kate5kiwis
“If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth.”
— Mitsugi Saotome
*singing* we're all goin' on a summer holiday: no more bloggin' for a week or two...
yep, we're off camping
(at the beach!!! in the *sunshine*)
if you'd like, please feel welcome to click the *comment* link below and leave us a message:
we'd love to hear what's happenin' in your little corner of the world...
au revoir
*mwah*
A Very Berry Christmas
Christmas is already here, according to the lovely Leighleigh's blonde logic:
For those of you who have forgotten - here are the rules: You don’t count the sleep you are about to have: tonight – as it is almost over and before you know it you will be awake.
You don’t count the sleep prior to the event ie: Christmas Eve – because let's be honest – who really sleeps?
If the event falls on the Monday or on the weekend, (Christmas day this year is on a Monday) – you don’t count the weekend, as the weekend can be counted as celebration for the event.
Got it?? So of course we've already started the celebrations..
lunch today with our vegas buddies Rick and Mel and kiddos...
strawberries in fraise bubbles..
pavlova and strawb's, sexy coffees and food. food. food.
We went on a Christmas-lights-trail crawl last night with the kiddos, and saw some gorgeously decorated houses... went to a Christmas play by the kids' drama cronies. Very cool.
M5's current exclamation: "Mum, I love you right up to heaven."
Which I think is very cool cos Christmas is the heaven-to-earth connection, yes?
Merry Berries to you all from us all
X X X X X X X
loads of love and seven kisses
français friday
oh em gee i just realised that it's Friday again!!
hubby's in bed recovering from yesterday's knee op, the kids are watching Peter Pan in the lounge, the teenagers are still snoring in their boudoirs (why oh why is there a seeming-competition on who can stay up the latest??) and i'm about to zoom into town and shop wildly for that late night christmas eve rendezvous with the fat jolly man. after i pile last night's dishes into the miracle-cupboard and switch it on.
for this minute, though, i'm dreaming of white christmases and dipping my toes in the Seine in summertime.
but wait: there's more:
(a free set of six steak knives, you ask? non, désolé)
while hubby was in theatre yesterday, i found a little something:
and seeing as it's been such a long time since i did a quiz, and seeing that i can't stand *txt msging* and always type the whole word (except for "lol".. and maybe "2" if i can't fit the whole message in) and seeing that i have a *thing* for correct grammar and an apostrophe fetish that i can't shake (i know i'm a rebel with my capital letters, but i do use a lot of extra punctuation to make up for it!!!!!) i bring you this:Your Language Arts Grade: 100% Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).
Are You Gooder at Grammar?
go on then: click the link!!!
bonne chance!!!!!
jaimee's wedding jewellery
we're not able to travel to the wedding in january
*sniff*
so we'll be there in sparkle-spirit...
i've made necklaces, earrings, bracelets for all the bridesmaids..
i love these luminous german beads.
this is a self-portrait taken on saturday night:
hubby and i went to our ballroom dancing end-of-year party with the gorgeous *nearlyweds* jaimee and jamin.
loved it.
and yes, i'm wearing *all* the necklaces lol
Blame it on the PinKiLiCioUs
R13 is finally happy that she has delivered all those months and months of pamphlets: rain, hail and shine... for now she has bought herself The Ultimate Girl Phone. She got the ultimate deal too: it comes with $50 phone credit, and $20 store voucher. which works out cheaper than the second hand pinki-fones on Trade Me. woot woot. oh, *and* it takes photos!!!!!!!!
the exclamation:
"Oh Mum, I'm *so* excited!! I think I'm gonna spend *all night* reading the manual. So if I'm tired and grumpy tomorrow, don't blame me ok!!"
the late night text message:
"Did u no ur the 50th person i hav txted 2day and i love you hps and hps! Gdnite mummy :-0 (yawn) cu 2moro! Luv R"
and that's the proof why we've been resisting the teen-phone-phenomenon until now...
and also why it's gonna be self-funded
*muhaha*
BON ANNIVERSAIRE, MON CHERI !!!!!
