This blog is interrupted for Jim to show off his pics from the weekend at the WRC...the normal program will resume shortly....

Friday morning


Getting ready to leave to start on friday morning



Start of SS5


SS9 Mystery Creek Saturday Hirvonen
Hirvonen in Service before SS10 Te Akau South

Sordo on SS3 Pirongia West

Wilson on SS3 Pirongia West

Solberg waiting to leave Mystery Creek on day one. Heading for SS1 Pirongia West.

Loeb at Mystery Creek Super Stage SS5 on Friday after finishing Waitomo SS4

Wilson on SS11 Te Akau North on Saturday afternoon

Loeb leaving SS4 Waitomo 2 Friday afternoon

Loeb and latvala following back SH3 from Otorohanga

Latvala overtaking on SH3 heading north on Friday afternoon

Hirvonen Waiting at Mystery Creek to start rally

Loeb going through Otorohanga

Snapped in Mystery Saturday afternoon

Ahoy there Cap'n Gran and Matey Pop....look at me in my new pirate bed!! The face says it all huh! Thank you both...hugs and kisses xxooxx and awwwaaarrrr's Samuel!

Its my birthday and I'll be silly if I want to!

Samuel pleases Mum by tucking into some fruit...after ploughing his way through a whole packet of pink pig jelly lollies in one sitting for breakfast lol...thanks Gran and Pop they went down a treat, enjoyed by all the boys!

Zee artist at work....cheers Aunty Celia and Uncle Maffoo!! a big hit!

Another Jim and Meek birthday creation...I'd asked Samuel earlier in the week what sort of cake he would like and his criteria were Banana and Yellow so we created our 'house on fire' cake from my Big Wonga Banana Cake recipe and painted on some nice yellow icing walls and added a little lego fireman and truck to fight the flames and save the jelly baby people from certain disaster!

For starters we just brought out the cake and no truck, Samuel was delighted with his 'house cake'.....

but then Dad lit the candles and instructed them to yell 'Fire, Fire' and the fire brigade was there in no time to fight the blaze...

So after copious games of his new Go Diego Go game (thanks Toomey's in Whiti!) we ventured out for a wintery walk before the predicted rain arrived...

Can't wait til those branches are leafy green again!!

Joseph spurred on by the mountain biking he has been watching on the Olympics the last few days was right into the rough terrain!

However 'hoodie boy' was having none of the biking lark (as usual) and prefered to beat the feet with Mum and Dad and entertained us with his larrikan ways the whole way round!

A brave little weed persists through the dead winters grass...well come ...on this post has to have a few arty farty pics with no children in it lol!! this was all I could come up with!

Uh oh its spitting...head for the car troops...

Aha...the promise of Spring is here after all....

Bert and Samuel provided the netball girls with a few giggles as they raced by...have they never seen a mad hairy white dog dragging along a kid in a potato head helmet before?

Um...dude...you've got brown on you......

Then it was home for a siesta before we hit Keri Keri for a night out on the town! lol....it was Dad's part of the birthday and we went for a curry....the kids were suspicious but gamely tried the onion bahji, Pakora, kebabs and tandoori chicken platter we got for starters...Samuel declared everything 'YUKKY' in a loud determined manner everytime we tried to tempt him..... but as there was only one other couple seated nearby at the time we wern't to concerned at scaring away the other patrons away lol!

Joseph liked the chicken and the Pakora, P not keen on 'this Chinese food' so far (lol)...Out came the curry's next...butter chicken for the kids, Chicken Saag for mum (eeeeewwww Mum its green!!) and Dads du p'aiza had them gagging and reaching for their water glasses...much fun...but the rice and Naan breads went down well at least!

All in all a good learning, tasting experience and not a darn chicken nugget or french fry to be seen YAYYY!!

For dessert we strolled up to the top of the street to the Petrol Station and treated them to their choice of icecreams from the freezer...stopping for a beam me up scotty pic on these funky lights amongst the palm trees on the way back to the car...

AND THATS NOT ALL....lol...going for the most pics on a blog post Olympic medal here....

today we suprised our fire engine mad birthday boy with a trip up to the local Okaihau fire engine museum...The owner has a huge collection of models, uniforms, memorabilia and 9 real fire engines from old to modern...needless to say the boys loved it! They got to explore inside them, sit in them and 'drive'...Samuel was in firetruck heaven!

The owner got little flickthe fire truck out afterwards and took them for a wee drive with the siren going...Samuel declined the ride...'too loud' lol! but enjoyed watching the big boys and happily climbed on once the engine was turned off!

