A dance, some cheer pics, and Ellie makes dinner . . .

Meggie with her friends Katie, Martine, Sophie and Ashley before the Scots College dance.  

As part of her homework one week Ellie had to plan a healthy meal with a budget of $10 per person, cook it and write about it for school. She chose to make spaghetti bolognese - it seems to be the go-to meal around here for my girls. I think I might need to teach them how to make another dish!

The finished meal - she did a great job!

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. 

Katie's 12th Birthday

Yes I'm posting about Katie's birthday back in June on Meggie's birthday in August. Major backlog. But I'm back and it will be mainly pictures on here for awhile until I catch up with myself. 

Katie had a fantastic birthday again this year - morning celebrations at home with cards and gifts from the family followed by a skating party with 30 of her closest friends that night! Oh and I took her to get her hair done after school before the party. It was all good fun except for the part where the pizzas that I had ordered to be ready for pick-up at 7:15pm weren't done until 8:30 -Dugald sitting there the whole time being told "5 more minutes" while I supervised the party alone. They gave us a one litre bottle of Sprite to compensate. Grrrr.

Josie's card for Katie.

Getting her hair done.

Katie, Charlotte and Grace.