Sunday Night (18th April 2010)
The Cooks Assistant: Daddy
The Menu
Jamie Oliver's Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni (recipe here)
Mummy's Rocket Pear and Feta Salad (with a splash of lemon olive oil and the 4 leave balsamic vinegar
Garlic Bread
AWW Apple and Raspberry Crumble (recipe here)
Extra thick custard and/or icecream
The Guests
Mummy, Daddy, Linnie and Emmy
The Verdict
4 big juicy stars ... and a lie down on the couch
What a great friendship this is.
Weeks and sometimes months can go by between visits or calls, but the minute you are together you just GET each other.
I love the way you still get a kick out of dressing the same too! On Phil's jolly to Hong Kong last month he scored a perfect 10 .. bringing home two great chinese cheung sans .. THAT WERE THE RIGHT SIZE.
But I'm not just going to show you that picture.... here is a few others from over the years. While Sara and Emmy have both grown up and gone from baby to toddler to little girl to little miss, they are still hold the same beautiful friendship.
March 2010
Jan 2010
May 2008
July 2007
How did that happen? The last post was nearly 2 motnhs ago. And all those good intentions just blew straight out the door.
But it has just been sitting back and contemplating life. I have finally achieved a FIRST.
Come on down - my first COMPLETED album. Emmy can now enjoy looking a four years of school.Its amazing the changes in her. From that first day in Grade 1 to the end of Grade 4. Now all documented and in order.
Yes, I am very proud (of myself!) When I sat here in January picking out all the missing photos I gave myself a deadline - I couldn'do ANYTHING else until this was finished and 28 Feb was the date.
So I slipped a bit, and I snuck in a few random pages along the way. The thing is - its done!
So here's a few highlights:
So whats next? I'm getting ready for the soccer season with a warmup album of his sporting highlights from Happy Coconuts. And then I really should start catching up on the abllet photos ....
BUT ...
(And that's the problem .. just when I think I know what I'm going to commit to, something NEW and YUMMY comes along).
After seeing Kathy's Project 365 album and new latest acquisition 'Becky Higgins Project Life' I've just raced from home from scrap and chat and ordered a PROJECT LIFE for myself. Here's what Lucia Wilke did.. and I love it.
I like the idea of weekly spreads ... but maybe I just save it for our great ski holidays...
Something to think about.
175 days to go
What with Mum's recent trip to Aspen, our new Sean White snowboarding Wii game and the nightly coverage from Vancouver, Phil just cant help himself. Everytime I turn my back he is on the internet checking out:
1. the snow in SunPeaks ... is it as good as it was last year?
2. the venues for the next Winter Olympics ...maybe ... if we were very very good
3. the trail map for Cardrona ... are you sure we wont be bored by only a handful of lifts
and finally the Wanaka accommodation.
And just quietly ... I'm hanging out a little bit too! Even Mum's close encounter with some very hard packed snow isn't putting a dampener on her ambitions for NZ skiing this year. So it's looking good to go. With the season pass early bird deal only available until the end of March it's only a few more weeks and the whole trip will have to be booked and paid for.
So that will mean 175 days to fit back into my brand spanky new lime-green ski pants ...(I bought them on the last afternoon in Sun Peaks .. not sure why I didn't get them earlier!)
so I can look extra hot doing this!
After six years of stories at bedtime and a year of learning the alphabet and all the letter sounds it finally arrived - the day we have been waiting for - Riley's first home reader.
He jumped in the car full of excitement and rearing to go. In fact he was so enthusiastic that he happily sat and read to Emmy on the way home.
I am a bookworm.
I gobble up books.
I gobble up dragons.
I gobble up spaceships.
I gobble up dinosaurs.
I gobble up ghosts.
I gobble up words.
Are you a bookworm?
You bet!
Riley was awesome ... he read to Emmy ... he read to Mummy ... he read to Daddy .... he even read to Granny down the phone and showing her the pictures - he is obviously already living in the land of video enabled phones!!
