Warren & Suzanne's Wedding || Part 2 {Reception}

Apologies for these first images; tbh I didn't think of getting the camera out until speeches, and the camera threw a fit with the lighting (a.k.a. lack thereof). Oh and I basically stayed where I was so you get to see everyone's heads :P lol

: : Speeches : :
Groom + one groomsman gave speeches
All bridesmaids spoke
Nice job you guys! :)

: : Cutting the cake : :
{Ruffles + burlap}

: : Wedding Favours : :

: : Handwritten signs everywhere #love : :
{FYI, sparkler sendoff ran on homeschool time ;)}

: : Burlap : :

: : Above the bridal table : :

: : Table arrangements : :
I baked 200 brownies for the afternoon tea and got to take one of these beauties home. #score

: : Bouquet : :
Lovin' those beads!

: : Photo booth : :
Call me weird, but the hay everywhere smelt so good . . . #countrygirlatheart

: : Pinecones + glitter : :

: : Another table arrangement : :

: : The best table there ;) : :

And because I'm so awesome I completely forgot to get photos of us at our table etc. #fail But our table was fun. You'll just have to take my word for it. Caught up with some old friends too which was awesome. Stuck around to help with the clean up, then headed home. Except I was giving a friend a ride home and McDonald's is distracting. #midnightsnackandconvo

Wellington Adventure! || Part 1

Last month I spent a few days in Wellington visiting Nana while Uncle Bill and Aunty Melissa were away for a few days. Nana lives with them now, so I got to stay in their {flash} house! (Thanks for having me!!) Check out my room:

Aren't those curtains amazing? :D

I flew down late-afternoon Friday (hooray for an amazingly smooth flight and landing!), and Uncle Marty and Aunty Denise picked me up (thank you!). They stayed to have McDonald's with us left some wonderful donuts (anyone know of a Donut King in Auckland? :) )

On Saturday Uncle Marty, Aunty Denise and her sister, and Kurt (my cousin) dropped in for a while, followed by a visit later in the afternoon from one of Nana's cousins. Basically we had an easy day, and wrapped up the day with Ever After. :)

I got a ride to church on Sunday, and the new experience of staying at the church between services! Thankfully the time didn't drag, and soon I was back at Uncle Bill and Aunty Melissa's. Uncle Marty picked us up for dinner at his and Aunty Denise's place (a curry - yum!) and thus my second full-day in Wellington passed quickly.

Sorry about the quality,
I took this on Mum's phone.

On Monday Nana and I got the house in order, and soon Uncle Bill and Aunty Melissa arrived home. Loads of washing resulted from their trip, and I was at the washing line when the rumbling started. Yep, my first time feeling an earthquake. Where we live here in Auckland, the ground shakes slightly when trucks or trains pass us, so initially I thought a truck must be going passed. Only it carried on for longer than normal, and, well, the shed doesn't tend to rock back and forth! No damage to speak of where we were, only a few small things got knocked (er, rocked?) over. Not quite sure how the photo frames in the above pictures didn't fall down though! The 6.2-magnitude quake centred 10km north of Castlepoint, Wairarapa. I'm told we felt it much more strongly than most that hit down there, so it's surprising that we didn't feel any after-shocks!

After picking up Jesse from the kennels and having dinner, Uncle Bill pulled out a couple of his guitars for a jam session. (Why can't I play from memory yet?!) Afterwards we all watched Mt. Zion (That's an NZ movie, has anyone else seen it?).

Preparation for Holiday in Eltham - Thursday 22 December

Written 24th December


On Thursday, 22nd December, we were supposed to pack our bags and suitcases for going away the following day. As it happened, I was still sewing the clothes that I wanted to pack! Talk about cutting it close….man! Jarrod (12) had actually packed the previous day, so I got him to make Diana (6) a new skirt (Yes she needed new clothes badly!). I attempted to get Monique to finish a skirt she had started for Diana, but it would appear that she needs some more lessons before I tell her to just make a tiered skirt with limited help!

So I alternated between sewing and transferring some files to my new laptop. Actually I was sure there were more things I was doing, but I can’t think what!

Around 3pm we left to do some last-minute shopping (actually I only went because I needed a haircut, I had heaps of split ends and I just needed to get my hair tidied up). We didn’t make it to the hairdressers, but arrived home at 4pm, and no I actually hadn’t accomplished anything so would have been far better to stay home and continue my packing!

