As promised...sailing pics..lots of...heh, heh cause we had fuunn!!...absolutely lovely day spent on the water...the boys quickly found their sealegs and were all over the boat...Thank you James and Di for being a fabulous Captain and Captains mate lol!!

Move over Dennis O'Conner....the next contender for the America's cup is starting his training...

Ahoy there Captain James...we are about to take over your good boat the Bellatrix lol!

The boys all kitted out in their flash new life jackets...

After exploring the boat and stowing the bags we were on our way...there was just enough of a breeze to raise the main sail...

Happy to have a go behind the helm....


On the look out for pirates!!

Di bringing in the sail...

Time for a spot of treasure seeking on Turtle island!

Who's this lovely mermaid...mwah ha ha!!

... a game of tiggy on the beach...*gasp has Jim actually taken off his socks and boots!!

Some exploring of rocks and inspection of rockpools
...before rowing back for afternoon tea aboard Bellatrix...isn't she pretty!

December so far....

Joseph has taught himself to shin up poles at school and can now be frequently found sitting in very high places....I'm sure it's fun but it dosn't half give his poor mother a heart attack!! He has asked if we can have a holiday in fiji so he can climb the coconut trees lol!!

Having loads of fun at Playcentre as always...and we had a Mums only day out a few Sunday...a walk in the bush, a stroll in the bush, followed by a luxurious long lunch...cause we're worth it lol!

Samuel helped me put up the Christmas tree...nuff said...lol...Its cool.. he's right into the whole Santa thing...where does he live, how will he get here, how do the reindeer fly....and 'What would you like Santa to bring you Samuel?' "...heaps, heaps of fire engines!!!!'. Went to the Warehouse the other day....'Santa lives here aye Mum' why is that Samuel...'cause its red like Santa' lol!! and I suspect cause of all the toys...Samuel thinks the Warehouse is just a big playground for him to go and fiddle with all the toys...its nightmare trying to go shopping with him cause he is just off on his own mission the whole time...to the toy section!

School Concert and Prizegiving was this week...the kids put on a very cool circus show with jugglers and clowns and unicycles...they did an awesome job..nothing nicer than kids singing...I love having a giggle watching the little ones singing erratically whilst picking their nose or waving madly at mum or the ones who are really into it singing for all they are worth...
Patrick was given a certifitate for achievement in Numeracy...way to go P!! Although afterwards he was more excited that he was allowed to keep the sparkly hat from his band player costume than getting an award lol!!

Some scrappy stuff here...my DT work from last months kit...I like this one..sooo cute!

And I went digi for the last ever Kiwi Jack Me Up...heh, heh...chubby checker!

Check out Niella's cool layout here...she is offering up 3 prizes from her Randomkitsandpieces shop so if you have time to enter a layout this month...you will be in to win!

Last week of term this week...Playcentre Christmas party on Thursday, Joseph's class is having a Pyjama party...lots of fun end of year stuff....have done all the Christmas shopping WOOOOT!!

Today we are off sailing!! Jim's work mate has invited us along on his boat...so better get off and make a picnic and organise the kids...will update with some pics later...

ta ra!

Hi!


thought I better dash in and pop something up for November!!


We had a fun day out two weekends ago with Play Centre on the Kawakawa steam train...it was great to have all the Play Centre gang bring their Dads and brothers and sisters along too.


This is the lovely Gabriel who is lovingly looked after by the volunteers at the railway....and just behind you can see the Kawakawa fish and chip shop....does the most beautiful fresh fish with a herbed batter.....just in case you are ever passing through...highly recommend you stop and try the fish and chups here!!!
Some of the big brothers and Sisters...

chuffing down the main street...the Hundertwasser dunnies to the left......Dad and Samuel enjoy the rural scenery and count pukeko's and cabbage tree's... The volunteers love to show off their pride and joy and Samuel soaked it all in...so many levers and dials and of course the fire



and Yay! now we don't have to listen to the kids asking to go on the train everytime we drive through Kawakawa any more lol!!

The warmer weather is upon us at last...Samuel has been enjoying a dip in his 'pool' most afternoons and the vege garden is putting on a spurt all of a sudden! We are expanding all the time and have nearly completed the whole circle of the parterre pattern at last...one more bed to dig!!

