Cookie Time!

Christmas time means baking - so we planned a day to get together with our friends the Sheppards and decorate gingerbread houses in what is becoming a family tradition. Last year Alison baked the gingerbread so I volunteered to do it this year - big mistake. I tried two big batches and finally gave up. If anyone has a good recipe for making a gingerbread house I'd love it! For the first batch I used the recipe that came with the gingerbread-house shaped cookie cutters, but it turned out way too dark from all the molasses and wouldn't hold together when I tried to roll it out. I decided to put it in the fridge and see if that would help but that just turned it to concrete. The second batch, courtesy of google, was not any better. In the end I wound up buying one of the pre-packaged kits that even includes the icing (looked good, tasted disgusting).

I also saw some delicious fresh peas at the store so these first two photos are of the kids getting them ready for dinner.

We divided the kids into teams by drawing names out of a hat, so Josie and Katie worked with Monty and Ellie and Meggie worked with Pippa. When Dugald and Matt arrived they got to judge the houses and declare the winner, and the children were not tolerating any parental diplomacy that tried to point out the merits of both without actually choosing the best. In the end Meggie, Ellie and Pippa won.

These lovely cookies below are from the batch of sugar cookies the girls and I iced and decorated this morning to take to Rob and Liz's on Christmas. They actually taste good though we could definitely improve our decorating skills.

Happy Baking!! Dx

I'm a little bit behind

Weeks ago we all went to the British High Commission for a "Save the Children" fundraising day. The high commission is in Karori and being that it was a beautifully sunny day we thought we'd walk on up there and see what they had for sale and just enjoy a few of the afternoon festivities. Once we arrived I realized that probably my exercise clothes and baseball cap were not the best attire for the occasion, but live and learn. If I recall correctly Dugald was also in a baseball cap, but he took the picture and I can't remember with 100% accuracy. As it were we had a lovely Devonshire Tea on the back patio before watching some dancers from the girls' ballet studio perform an excerpt from The Wizard of Oz. 

Just last Sunday the girls had their recital and they all were adorable. Josie was a mouse, Katie was a cornstalk and Meggie was a girl in the Lullaby League. I snapped a few quick pics before the show began and I'll post them soon.

The girls also wrapped up their Spanish lessons for the term - they take from the lovely Cristina, she is the Spanish ambassador's wife. They've really made progress and for their last lesson they sang to me and Ellie "The Little Drummer Boy",  in Spanish.



Yesterday Dugald and I attended Jack Howard's funeral at the cathedral. It was packed, they estimated the crowd to be at 700 which is a huge turn-out. It was such an amazing, honoring service and tribute to his life. Jack has a bit of Maori in his lineage so his iwi (tribe) participated in the service as well. There were also paratroopers from his regiment who had flown over from England to be a part of the day. The service started with some Maori women entering the cathedral in front of the coffin and wailing. It was profoundly moving. I've read about the same sort of thing in the Bible, but there is something about actually experiencing it in the midst of your grief that gives voice to how you feel inside. It's a freedom of expression that's a bit foreign to our more "stiff upper lip" culture. Jack's coffin was also draped in the British flag and covered with a Maori feathered cloak, and he was carried in by his fellow paras. Once placed in the front of the cathedral his belt and beret were also placed on the coffin. The service followed  and those who spoke did so eloquently. There were also volleys fired, last post and reveille all of which brought tears to my eyes.

Here is a link to one of the news stories - I am including this one because it shows a bit of our nephew Hamish Howard's tribute from all the boys. There are also links to the right when you link to the video to show some of the other tributes from the day. Click here to view. Here is another link with a slightly different report.

Jack's Funeral

Today we are going to the cathedral for Jack's funeral, he's been so honored in the media, by his family and friends and all who knew him. We will miss him.

Digital Christmas

This is very clever -



Today is the last day of school before the holidays so that means the Morrison Academy for Girls is also on a break. This weekend is the girls' ballet recital, The Wizard of Oz, and they are very much looking forward to it. This morning they sang "The Little Drummer Boy" to me in Spanish during their last Spanish class of the term.

