Things are starting to get a bit tricky in the wardrobe department! I’m still managing with my regular clothes {or my Mum’s in this case!} but I’m running out of options. Of course complicating everything is the heat; my expanding waistline {and ass} have just …
Let me preface this by saying that I have a smart kid. A really smart kid. Last year at the end of term 3, E was discussing his maths group, after some questions I established three things; He had been sliding down through the maths …
You haven’t missed out the festival ends Sunday the 24th February! For more info visit the organisers website http://www.aucklandnz.com/lantern/programme/sunday
Attending this event has been on my to-do list for years and yesterday, late afternoon we headed over to town and got amongst the wonderful crowd. We were blown away by the HUGE masses of people. It was mind boggling. Princes St was home to most of the vendors and the food stalls, and the foot-traffic gridlock. Once you moved past being overwhelmed at the throng, it was definitely doable, with short fast-moving queues for food.
The food was amaze. SO cheap! I could have eaten my weight in dumplings, noodles, rice, pork buns……….and then there were the specialty foods, bbq squid seemed to be hugely popular as people everywhere had cups and kebab sticks brimming with whole squid dripping bbq sauce – we should have but didn’t.
It was the most pleasant festival I have ever been to, definitely a reflection of the quiet, respectful culture that was being celebrated. I haven’t even touched on the lanterns because they were so amazing and pretty that only really the photos can attempt to do them justice.
Tips for surviving the Auckland Lantern Festival
I have been following this project with much anticipation since late last year when the Christchurch bloggers hinted that something was in the works. And it’s happening. This April. A gaggle of Kiwi Mummy Bloggers are descending upon Christchurch, and I’m one of them! There …
Thanks NZ Girl for bringing this beauty to my attention, my credit card is finding this month difficult enough without beauteous home ware temptations :::sigh::: Do you love it as much as me? Kate Sylvester Swan by Rebecca Snelling $135
Loving little boys doing just what little boys should do: playing in the grass with el cheapo snakes and being 100% contented by it.
Loving Matakana Market fresh ciabatta with my homemade Tomato Chutney and big wedges of cheese. Pregnancy carb eating rules!
Oh long, hot, DRY summer. My bank account and our water tank despises you but you are awfully pretty.
Loving splashing out on a key for the school pool this summer << see what I did there?
So much loving that Dave had a blast in Wellington last weekend at the Van’s Bowlarama event, 48 hrs of skateboarding and guy time does a man some good I say!
Lazy Sunday baby showers with friends from w a y back are perfection. Eeek, I’ll be having one of those in a couple of months!
Finally, loving that as of last weekend I was still able to paint my toes, not my best work but they’re not nakey. Will have to train Dave or Ethan in the art of nails as there is definitely no room in the budget for salon visits at the moment. February, you have sucked the $$$ right out of us.
I have grown us a bounty of tomatoes this season, and despite our best efforts we are accumulating a bit of a back-log. Time for chutney. Ingredients 1.25kg green or firm tomatoes chopped (I used some red ones also) 3 chopped onions 2 chopped apples …
As I was putting away the remnants of last years pencil case {the contents of which came home sans pencil case} I came across these 2.5″ survivors of the four school terms. It looks like it was a hard year for pencils, stories had to …
Our house has been a massive work in progress since we bought it in May of last year. We have done so much {and thankfully stuck to budget} and are now up to the final phase of finishing touches and tidying things up. Little projects that are not in themselves huge expenditures, however the list of little projects is quite long!
This weekend we purchased new tiles for outside the front door, barked another of the backyard gardens (only one more to go!) and tidied up the long strip up the side of our driveway. When we removed our septic tank and connected to town storm water in December, this area was completely uprooted as it houses the pipe carrying all of our wastewater to the street. What was left was a strip of clay, now turned to dust by our fierce summer. Mum and Dave were the rock shoppers and after one trailer load of inexpensive grey rock followed by a second trailer of river rock the front of our house is looking fab.
To finish the driveway we will plant three half wine barrels with miniature orange trees and then we will rest. Until the next ‘little project’.
He was a skateboarder when I met him (I skated too actually, fairly well) and he will be a skateboarder long after the wheels have stopped spinning I’m sure. As is always the way when all of a sudden you can’t do something, I secretly …