol?}

: : Amelia Smith (7yrs) made this for Monique's birthday cake since I only made a cake last minute : :

I melted more chocolate than I needed, so I piped this pony as well. I think we ended up using it for Danielle's cake (photos still coming of that one lol)

Do you think?!

Jarrod's Birthday || Presents

: : Chocolate from Laura : :

: : Healthy gifts . . . ! : :

: : He lost all our ones, so we figured we'd buy him some more?! : :

: : Uh oh, what's Danielle up to this time? : :

: : Umm? : :

: : Yeah, nobody felt like icing the cake. : :

Visit to Lyndal's

I think I've mentioned on here before that Lyndal is one of Mum's friends from school. When she lived about half an hour away we used to visit her quite often, but around seven years ago she married and moved north (circa 1 hour drive) and since then we haven't seen as much of her. Second Monday of the school holidays we headed up for a few hours.

: : Lyndal's pony Marmalade : :
She loves her salt lick!

: : Laura loved sitting on Marmalade! : :

: : And so did Maria : :

: : Lyndal and her husband Dale recently built this jetty over a pond in one of their paddocks : :
Normally the water comes just below it, but there was almost no water!

Wellington Trip || Camping Fun!

As I mentioned previously, cyclone Lusi was forecast for the lower North Island during the time we were camping down there in March. Saturday night after the wedding was quite blustery but the tent held up all right.

On Sunday, the weather seemed normal and we went to church and continued life as usual. Dad went to the office to see what the options were if the weather got bad during the night and we couldn't stay in the tent. We were given the key for a lodge. 

 In the evening while Jarrod was cooking dinner (butter chicken!), the rain got heavier and the wind got stronger; the ends of the tent were blowing in with the wind gusts. We all went to the kitchen for dinner, planning to start the bedtime routine once we were done. At one point Jarrod went back to the tent to get something, and when he came back he told me there were about 10-12 leaks, maybe more. She thought, "Yeah, right. He's exaggerating." 

When she went back a bit later there were leaks nearly EVERYWHERE and all the bedding was starting to get wet. Then started the made scramble to pack everything up as fast as possible! A few of us older ones helped while Dad stayed with the little ones to keep them settled. (A French tourist couple made them popcorn, so they were happy!) Dad ended up loading most of the others in the van and taking them up to the lodge, then transporting everything out of the tent and taking it up as well. We were still disassembling the camping bunks and stretcher beds (while holding the torches . . . ) after we heard a pole snap and one end of the tent completely caved in. Finally though, only the fridge (borrowed from Nana) was still in the tent. It's amazing how light it (apparently) seemed that night when Mum and Dad carried it through pouring rain across a couple or so tent sites and into the kitchen. We all headed up to the lodge then to get beds made up and little people into bed. Dad and Jarrod went back to pull the tent down a bit later since we didn't want it completely destroyed during the night! 

Initially we were given one night free in the lodge, but our hosts were amazing and ended up allowing us to stay in it until the Thursday -- the full duration of our planned stay. 

The two windows on the lift look into the kitchen; the doors to their right and the large windows facing the dining room lead to the large dining/lounge type room. And on the other side of the block wall? A pretty fancy barbecue! ;)

Windows on the right are the kitchen, then the main entranceway is to the left. The three sets of windows all lead to bedrooms (there are seven bedrooms in total, three shown, three opposite, and one down the far end on the left.

Kitchen! Now that is more my size! haha :)
The stack of muesli boxes? Apparently the price was a deal you'd never see in Auckland so we stocked up. ;) And I guess someone was bored, hence the pyramid. lol

Okay, so I don't normally post photos of bathrooms! We had two like this though, three loos and two showers in each. And lovely BIG mirrors that the bathrooms we used while camping didn't have! 

Big hallway! Kitchen on the left, entranceway farther down on the left, bathroom on the right, and bedrooms through the doorway in the centre.

Lots of tables and seating!

Entranceway and coat hooks. (When we got back from the tent on Sunday night there were bags all over the floor here -- but all the children's jackets were hanging up! {smile}

Hallway and bedrooms

Not very many good photos of the rooms I'm afraid. This is (obviously) the boys one. Four rooms had two sets of bunks each, two had one bunk set and a single bed, and the end room was much larger and had four sets of bunks.

10 on 10

Those of you who stop by regularly will have noticed that this post is late. Sorry about that. And yes, I have back-dated this post so it will be easy to find in my archives. Admittedly these shots aren't all from the same day; I started snapping on Saturday but never got finished. {Yes, I may have fallen asleep on the couch before getting through my to-do list and then woken up at 1am.}

: : Some cards I made on Friday {partly why I wasn't shooting for this post. Oops} : :

: : And this one gives a better view of the matching envelopes : :

: : Someone talks on a puzzle piece : :
Did you know they make good phones?!

: : My flute : :

: : Sewing time! : :

: : The healthiest cookie recipe ever. Not. :P : :

: : Snow White, anyone? : :
In case you're wondering, my sisters wear this when they swim.

: : Music theory exam booked. Study, here I come! : :

: : My all-time fav cookies ;) : :

: : Abstract or not-so cookies : :
{Are you salivating yet?} haha