My Sweet 16th :)

I wanted a memorable celebration for my sixteenth this year, and initially I thought something 'big'. Time slipped away on me though (and I couldn't really think of anything...), so we didn't actually finish organising this until the day before it all took place! 

In the end, the Sonnevelds came to our place around 12:30, and we piled into our people-mover {which I cleaned the night before - go me! :P} to pick up Middy and Becks before heading out to the Hunua Falls/Ranges.

Because we didn't end up having enough time for a long walk, we just went to the falls and then up to the lookout. Afterwards we got the food out of the car and headed for one of the picnic tables. Despite being somewhat gloomy, the weather held up throughout the afternoon, allowing us to enjoy ourselves without getting drenched!

Middy had previously committed to something else later in the afternoon, so dropped her home, then went to Manna Christian Bookstore while we waited for Anne Roos to be ready (she flew back to Auckland that afternoon), at which point we met her at Tenpin Manukau.

Two games later a tired lot of us came back to my place for the rest of the evening. 

While we had been all over town, my mum and siblings had been busy getting the house ready for us to arrive. They made beef casserole for dinner, along with dessert and cake (which we didn't end up icing or eating...oops!). They also pulled out our second dining table and set it up in the lounge for us {since you can't exactly fit five extra people around one!}. 

After dinner and dessert we claimed the lounge suite to watch Saving Sarah Cain. The food leftover from afternoon tea was completely forgotten but near the end we remembered the drinks ;)

By then end of the movie it was 10-ish and time for home and bed.

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This was actually from another day;
it's the mud cake I made and decorated myself.
Yep, tough stuff making my own birthday cake! lol

Gifts from my family

Gifts from friends
See, 16 really is sweet!!!! :P :P

 

Essie's 15th Birthday

 

The awesome pressie I gave Es.
I was trying for a vintage look, and no, the fact that we didn't
 have much gift wrap didn't have anything to do with it!!! :P
I think next time I'll make sure I have plain  black-and-white
 paper for the flower, and maybe use tea  to
give the paper a brownish-yellow colour.

 After the airport on Tuesday, Mum took someone for a doctor's visit, Monique and Jarrod had a violin lesson, at some stage we had lunch, and then we rushed off to my orthodontist appointment. After that (I think) we picked up some packaging for Dad, and finally, we headed out to the Sonnevelds'. I was going for Essie's birthday that evening, and my mum and siblings had been invited for afternoon tea (which, by the way, was VERY exciting for my little siblings!).

When we arrived, I helped Es out with the massive amount of baking she was doing for that night; by the time we were done with that, the rest of my family was leaving, and Suzanne, Esther, and I were going to play a game. Just as we were starting to play, Es thought she'd better work out when we'd need to start dinner in order to have it ready on time.

Ever-exciting chocolate!!!

As it happened, we ended up leaving the game and making dinner! Neither of us were familiar with marinating meat, so were unaware that the process should have been started hours earlier! We ended up calling on Suzanne to use her cooking skills (she's done classes at MIT) to help us.
 

Ruthie posing...

Finally we were just about finished preparing the food, and the expected arrival of two more friends was fast approaching. Es, Ruth (who'd just arrived home from a run) and I started taking various items for the evening out to the flat (above their double garage). I wouldn't have been overly surprised if someone had told me there was laughing gas in the air right about then! 'Hyper' would have described us quite well when Becks and Middy arrived!

Hungry? lol this was our dessert

We finished transferring everything we could think of from the house to the flat, and started cooking the meat. Soon we sat down, and our hunger was evidenced by our somewhat sudden silence.

Dinner was soon finished, and we made quick work of the dishes before preparing our desserts, and sitting down with them to watch The Ultimate Gift, one of Esther's birthday presents.

watching a movie

I think we all enjoyed the movie, despite its many sad  moments. At some point we paused it to get Fanta and lollies (we decided to forget the muffins, yummy as they looked!). I forget why, but for some reason some of us had to go back to the house - wow was it COLD outside!! A few days before it had still seemed like summer, now it was FROSTY!

on the way home =)



Once the movie finished, we restored the flat to its former state, and piled into the car for the trip home. Spirits were high during the drive, and before long we were returned to our own homes, thus ending our awesome evening! (Of course, I get to relive it, at least to some extent, while I write this! =))



Dinner with the Sonnevelds



Monique (11), Ruth (16), Bee (15), Essie (14)
The pavlova we made -yummy!

The Sonnevelds invited us to go to their place for dinner after our visit to the Botanical Gardens. Of course, we weren't about say no! haha After the Botanical Gardens, we came home to get the washing off the line, feed the animals, and all that. Then we went to the Sonnevelds'... Ruth and Es were cooking, and Monique and I joined them (many hands make light work! Well actually, I think it's more the talking, but anyway...).

So...for dinner we had potato wedges, samosas and spring rolls, peas and corn, carrots, and coleslaw.

Pavlova!!!

Everyone ate well at dinner, so it was a unanimous vote to wait with dessert!  That gave us time to do the dishes and finish preparing dessert...

For dessert we made pavlova (or actually, I think Es made it, we just helped put the topping on), and fruit salad (yep we made that too).

 After dessert, Mum and Mrs. Sonneveld did the dishes, and we four girls went upstairs with the guitars...actually we'd planned to play Bible Trivia (as we'd had fun playing it the day before!), but we actually didn't get that far!

Mum announced all to soon that it was time to leave!

Botanical Gardens Visit



Diana (6), Bryce (4), Amy (8), and Joanna (5)

On Good Friday, while my Dad and Mr. Sonneveld were away on a father/son camp with Jarrod and Samuel, we invited the rest of the Sonnevelds to go for a walk at the Botanical Gardens with us. I'm not sure when I last went, but I know it was a LONG time ago!

yeah..Ruth and Es pushed the stroller..
thanks btw =)

It was a beautiful (and fairly warm) day, we had an awesome time hanging out...and taking pics...oh and afternoon tea is always good too...!! lol

Nice pic Essie, you could just about be a photographer!

Essie and me...

Another one of Essie's awesome pics!



Diana and Joanna



Essie and Me



Ruth and Me



Ruth, Essie, and me...oops I think the sun was too bright!



Essie, me, Ruth & Laura out the front of the visitor centre

Sorry, just HAD to post this!!!



And this...=D



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 =)