I love this place. Love spending time here. Any time of the year. Each season is so different, the colours changing, the leaves turning, but the beauty remains the same.
I can't think of a nicer way to spend Christmas Eve afternoon than time at one of the wonders of my world. With some of my favourite people. Our dear friends Tracey & Dayne and kids live in the Hawkes Bay these days and we don't often get to see the whole family very often. But it was wonderful seeing the kids running around together, and playing as if they had seen each other just yesterday.
And the gardens didn't disappoint. But I'm not sure they ever would?!
Water explored in every possible way. In fountains, pools, ponds and waterfalls. Fish, eels and even a possum sighting. The warm day an invitation to have some fun experimenting with water. An empty pool in the American garden providing some slippery structures to climb all over.
Looking back on our travel preparations for this summer holiday, I have to admit to some over organising (read: anal-retentive) behaviour going on. I'm wondering if you also find yourself doing any of the following or are we completely alone in our travel geekness?
I had lists. And lists of lists. Lists of things that had to be done before we went. Lists of things we were taking.
We started packing Sunday - and left Thursday - in our defence we worked all day Monday through Wednesday with only the evenings to get anything done
We left 3 page instructions for the house sitters including some very detailed instructions on watering and caring for the garden - in our defence it's looking so good right now and we'd like to keep it that way! But I know you will have it under control Jax and Heidi :-) I have complete faith. Honest.
The car was packed (to the rafters) the night before. There were a few things that didn't make the cut or had to be rearranged before they could come on the journey with us. But we did manage to fit the kids in - just.
Noah slept in the clothes he was going to wear on the journey - one less thing to change in the morning!
We loaded 8 kids movies on my iPhone for Noah to watch through headphones and set up the portable DVD player for Mylo - best 1-Day purchase we ever invested in 2 Christmases ago. It makes long road trips so much more bearable. In the end Noah only watched 2 halves of 2 movies, I think he found it quite uncomfortable looking down into the small screen for too long. It would have been a nightmare trip without Baby Einstein and Iggle Piggle for Mylo. He is such a FIDGET who doesn't like to stay still for long.
In the three days leading up to our trip we did about six loads of washing including every sheet on every bed and every towel in the bathroom - nothing like coming back home to clean sheets right?!
We checked the weather forecasts enroute at 3 different places - it is a 7-hour journey after all and it would be nice to know what we were in for! Which was damn fine weather in the end
We checked road travel information to make sure there were no major roadworks planned for the route we were taking from Wellington to Hamilton. There wasn't.
We planned to leave super early - like 6am early. In the end we made it out the door at 6.30 - not a bad effort.
We searched Google Maps directions and figured out exactly where we planned to stop - Bulls for breakfast (after 2 hours), Ohakune for coffee (another 1.5 hours), Te Kuiti for lunch (another 2 hours and hopefully the little dude would sleep during this time - not sure a quick half hour cat nap really counts - but that was all we got!), and only another 1 hour to Hamilton after that. Hoping to arrive by 3pm - actual arrival 2.15pm). YUSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
I think the lesson in all is that you probably shouldn't ask us to do a road trip on the spur of the moment. It would appear we just aren't those people! I hate to think what we'd be like if we were going camping. So I won't even think it.
Don't let this veneer of organisation fool you though. I still forget things. Pretty much every trip.
This time it was my wallet. It's safely tucked up for the next 10 days in my work handbag in my cupboard. But perhaps its not such a bad thing - maybe it means I'll spend less? It did mean Mark had to rearrange the boot once we got to Bulls to get his wallet out which was in one of the first bags we packed - he was not best pleased about this! Oops.
And last time we went away in August for a few days at Raumati Beach with our UK family (45 mins up the coast), I clean forgot to pack knickers for myself. Had to borrow some from my lovely sister-in-law the first night and make a mad dash to Farmers the next morning. Double oops.
But hey we're here, we made it. And we all still love each other. Here a few pics from the road trip including the OARSOME view we had of the mountain on the way up and the cool cafe we stopped in at Ohakune - Mountain Rocks.
And having that extra day to chill out and really start to unwind before Christmas Day - priceless......
I was flicking through Facebook the other night (as you do!) and I saw on my friend Laura's (who works for Mountain Buggy/Phil and Teds) status that the Mountain Buggy website has just re-launched.
Which wouldn't normally be cause for pause. Except you just might recognise a familiar face or two (or four) on the main Mountain Buggy page (click here) - you do have to wait until the slideshow gets to the Duo (double buggy) model.
Oh...and there just might be a familiar face on the Travel System page under Accessories too. Just sayin.
It's always nice to be able to help a friend out. And it wasn't too strenuous helping out on such a gorgeous Wellington day either :-)
Check out how ickle the little guy looks so compared to now though! Eek! Where does the time go?!
You all know that I'm lucky enough to have a bloke who not only bakes but is actually a superb chef. He does 90% of the cooking around here. I do lend my hand to the odd bit of baking but he is definitely the star of the food show in our house.
So when I got a massive craving for the Blokes who Bake Cheese Scones last week, my bloke happily obliged. Now I should tell you that not all cheese scones are created equal. Some can be too doughy and some skimp on the cheese. Some are way too crumbly, and to be honest some just don't really deserve to have the honour of callin themselves cheese scones.
But I promise you these scones will NOT disappoint!
Ingredients 2 cups Champion standard flour 3 teaspoons baking powder 2 cups TASTY grated cheese (believe me no other cheese will taste quite the same!) 4 teaspoons icing sugar 25g butter 1 good cup milk 2 teaspoons cornflour Pinch salt Pinch cayene pepper
Heat oven to 200C.
