Catch up

Gosh hard to believe half a year has gone by since I last wrote. Along with laziness, an almost dead modem that has now been replaced and summer, computer time has been somewhat limited. So now with a renewed interest, I am posting again.

I am now an old married woman. We had a fantastic time in Rarotonga and the most amazing wedding. So glad we took the kids. I have a video of it to upload but for now photos will have to do. I loved Rarotonga. Tony and I both intend to go back soon sans children. The photos don't do it justice...it really is like something off a postcard. It was very relaxed and just me, Tony and the kids. We used a local photographer and wedding celebrant and got married on the beach.

At the start of the ceremony



Taking our vows



The family after the ceremony



Sarah...looks so angelic...if only you knew the truth!



In the photographer's garden



Been spending loads of time at the beach. We have had the most glorious summer. We have just had 32 days without rain and amazing cloudless days. Unfortunately the garden and lawn are suffering though.

Will be back later to update some more. Got some things to do now.

School hols

Well school hols have started and I have a houseful of kids. Looking after my sister's 3 kids and Tony's kids have asked if they can come too so I feel like Supernanny!! We all went and saw Bridge to Terabithia yesterday at the movies...enjoyed that but what a sad ending! Poor little Sarah just sobbed and sobbed. The boys all tried to be staunch, of course, but I am sure I saw a tear in their eyes too. It is so not cool to cry in front of your mates and your sisters!!

Well we are now booked into Lagoon Lodges in their 3 bedroom villa with private pool. Tickets are all paid for and the kids are just so excited. Off to get passport photos for the kids today as they don't have passports.

Had a wonderful visit from Lisa and Rhiannon on Sunday. they were up here for a gymnastics competition. My gosh, Rhiannon is amzing with her contortions. She has inspired Hannah and Sarah to join gymnastics now. You have to watch where you go in the house now as well, as you are likely to get hit with a cartwheel or handstand or some sort of arm waving or prancing around!

Right, I am off to bake for 8 hungry children...

Only 4 months to go

until we get married in Rarotonga. We did a crazy thing in the weekend though and decided to take our 5 kids with us! Insane or what?!! So we are downgrading from our very expensive 5 star luxury accommodation that doesn't allow children to something a bit cheaper and more child friendly. Unfortunately, we have probably left it a bit late and our choices are limited. Most of the hotel style accommodations are full so we are looking at a holiday house to rent instead. Even then most of those have already gone so it's either something really cheap away from the water or something really expensive with a lagoon view. And trying to find something that will accommodate all 7 of us is a nightmare.

Anyway the kids are so excited that they are coming with us so no matter what we end up with it will just be nice to have them there on our special day.

Cupcakes!!

The latest faze to hit our house is cupcakes. Partly because I have been drooling over food blogs, partly because I look at far too many cooking magazines and partly because the kids love them. Now Nick and Sarah both wanted to make cupcakes last night, but of course they weren't content to both help with the same batch. No, Sarah wanted vanilla ones with pink icing and Nick wanted chocolate ones. So I did a quick search of some of my fav sites and found this divine Devil’s Food Cupcake with Chocolate Buttercream and Vanilla Scented Cupcakes. Made a few alterations to the recipes and voila, here is the kids finished result. They decorarated them with whatever they could find in the cupboards and the more colourful the better in their opinion!!

Then quite by conicidence at work today these people that come round selling cheap books at workplaces arrived with Susannah Blake's Cupcake book for only NZD$8. A steal as it retails here for $25. So I grabbed a copy of that and the kids are perusing that at the moment wondering what amazing creations they are going to whip up next!

Right, I have decided I am never going to be one of those bloggers who religiously writes every day in my blog. I have great intentions, but life just gets in the way!! For example I have had the last 3 days off work and this is the first chance I have had to go online and catch up on everyone's blogs. Spent Friday catching up an all the things that never get done when I am working...you know those mundane things like housework and laundry. Saturday was sports day so with 4 kids to cart round and watch at soccer and netball meant I never got home til late afternoon.

Tony had tickets for the All Blacks vs Canada game on Saturday night so dropped the girls at various friends' houses then hurtled off over there. It was a great atmosphere and Nick's first rugby game so he was over the moon. We were sitting about 5 metres from the try line so got to see Dan Carter in all his glory as he scored 3 tries. A couple of those Canadians weren't too bad either ;-)

Today we went to Rotorua to see my aunty who was in hospital with a broken leg and caught up with friends as well. Only got home a couple of hours ago and that is the weekend over.

Gonna curl up with a book in front of the fire now. Reading Celia Lashlie's book "He'll be ok". Kind of frightening to think in another few years my loving cuddly boy will become this mute adolescent who occasionally grunts and tests all the boundaries.

Thanks

Thanks for the feedback. Was a long weekend here so have been away for the last 3 days. Will have a look at both those 2 sites in the weekend. Have an assignment due Friday so need to put head down and focus on that rather than playing on the internet!! Was supposed to work on it while I was away but didn't get too much done unfortunately.

Updated blogs

Ok I have been perservering with blogrolling.com for a while now to notify me when my blogs are updated. It seems that it no longer works. None of the blogs I read ever get updated now so it means a manual check which I don't really have time for. I am going to change to another service. Has anyone got any good suggestions??