After all these years of Daddy's bedtime stories the whole idea of reading seemed so very natural. Phil even got a little emotional about it. I'm so proud of both my boys and look forward to so many more stories.
We can wait to see what comes home tomorrow!
What could be more beautiful that a pristine tropical island, where crystal clear water laps up on a golden sandy beach. With blue skies and warm breezes we had two divine afternoons enjoying the splendor that is the private island of Kosa (or Khosa if you prefer).
Grand PooBar John had the boys organise the PB boat complete with deck chairs and the esky filled with freshly squeezed juices, lemonade and the mandatory Sol Beers. And after a speedy 10 mins on the water, passing our favourite landmark - Whale Island, we cut the engine and floated across the shimmering water to the beach.
Its a hard decision whether to jump straight in, or take time out for a little beach combing and a trek around the island. Phil's determination saw him and Riley nearly make the full circumference, but fallen trees ended up blocking the last hundred metres. But soon the initial thrill of exploring wears off, and its straight into the water ... the perfect water! If you can stand very still you can see the little fish swimming around you, and the crabs burrowing into the sand.
Linnie is off looking for more shells to add to our collection and kids are swimming like fish, with the fish.
To add to the charm of this paradise, a small Robinson Cruisoe hut has been built just off the beach. Somewhere to hide when the sun gets too much, somewhere to dine if you want to get way from the sand, or simply somewhere to look out and consider how life could be so superb.
Kosa is the real jewel in Tavanipupu's crown. I found it so hard to put the camera down, and on the second trip I was driving everyone crazy with the traditional holiday shoot to get that perfect vacation picture for the wall. While the late afternoon clouds were rolling in, the lighting was perfect - the hardest part was choosing the best ones!.
Here are my two of our favourites ... enjoy!
NO MORE PHOTOS MUMMY ... WE JUST WANT TO SWIM!
Where did the holidays get to?
It was that time of the year again ... getting books ready! I guess that after four years I should know not to leave it until the last week - but once again time got away and before I knew it we had only a matter of days before they all had to be ready.
This year seemed more than ever - Emmy had 16 exercise books plus 5 texts and Riley had 9+4. So the Decoder colour copier got a real work out. Riley had a space theme and Em's black and white was hightlighted with owls (how wise!).
And then came the dreaded CONTACT!!!! And someone should sell a pat on the back for Mums (free with every roll). Determined to get some recognition for my highly refined contacting skills I put Phil to the test and 'enrolled' his help. I gave him the demo of my tried and tested approach and sent him to the dining table armed with a pre cut sheet and all my best wishes .......
After listening to bubble-squashing for a good five minutes I decided to brave a look. All I can say is that I feel safe in my knowledge that I'll be in charge of the contact for a long time to come. And Emmy better start practicing too!
So off we went with our amazingly beautiful books and a big smile this morning - and I was so relieved that the morning passed without any drama. Well done kids! I know starting the year can be full of uncertainty but I'm so proud of how you got on with the job today.
Now all I have to do is keep my fingers crossed for tomorrow!
After hearing about all that the island from John and Linnie over the past 10+ years, we finally made it. 7 days and six nights to laze around doing very little. Enjoying days filled with swimming, and snorkelling, jetty jumping and photography, swiminging in the hammock and simply dreaming .. usually of peanut slabs and Gloria Jeans Very Vanilla Lattes.
But now we are back to reality and with more than 1000 photos and videos to sort though and compile into some sort of story I thought it was time to start blogging. So once again I'm sitting at my computer when I should be asleep in bed. Inspired as usual by the wonderful talents of Ali Edwards, I'll give it a go and we'll see how long it lasts. I'm hoping it will be a place to share photos and stories with our family and friends -since I really dont seem to have time these days to scrapbook the old fashioned way.
While I try and rescue all the photos off Linnies computer .. here's just a taste of the fun we had.
Snorkel Girl in Linnie's Pool (Dec 09)
So