Dad and Joseph built a go-cart together for the trolley derby at Kea's but I'll have to pop those pics on later as they are on Jim's camera...apparently theirs wasn't the fastest but was the most controlled...which in my book is a very good thing...I was having the horrors thinking of him flying out of control down a tarmac road lol!! After my stern face and raised eyebrows over the fact that their was no brake...the inventors went back to work and devised a brake to appease the great Mum goddess....heh, heh!!!

I don't have many flower type plants in my garden these days but these pretty little love in the mists are very special as they are from seeds Mum gave me from the ones at the farm...they are planted next to the garage so just as I used to admire the farm ones which were always by the gate as you walked in from the car...I now admire these as we go to and from the car....oh and Mum and Dad...the orchids have just flowered with some lovely great stems....I keep meaning to find out how to look after them properly but they seem to have liked the complete lack of attention I have given them and just got on with things lol!! Sometimes I do remember to splash a bit of water their way...but other than that, thats it!! Keep em keen, treat em mean seems to work!

On the scrapping front, its hard to find a spare moment lately but I have been having a little play with digital scrapbooking which is a lot of fun..I'm learning new stuff all the time...I did this one for last Sunday's Bossy Scrapper at Scrapbook Studio (thanks Boss Jenny for the fun sketches you found for us to work off) and was very proud to work out how to cut my photo into a circle all by myself lol!!

If you are a digi or hybrid scrapper don't forget to check out Louise Williams new site http://www.eidou.com/ her team have some fun kits to get you creating.

Paper scrapping wise I joined in the Halloween ATC swap at Scrapbook Studio and created 8 of these...which once you are on a roll wasn't too bad at all...although I did stick to a fairly simple design...I think she's a sweetie little wannabe witch though lol...

There is one more ATC swap happening before Christmas so if you are keen come on over and sign up here...this months theme is FABRIC.

If you are looking for a great way to wrap up your scrapping for 2008 check out fellow DT member Sonya's highlights for 2008 challenge here and her layout for inspiration here upload it in the gallery by December 30th to be in to win some fabbo alcohol inks from Scrapbook Studio.

There is also sign ups for the December guest designer here just put your name down and you will be in the draw to receive a lovely goodie box of scrap supplies to design with.

You have until 30th November to complete Liannes Sketch challenge and Lisa's monthly competition

and if that isn't enough to keep you going its my turn to post up the new NZdare on Friday...heh, heh...this one will get you thinking! and oh my goodness its almost time for a new Kiwi Jack too!!

Phewf...well that makes me tired just thinking about it so I'm off to check on my smallest one who has a tummy bug...he was horrified when I said this to him earlier because before he gets in his paddling pool Mum has to scoop out a large variety of unfortunate Northland bugs which have come to a watery end...'Muuummmmm buuuggs'! lol! So poor kid now thinks he has some creepy crawlies from the pool lurking around in his tummy!!

Oh and one last thing if you havn't seen it already....Jim and I highly recommend the BBC tv series 'Life on Mars' we just finished watching the series on DVD and were hooked!!

Playing catch up here...

Some pics of last weekend...

Homemade Halloween fun...

Got the boys busy creating their own monster masks....

"Slime and Blood" drinks went down well after all that monster tag in the long grass...

I made up Trick or Treat bags which contained these hard case teeth...very funny....

Followed by ghost stories before bed...the kids had a whale of a time...who needs to go walking the streets knocking on strange doors aye!!

The following day was Patricks birthday party day....a friend over for lunch, spider man cupcakes, treasure hunt and then into town to see Wall-E at the movies....love living in small towns....we were the only ones there for the 1pm session lol!! Had the whole place to ourselves...didn't have to listen to other people rustling their sweet packets, the kids could talk and laugh loudly, Samuel systematically went round and put every single seat down and tried sitting in the front row, the back row and every row in between heh, heh....a very happy six year old...had a lovely day and then on Tuesday his actual birthday got a few more pressies too....thanks to all the far-now who sent something...he loved everything!!

Fast forward through a week of Samuel going down with a cough and cold, having a pet lamb to stay while its owners were out of town, an uneventful guy fawkes, and ususal weekly stuff to today...

It was the BOI A and P/food festival show at Waimate North (2 mins up the road) today. And we actually entered some stuff for a laugh. Seeing as we have been into making our own bread lately we decided to make some for the baking section, I made the traditional white loaf and Jim made his fancy beer pull apart loaf with poppy seeds on the top...Joseph made chocolate truffles...I made a jar of lemon honey and we picked 3 of the best Avocado's off the tree to put in the garden produce section....