Well, I know it's français friday but it's also Hubby's birthday, so... here goes:
My fave Parisian photo of toi et moi:
Babe, we've known each other for twenty-one years this Christmas: I remember our first "date"... biking kilometres and kilometres to Point Erin pools... sheesh, I couldn't sit down for *days* lol. And I remember our first kiss, at the side of Mum and Dad's house... your bike wedged between us, the sun going down.. it was just a brushing of lips, and I heard the angels sing that day.
Three years later, you wrote this poem, a month before we were married:
Our Pulse
I want to feel your heart
beating within my breast.
So that when I am far
from you I still might rest
In time to our strong pulse.
One day soon we will love
fully - with all our heart
and strength. And give above
what we're able. Then we'll start
as one, to feel His pulse.
You've always been a romantic, a poet, a thinker, a songwriter.
I wanna trip inside your head and spend the day there.
I love your passion.
You make lovin' fun.
I love dancing along this path with you.
You are the flame in my heart
You light my way in the dark
You are the ultimate star
I belong to you
And you
You belong to me too
our last wednesday on wairua mountain
Christmas is here. We listened to a Caroline's story about Mary, Joseph and Jesus, who were kept warm by a spider who wove a web across the doorway..
We followed the clues to the Woodsman's Den, where we were held spellbound by local author Annie Rae Te Ake Ake, who told us of her growing up years over the hills of the mountain, listening to her grandma telling the stories.. "Grandma, grandma, tell me another story.." as she went to sleep each night. Now she is a Nanny and enchants her own mokopuna with the stories of her people.
Annie Rae explained the story of our mountain, known all over the world, and how he got his name: Mauao = caught in the light of the day
There is so much magnificence in the ocean.
Kia ora, Annie, you are inspiring.
R13 brought Millicent the kunekune pig inside for a squealy visit!!!
Making the baby Jesus in his manger: with beads, felt and walnut shells.
The finished babies, snugly wrapped in their mangers, ready to hang on the Christmas tree.
Making paper from shredded, pulped paper. Straining it through a sieve, patting it dry between layers of towels. Drying it in front of the fire: Caroline has brought the European (wet, cold) Christmas to the mountain today!!
At last, the sun came out... and wow, fresh spring growth has overtaken the Twealm Realm since we were last here. Things have definitely changed. New flowers, new plants.
There was much lighting of the fire, swinging on the tree swing, mammas chatting and laughing together.
Safira, beautiful flower fairy.
Tiahnee and M5 playing amongst the grasses... whispering secrets and finding insects.
There is so much tranquility in the forest.
Another fabulous lunch.. of pita breads and dips and salad bits.. our kids have been converted to herbal tea!!
There are so many good memories in the harvest.
Aneesha with her ribbon.. twirling and dancing in the breeze
Thanks a million for everything: a pohutukawa for Caroline, which will flower bright and red at Christmas time. Aloe Vera for Cornelia and Peter.. a plant of healing.. did you notice the babies sprouting from the aloes??
Final cake and celebration.. the sparkler didn't go all the way out... hinting at more to come.
There is so much hot energy in the fire.
The crew- what a wonderful year we've had.
As Caroline wrote: "Today will certainly be a day of festivity, thanks-giving & the closing of a wonderful chapter. Every closing has an opening for a new gift, so as well as closing, we will also be preparing for something new, remembering our interconnectedness and important part in life's intricate & surprising web as we go our separate ways."
Vigour shine through me
Strength sing through me,
Shine and sing
Through legs and arms,
Sing and shine through
Hands and feet:
So I will grow vigorous,
Will grow strong
In heart & head,
Vigorous and strong
In breath and speech.
- Rudolph Steiner
Labels: steiner days
the little merman
While hubby and the middle 3 kiddos ventured to The Big Smoke this weekend to help Nanma and Nandad move house, the rest of us went to... the beach :o)
It was a bit chilly to splash in the surf, so we ate strawberries and tracked footprints... footprints which went around and around in circles.. very funny!!!!!