Chop butter into the flour, get your fingers into it and squeeze it all through till the mixture is coarse and chunky. Add the rest of the dry ingredients then use a knife to mix in milk.
And if you couldn't tell this recipe was written by blokes here is the dead giveaway:
The key here is to think of the best bits of Angelina Jolie when the word 'gently' appears. Don't be too rough.
Gently (think Angelina) shape stiff mixture on a floured board or the bench top, cut into the right size chunks (up to you) and place on baking paper on a cold oven tray. Bake for about 12 minutes.
And the recipe just wouldn't be complete without the Blokes who Bake rating system.
5. There is a heaven. 4. Another blimin slice, please. 3. Not bad. Homer Simpson would eat it. 2. I feel stomach cramps coming on. 1. I wouldn't even feed this to the Mother-In-Law.
Perhaps you could even convince your bloke to give these a go?!
So we were in NO rush to walk. Far from it. We thought it was WAY more fun just to knee walk, or spider walk, or crawl at the speed of sound for the past few months when we really could have walked. We knew it, you knew it, but we were just biding our time. We were determined we would only walk exactly when the moment was right.
And let's not forget that we've only been walking for just a week, but we're not satisfied with just walking. Oh no. Now its time to take on the football field. We're more than ready it seems to aim high. Maybe even set the Premiership in our sights. We gotta reach for the stars right?!
I think Daddy was only half joking about sending this to Alex Ferguson too.
I'm thinking it would be truly Grinch-like of me to wait until the end of this rather long post to announce the winner of my Kiwi Summer print giveaway. And I just couldn't do it to ya. So without further ado....
Drum roll please......
The winner of 'In the Words of a Kiwi Summer' print is........
Penny from My Spirited Baby. Congrats chick! Email me your address and I'll get it in the post pronto!
It's so awesome being able to return the giveaway love. Cos around here this week, it's still being flowing freely baby! This week I won a Bakers Delight Voucher for some Fruit Mince Tarts through Kiwi Mummy Blogs...yummo! And I also won Angela-Noelle from Striking Keys Weekly Favicon Freebie giveaway. I've been waiting for ages to win this.
What pray, you ask is a Favicon? Check out the little address bar at the top of the page where the address www. starts? You should see a cute little snowflake that matches our blog header now. Cool huh! And thanks to Angela's fab instructions that came with the Favicons she made me, I've figured out exactly how to do more in the future. Goodbye boring orange Blogger symbol, and hello snowflake!
And in other little bits of this and that this weekend....
I managed to find plenty to occupy my time. Instead of doing what I should have been doing, which was packing for our big road-trip to Hamilton later this week. As you can imagine, it was waaaay more fun spending time.......
Making another batch of candy cane crunch for the boys' daycare teachers
Baking Christmas cookies to take to our friend Maia's 1st birthday lunch
Building a zoo out of blocks with the boys. Not sure exactly how all those animals will get on in the same enclosure though. Survival of the fittest methinks?!
Zooming around the house in the block trolley. Capturing some bike action - you'll note there's a little boy desperate to be just like the bigger boy
Making and flying paper and blow-up aeroplanes
Writing to Santa - as a rule we take a very low key approach to the whole Santa thing. We far prefer to celebrate and focus on the birth of Jesus rather than on Jolly old Saint Nick and all the hoopla that comes with keeping up the fairy tale. So we're not really talking the whole thing up, but by the same token when Noah asked 'how will Santa know where to bring the presents? Can I write to him?' we did let him as it was such a cute request. So we wrote this letter to leave at our house. Just so, you know, we're covered ;-)
In any event, it looks like Santa will have no trouble using his sleigh in the snow getting to our UK family if these photos are anything to go by, sent by Grandma & Grandad and Uncle James & Aunty Ann-Marie over the past couple of days. No dreaming of a white Christmas needed there, it's more a case of praying it clears enough so they can travel to be together on the big day!
As you can tell from some of the pictures this weekend, the little munchkin is FINALLY walking. He took his sweet time but he's getting more confident each day. His favourite method of practicing is for us to hold our arms out for cuddles and he teeters and totters weaving drunkenly between us, launching at us with a great big bear hug in his final steps.
Although the weather has been quite wet most of the weekend, it cleared up for a short while leaving a very still and balmy Saturday evening for all to enjoy. We'd received an intriguing invitation in the post to 'Share the Joy' earlier in the week. Did anyone else get one of these in the mail? Turns out that Cadbury is hosting some special Christmas events, one of which is a light show on a house in central Wellington and a life-size winter snow globe hosted in a couple of places in Auckland.
So as a real treat for Noah (who isn't often found up past 7.30pm), we spent a rather lovely one-on-one hour together experiencing the magic of some Christmas lights. Yep, he is in his pyjamas. Kids can get away with it though, right?!
And a little Cadburys chocolate from the kind ladies at Share the Joy went down a treat too.
I gotta say, this summer's bucket list is getting shorter by the day. Last night Noah and I got up close and personal with some very fluffy and vibrant pohutukawa on our travels.
And we also heard the first cicada of the summer belting out a tune in our garden. I managed to catch the sound on video (although he was safely hidden somewhere in the trees). When I remarked to Noah what a sweet sound it was, his reply was priceless. 'It's a lullaby' he said. Yes, it sure is Noah. A real summer lullaby. Just imagine lying in the shade of a pohutukawa tree with the deafening sound of cicadas lulling you into a dreamy doze. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................
Um, where was I? Oh yeah. Packing to do...boo. And as much as I I'd like to wave a magic wand over it, you know - all Harry Potter like, it just ain't gonna happen.
I hope everyone's weekend was as fun-filled and totally enjoyable as ours!
