Mieke is with us again



Yes it has been horrendous and we did not expect to have to live through a second event like this. But the earthquake does have it's upsides. We have Jess, Stephen and Mieke living with us again. The boys are estatic and fantastic baby entertaining machines, Morris is thrilled and has managed to stop licking her every time he sees her and we are lucky to have this time with her.



The boys snuggling up together in one room. Eli having moved for Mieke.





The Eigth Birthday Party

 Yes Jakob has turned 8. Amazing. Sunday 20th February was a great day. Two days later the pool

we went to was severely damaged with fences falling on cars etc. 

Jakob was smooth and stylish



We took 6 kids out for the day. First 10 pin bowling. Spencer won with an amazing 107 points (that is more than I normally get!!) and Brooklyn who had never been bowling before came in a point behind. (But he did get two strikes). After 10 pin bowling we went to the Waltham swimming pool. A lovely outdoor pool in Christchurch and the added attraction that it has a free open hydroslide.

Eli's great moves

Jorja



Jakob

Eli



Liam and Jakob making the dash to start again



the duo - Brooklyn and Eli

Spencer the hoon

Third family tramp

When: Feb 12 & 13th, 2011
Where: Into the first hut on the St James Walkway - Magdalen Hut.
What: our third tramp as a full family. Jakob 7 (nearly 8 as he tells everyone), Eli 5, Karen 43, Aaron 34
Why: because we can and because it has no big hills, which means my heart will stand up to it.

How: By car to Hanmer Springs on Friday night. Stayed the night at the Hanmer Springs Forest Camp in a lovely cabin with a bunk bed and a queen. Cheap at $58 for the whole family. Then on by car where we parked in the Boyle River Township. A lot of people arrange to park in the Boyle  river outdoor education centre.Then on foot to the hut (about 8km).

Across the Bridge              

About a third of the tramp done

Through the bush

Looking gorgeous

Over streams and gullies

Have some tucker

Over the grassy plain

Arrive at the hut

Cool off (it was a hot day)

Chill out and eat more food

Sleep get up and do it all again - but in reverse

Arriving back at the car. Not as fresh, tired legs but happy.

Kids Art work

When I picked the kids up from the afterschool programme on the floor was an amazing collage. Eli, Spencer and Jorja had spent the time being arty.
Eli said that it took a long time. It is a collage of a picnic area with a rock pool on the bottom tight corner. Bottom left corner is trees and the car park. The sea is inbetween. Then the blue area is the sky, the green material the sun and the shells in the sky are seagulls.

The harvest is beginning

Last night I was blanching beans to freeze. Butter bean, french beans and purple runners. Chopping mushrooms that we Jakob found in the park (he had been told off and went away to sulk. When he came back he said that he found mushrooms. While picking the mushrooms and exclaiming regarding the find, Jakob suggested that I tell him off again because it may mean that he finds more mushrooms!!). Lastly I made Annabel Langbein's Onion Jam. Great on sausages and mash and fantastic as a base for Pizza (which I will do on thursday for dinner).

 

The big sleepover

Eli and Spencer cuddled in bed sharing the MP3 player

Jakob and Liam in bed reading cartoons.

We came back from holiday and immediately organised the sleepover for Liam and Jakob. This had been cancelled twice last year due to someone not being well. Then I decided that if I am going to do the extra work I may as well get it over in one hit and Eli had his friend Spencer over for the night too.
It was fantastic, so much easier having four kids than three. Then the next day we had Mieke for the night. It was a great weekend.

Mieke and the boys all in our bed in the morning.

The boys on holiday

 The making ......                                                                   The potion......

Drinking it....

This morning the boys were getting into their dress ups and decided that they were Getafix's apprentices from Asterix. They dressed up and then the magic potion making started. This potion was to make you brainier. It was made from Milk, old cream, red food colouring, hot chocolate powder, hundreds and thousands, lots of pepper and salt, ice cubes, lots of chives and parsley, cinnamon and sugar. Then left in the sun and stirred. What got me was they drank it!!!! and worse they made me have a taste. It wasn't too bad but had a real pepper kick.

restyling a shirt

Well back at work after a fantastic break. The weather is hot and even though I have been given a lot of tops by a friend when on holiday, they are all too hot. Short sleeves were needed. So this was last night's project.
From this...... To this.....

 This is a closeup of the strip I put around the shirt.  The shirt was a good brand but from the Op shop for $0.50 and the band I put on was taken of a dress I had when I was 20. I chopped the dress up a couple of years ago and took the banding off. Not knowing how I was going to use it but it was too lovely to throw out.

Raspberry Jam time again

Yes I am picking all the berries. Raspberries, strawberries and blackcurrants have all been made into Jam this week. It is a form of procrastination as I am meant to be packing to go away on holiday.

(for this quantity) sterilise four jam jars.

Karen's Raspberry Jam recipe (minimum 800g raspberries)

Raspberries (weigh them)

same weight in sugar

Put Rasp and sugar in pan with juice from one lemon. Have pan on very low until the sugar has dissolved. Then bring to the boil and let boil for 5 minutes. Add 1 Teaspoon citric acid and stir well. Boil for another 4 minutes. Take off the heat immediately and give a good stir to cool down. Leave 2 minutes and give a good stir. Leave two minutes and give a good stir (do this two or three more times). What that does is ensures that the raspberries stay well distributed in the jar when it sets. Rather than have the raspberries all rise to the top and have set liquid on the bottom.

do not add more lemon or citric acid until you have over 1.5kg of fruit. (add 1.5 lemons and 1.5tsp citric acid). for 2kg fruit do 2 lemons and 2 tsp citric acid.

After years of trying various recipes this is my own take on rasp jam. ENJOY.

Mieke at four months

I had Mieke for the day on friday. It was lovely going out in the Pram with a little baby. Everyone oohing and aahhing and exclaiming about how quickly I got my figure back!! We went to Steff's to drop off some stuff and Mieke got a lovely buzy bee toy from her. These photos were from afternoon playtime. Full of smiles, looking at Morris and chatting to me while I folded the washing. I had some other photos but they were a bit rude to put up on the blog.

Wearable Arts

The school's end of the year art programme this year was wearable arts. We had a proper catwalk set up, funky music and each class complete their outfit according to a theme. Eli's class theme was "the Nutcracker Ballet". So he dressed as one of the toy soldiers. It was a fantastic show. Eli got to bring his costume home.

He was very particular about the moustache