Family BBQ

It isn't often that we have family from out of town and out of the country all here at once! When that did happen for Mum's birthday we made sure to look for plenty of opportunities to spend time together. The day after the party we all met for a BBQ (food is always good, right?).

Church Picnic at Cornwall Park



Left to right: Maria (2), Mum, Mrs. Smith & Keith,
Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. de Boer

My dad organised a church picnic/BBQ at Cornwall Park for lunch on ANZAC Day.
Only a few of us went - the Smiths, de Bruins, de Boers, Mrs. Campbell, and us.
Personally I found it a bit cold (when isn't NZ cold tho!?) but the sun was nice!! lol

So yeah we had food (hehe the best part!), walked with the little ones to the hill you can see in the center of the photo on the left a few times, talked(!), later Mrs. Campbell, the de Boers, de Bruins, my dad, Monique, and Bryce left. Mr. Smith went to his car to prepare for the service that night, and took Amelia with him because she was really tired! The remainder of us went for a walk around One Tree Hill.

Dieuwe de Boer and his girlfriend Amie,
with my lil' sis Laura



Ok so my hair looks like the wind's been at it,
but otherwise I kinda like this photo!



Anne Roos and me



Anne Roos's dog Teasle



Amelia and Diana



Walking

Day After New Years Day ~ Part 2

Hey again everyone =)

So to get straight into it...We arrived home late in the afternoon, and a bit tired. Instead of relaxing, however, we began preparations for a New-Year-barbeque at my cousins' place.



Playing a game - I know there must be a name for this, but I forget
what it is. (Sorry!) So basically we picked the name of a book, movie, etc,
drew a dash for each letter of the title, and began drawing a picture on the chalk
board, which helped everyone guess the title. Hope that makes some sense...I'm really tired!




Here is Monique's (10yrs) picture, sorry I don't remember what the title was.




Diana (6yrs), Megan (5yrs), and Bryce (4yrs) enjoying their desserts. =)




My cousin Megan

 Okay so this isn't exactly a massive long report like I would have liked, but hey, you got to see some pics anyway =) lol

Stratford - Day 6 - Wednesday December 28th

Written January 4th.

On Wednesday, December 28th, our second day at the campground in Stratford, I slept in (surprised? lol! =)) and Mum did some washing.

And it may come to me later, but right now I don't have the slightest clue about what we did all day!

Yay I remembered: Dad took Nana to the hospital (which was like an hour or something away so they were gone for ages), and Mum took the rest of us to check out the shops in Stratford. Most of them are little Asian shops and stuff, no major chains or anything. Diana and Bryce bought backpacks, I got a new lip gloss, and a wooden make-it-yourself Eiffel Tower...which is usually for little kids...so yeah anyway not sure where I'll put it yet! I think everyone else got a couple of little things.

However at one stage we must have done some shopping, and in the evening Uncle Mike, Aunty Sonia, Nana and Lucus came for a bbq. The campground gave us the key for the big, nice, new, silver bbq! well ok I guess the food doesn't taste any different just because the bbq looks nice, but anyway! lol =D

After dinner we pulled out our new chocolate fondue fountain (Thanks Uncle Bill and Aunty Melissa!) to try with the strawberries we'd been given. The fountain worked fine, but melting the chocolate buttons was interesting! We don't actually have a microwave, and consequently most of us aren't that great at using one. So I put the choc buttons in for 2 minutes, but didn't even think of pulling them out to mix them! Yeah...you get the idea! Uncle Mike, the baker, came to the rescue though... =)

And that was about it for that day! Wow this post is a bit shorter than most of my previous ones...lol!

Au revoir =)

Hi Again...

Hi again everyone,

Sorry I haven't posted in ages =(

Last Saturday we had a BBQ with our church at Cornwall Park/One Tree Hill.

I have been making skirts (straight elasticated ones) for the girls, and today we bought fabric so I can make purple net curtains, and some of the fabric for purple drapes...I'll be busy...lol

This morning I had my first flute lesson for the year. It was supposed to be 10am, but me being me turned my alarm clock off, and didn't wake again until about 9:25, and of course, Mum being Mum, she had entirely forgotten about it.. so completely freaked when I asked if she had looked at the time recently...lol
So anyway she rung my teacher, and changed the time to 10:30am.. which thankfully we were on time for... =)
Next week's lesson is set for 11am, and hopefully we will be up in time!
We played a few duets - me playing flute (obviously!) and my teacher accompanying me on the piano..oh man, I didn't really need the reminder about how much I want to play piano.....
Yes, my teacher plays more than just flute - piano, oboe, recorder, ...and a few that I can't remember..!

Tonight was also supposed to be the first night (for the second half of the season) for athletics...but it has been raining and windy all day...so that got post-poned to tomorrow night...
Anyway it was fun having our friends the Sonnevelds' come over for an hour and a half to talk instead =)

WOW!!! I can't believe it's already tomorrow night that my friend Bethany arrives from Australia for ten days!!!! =)

Well I'm gonna leave it at that for now,
Luv,
Bee

26th --Boxing Day--

On Boxing Day, Dad went to the zoo with Uncle Bill, Aunty Melissa, Olivia, Harry, Aunty Sonia and Lucus.
Since it was a Sunday, Mum played a sermon on tape, and we basically did church at 'home' - the lounge in the backpacker hostel.

This isn't a particularly great picture of the lounge, but its
about the best I've got, there are more couches and chairs to
the left.

After lunch Mum decided we should go for a walk through the bush, to which there was an entry about 200m from the windows you can see in the above photo.

The walk turned into a run for some of the children, as they tried to find the best spot for a photo of them.

Just as we were leaving the bush, Dad arrived back.
Dad said we would go to Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia's for dinner, along with the rest of the extended family.
So Mum organised afternoon tea and we got ready to go.

For dinner and dessert we had a bbq, leftovers from the day before, and someone had made a couple of jellies.
We all talked late that night, and were quite tired when we got back to the campground.

Ok, I can't seem to upload any more photos at the moment, but keep an eye out cos I will put some on when I can.
Bee