Thursday 31 October 2013

Trunk 'n' Treat 2013

Here's this year's trunk 'n' treat pics for ya B-Rocka :) So sad you & Petey Pete couldn't be with us this year, but cool the Hekes were able to come & join us!!! 

Thought we'd better do a trunk this time around so we decided to go 'jungle' :)
Isn't this just the cutest little giraffe you've ever seen??!!!




The kiddies had such a cool time!!


And the adults too ;)




Dad having a go at our game (throwing the bean bags to knock over the cans)

Uncle Carl on the eve of his exciting adventure out into the big wide world!!!


I think this guy had at least 5 lollipops throughout the night!
 
Cutey pumpkin Niwa :)









This little sharky had such a great night that he was still buzzing out till 11pm! Thank goodness Halloween only comes around once a year cause I definitely couldn't handle that kind of bed time anymore often than that.....

Oh & on the way home we saw a few kids trick or treating & Mac goes "hey Mum what's trick or treating?? Is it when you go & knock on people's doors & ask if they have any bad food??" lol....haha, pretty much son!

Wednesday 30 October 2013

Carl's going away dinner

Uncle Carl moves to Sydney on Friday so on Monday night we had his last Supper!
Sausies on the barby, sausie rolls (Carl's fave), garlic bread & not 1, but 3 yummy salads made by Aunty Mell.....then for dessert, it was cinnamon roll cake or yoghurt & fruit salad for the health conscious of us.....actually it was more like a little bit (or a lot) of both for most of us, but at least we tried :)



 No salad to be seen on Uncle Carl's plate (surprise, surprise!)

 My plate looked a lot better :)

 The punk rocker ;) (this pic is especially for you B!)

 Pretty girls xxx

 Stan & Jojo's usual cheddar pic

 Cheesy cowboy :)


 Top secret meeting :)





Only 2 more sleeps to go till he leaves now! Really gonna miss our little (big) bro, but excited for the new opportunities that await him over the ditch :)

Monday 28 October 2013

Pic update of late...

I just realised that there was quite a few photos on my laptop that I haven't had a chance to upload yet, so here they are all in one hit :).....

We thought that Spence had pretty much finished with bibs, but a couple of weeks ago there were a few days there where we went through every bib we owned for I think it was 3 days straight :( !!! Check out his soaked t-shirt here. Gross!!!

Excitement about refreshments from our FHE on tithing a few weeks back. Mac thought it was so cool that out of 10 coins, he only had to pay one for tithing & got to keep the other 9 :) We tried our best to explain to him that it's easier to pay the 10% as soon as you get paid, rather than to spend your 9 coins & then to have to pay the only one you have left for your tithing. It also shows you're that trying hard to be obedient when you think of Heavenly Father & pay him first :)


The lesson totally went over Spence's head, but he was stoked to get paid at the end of it all too of course!

Desperate to get into it!!

The next pics are from our traditional holiday catch-up at the park with Nix, Tui, Bex & Mell :) Can't say enough about how grateful I am for such awesome friends...& how cool it is our kids love hanging out together now too!

We just met at the Shepherds Park carpark again & let the kids have a muck around until we eventually mosied on over to the park :)

Pretty girls :)

And all of our other adorable kids.....















After the park, we got to take Pod home for a sleepover :) Check out the intense concentration & support crew for Pod while she was trying to play some game on my phone....

Then back on the ipads first thing in the morning!

After that it was off to inflatable world...

Spence LOVES watching Stan do the "normer nummer" (lawnmower), so he spent heaps of time having a turn of his own :) .....

Until he went past this guy on the side of one of the bouncy castles & then freaked out & wanted to be picked up cause "I scared :(" lol....it took a little while of trying to convince him that this was just a funny picture & that the angry man wasn't really real haha...such a softie my Spence :)


Then the next day we got to meet AJ, Steph, Sarah, Jadon & Timmy out at Chipmunks. This was so super exciting as we hadn't seen Steph & the kids since Pete & B's wedding 2 years ago...

Wish these cuzzies got to see each other more often!!

Then on Sunday we got to watch conference videos at home :)

The rest of us just wore normal clothes, but Mac decided he wanted to get dressed in his church clothes, so he got himself all ready :) (He had a bit of trouble with his tie obviously)

Spence was quiet for a little bit & we convinced Mac to listen quietly to the talks with the bribe of earning 10c for every time he heard words like Jesus (Lord), God (Heavenly Father), Priesthood, Faith etc....I can't remember what the other key words were, but in the end he earnt $4.90 which he was totally stoked about :)

Mac got a certificate at school for learning to sound out & spell words on his own!!

....So that night we had a date night to Yo-Fro (a new Kiwi-yo kinda place up in Birkenhead). I thought it would be a really cool family outing together, but the evening didn't quite unfold as I'd imagined it in my head lol... Plus it was nowhere near as good as Kiwi-yo! Oh well, we'll know never to go there again now & it was cool to have Shylah with us :)



On Saturday we took Dad down for his walk at the beach. Dad still can't drive for another 4 or so weeks so he's become like our little dog that we get to take out for walks every day :) The week day walks are mostly just up at the mall, but last Saturday we went down to Milford beach & had it pretty much all to ourselves, & then this Saturday just gone we went down to Devonport & let the kids play at the park & then walked along the wharf to watch the ferries coming & going. 

As we were walking through the wharf building, I told Stan how embarrassing it was when we used to go & eat our fish 'n' chips there on Saturday nights & then Mum or Dad would pull out our fizzy drinks & plastic cups from home. Dad was sad to hear that I used to be embarrassed about that, but I had to tell him not to worry cause I don't even know what was so shame about it & that it's totally what I'd do for my own family now lol

But back to last Saturday.....As I was walking behind everyone down at Milford Beach watching Dad & Stan walking along talking, Spence playing in the sand trying to pick out shells & Mac riding ahead on his bike, & with this view to look at......

I just felt so super blessed for my life & everything in it!!! Love that we get to live in such a gorgeous country :)

....And then Mac came riding back, telling me he was STARVING & that he was going to die if he didn't get some food NOW, so that was the end of that little moment lol

Spence found some of the spiky branches off the tree that I pretty sure we always used to say were monkey's tails, so I sent him back with one tucked into his jeans, all excited to show Dad & Grandie

And last but not least, Mac started swimming lessons with Helen again last week. Yay!! Can't wait to see the progress he makes this term!