Friday 25 November 2011

We should catch up soon

I seem to be saying that a lot lately! I thought my big stresses would be out the way once the residency stuff was done, but it's just lead to more stuff to do haha!

We got our residency all finished and put in our passports last week. But now I have lots of things to do like register with the doctor, take Lani's passport into school for them to get a copy, apply for NZ driver's licenses etc etc. Things have been a bit mental lately with thing to do, days jam packed full of doing them and them still lots left on the list at the end of it. Some catching up to do on here, will try get round to that soon. But basically things are good :) we're in a good place, have good people around us, got over feeling a bit sorry for myself and moving onwards and upwards. I know this is really tempting fate but I feel like things are actually running smoothly and working out for us. We are getting to the point in our lives we want to be at. It feels great. It feels so good to know we're nearly there, that our dreams and hopes aren't so far away that they seem impossible :)

And here's a pic Zach did at kindy which I really love, but don't really know why :D And a pic of what our grocery shopping experience is like at the moment!

Saturday 12 November 2011

Where should I sit?

Sometimes it can be really lonely rebuilding your life in a new country. Don't get me wrong, I have some good friends here and we love being here, but it's still pretty new and a feel like our metaphorical seats here are still new and shiny and don't have our bum prints firmly an permanently fixed to show just where our spot is.

Sometimes I just miss having old friends and having people that know of you and your family and having a firm place in the wider scheme of things. You know, when you meet someone new and tell them your a Witts or an O'Gram and they say "Oh yeah, I know your sister from YSA", or "Small world, your sister-in-law sang at my wedding" or something similar.

So right now I feel like we're just trying to find where our seat should be so we can mark our territory with a firm bum print.

Friday 11 November 2011

Recent Randoms



We went to an event for families at the community centre down the road from our house.

Tilly and Zach attempt a 3 legged race!




Potato Printing

I had a rare moment last week where I actually felt like letting the kids have paints out.  I was sitting at the kitchen bench and noticed the paints in the cupboard that I'd bought for Zach's birthday party and was wondering what I could do to use them up.  Then I remembered doing potato printing way back in yr 7.  So I prepared a potato making a Z print for Zach and a T one for Tilly.  They loved it! And we had a good chat about mixing the colours and what it made and how to get rainbow prints.  They were enjoying it so much that I did another potato, this time just with some random patterns cut into each half.




And just because it's funny and I have that kind of sense of humour, here's a picture of some left over cookie dough heehee! (I actually emailed this to Adam at work...)

Leilani's Rugby Poem

At school, Lani has been doing some work on poetry and she came home saying her teacher had said that she would like it if someone could find a poem about rugby or write one if they can't find one.  The next morning (Saturday) she came and showed me a poem she had written.  We loved it so laminated it for her to take to school on the Monday.  Here it is:

Sunday Afternoons

We have developed a new tradition for Sunday afternoons.  We have church at 11 and no timer on the oven, so doing a traditional sunday dinner is a bit tricky to work out the logistics for.  So now what happens is we get home from church at about 2.30 and Adam makes up snacks and hands them out on demand.  The kids sit round the bench like little chirruping birds and get dished out crackers, cheese, fruit, crisps etc etc.  Nice and easy and we love it :)
Sorry for the very dark photo - just use my phone camera most of the time which couldn't cope with the bright window in the background

A kiwi day out

On 24th October - it was the day after the Rugby World Cup final, which the All Blacks won, there was a free celebration event in the Auckland domain.  They had a concert, stalls from the different countries, games and activities for the kids and free ice cream (sponsored by Fonterra).  The weather had been a bit iffy in the morning but by the time we got there was warming up and actually got really hot in the middle of the afternoon.  We were sat out in the sun on the hill and had a lovely relaxed afternoon.  Fortunately they had a stall with St Johns ambulance with plenty of sunscreen, because we hadn't been prepared for how hot it was (and Adam and I got pretty burned, but at least we got the kids properly covered!)



And we stopped at the waterfront to see the giant rugby ball on the way home, unfortunately they had just closed it so we were a little bit too late to go in. 


Thursday 10 November 2011

A little birdie told me...

I found some really gorgeous yarn on offer for $1 (end of line clearance) - it's all fluffy and soft, I couldn't resist.

Turns out it's incredibly difficult to crochet with because all the fluff means you just can not see the stitches!  Still, I managed to make this bird.  Probably the most horrendous and untidy stitching underneath, but hey ho, it looks fine on the outside, so who cares?

Sunday 6 November 2011

Crochet Cupcake with Frosting Swirl

So here's a cupcake I made :) And I'm posting the pattern on Ravelry (or trying to figure out how to anyway!)