Mid-Winter Camping

We headed back to Paekakariki this year with our gang of campers to stay in the lodge for a mid-winter Christmas of sorts. We have varying degrees of enthusiasm from year to year as regards the actual decorating and giving of gifts to make it more Christmas-like, but we love our time away with these people and it's always a blast no matter what. This year we enjoyed performances by all the children, a "My Kitchen Rules" style dessert decorating competition and a delicious winter's meal.

The girls in their bunk room.

Kids meal.

Pre-dinner drinks and waiting for the shows to start.

Ellie and Amelia.

Izzy and Josie performing.

Ellie and Amelia do their part.

Meggie, Harriett and Sophie hamming it up as top models.

And judges.

Katie, Pippa and Julia strut their stuff.

For the dessert - we divided the kids into three teams and presented each team with a mystery box. They had to use the items in the box to make the best dessert of the evening.

This team got a sponge cake, icing and lots of decorations.

The cookie team.

The pavlova team.

The finished products were pretty impressive!! The cookie team won - which I was chuffed about since I had spent quite a long time making them. They were delicious.

The judging was intense.

Kids listening to the judges' take on their creations.

After the dessert competition for the kids the men went out to man the barbecue and listen to rugby.

Our dinner - delicious! So pretty on the lodge plastic plates too.