Then D17 got all creative... 
sculpting M5 into a merman...
"Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..."(guess the movie line)
seeing double
after three months of agonising over various forms of eye surgery, wearing my contact lenses (feels like i've got sand in my eyes) alternately with my old one-lensed glasses...
i finally made the decision to get my specs fixed. huge relief. and now:
guess what arrived by courier this morning?? eye. can. see.
français friday
This is Paul Gauguin's Femmes de Tahiti ou Sur La Plage, painted in 1891.
I love the pasifika ambience.
Reflecting on his musings:
Life is like a song, you have to enjoy it while it plays because you never know if it will come on again.
How do you see this tree? Is it really green? Use green then, the most beautiful green on your palette. And that shadow, rather blue? Don't be afraid to paint it as blue as possible.
I shut my eyes in order to see.
Jeff Tracy's lil' machine..
Look who's definitely going through that *closed-eyes-cheesey-five-year- old-grin* stage at the mo:
M5 aka Jeff Tracy (who has spent all week designing plans for the Thunderbird Rockets he is going to make when he is a grown up) is *so* excited that a very speshal birthday delivery arrived this morning.. couriered all the way from The Motherland.... The British Racer .... woo hoo!!!!!!!! As we all dodged the z-o-o-m-i-n-g union jack, I overheard Jeff Tracy exclaiming to himself: "I LOVE my new car! It's MY car! I love it! It's got a 'mote control!!!"
F.A.B. Virgil...
5, 4, 3, 2, 1,
Thunderbirds are...GO!!!
Christmas Is All Around
I feel it in my fingers.. I feel it in my toes...
hmmmm... I s'pose 'tis the season for merry little bloggers to post their PAR-fectly decorated Christmas tree pix..
OK then, here's The Tree.
Last year, I was very bossy and we only had lights and twelve silver butterflies...
This year the kiddos wanted to stick *every* decoration on it .. we eventually decided on a silver-and-gold theme...
but of course, my butterflies still feature.. and yes, that is real snow around the bottom of the tree.
It's a tribute to the fabulous, festering Billy Mac, in my favourite Christmas movie:
So if you really love Christmas, come on and let it snow...
PANIC! at the Disco
Last night my vegas-va-va-voom-vampire-chick Mel and I went to her boss' fortieth party.. she had her gorgeous dress made for her... and she wore this luscious wig. (Mel is taking orders for jewellery... just LOOK at that necklace!!)
We danced and danced the night away..
I knew all the teeny-bopper-tunes...
BUT YOU, MEL, KNEW ALL THE WORDS !!!!!!!!
Just before pumpkin hour, as I was boogying on down, my "disco ball" pendant flew up and smashed a hole through my right lens.. and suddenly my eye was full of glass..
so we had a trip to A&E and various drops squirted in.. and glass slivers removed.
How infuriating, it's the second pair of glasses I've smashed in three months.
So now I am blindly trying to make a carefully considered decision between just getting some more specs..
or getting THAT surgery
... and trying to stay away from disco balls in the meantime.
français friday
La Tour Eiffel
she is dramatically, intricately beautiful n'est-ce pas?
and this is what she looks like close up...
oui, *giggle*.. cars, cones... beaucoup des gens!!!
Louise and James Bond aka hubby
R13 and April freezing, er floating down the river on tyres
J11 and me on a bushwalk
Blisterin' barnacles.. it's THE BARREL!!!!!
1-2-3... GO, S9 !!!!!!!!!!
WHEEEEE-e-e-e-e-e-EEEEE-ee-eeee-EEE-eeee!!!!!
R13 and April getting their *hot choc* fix
S9 and Christopher climbing the walls...
D17 and James aka Shades doin' the man hunter-gatherer-thang: boiling water for our fabulous campy macaroni cheese (with crispy bacon) lunch. M-m-m-m-m, we especially loved all the black bits!!!
