Josie's 9th Birthday Party

Our beautiful Josephine, Josie the Jelly Bean, Jojo, is about to turn 9 years old!! Although her actual birthday is not until the 2nd of April, we went ahead and had her party last weekend. She wanted to invite her closest friends to Tiger Eye Beads to make necklaces and bracelets, followed by lunch at the noodle shop then a trip to the dairy for everyone to pick out some lollies. So that's exactly what we did!

Louise, Josie and Sophia

Tessa and Josie

Isabel, Anna and Julia

I somehow missed getting a picture of Maya, Maddie and Kara but they were there too. The girls did a fantastic job making their jewelry, it was lovely to see those that were faster at stringing the beads then go and help those that were taking a bit longer. In the end everyone had a lovely necklace and bracelet to take home.

After we finished at the bead shop we had a few minutes before the noodle shop opened. Thankfully, it being Cuba Street, it wasn't long before this guy showed up - a magician, from New York! Woot!! He did some fantastic card and coin tricks for the girls while we waited and they were all most impressed.

We were then the first ones in for lunch and the food came lickety-split and was delicious. I brought rainbow cupcakes so we sang to the birthday girl, finished eating and headed down the street to the best dairy in town according to the girls. We gave each girl a $3 limit and they busily filled their bags with the various candies until they reached their weight limit and they had a great time doing it.

It was a fun party with a fantastic group of girls - we are so thankful for Josie's sweet friends, old and new.

Getting to know you. . .

The "Willow and Chloe Show" provides quite a bit of entertainment around here these days. . . 

Ellie's Award

Ellie had her first assembly at Karori Normal last week. They divide the school into teams in a similar way to the way Marsden is divided into houses. This assembly was just for Ellie's team and gave the children an opportunity to showcase some of their work as well as serving as a prizegiving. Much to all of our delight Ellie was one of four children from her class awarded a prize from the principal.

Ellie with the principal - sorry for the poor photo quality, it was taken with my phone.

We are very proud of Ellie - she has done really well adapting to school and all the changes in her life lately. We love you Ellie belle. xx

Taylor Swift Concert

For Christmas last year we gave the girls tickets to the Taylor Swift concert in Auckland- she was coming to do three shows in March. The big event finally arrived a few weekends ago and we all packed up and travelled with Pippa and Alison for our big adventure!!

Heading into Wellington Airport.

 We arrived in the late afternoon on Saturday and the concert didn't begin until 7:30 pm so the girls had a quick swim. We stayed at Alison's brother's house - he was very kind to let us invade overnight - since Kate and Ant were down in Wanaka. Thankfully John had lots of room and since he has three daughters he was used to a bevy of girls. And he did fly out that night for Hong Kong so we had the house to ourselves.

We headed into town and ate a quick dinner at the noodle shop then joined the swarms of people, mostly girls, making their way to Vector Arena. The pre-concert going-ons were lots of fun - some girls were getting their makeup done, some having their hair done, there were girls with signs, girls who looked like Taylor and so on and so forth. It was great to people watch! However, we didn't have loads of time so we got in line for a program and then another line for cotton candy/candy floss and cokes and made our way to our seats.

I was surprised that the four candy flosses and cokes cost $51, but when I wrote about it on Facebook I realized that my shock wasn't warranted. Apparently it's been too long since I've been to a concert!!

Our seats were WAY up there - the third to the last row up in the arena. However we still had a great view. A band called Hot Chelle Rae opened for Taylor and when they started playing everyone stood up - except Ellie. She was terrified of being so high up and wouldn't stand, but when everyone else did she couldn't see. I was worried that she was going to miss the entire concert, but once Taylor started playing she allowed me to hold her.

The concert was amazing - Taylor is adorable and she put on quite a show! She had nine costume changes and all sorts things going on on-stage, she also played four different instruments. She's very talented and great inspiration for the girls. Hers will be a tough act to follow whenever the girls attend their next concert.

Out plane didn't leave Auckland until 7pm Sunday night so we had the day to play in the city. We went to a huge candy shop and had brunch in the morning, then visited the Auckland Museum, and finally had a look at a volcano crater at Mt. Eden before heading back for a quick swim.

We had a fun girls' weekend together and Daddy, Chloe and Willow managed at home without us - quite possibly enjoying the peace and quiet!

Dx

I know most of you probably read or watched the media coverage of Lloyd's funeral, it was a great tribute to him. When I went to get photos off my camera I discovered this first one - the flags flying at half-mast at Wellington Airport in honor of Lloyd. The second is a photo from the Dominion Post from the funeral.

In happier news, Meggie had seven girls over to spend the night a few weekends back. One of the joys of this house is that we can do that now!! This is the only photo and it was taken before two of the girls arrived. Meggie and her friend Claudia, not pictured, organized the whole thing and asked the girls to come in the their pajamas. They were all great girls and it was a lot of fun.

I also got to see Meggie at ballet for the first time in ages and noticed a marked improvement! Now that she rides the bus into town with her friends I hardly ever see her class. Here are some photos, she is dancing beautifully.

Finally here is a sneak peak of the new house - we finished Meggie's room!! More pics later but I think this is a pretty cute teen room. I didn't get photos of the wall with her dresser and desk but they look cute too.