Boys on the Weekend

Captain's Run in Waipuk on their way to Palmy...Cooper wasn't such a fan of Zac Guildford (and to be honest Zac's not a fan of scared little kids either!)

The beginning of Lachie becoming a MAN! If Alex and Xavier can do it...(and yay, now I only have to mow the edges!)And still cannot believe it didn't rain in Palmy for the rugby (til we were on our way home!) - and the Magpies had a win too. Not too scary being surrounded by "bucketheads", quite a lot of black and whites actually!

Lachie on the vuvuzela! Wonder if we'll be allowed them at the caketin in a few weeks? On the other camera (can't quite remember where it is right now) are some cute photos of Eden chatting to people at the rugby, and Lily being the big sister and looking after her!

Meet the Magpies night

We "swapped" Cooper for Lachie's friends Ben and Jack for the night (i.e. Cooper went to Nannies so we could fit the extras in) and we went to Napier for the night; McD's for tea then to Mitre10Mega to meet and play with the Magpies. Mike had a go at a sawing competition, got 6 seconds slower then the winner, but only a second slower than MJ (Magpie AND professional builder that Mike went to school with) so he was happy.

Lachie with Kahu (with chocolates!)

Lily in a lineout (and it looks like she caught the ball form this shot!)

Eden definitely caught the ball!

Lachie's usually throwing the ball into the lineout - catching was a breeze too! And Ben and Jack both caught the ball too

Heaps of other things to do - Eden had a chat with Jason Shoemark (Captain) at Nannie's request; she told him that Nannie still loves him even though they're not winning, and Jason tried guessing Lily and Eden's ages, based on his "normal sized" 4 year old - needless to say he was quite wrong, twice!

At the end we waited for the Kooga fashion show - Lily heard "fasion show" and had to hop up on the catwalk and have a sneak-peek!

Playcentre

Some things it's really nice to not have to do at home during winter!

Eden cuddling a tiny wild bunny (the best part of her week before getting sick)

Now Lachie's 7 1/2!

He had to wait a few days for his cake (as girls had ear appts in Hastings), but he was very impressed with a 4 layer star shaped caramel mud cake with white choc icing!

Carter's Pirate Pool Party

Eden was the youngest there, and managed to be the only one to accurately pin the eyepatch on the pirate! She got a pirate prize and was a pirate for days!

Lachie letting Abi piggy back him

Lily must be super strong to piggy back an almost 13 year old!
Yeah!
Tired little man

Cheeky monkey... So the best way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon, PLUS the added bonus of tired kids and not having to cook dinner! Thanks heaps Carter!! (And Leanne, Kane and Kasey) Have fun at school ☺

Welcome Back

from Sydney Nannie and Grand-da! Mail cleared, house unintruded (except for the guy that lit the fire and dropped off cupcakes just minutes brfore they arrived!!)

Last Game of Rugby

Team photos. Sad that there's no more game of little kid rigby this year...lots to watch though (hopefully we've done enough cringing for the whole NPC season already!!!)

(We wondered whether someone forgot to write down the jersey numbers at the beginning of the season when they set that photo up!)

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The Midgets (so appropriate for one in particular!)

Onga 7's

Eden's ready for school now as she can sing the Powhiri Haka (school song) as well as Lachie or Lily (who've obviously been practicing a lot!) Lily's middle front (red top) and Lachie's behind the big girls (like a big kid)

Eden and Denby in the Iroquois

No doubt Eden's telling the pilot how easy it is to drive a helicopter here!

Cooper wanted to get in too, although I didn't stand very far back!

Fun day. Probably all the yummy food and drink for Lachie and Lily (Lily had a tummy ache laster, she said it was from all the party food! And I know she only had a sausage, a slice and an iceblock!)

But next year will be even more fun for Lachie as he wants to play!

The Weekend

Player of the day yet again! Nothing like a good amount of encouragement is there! Lily thinks she's good enough to be an All Black now though!

Dad took this "action shot" of her scoring her first try...looks to me like I should be employing a security guard for her permanently!!! WIll be a good story one day when she realises that the other kids ARE that fast and she didn't REALLY outrun the other team (but shhhh, don't tell her yet, lol!)

Friday night, first home game of the season for the Magpies...we're all ready to go! Shame the boys didn't get a very good result! Maybe we'll cheer louder from now on. We sat in the Graeme Lowe stand, along with all the "back-seat refs"!
Then Mum and Dad took Lachie to Hamilton for Simon's pretend 21st (we'll still celebrate on your birthday Simon, just after HB beat Waikato!!!), while the girls enjoyed two birthday parties and a beautiful sunny Sunday

Curious Cooper

I was hanging out washing and Cooper disappeared round the corner. I watched him eye-up the muddy puddles and I wondered whether he'd learned the lesson about what his gumbots/snow boots (which are his favourite!) are for...so I watched. No, he doesn't know yet!!! Thought it would be more fun (for him!) if I got the camera rather than fish him out...shower and tiny load of washing shortly followed though!

Honey's been digging (another thing to add to the growing list of "weird things Honey's been doing lately"! (including being terrified of or barking at the washing machine which she's never done before). Cooper tried fillifn in her hole, while she sat there!

A day later and the pegs have been tipped out for me, and the basket's being used for transporting the digger and the dumptruck! Not interested in muddy puddles...maybe becasue Mummy's reaction wasn't of sheer horror???

Cake Front...

Nice to have a quiet patch!!!

Whipped this up for a friend of a friend, love playing with colour combos!

Thought I had a few extra days to make something for Cathie, when, the day before her birthday we decided on lunch the next day...had to ice the cake almost as soon as it was cooked, and decorate straight away (or get up super-early in the morning...NO, or give her an undecorated cake NOOO!) This is a caramel mud cake with white chocolate ganache icing and filling...and I'm in love! Plus I think the cow's so cute too (been looking for an excuse to make one!)

Great lunch at Off the Track too!

Super-keen

Eden's been super keen to learn to ride the two-wheeler bike; was planned for the holidays but the weather didn't agree...bit more practise needed, but thankfully we have the extra bike, (Lachie's first, repainted girly!) which Mike cut a couple of inches out of the seat part so Lily could, and now Eden can actually touch the ground! Wants to be a "Hawke"...hows his technique Joe and Shaun??? Every photo I took has his hands like this for the whole follow through!

Cooper will run for cuddles!

Lily's Half Birth-day out

Bit of a pose before heading out

These two ♥LOVE♥ posing!

I needed a smush-face photo for a frame we bought Mum for her birthday...this will have to do for a while!

Lily, five and a half, posing all the way round the aquariumGotta have the obligatory Megalodon shot!

Dinner in Napier then home for cupcakes I prepared earlier! Lily picked [way too] many lemons yesterday then decided she's like citrus mud cupcakes (I think she called them something much looooonger!). For those with not-yet watering mouths, these are filled with cream cheese lemon filling and iced with both lemon icing and fondant - sorry you can't see the 3D-ness of the tops.

This was after her antihistamine kicked in and she'd had a bath in baking soda and been smothered in SOOV...weird viral rash she keeps getting, it's been 3 days now, and they said 3-4, so fingers crossed that's her lot!

Yay, five and a half year old fun now!!!