Lots of love to all -
Dx

Homeschool Help

I've enlisted the help of my beautiful daughters in order to make sure we get through all our work each day. Meggie has taken over phonics and spelling with Ellie - we even get report cards - and Katie has graciously agreed to listen to Josie read aloud each day. I love seeing the sisters bond in this way AND it really helps me - while they are busy working with each other I can sort laundry, prepare dinner, answer emails, blog or whatever else needs doing.

Please Pray. . .

We heard some devastating news yesterday and would like to ask for your prayers - our friend, and Kate and Ant's nephew, Jack Howard, was killed in Afghanistan yesterday. The Howards live here in Wellington and they feel like extended family to us. Please pray for them. Here are some links to the story - Jack's name has only just been released to the public today.

Click here for the link from New Zealand.

Click here for an article out of the UK in The Guardian.

Katie's New Bag

I finished my first sewing project a few weeks ago - here it is, Katie's new bag! She chose the fabric and then I did my best. I definitely have a long way to go before I am a competent seamstress but I did enjoy getting to know my machine and it was great that Katie was so excited about the final product.

We are all LOVING the sunny weather we've been enjoying lately, I'm so, so grateful. It was a bit bizarre putting out the Christmas decorations though. I pared way down on the decorations when we moved here - we brought our tree decorations and a few things for table tops - but even so we didn't use some of it because it is so winter-y looking and right now all I want to do is fling open the doors, clear out the clutter and simplify. Hope you in the Northern Hemisphere aren't too cold. . .

I've temporarily stopped looking at houses - at least officially - after a budget meeting with the hubby. For now our aim is to increase our monthly savings and finish out our lease here, but to be honest I'm a teensy bit worried about where we will go once our lease is up in January 2012. The real problem seems to be my love for houses like this, which I'm sure will sell for more than $2 million, and this which is for sale for more than 1.8 million. Sigh.

Now to finish up the dinner - burgers on the barbie, yum!! xx

Wellington Christmas Parade

Who doesn't love a parade?? Once again the big girls participated in the Wellington Christmas Parade and this year Daddy was a part of it too! Josie, her friend Anna, Ellie and I really enjoyed watching from the sidelines as the city put on a show for us. 

I just LOVE a marching band! The high schools here don't typically have one, nor the universities to the best of my knowledge, so I was surprised and thrilled when these guys came around the corner.

Wellington pulled out all the stops and we had a lovely sunny day for the parade, unlike last year when the girls were freezing in their costumes.

First up from our family was Katie as a butterfly.

Pippa was with Katie but she was a flower.

And this is Tessa - a star - marching with the Musical Stars float.

And Isabel also on the float (she's the one waving with the purple watch band).

Finally we saw Daddy (aka Peter Rabbit) and Meggie and her friend Olivia as Flopsy and Mopsy.  The day after the parade the Wellington paper ran a story on the front page about it and although we didn't rate a picture (Santa got that honor) Dugald did get a mention from a four-year-old girl who was quoted as saying Santa wasn't her favorite character in the parade, it was Peter Rabbit.

The rest of these fantastic pictures are from my friend Matt Sheppard, who also served as a marshall so he was there early and got some great shots of the girls. Thanks for sharing Matt!

Katie and her ballet class prepare to march.

We know some super cute boys and Monty Sheppard is one of them. He made an awesome pirate - here he is in front with the red hat on, just adorable!

Our friend Anna

Many thanks to Meggie for posting for me about our visit to parliament, we had a great time and I found it all to be very enlightening!

Guest Post by Meggie

HI EVERYBODY! This is Meggie speaking! Today I am doing a post for Mom (she set up the pictures) as she is too behind on some things to do so.

As Mom says, we went to Parliament Day "ages ago." We got to go into parliament and see all the stuff in there.

This is the Beehive. I'm sure you've noticed already where it got its name from. It is surprisingly earthquake proof!

