number five is alive!!!

Hello *five* boy!!! You are wearing a shiny blue *birthday boy* badge today, which you found when you raced into our bedroom at the crack of dawn this morning, and we produced a wee stack of stuff for you, which had been resting on our headboard all night. I love that family tradition, just like when I was a wee girl: all the family, woken and gathered on our bed, singing *the song* and watching the birthday boy gleefully tearing paper, and loving the moment.

Today, I thought I'd tell you the little story from when you were just a twinkle in your Daddy's eye. I had lost a baby, and was still grieving a year later... and then, I had a "moment", when I felt that it would be ok to try for one more baby. I had this "idea" that you would be born in the October. I had prayed, actually, because Daddy was unsure about having more babies, but to my delight, he agreed... and so I spent the best part of a year growing you in my tummy. Your other brothers and your sister were so helpful: I lay on the couch most of that year, and they all ran the house around me (and they ran around the house lots too!!). They were so understanding. and finally the day came when you arrived. The last day of October.
*grin*
Daddy and Auntie Doozie delivered you in the lounge of our little house, after only 55 minutes of my labour. You were in quite a hurry to see the world!! and, just like each of your siblings, you have taught us so much about life and loving.

Finally, the tshirt which Granny and GD gave you two Christmases ago is true:
You are number *5* !!!
Happy Birthday, Mickey Mouse.

monday-itis

It keeps raining on Mondays.
What is *with* that?

flying visit

hey Ed's:
*so good* to see yas this morning on your way homeward:


loved the coffees, lemon muffins, R13's double chocolate brownie.. the half-started game of risk (which we will *have* to finish, one camping weekend)..


making hearts outta felt pieces.. and those divine hokey pokey chocettes.


..they're almost as good as a chocolate-covered-coffee-bean. (one day, i'll convert ya, Rosie!!!)

the cuzzies

D17, R13, Morgan and Jay:
you guys spent so much time together
during your first ten years...
and we had a fabulous reunion
when we holidayed in Aux recently..
and just *look* at yas...
you have all grown up
into very groovy people:


Morgan: you have a beautiful
frangipani thang going on..
and you have your mum's wicked
sense of humour..
Jay: wow, such talent my friend...
you blew Uncle F and S9 away with your guitar playing..


My heart... Your skin
This love... I'm in
We don't arrive, without a surprise
You're right... I'm wrong
Be free...

français friday

Voici L'Arc de Triomphe:

(yeah, i know it looks like hubby's head is photoshopped in, but we were *really* there...)

The Arc de Triomphe is a monument in Paris that stands in the centre of the Place de l'Étoile at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. It is the linchpin of the historic axis leading from the courtyard of the Louvre Palace, a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route leading out of Paris.

It stands over 51 metres in height and is 45 metres wide. It is the second largest triumphal arch in existence. Its design was inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus. The Arc de Triomphe is so colossal that an early daredevil flew his plane through it.

Laying the foundations alone took two years, and in 1810 when Napoleon entered Paris from the west with his bride Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, he had a wooden mock-up of the completed arch constructed.

Beneath the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from the First World War. Interred here on Armistice Day, 1920, it has the first eternal flame lit in Western Europe since the Vestal Virgins' fire was extinguished in the year 391. It burns in memory of the dead who were never identified, now in both World Wars.


It is grand, ornate, exquisitely detailed.
Hubby was touched by the sense of history and beauty here.

I was buzzing to be at the top of The Champs-Élysées: which, incidentally is also called La plus belle avenue du monde, French for "The most beautiful avenue in the world."
Oui, oui, we agree..

Say, "PAPARAZZI !!"

D17 has a new catch-cry whenever I produce the camera and start clicking off photos...

gizzy.. gizzy.. gizzy... oi oi oi !!!!!

Just got back from a fabulous two days camping at sunny Gisborne, on the beach.


*momma's first summer swim* .. well, actually, I was seeing a man about a dog...


beach antics: Ayla, Ollie, M4 and S9: you gorgeous kids leaped in the first beach stream you found: got all your clothes soaking... such fun..


We went for a late-night walk to see statues ('st'at you??) of Young Nick and Captain James Cook.


Nick brought out the drama-queen in R13.


M4 and Daddy read all about him...


He's the captain who discovered New Zealand!