...pretty good weekend in all from a three year olds point of view!

now we just need to get rid of all the coughs and colds and sneezles that have taken up residence!

Jim....'havn't you got a pic of my new shed wall'....um no. sorry no room. you can have a special little post for that all on its own...when you take a pic that is...

Have a good week everyone...

ta ra for now!

Guess who is three today?

heh,heh...but we've been sneaky and told him its tomorrow so we can all spend the day with him... so here he is blissfully unaware...which has been rather nice for Mum enjoying spoiling him in little ways all day and enjoying his delighted reactions all to herself without the chaos that reigns on 'the day' with the present overload and the sugar rush and the hype that goes with...lol....selfish of me huh!!

On top of that we have had the most glorious weather today...thank you Mother Nature for sending that lovely warm High over us...a real treat, a taste of Summer to come and a well deserved respite from all the rain...which is supposed to settle back in for the weekend..but hey after a day like today we can handle it!

Anyway Happy Birthday Mr Bum Bum!! Roll on the fun times tomorrow and Sunday! We are having a double whammy with Dad as he is away down in the Waikato during his birthday next week hanging out with Mum and Dad and following the Rally event down there, planning dinner out at a local Indian restaurant, hopefully I shall be able to clear my blocked sinus's that have been plaguing me for the last couple of days at the same time rofl...vindaloo anyone?....Dad has also organised an extra special suprise on Sunday for our little Fireman Sam too...will post the pics as they come in lol!

Here are a few pics from last weekend....Dad and Joseph have been working on the Isuzu....
and putting all those lovely shells we collect at the beach to good use.....My layout from our 'Bossy Scrapper' challenge at Scrapbook Studio last Sunday....aww a little bum bum!

and the days go by...

we have seen the sun this week though so that is a good thing!

....even so its drumming down out there again...looks like another wet weekend in store for us....will just have to sit and watch the Olympics with everyone else I guess!! I always sort of dread the Olympics...I hate all the media buildup bullpoop...but once it gets going past all the hoopla and concentrates on the athletes and their achievements I get into it a bit more.

I helped Patrick do a little project on the Olympics tonight so have discovered lots of interesting little things like when you put the Chinese names of all the olympic mascots together it says 'Welcome to China lol! Not sure if that was quite what the teacher had in mind when she asked them to find out some facts about the Olympics but too bad, thats what Patrick wanted to write about!! He was quite taken with the little characters, possibly because they have a passing resemblence to Pokemon heh, heh...

Samuel is zooming towards his third birthday...and yay for him he will celebrate his birthday in big boy undies!! No nappies during the day now for the last two weeks....Ka Pai Samuel!! Here he is ready for take off in his airplane..note the controls, the lever, the steering wheel?!! (lol) and the seatbelt....

I was really pleased to hear Joseph mention this week that he had been trying out for parts in the play the school are performing for a local cultural festival next month. He's not usually one for volunteering to be in the spotlight in a performing role like this so I thought it was pretty cool he felt comfortable enough to try...fingers crossed he gets a wee part to play!

Jim is steadily zooming towards his birthday too...hee hee.....love it when the gap between us closes up a little!! Hope you have your big boy undies at the ready too Dad lol!!

Took this pic a few weeks back...it made me laugh because we were walking along and Joseph stopped and said take photo of us and by some sort of miracle they all stopped and willingly posed just like this! Jim had the camera...and I was muttering through clenched teeth 'hurry up and take the shot' before they move!!! No silly faces...just that darned hooded sweatshirt of Patricks which he lives in....with the hood up constantly.... but I can live with that when they are all smiling so nicely!

I spotted this little gem amongst the brick a brack at our playcentre white elephant sale we had recently...and knew instantly it was destined for my kitchen....heh, heh...the perfect apple turnover in minutes!! I'm going to try a meat pasty next....

so what have I been scrapping this week or so....

This for the latest NZ dare...to use a repeated pattern on your layout....

These for the last two Bossy Scrapper sessions at Scrapbook Studio...Sunday's at 8pm...be there or be....not there! Lots of fun and all welcome to join in!

This for the August Kiwi Jack....awww an ickle Joseph!! Adele chose a gorgeous layout by Yvette so do remember to come and check it out and be inspired to create your own layout!and finally this for Heidi's Quick fire challenge last Friday at Scrapbook Studio....yay another one to pop into Jims childhood album...another awwww moment lol!

The Scrapbook Studio DT have a blog underway with daily snippets of scrapbook musings, mini tutorials and updates and info regarding challenges etc from the forum.


and that about sums it up for now!
Have a good weekend!