From left: Monty, Josie, Pippa, Ellie in Pippa's lap, Katie, and me sitting on the steps in front of a building. Sadly I do not know which building it is or what it is for. . .(we didn't study much of New Zealand history and stuff like that, mainly the USA. I'm not actually that sad, the USA history is quite interesting, except when they were still acting like the English. But apart from that, we are sort of unique in our own way.)

With some guy dressed up like the English.

I forgot what this is called, but apparently it's kind of important. They carry it when they are having a court case. It can't be that important, though, because it is only the size of the Statue of Liberty's nose! (hehe)

In the debating chamber.

Where the "important guys" sit.

Cool! This looks like a photograph album on a chair! It's the Queen's seat.

Not quite sure what this is.

Well that's the end of the Parliament Day trip! By the way, people from NZ, don't take some of what I said seriously...... I mean, I'm from the USA! You can't blame me! (just joking!)

Meggie

P.S. Those of you who read my blog will be glad to hear I will try and update it soon!

(Edited to add - we are having issues with Meggie's blog, for some reason the words aren't showing up, check back soon because we are trying to sort it out!! Dx)

Ellie's Emergency Room Experience

So today we experienced a first for our family - Ellie took a ride in an ambulance, as a patient! Thankfully she is fine but she absolutely gave me a fright. She and I were walking down to pick up the big girls at the pool and she decided to run down the wheelchair ramp, as she often does. Sadly this time she tripped at full speed and landed on her face without breaking the fall with her hands at all. She ended up with a pretty deep cut on the inside of her upper lip and her face had skid marks all over it. I wasn't that worried though - she wasn't crying, she was just subdued and seemed a teensy bit disoriented. I went into the pool and got ice from the staff and held it on her lip while she just lay in may arms but then she told me she needed to throw-up. When I took her into the bathroom to the toilet she full-on collapsed on the floor, at which point my concern began to escalate. I took her out of the bathroom and conferred with some of my mommy friends (thank God for mommy friends!) who suggested I check if the pool staff had anyone medically trained who could help us, meanwhile Ellie barely had her eyes open and was limp in my arms. The staff decide to call 111, lay her on her side and administer oxygen. Her little pupils were just pin-pricks, she was clammy and not really very responsive and I was getting more and more nervous as it was getting harder to keep her awake. Some man I've never met before came and talked to both of us to try and help keep Ellie awake and the pool staff were fantastic. Finally the ambulance arrived and their mere presence calmed me down considerably. They decided she needed to be taken in for observation, that she probably had a slight concussion. Off we went through rush hour traffic to the hospital where we stayed for the next four and a half hours, but at long last we are home and Ellie is fine. Poor Dugald was in Auckland today so he landed at the airport to texts from me saying that Ellie had been hurt and we were on the way to the hospital. Thankfully though by the time he got the messages we knew she was going to be ok. I'm so grateful to my sweet, sweet friends who all pitched in to help by taking my girls, going to my house and turning off the oven and calling and texting. I was only scared for a short while but it wasn't fun while it lasted!

By the end of the ambulance ride she was already a lot perkier.

My little bruiser.

Final check before being discharged - you'd never know anything had happened. Well, except for the scratches and whatnot. By this time she was LOVING all the attention.

Thank you friends for helping us, thank you God our girl is ok. What a day!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Today is Hugh's 89th!! Happy, happy birthday Grandpa, we love you!

We went to Palmerston North yesterday to celebrate because today is the Christmas parade and Meggie, Katie and Dugald are participating. It was lovely to see M & H looking so well and we all enjoyed our time there.

On the way we stopped by a fruit stand and saw this pukeko, adorable.

We had a delicious roast meal and the girls got to ride their bikes all around the driveway and back garden. Margaret and Hugh's roses are simply stunning and Margaret clipped a bouquet for me to take home with me - along with an enormous bag of lemons and some plums.

Please turn the sound down before viewing this, not sure why I was singing! The girls made some specially decorated cupcakes for Grandpa and of course sang the birthday song.

The ride home was relatively uneventful but the little girls did burst into a fit of giggles that was pretty cute, unfortunately by the time I fished my phone out of my purse things were winding down.

I'm off to town now to try and find a place to park so we can see the parade. Lots of love to all!! xx