The school fair....

On Sunday we had our school fair, it was a brilliant day, the weather was fantastic and we all had a really good time! There was lots to do see, and eat!!! I think the girls ate candy floss till it came out of their ears!

Emma did a little show with a few of the girls from her class, and John and I were so nervous before hand, you would have thought she was getting an Oscar or something! We needn't have worried as they put on a great show. When I figure out how to put videos on the blog I will show a short clip, they were really rather good!!!

Happy Birthday Michael....

How do you embarrass a 19 year old.......... why buy him a birthday cake and sing him Happy Birthday of course!!! Our lovely nephew Michael turned 19 last week, and we had to get him a cake, which I have to say he enjoyed very much! Happy Birthday Michael!!!

Almost a new leg, but not quite.....

The old leggie

Paddy with her leggie.

How dirty is the old foot?

The new improved leggie!

The old foot!

Today we had a visit to the limb centre, it was just supposed to be a quick check to make sure Paddy was walking o.k, and that stumpy was also alright. I mentioned to Jason (Paddy's limb fitter) she hadn't been walking quite right, sort of on the inside of her foot, and that also her prosthetic foot wasn't as big as her other one anymore, Paddy must have grown!!!!

So what ended up being a quick visit, ended up with Paddy getting a new foot, and some height added to her leggie. Jason asked us would we like some new fabric on 'magic leg', and of course Paddy was very keen. They didn't have a huge selection of fabric at the limb centre as this was a bit of a surprise to us, but we did find a rather fetching rainbow fabric.

Paddy will be getting a new leg in a couple of months, but they did a fantastic job of jazzing up the old one!! Thanks Jason and Angela!

Some visitors.....

This weekend we had a visit from George and Dianne, they are over from the U.K visiting family over here. We first met them about 12 years ago when John was backpacking with their son Colin, actually John didn't get out of Auckland because he met me, but that is another story!
It was lovely to catch up again, with all the news, and it is always so nice to see them, we always have a great laugh!!

Fish and Chips.......

Paddy and Georgie's class had a Fish and Chip night at school last Friday. It was a chance for the parents to meet other parents and for the kids to run riot! It was great, it was really nice to chat to other Mum's and Dad's without the chaos of the class room. The weather was a bit dicey, but hey, we are Kiwi's, a bit of rain doesn't put us off!!!

Playball........

Every Monday at 8 o'clock the girls have Playball, and they all absolutely love it. Their mother does not enjoy trying to get three girls to eat their breakfast, get dressed, sun blocked and hair done all by 8 but the result is worth it! They just have the best time!
Basically they are taught all sorts of ball skills, how to throw, catch, bounce and hit balls. Sometimes at the end of the session the play a P.C version of 'Bull Rush', ie no one gets badly injured playing! But they don't know how we used to play it as kids, and that somebody always ended up being hurt! What year did they ban 'bull rush' from schools? They really have taken all the excitement out of school playgrounds!
Anyway, today Paddy won the trophy, she couldn't have been more pleased if she had won a gold medal at the Olympics! As we do live in a P.C world everyone eventually gets to win the trophy, but today it was Paddy's turn to shine!

Bees online.....

Today being a Sunday, and having got all our jobs done, we thought what could we do with the rest of our Sunday? Emma is studying bees at school at the moment, and we had heard of this place called Bees Online, so we thought why not got for a visit?
It is a bit of a drive out of Auckland, about 50km west, which is quite a hike for us city dwellers, but it was a lovely drive through country side, and on the way we noticed quite a few vineyards that we could visit, but that will be another day and another story!
As I am forgetful on occasions, I of course forgot my camera. It was the most wonderful place, we had a delicious lunch, everything had honey somehow infused into the food. After a great meal we took the kids to look at some hives in action, and then we spent the rest of our money on some fantastic honey products.
To cap it all off John took the girls to see some horses, of course now they would like one for a Christmas present, I wonder how Santa is going to fit one of those down the chimney?
Anyway, as I didn't take my camera here is the link to where we spent our Sunday afternoon!!
http://www.beesonline.co.nz/

Pucker up......

Going trough my photo's the other day I came across these, and I thought I have to share these with the rest of the world. So just to prove that I am not a mother that makes a mockery of her children, I have included one of myself! Just for the record, John made me delete all evidence of him, (spoilsport) In case you are wondering what is on out lips, they are plasters (band-aids) compliments from a friend in Singapore!

The Best Gingerbread Ever..........

Sticky Moist Gingerbread

1 ½ cups plain flour

½ cup self raising flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2tsp ground ginger (I used 3!)

1/2tsp each of cinnamon and mixed spice

Pinch of salt

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup milk

125gms butter

1 cup golden syrup

1. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl
   
2. Add sugar
   
3. Melt butter and golden syrup
   
4. Mix together milk and eggs
   
5. Add the butter mixture and milk and eggs to the dry ingredients.
   
6. Mix well (I used a whisk )
   
7. Pour into a large greased lined loaf tin
   
8. Bake for 50 – 55 mins on 180c or until springy
   

Make sure your tin is well greased, and line with one piece of long paper that comes up over the long sides.

To those of you who like baking and Gingerbread loaf, well all I can say is try this, it is devine, especially with a smear of butter, and a nice cup of tea!!!