Waitangi Run

We have a lot of themed hashes at the moment, last night was the Kiwi hashers turn to lay their Waitangi Run. (Waitangi Day is held each year on 6 February to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, on that date in 1840.)

It was a good run, in a dry jungle for a change, no rain for a few days makes such a difference. At the on-on afterwards we all got new t-shirts and yummy NZ style food. We also celebrated this month's birthdays:

They did a 10 question quiz, and Anna and I managed to answer two questions correctly first, so we walked away with prizes, again! :)
Anna donated her prize to me so that my kids would get one each, and they were very happy this morning when they received these little NZ bags with stickers, pencils and other Kiwi things inside:

Pandora Kiwiana style

I was wearing one of my Pandora bracelets the other day, and only put Kiwi charms on it! Well, apart from the heart, but that's because I ♥ NZ!

From left to right it's a pavlova (that I got from Tash for my birthday, so I wont forget her, she always makes pavlovas), the ♥ charm, a kiwi bird, a white murano (for the "long white cloud"), a charm that symbolizes Aotearoa and some jandals (also from Tash, but that's a story for another blog post).
Cool huh!

Runs in the family

Nathan sure can be a little bit of a shopaholic too, if you just bring him to the right shop!
I think the guys in the bike shop were very happy to see us this year, Nathan and Will were in there every day up to the race, sometimes a couple of times a day!

He waited to pay his bill until the last day though. Maybe a bad idea?

Dear Santa

In a search for Christmas activities for the kids while we were in NZ, to keep them occupied for a bit, I found these kits with ready-made letters for Santa. All they had to do was to fill in their wish list, something that proved rather difficult for our two! Oh my, they are such spoiled little children!
They had such a hard time thinking of anything they actually wished for!

After quite a lot of thinking, they came up with the following. Here is Lucas':





(And no, there will not be any drum kit coming his way...)
And Linnea's:





The dog bones are not for her, she's kindly thinking of Jay and Mocha too; and she wants more "love in the world"! Bless!

The first catch

Since we were not there Tuesday night we had to save cooking up Lucas' big catch until Wednesday night, our last meal. For different reasons we totally forgot about it, and Yvonne made Sheperd's Pie instead. We didn't remember until Lucas got called to the table and he sat down with a confused look saying:
-"Where's my fish?!"
Bummer!
Well, what to do? We had to have the fish for our last breakfast.
Mmm, egg and trout, not your average everyday breakfast!

The block Christmas Party

Every year all the residents on the street where Grandma and Granddad live get together for a bit of a Christmas party. We have never been before, the closest was one year we left the day before the party. Something that was really disappointing because I really wanted to see the lawn mover race!

This year we managed to time it right, sort of, not really a kid friendly kind of party... and it was also the Turners last night.
So we compromised and went down to the tennis court for the afternoon fun, but then went back home to have dinner by ourselves.

There was a serious (...) tennis competition going on, and even Will and Nathan got in on the action, Will in grey and Nathan in yellow:




I was happy, I had Swedish Kopparberg Cider!


And look - this year's winners of the tennis trophy, Will and Bruce Davies!

The story of the tree

While on the beach yesterday Lucas found this tree that was just begging to be climbed!


So up he went, and Granddad thought he better get up there too. Apparently this was the first time ever Grandma had ever seen Granddad up a tree! Granddad is not very good with heights!


It turned out to be a good idea though, when Lucas managed to "get stuck", and couldn't get down. So Granddad to the rescue!


Then they thought he should probably try to jump off it, from a lower branch...


Granddad came back down, since he realized he wouldn't be able to climb onto the same little branch.


According to Lucas, he then got distracted by Granddad slipping off the tree on the way down - so then Lucas too fell off the tree!
Granddad tried to catch him, but as Lucas said: "He only caught half of me!". So a few bumps and bruises later, the tree climbing adventure was over.

Grandma said to Lucas:
- "Lucky that Granddad caught you, huh?"
And Lucas said:
- "Well, he didn't do a very good job now, did he?"

Fishing and boating

While we were in Rotoroua the kids had a great afternoon too. They were the only ones this time who made it out in the boat for a spot of fishing!




And, guess what, they caught a big fish!!! Well done!!!

An evening with Nigel Latta

Nathan and I went on a road trip yesterday, just the two of us, to Rotorua.
We spent the afternoon browsing the shops, and then went for a really nice steak dinner at this 'Beef & Lamb Award Hallmark of Exellence' restaurant, yum.


We also had my favourite drink of the season, at Starbucks - their Gingerbread Latte! They don't do these anymore in Singapore Starbucks, so I got super excited when I saw them here! I managed to have two in the short space of time we were there, mmm!


The event of the evening was the whole reason we came: we went to a show with Nigel Latta.Nigel Latta is a clinical psychologist, best-selling author and father of two; who specializes in working with children with behavioural problems.


He has been hosting a couple of popular TV shows here in NZ called "The politically incorrect parenting show" and "The politically incorrect parenting show about teenagers". We have them both at home, and we are big fans, so when there was a chance to watch him live, we jumped on that chance!

We got a couple of his books as well before the talk, while we had a bit of a chat he kindly signed the books for us too.




Most of what he says is common sense, but the way he puts it through to you is very funny! It sure was a very entertaining evening.


While driving home again, we saw a falling star!! What a beautiful way to end a great day!

Lightweight

Lucas and Ben were helping Granddad taking out the trash this morning before the rubbish truck came. After the big weekend there was quite a bit so they attached the trailer to the lawn mover to get it all down to the road.



Lucas was driving really well, but unfortunately he couldn't drive it himself but still had to sit on Granddad's lap since the seat needs a certain weight on it, otherwise the tractor turns itself off. Ha ha, he was too light!



Anyway, always a hoot helping Granddad driving the mover!

L'Arté

One of my absolute favourite places to go for lunch while we are here is a place called L'Arté, a café and gallery actually not far from we are here in Acacia Bay.


It's recently been selected by the 'Lonely Planet' as one of their Top 10 eating experiences in NZ. I can understand that, it's a really unique experience.
It's set in a mature garden filled with colourful art everywhere, and even an outside mosaic living room!








We've often taken the kids there, they love walking around spotting the different art installations - and food is super yummy too! All local and organic, freshly made on site.

This years bike park

Had to have

Saw these bottles of nail polish in the shop the other day. Loved, loved, loved their names! Ha ha, I just had to have them!!