Anyway Mum left for her midwife appointment with Monique, and Dad took the rest of us to the mall so I could get my hair cut, while he took everyone else to McDonald’s. Yes , I needed my hair tidied up, but it kind of annoys me that I can’t seem to get my hair to grow longer and still look nice! Seriously, that was only the second time this year that I’ve actually had my hair cut, and it is definitely WAY shorter now than it was at the beginning of the year! On the way out I met a friend I haven’t seen in ages, Sara, with her Mum and Dad. =)

At home, Mum made dinner, while I replied to a couple of emails, watched part of the Little House on the Prairie DVD that my siblings were watching, and did some more sewing. After a TV dinner, I continued sewing, et cetera, and later on I played on my laptop at the same time…=) lol Dad also picked up the Burtons’ 12-seater.

Well, I finally finished packing my suitcase, and Mum packed everything into the Burtons’ van. Believe it or not, I eventually I made it to bed!

Inspire 2011 - Part 1

Ok so I havn't posted in AGES (sorry everyone..), and Inspire was ..let's see...in February..! So I'm not sure how much I'll be able to remember, but I'll have a crack at it anyway...


So on Friday 16th Feb, Anne Roos picked me up (Thanks!) and we went to the Sonnevelds,' where we had pizza before six of us girls (Anne Roos, Suzanne, Ruth, Esther, Emma Fussel and I) left for Ngaruawahia ,where we were all attending Inspire Girls Camp for the first time.
About 5 we stopped at McD's for dinner, before continuing on to the camp where we registered, found and set up our room, and said hi to the many people we knew.

Finally it was time to head to the main hall for the welcome, games, and a talk from Alana Dixon (recently married) about dating, courtship, and doing relationships God's way. Alana has a great sense-of-humour, and I'd be surprised if there was anyone who hadn't laughed by the end of her talk!

Then we watched a movie called Saving Sarah Cain before going to bed...where we talked/txt (*grin*) for ages...!

Sorry this post is kinda short, but the next one is really long to make up for it =)

Last week...Part 2...Saturday

Hey!

On Saturday, Dad, Jarrod and I got up at 2am - no I hadn't had any sleep! - and met a couple of other people from our athletics club at a local survo at 3, before heading down to Opotiki together for Paul's (one of our athletics coaches) funeral.
Well, the trip started with driving fairly(!) fast down the motorway in heavy rain -making it hard to see Terry's car in front, that we were following- and later on there was heaps of flooding, and a couple of accidents, that slowed us down.
We got through some decent flooding, but a bit further on it was to deep to go through, so we went all the way back, and around a bit, to another road that was to take us to our destination, and came to this:

 
 Those pics were taken out my window! Can  you see the tops of the fences?!



As the water was fairly deep right across the road, we stopped, unsure whether it was safe to cross or not.
The traffic (or whatever) people that were there, said 4WD's and trucks could go through, but no one else, although after that a heap of vans, and small cars were coming through from the other side.
Not long after a whole lot of tankers turned up on our side, so we (or the others, I had stayed in the car the whole time) made fort the cars, and followed them across.


Terry's 4WD in front of us - see how much water there is?



This is just outside my window as we drove through!

Anther pic out my window



Here you can see my door, as well as the floods

  After driving through the above, we uneventfully made our way to the Marae - where the funeral was.
Soo.. when we got there we stood outside, because apparently you have to be invited in... well we weren't there for too long b4 we followed everyone else to the cemetary - after returning our handbags to our cars, as you're not allowed them in the burial ground.., and walking through more water..uggh!
Well standing around the grave was a bit tearful, but otherwise ok, listening to people say stuff, sing songs in Maori, put flowers on top of the coffin (not sure why, but we found that  a little scary, so did it in 'teams' of two!, and one guy played a guitar (yes, I did notice that it was purple...!)
Anyway, when leaving the burial groud we had to wash our hands, and spray water on our faces.

The Marae, taken from the car as we were leaving.
Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera up with me.

Then, after getting (badly) sunburnt, we all went back to the Marae, wher we talked for a couple of hours before the food (a whole meal) was ready. It consisted of about three different types of meat, pumpkin, kumura and potatoes (off the top of my head), various sauces, etc in the middle of the tables, fizzy drinks, and, if you wanted it, dessert, which was also in the middle of the table so you could help yourself.

Not long after that we all headed for our cars and left. I dozed, and hoped Dad wasn't doing the same! I think it was in Matamata that we stopped at McDonald's, for drinks and a snack. From there we all separately made our way home.

Not sure what we did for the rest of the evening, but funnily enough I didn't go to bed very early!

Luv Bee