Look what we came home with!!!!

A first for my bread, highly commended for Jim's, highly commended for Joseph's truffles, 2nd for the Avo's....and sadly nowhere for the lemon honey...lol...but it has since been spread liberally over thick pieces of bread and is nearly gone...so it really was rather good despite its lack of award!! Very chuffed we all are with our last minute efforts....

...and we also won the DOC raffle for 4 native trees...so it was a bit of a lucky day for us!

Had a fun few hours at the show, Joseph and Patrick tried the rock climbing wall, Joseph had a good go at it and got about 3/4 way up several times...Patrick got a quarter of the way, looked down and bottled it lol! Thought he was very brave to try though...he said he would give it another go next year when he was bigger...good on ya P!

They all scored toys in the treasure dig, Jim brought the most expensive sausage in bread ever from the food festival tents lol...well they were choice organic sausages with saurkraut in french bread...so I let him off....luckily the kids were starving so after eyeing the saurkraut suspiciously for a couple of seconds (in which I was thinking oh my god Jim why on earth did you buy fancy sausages with strange vegetables on the top!!!)I was amazed and happy to be proven wrong and watched them wolf the lot!! Apart from Samuel who was far too busy jumping on and off pieces of farm machinary to bother about eating!!

Came home to spend the rest of the afternoon vege patch gardening... and dreaming and scheming of what we could grow and enter in next years show lol!!

And then the sun came out....

(look Celia and Mafoo the apple tree you gave us is blossoming!...don't ask about the pear tree..its umm sort of recovering after being munched badly by the goats...but it should come right eventually!)

Hope the sun is shining on you too, where ever you may be!!

Last night was our 17th Bossy Scrapper round at Scrapbook Studio, we have a fun night chatting and scrapping so do pop in and join in every Sunday 8pm in the chat room...feeling super clean and keen at my newly tidied desk lol...I dusted off this pic of me and my cousins...love the summery barefeet in dresses and the classic pic on the steps of our old house....

...man... thats 30 years ago lol!!

Boo.

Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend...weathers a bit chilly for my liking but hey it could be worse....could be out camping in a tent like some crazy people seem to have an urge to do on Labour weekend....rather them than me!! Tents = hot summery weather, people!! not weird four seasons in one day Spring weather!

Well we are on the runaway train towards Christmas....wooowhoooo...all aboarrrdddd!! The school have hosted 6 other local schools for the annual Cross Country event...it was a good day, perfect weather and the both boys gave it their best...

Patrick spurred on by the smell of the sausage sizzle and the prospect of a sausage sarnie coming in 4th in the 5 year olds...

and Joseph kept it steady all the way coming in 11th in the 7 year olds...

...as you can tell it is obviously uncool to smile and look happy as Mum takes your picture in front of your mates...heh, heh, heh!!

Have been busy with Play Centre stuff too...got the Dads working hard out knocking up a raised vege patch for the kids last weekend...Its a small space but should be enough to have some fun growing a variety of veges...a teacher at the school passed on an idea for a very cool project to try and allow us more room to grow things...she suggested we try the upside down bucket idea for growing tomatos...check it out here The vege patch has been constructed in the old sandpit which is under a clear covered verandah so it already has strong beams for us to hang the buckets from in place and will stop those little fingers picking the tomatos before they are ready too!! Will share some pics when we are under way!

The boys are going great guns at their keyboard lessons and the teacher is having to give them extra songs to keep them from getting too far ahead in their songbooks from the others in the class!

Hmmmm I bet you can guess what Joseph was about to do at the end there!! Boys and their obsession with showing their butts huh!! Not suprising really if you know their Uncles lol!!! Just hope he dosn't end his performance the same way at the upcoming Christmas recital!!

The Scrapbook Studio DT have their October inspiration up

Awww....still can't believe it was 10 years ago now!! Love how the Prima Paintables turn out, you really can't go wrong with those and the new Tinkering Ink papers are alot of fun! We had been talking on the forum about using up our older film photos so for my layouts I chose pics from my pre digi camera '90's...its fun to scrap some older memories and good to liven up those old pics!

Thought this was fun check out this awesome wallpaper...you could scrapbook straight onto the wall lol!!

Anyway thats us for another stretch...Patricks birthday next weekend....time to stock up on party poppers and balloons again! He has ordered a Spider man cake...fun times in the kitchen ahead...Jiiimmmmm help....