Winter Uniforms

The beginning of term two meant the girls had to start wearing their winter uniforms - long-sleeved shirts, tights rather than socks, and a tie. Since Katie is still in the primary school she gets to wear a pre-tied tie that she just slips over her head, but Meggie has a real tie and therefore she had to have early morning tie tying lessons from her daddy.

All of these pictures are what real photographers call SOOC - or "straight out of the camera". In other words the lighting is off and they need editing in a big way, but I have been flat out busy and decided to post them "as is" despite their lighting issues since we are now three weeks into term two and I haven't edited them yet. Nor am I a real photographer.

The girls were being silly - obviously - as I tried to take these full body shots of them so none of the photos are really worth bothering over anyway. I only post them to show y'all how enormous Meggie and Katie's uniforms look on them. For once it is not a case of me buying things a size or six too big in order to save money for them to grow into, this is actually how the lovely Felicity at the uniform shop sold them to me. It wasn't until viewing these photos though that I realized how it truly looks like the clothes are swallowing the children. And the shoes. . . don't get me started on the shoes! Meggie's are so heavy I'm amazed she can even lift her feet. Between that and her backpack I imagine we'll be seeing a chiropractor by age 16.

Back soon with pictures from our mid-winter Christmas last weekend. Lots of love!!

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!