Katie is Sweet 16!!!

Her actual birthday was just another busy school day in a house under construction so no table to set and decorate :(.

Ellie was ready with a card before school though - the rest of ours weren't ready until dinner so way to go E!

An exciting gift from Mimi and Big Daddy, everyone loves the blue Tiffany's box!

Ellie and her friend Maya made Katie an awesome birthday cake.

For her actual party Katie and friends had a lovely high tea at the French bakery Louis Sargeant.

The food was beautiful!

The girls at the table - then we left them to enjoy their afternoon. 

Meggie speaking at the farewell assembly for our lovely principal, Jenny Williams. After Meggie spoke the whole school sang "All You Need Is Love" which is what the choir sang at Jenny's wedding, it was very special.

Can you see Ellie?

Girls singing "May the Road Rise to Meet You".  Meggie is on the left. I cried through the whole thing.

And Jenny left us all with a farewell gift.

It was our swimming buddy Mick's 70th birthday so the Monday Morning Ladies headed up the coast to celebrate with him.

And the joinery arrived for the house - yay!! Kitchen about to take shape.

It feels very big at the moment - our old sink on the island is temporary.

Tile going up.

And my long dreamed for doors to the deck are installed!!

Beautiful sunset through our new windows.

Queen's Birthday Weekend

Time for our annual trip with the camping crew for Queen's Birthday!!

Meggie, Katie, Harriett and Sophie left first and drove themselves up on their first official road trip.

Family Selfie, we're on our way!

Pretty drive until it got dark.

Ellie is quite the makeup guru and her services were in high demand.

Can you guess the theme? Red!

Josie and Izzy as Whoopie Cushions.

Meggie, Katie and Katie as chili peppers

The adults!! The teens picked the theme - they thought our usual choices of things like Indian last year, and Mexican and whatnot were too culturally insensitive. The food did have a bit of a Mexican theme going on though to try and tie in with "red". 

Ann Marie got Rhys an awesome costume - not sure why he refused to wear it? Party pooper.

The kids hanging out in their living area.

The older girls put us into  teams to compete in the great quiz/challenges they had created for us. I was just thankful there was no planking involved this year. 

The oldest male on each team had to compete to braid the hair of the youngest female on their team in one of the activities. 

In another one a team member had to act out a famous person.

After the quiz it was time to celebrate Anna and Simon's birthday with Julia leading us all in the birthday song.

Kids on clean up - camping tradition!

The next day we headed up the mountain which had a lot less snow than last year! Not enough for us to use our sleds.

Gorgeous fire on the back deck when we got back. 

Night Two was skit night!

Followed by some singing

The annual photo of the kids before we all head back home - they've sure grown!

And everybody :)