Faith’s birthday cake

Faith’s butterfly cake on the left, Zoe’s caterpillar cake on the right

Tables laden with good things to eat …. flower decorated cookies, flower cut out sandwiches, fresh fruit, popcorn

We went with bright orange and pink for a decoration colours

About to open presents – Kris had them sitting up straight with their arms and legs crossed waiting!

The beautiful birthday girl

The other beautiful birthday girl

Zoe and Faith wearing masks they were given

Morning tea time

The girls are a rainbow of colours in their party dresses

Bunting on the fence flapping in the wind….it wasn’t the perfect weather for an outside garden party but the sun was shining

Deciphering treasure hunt clues

Decorating butterfly shaped cookies to take home

Lining up outside with specially decorated pots, ready to pot up a yellow marigold each

In her new birthday outfit, checking out all her gorgeous presents!

Corn and beans planted along the back, self-seeded tomatoes in pots and in the upper right, cos lettuce, spring onions and silverbeet in the bottom of photo.

Garlic, beans at the back, red leaf lettuce, spring onions and you can just see the nashi pear tree.

Kris watering the snow peas.  In the same bed there is beetroot and carrots and in the front bed we have strawberries.

Behind Kris is a cherry tree which hasn’t produced any cherries yet.   The apricot which is further to the right has not produced anything either.  The nashi pear did amazingly last year and has a huge crop this year.  I hope we will be able to enjoy some before we move!

We have also planted a yellow zucchini, two pumpkins (a variety which produces tiny pumpkins and one which produces huge ones – I thought these would be fun).  We’ve got purple potatoes coming up, other pumpkins self-seeded, the rhubarb is going for it, the raspberries have done ok but are afflicted by some sort of caterpillar which lives inside the berries!  Not good.  We’ve also got cucumbers, a telegraph and lebanese.  We harvested our first cucumber the other day.

The peas have now finished and we’ve pulled them out.  We have harvested half of the carrots and beets and will harvest the rest prior to our move.  We enjoyed eating the beet tops as well at the beets (waste not, want not).

The strawb’s don’t last long – as soon as Isabella spots red she goes for them!  Never mind if they are still mostly white, she will eat them regardless.

Looking at the herb garden and preparing to pick some parsley to nibble

Miriam with her marigold

At Orana Park sitting on an elephant statue with Cora.  Miriam is pretending to be an elephant – her arm is her trunk.

Wearing Amy’s pajama pants

Miriam and Isabella are always keen to help with baking and are very quick to pull up chairs to the bench.  Isabella will even drag the small table into the kitchen in order to help herself to something from the fridge, or a banana from the fruitbowl.

Isabella also likes to get her hands into the sink

Some-be-body (Miriam’s way of saying somebody, which has turned into a nick-name for Isabella) playing with the girls necklaces and bracelets

These photos were taken during October and November 2011

They participated in a range of skipping and jumping activities for one hour.

Nathan doing ‘the skier’

Woah, that is one high jump!

And he’s still in the air!

Faith about to jump over ‘the river’

Playing ‘elastics’ – did you spot Amy there too?  Her class helped with running the programme, turning ropes, standing at the end of elastics, timing turns etc.

We’ve been enjoying visiting the beach at Spencerville where some friends of ours live.
It is a very quiet beach with not many people and the water quality is excellent unlike at many other Christchurch beaches (especially since the earthquakes).

This was our first beach visit for the summer season and the first time Isabella could remember going to a beach.  She was NOT impressed and did not want to put her feet on the sand at all.  She clung to Kris or I lest her toe should come into contact with a grain of sand.  Perching precariously on Dadda’s tummy also worked well (for her).

Finally she relaxed a little and let her feet touch the sand.  Faith showed her sand running through her fingers.

Cora had the relaxed-teenager-sunbathing look going on.

Amy, Nathan and Faith were not into sitting around on the sand like the biggest sister, they got right into the surf and had some fun.

Miriam loving jumping and splashing in the shallows in her cute new togs.

The littlest sister let me put her feet into the water a couple of times but was not keen.

We don’t usually dress up and do trick or treating at halloween although I always like to have some lollypops or chocolate bars ready for any trick-or-treaters who come knocking at our door.

In the past I have taken the kids to a local church for a ‘Light Party’ which is a fun event where kids can dress up and do lots of fun games/activities and each child comes home with a packet of lollies.

It was a lovely warm evening this Halloween and my friend Jennifer and I decided we’d take our kids out for trick-or-treating for a bit of fun.  We are not into scary or nasty costumes so hastily rustled up some fun costumes and off we went.

Cora was an Indian, Amy a cowgirl, Nathan a mad scientist (see the hair and the ‘look’!), Faith a bride and Miriam a ballerina.  I made a pumpkin headband for Isabella to wear but she wouldn’t!

Many people were prepared with a treat for the kids but many others were not at all prepared or had no idea what trick-or-treating was.  Others preferred to ignore us even though we could see them sitting in their living room watching the TV.  A simple note on the door saying “sorry, no treats” or something would have been better – some people don’t like having any fun!

But we had a fun couple of hours wandering the neighbourhood.  A Mum and her young daughter pulled over next to us at one point in a decorated car and the girl jumped out with a huge bucket of lollies offering the kids a handful each!

There were plenty of eager on-lookers and willing helpers when she opened her presents!

The cake was a giant chocolate cupcake with strawberry flavoured icing surrounded by four mini vanilla cupcakes with the strawberry icing and giant jaffas on top.

Wearing her new tutu – it has been a real favourite and is not relegated to the dress-up box, oh no, this tutu is worn out and about frequently!

Miriam and Hugo are 9 months apart (Miriam was on my back in the Ergo while I was in the delivery suite as Katrina gave birth to Hugo)!!  They had fun playing cute little games and we captured some cute photos of them cleaning the windows together.

A lot of concentration is needed

Small girls like to wear Tutu’s as normal daily attire around here

I love Miriam’s little tongue sticking out and how Hugo is still wearing his name-tag from music class that morning

Your turn

Hugo aims the spray bottle very carefully

All done!