photo shoot

Dadda got a new camera and has been playing round with it a bit.
We were his subjects on Saturday.
But it's not easy getting a GOOD shot of eight kids...not when one is screaming, one is strangling himself, one is squinting, one is thinking about being hungry coz it's actually lunchtime....and not when you don't get the depth of field right so everything goes fuzzy.


It's much easier to do four at a time!

Favourite Books Centre Stage

Coming up in three weeks is a church family camp...and on the Saturday night there's a concert. Last time we acted out the story of The Little Red Hen. This year it's Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar. We spent this afternoon making props with items we got at the recycling centre:



We'll see you on stage at 7:42....not giving away any more than that for now;-)

it's just not cricket, eh what!

We lost. The cricket. Lost dismally.

Never mind - in another ten years we'll be stepping up to the crease to lead our country to victory.

not too late to swim

It's been well over a week since we ate T3's cake, but Dadda has only just uploaded the photos.

Here 'tis. The Swimming Pool.

misunderstandings

Isn't language such a funny thing?

Yesterday on the way to church everyone was discussing some matter of significance and T3 added her opinion to the general consensus with an emphatic, "Me too"
M4 corrected her "No, you're three T, you're not two any more"

When we got to church we were given a little box with TOOLBOX written on it. T3 pointed out the T and said, "That's me".
Getting better;-)

And these kind of games must surely help:


....not the letter tiles....just the co-operation!

Today J12 was reading to the little ones after lunch. Picking up a book and reading its title L6 said, "Time For Bed"
T3 replied with a very quick "Oh no, one more, one more, please just one more"

workin' with dadda

The neighbours decided they wanted some privacy screens up between our living area and their kids' bedrooms. So our adventures in that part of the bush have come to an end - we never realised how much we played on *their* land! Hope they didn't mind!!!

But the adventure wasn't entirely over - the screens still needed to be built:



And right now we're staining the posts black while Mama types this for us.

look what we caught!

the 3 fish fed 7 kids "fish-n-chips" at the 1st dinner sitting

and then 5 adults (at an adults-only sitting) had an entree

(one fillet each on a bed of red and yellow peppers and green basil
with chilli sauce drizzled over

and a hailstorm of freshly-ground black pepper)...

and there'll be fish stock to turn into Spicy Sunday Soup.

goneFISHING

Da big kids have gone fishing...so Mama needs to do da blog again.

Look here!!!

Maybe there will be fishing photos to update this with later. I hope so, or it will be "chips" for dinner instead of "fish-n-chips"

The Blog Hog

Sorry guys - I really am hogging your blog, aren't I!

Today's message is for K9. That's you spunky:


Sometimes I would like to be like you! You and I are v.e.r.y. different.
It's interesting getting to know you more and more as the years pass by!

We were sitting there today at MOTAT, waiting in line for a ride on the horse and buggy. waiting. waiting. waiting.

You sat down and after a few minutes declared, "Time goes so much quicker if you switch off and don't think."

switch off. don't think. I need to learn how to do this!

I was standing there thinking about baking bread when we got home, reminding myself not to forget the errands on the way, wondering if I would get any sewing done today, trying to work out if I should cut all the pieces out first or make them completely one by one, dreaming about our trip, feeling confident that you kids will cope, wondering if we should pop in to Dadda's work and say HI.......

switch off. don't think.

Do you remember the day you were waiting at the bench for your turn to help with kneading the bread? I suggested it might be more interesting for you if you helped cut up the apples we were stewing rather than just sitting there. Your reply: "I'd rather just sit and do nothing."

I wondered what you were up to.....

Guys I love your enthusiasm.

You are so engrossed with this science competition game.

It is such a pleasure for me to watch you finding out information, throwing round ideas and negotiating the best way to do things.

I hardly even minded you BEGGING me to take you to the library - tsk tsk!

I know you're really keen on winning another prize (I can understand that - vouchers for books are my favourite thing too!!!), but even if you don't get a mention, you can be proud of the way you have worked on this project and I'm sure your brothers and sisters will enjoy playing this game as much as your Solar System Secrets one.

Boys and Their Toys

The Child Boys make the lego airport.
The Adult Boy plays with the new camera from work.

a new ambulance....

.....with a new stretcher complete with attached oxygen machine


T3 got more hurt when she fell off the stretcher than before she was picked up by the medic team!!!! But she came outside after her nap for more rides.