Hubby, Darryl and D17 got really creative with tent-pack-up..
... roll it boys!!!

français friday

i know what i *said*
but i think j'ai un penchant au français fridays...
we did see her in london.
and then we saw her again in paris.
she is perfect.
she epitomises everything wonderful about being a girlwoman.
she holds her head up with beauty and dignity.
if you listen closely, she speaks.

happy birthday to the most parr-fect poh-lah bahr in all of london

princess em,
so glad you're my sister.
sending you loads of love and wishes for a decadent celebration
love from kate and the gang xxxxxxx
like kool and the gang (can you remember back to 1980?)..
so bring your good times and your laughter too
we're gonna celebrate your party with you

QUEEN BEE

here's our fabulous auntie mim in her back garden:
looking quite the astronaut, er, apiarist..
she got the beehive for her sixty somethingth
birthday,
and has been a busy bee ever since.
auntie mim's runny hunny is oh
so yummy...

spring festival

we made garlands for our heads and bracelets for our arms,

we decorated the tall poles with flowers..

and we d-a-n-c-e-d...

may the circle be open, but unbroken

may the love of the mother be ever in your heart.

merry meet and merry part

merry meet again...

i know what you're thinking about that song:
and i feel like we belong in a woodland forest with a bunch of spring fairies. the carrot cake was divine though...

mums and daughters

*hi mum*
(i know it's not your birthday, but..)
i'm loving our genes...
not just the lookalike ones...
the creative, foodie, exercise ones too
(yep, i'm on my bike)
and the feminine, feminist genes.
thanks for passing on strength and life
(and for letting me have gran's
seventies salt pig. i'm loving it).

somewhere over the rainbow

I hear that the sun is shining over at the beach this morning..
It's a bit grey here today.. but the hive is buzzing...


M4 and S9 are snuggled up on the floor


illustrating a homemade book about the weekend's fizzy whizzy ginger beer..


R13 and J10 are talking about fractions, division and all those mathematical things.


Mamma's corn chowder, ready to rock. Yup, our seventies pressure cooker gets lotsa use.


M4 has just gone off to do some writing:
*the way I love mummy is beautiful*
I think I can see a rainbow appearing right here, in our kitchen.

shine shine shine

Our gang have been making flags and stringing mirror balls and threading hearts onto organza ribbon and stuffing goodie bags for *days*...
and finally.. this weekend was *SHINE*

fairy lights and pink frangipani flowers

four beautiful girls: no ordinary life!!


our beautiful tamariki
waving their flags and singing their hearts out:


"Don't ya know that you can shine, shine shine...
and together we will shine..."

the gorgeous R13 and April dancing and singing...

Shine like a star cuz that's the way you are baby
Shine like a star cuz that's the way you really are
No matter what's you're made of
Believe in yourself and keep your head up!
No matter where you came from
You can do anything..

français friday

This, then, is my last unwrapped memory of Paris.
Hubby and I found a delightful boutique during a wander around St-Germain-des-Prés.
It was like stepping into another world: très français, oui.
Les parisiennes were so helpful, offering to "wrrrrap zis geeeeft" etc.. I found a gorgeous nutty candle for Greg and Em, and a tealight candle-holder with the word amitié(friendship) for us.
And then I spied two funky bright red espresso cups with candlewax inside: wow... two of my vices all-in-one. Couldn't resist. So that's what's hiding inside le cadeau. I'm thinking I may put it under the Christmas tree, and savour l'expérience then...

cheesey chicks triptych

the party-est party chicks 200km north of the sunny bay...
here's to groovin' and being twenty-four forever..

viva the vikings...

We had a fabulous time at the viking exhibition at our fave museum in the school hols..


We talked to a REAL VIKING: we christened him "Erik the Red": he had made a little whistle out of a deer bone!!


He talked to us and answered all our burning questions about vikings, and we tried on chainmail this'n'that, and lifted swords, and tried on helmets..


..and blew a real cow's horn, and we even had a go at writing in runes and doing coin rubbings.


that's me: aka Helga the H'sexy (the chewing gum is very authentic)..

all holidayed out

"What did you do in the holidays?"
obviously too much. today is hubby's first sick day in two years..


conked out. sore throat. exhausted...

'tis brillig..

*warning*
skitey ecstatic momma post ahead:

being such a home ed schitzophrenic, re: schooling/unschooling/swinging thru the trees, i've had a wee spurt of,
"Ok, you gorgeous kids all have half a maths book to get thru before christmas, and i can hardly read your handriting, so let's have daily practice BEFORE the magic school bus comes on telly, hey?"

(it must be the beginning of term four. momma has her *teacher hat* on..)

anyway, something seems to have clicked with J10 since yesterday:
check. this. out.


slithy toves?? i don't think so...

stan's scary slippers

no wonder everyone accused him of being MAFIA...

murder.. mystery.. mayhem.. mutterings.. munchies.. MAFIA!!!!!

Last night the lounge was filled with spies and stooges as D17 and R13 got their mates over for a night of MAFIA..

eating the massive banana split

"OK... Everybody wake up!!!"


R13: died by being dropped in a vat of chanel no 5..


Abigail and Emma: "She can't be mafia. She's naturally shy.."


D17: "Oi, I'm not mafia. I'm the sheriff!"


Jimmy aka Shades: "My grandfather slippers prove my innocence."


Chris: death caused a drive-by rubber band shooting..


Shayne: death caused by being licked to death by a small white fluffy dog..


J10: "Me? Mafia? Why would I be mafia?"


April: cause of death- covered in lettuce juice and eaten by snails..


"Shut up Kyle... you know Ghosts can't talk.."


Hubby aka The Fat Controller: "Everyone, go to sleep...."