Easter Weekend Continued. . .

I did try to blog about this before the weekend but blogger was having maintenance issues and I couldn't post . . . anyway, here are the rest of the photos from our time in Waititoko. The lake was beautiful and some of the leaves were starting to change color. We were blessed with great weather - it poured the day we left and most of Taupo lost electricity.

Sunday morning the girls were ready to hunt for eggs bright and early. The big girls had to look in the back and the little girls in the front. As happens every year we didn't manage to find them all.

After hunting eggs we walked down the street to a tiny Anglican church. The service was very entertaining. When we arrived the church was bursting at the seams and the only seats left were in the front row. A lovely female Maori priest had come in from Taupo to lead the service, with her cousin leading worship, but she hadn't been to the church before and seemed to be slightly discombobulated. She was also slightly older and her bible had very small print - so it took awhile to find and read the first reading of the day. Before the second reading she actually dropped the bible so I bent to pick it up and find the reading for her while she was doing something else - but instead she asked me to read it. So I did, except that I too couldn't see the bible that well and started off reading from the wrong book which meant the verses I started to read made absolutely no sense. I realized my mistake though and quickly turned to the proper verses and all was well - the congregation got a good laugh. Later in the service the priest asked me to help with communion so I assisted with that too. 

Following church we went home for a quick change and lunch then met up with the Sheppards for a walk along the Waikato river to see the Huka Falls. There was a bit of rolling down hills on the way which made Katie a tad queesy for the walk, but she pulled through and made it to the end.

Josie realizing that this part of the river is thermally heated.

Everyone got an ice cream at the end of the walk and we headed home to regroup before meeting for our Easter dinner at Matt and Alison's place.

When we arrived at the Sheppards the fire was blazing and Matt was soon cooking sausages on the grill. His aunt and uncle joined us and brought fresh paua which we fried into fritters so the girls and I got to taste those for the first time, I liked them but the girls didn't so much. After the children ate they went to practice their show, there is always a show, while we had a lovely and delicious adult meal.

Finally we roasted marshmallows, the perfect ending to a fabulous day!

We called in to see Grandma and Grandpa on the way home which is always a treat. The girls were a bit disappointed that the feijoas weren't ripe yet, but that has since been remedied as Grandma has sent us two large boxes full of them!

We've just had another fun-filled weekend away with friends - hopefully I'll get a post up about it soon. And Happy (belated) Birthday to my sister who turned 40 last week and my nephew who turned 1. Lots of love from all of us!! xx

Easter Weekend

I have fallen way off the bloggy wagon and have some serious catching up to do!!

We had such a great time Easter weekend. We drove to Waititoko where the Morrison's have a family bach - it's actually a Lattey family bach since it belonged to Margaret's parents - near Lake Taupo. We left on Good Friday and I didn't realize that because of Good Friday all the stores - including the grocery stores - would be closed, so when we arrived in the late afternoon we unpacked and got sorted then got back in the car for the 20 minute drive to Taupo and ate out. The girls quickly made themselves at home and snacked on feijoias and carrots while Dugs and I unloaded. 

We had a nice lazy morning Saturday - I went for a lovely walk along the edge of the lake - then we had tea and cinnamon twists that I had made at home before leaving. I love that the china at the bach is nicer than the china we have at home ( I do have lovely china but it's in boxes in my sister's closet in Florida).

After tea we met the Sheppards, who were renting a house nearby, for a lovely walk around a lake at Rotopounamu.

Matt takes excellent pictures - most of the good ones above are his! After our walk we went to see the thermal mud pools and had a dip in the thermal pools.

I had to include this picture of Ellie because the outfit she chose to wear made me laugh. I especially like the addition of her towel "cloak" when she got a chill.

I'll post more pictures from Easter and tell about our church experience tomorrow! I hope all my mommy friends had a great Mother's Day. My family pulled out all the stops with breakfast at a cafe before church and an excellent dinner that evening - shrimp piccata on wild rice with roasted asparagus and a delicious dessert consisting of bananas coated in honey and cornflakes then roasted and put on ice cream with berries on top, delicious!

The Royal Wedding (and our trip to Auckland)

I know most of you, if not all of you, were among the two billion people around the world watching Prince William marry Kate Middleton but I had to include some of my favorite pictures here for posterity. The wedding coverage in New Zealand started around 7pm last night - I was very glad I wasn't in America where it all began around 3 am -  and ended sometime after midnight. In honor of the occasion I made us a British-inspired dinner of Beef Wellington, roasted potatoes, minted peas and roasted asparagus. Meggie made us some bread pudding for dessert. After dinner we retired to the playroom to watch events unfold on the "big" screen and the girls settled in for a slumber party. I was shocked that Ellie stayed awake until we turned out the lights around midnight (we decided to record the kiss on the balcony and watch it today) and was also the first up this morning. That girl has energy! There was a big party in Karori that I debated attending, and I'm sure it was a blast, but in the end I'm glad I decided to watch at home with my peeps. Like everyone else of my generation I remember watching Charles and Di get married and I hope that last night my princesses-in-training made a memory that will last a lifetime.

We all decided we absolutely loved the dress and that William looked dashing in his uniform but Meggie thought he looked better with his hat on. Of course the cathedral was awe-inspiring and Dugald really enjoyed the music. We all did, but he did in particular. It was so fun to see all the ladies and their hats (not sure what Princess Beatrice was thinking though, eee gads). For some beautiful pictures that I couldn't put into the blog because I'm not that technically savvy click here, it's worth a look!

All the above images are from the BBC website.

In other news - Meggie sent me an email the other day with two grave errors. She wrote it to "Mum" - who is that?? - and she wrote "realise" instead of "realize". This Marsden education is beginning to frighten me.

Dugald and I went to Auckland for the night a few weeks ago - Mercy Ships was having an alumni reunion and Dugald had a part to play in the evening because of his role as Chairman of the New Zealand Board of Directors. I wasn't planning to attend because it's hardly ever worth the work involved in sorting the children out to only go away for one night. However, I received quite a bit of "encouragement" from some friends still in Mercy Ships (not Dugald, he was pretty relaxed about whether I went or not) to support him and make the effort. . . so I went, and of course I'm really glad I did!! Prior to the event we got to have a lovely dinner with the other board members and their spouses as well as with the evening's speaker, the Honourable Phil Heatley, and his lovely wife Jenny. I happened to sit right next to Jenny and we hit it off and exchanged numbers so that we can reconnect in Wellington when she returns after the school holidays.

Dugald did a fantastic job, as always, and I was so proud of him! The event was held on a ferry and we sailed around Auckland Harbour. Dugald's nephew, Ben, also joined us for the evening having served onboard the Africa Mercy last year.

We stayed with our dear friends Fay and Trevor who generously loaned us their car as well and it was great to reconnect with them. We had a lovely, relaxing day Sunday - sleeping in, brunch in Parnell and then some quiet time together in the Koru lounge. In fact we heard an earlier flight for Wellington announced as we were sitting in the lounge eating the free food and reading and we looked at each other as if we should maybe get on it since we were ready and immediately went "Naaa."