ER loves rides in the ambulance too. Mama said she was a speed demon and then decided that wasn't a very pleasant thing to say!

favourite friends

We really enjoy going to the Eds' place or having them come over or going away with them or going out with them or even bumping into them at the museum (that was fun guys). We just wish Mama and Dadda would organise get-togethers more often! We used to do things with them every week and we LOVED that, but it hasn't happened that way this year. About four years ago we both read about Ancient Egypt in our families and we were going to have an Egyptian dinner together....we've all read about Greece and Rome since then, and the Middle Ages aswell. Now we're both reading about the Renaissance and Reformation.....but still no ancients dinner!
However, last week we got together and enjoyed soup and bread and Mrs Ed's famous chocolate pudding.

The biggest boys:

The littlest girls:

A Grand Visit

This time last week "ranma rampa" (T3's name for Grandma and Grandpa) came to visit. We played lots of games and they told us all about the trip they're going on soon to Europe.






Last time they were here they brought some special visitors....Grandma's half-brother (and his wife) who only just found her in the past year. Imagine getting a new brother when you're over 60 years old!!!!!

This time they didn't bring anyone with them - but they did bring a music video and marshmallow Easter eggs, which we all enjoyed together.

t is 3

happy birthday darling

~we love you dearly~

they say winning doesn't matter!

We have been beavering away this week on a wee project.....but we can't say too much about it in case someone nabs our ideas;-)
For the past two years J11 and J12 have entered the Science Competition at the University of Auckland. The first year they got a highly commended award for their astronomy board game, and last year's website design came first. YIPPEE! They're not sure they'll be able to equal that effort, but they sure are trying!! This year the brief is another board game.....and all they'll say for now is that it has something to do with the weather.
K9 is also old enough to enter this year and he is making one about.....ooooh, we can't tell!

Watch this space.

What A Country We Live In!

Yesterday we had one of our favourite-est adventures....hiking in the bush.



We climbed this cliff - it doesn't look very big in the photo but when we got to the top of it we looked down and saw our van and it looked like an ant, so it must have been quite high.
Halfway up M4 found a birds' nest, which he carried, because he didn't want to miss it on the way back down.
Some of the trees were so low to the ground that we had to crawl under them - even Mama got down on her hands and knees with ER(10mo) tied to her front!
From the top we could see a waterfall - and we could even hear it. We could hear the sea too as we sat there eating Easter eggs!!!!!

Mama and Dadda helped the two little ones and J12 and J11 helped M4 and L6....coming down was really slippery in places and we skidded down the hill.

T2 walked all the way by herself. Usually Dadda ends up carrying her for the end of our hikes, but this time she walked and didn't even ask to be carried.

Then we went to the Angoves....they have a huge garden and they had hidden eggs in it for us to find. We put the wrappers in M4's nest.

It was a wonderful day.

HOT X BUNS

Yesterday we made hot cross buns to be ready for today...the day we specially remember Jesus died on the cross to forgive us for all our sins.

Moving House

Mama and Dadda have a track record of staying in a house for under a year....well they used to....they lived in eleven houses in ten years! But now we have been in this house for five years. We gave it a big tidy-up this week and moved furniture around and cleaned every nook and cranny. It looks really nice now.

Here's Mama and Dadda's bedroom....


with the chair Mama recovered:


Here's one girls' room....


and the other one:


And all the boys are in together (the girls would be too except that there's only one set of bunks so they get split up)


Once someone said it was sad that we would never get to have our own room and Mama said that she doesn't expect us to do anything she doesn't do. She shares with Dadda and we get to share with our siblings;-)

Christmas lingers

Thanks Mr and Mrs H for such a wonderful Christmas present.......you'll be wondering if we ever finished it....this proves we did....every single one of those 1000 pieces! We'll get it out again when winter sets in and give Mama a few more hours of Peace and Quiet. Incidentally, Mama thinks this picture (which she is sure is of a family carvanning around the world) is a miraculous sign!!!!!!

Sir Edmund, here we come!

When we did the Try-athlon we were given vouchers to go rock-climbing.

THAT promised to be a real ADVENTURE.

On Saturday Dadda took us. And it was every bit as good as we had imagined.

Now we're ready to climb Everest!

snow, sea lions and sleeping bags

On Saturday night our homegroup had a movie night at our local church hall organised by "Grandma and Grandpa Boyd", the oldest couple in our group. They had set up an In The Dark By The Light Of Torches Easter Egg Hunt to begin the evening and then provided popcorn and icecreams to munch on during the movie. We all snuggled down in our sleeping bags and watched Eight Below (or Seven Under as L6 kept calling it all week!) There was one very scary part on the movie when a sea lion jumped out of the whale's stomach. L6 jumped right off the couch where he was giving Mama a cuddle. M4 would like everyone to know one of the dogs got bitten by the sea lion.

The End.