I Have No Idea What Was Happening Here . . .

To Wellington || The Drive

In March of this year my uncle got married in Wellington, so we made the trip down for the first time in a few years! We were a little unsure about how the drive down would go, since we hadn't done it for some time and we had several children for whom this would be the first time. It went surprisingly well though, with only four or so stops(?) and fairly content children. 

Over the years we've often stopped for lunch in Taupo, but this time we opted to continue travelling while I made lunch and handed it around to everyone. Too bad we didn't get any photos; they would have come out interesting! The day before I had made rolls in the breadmaker and (organised the others to) put all the fillings - cut, washed, etc. - into ziplock bags, so I just had to assemble everything.

: : Coffee stop! : :

: : Laura needed to get out of her carseat for a bit, and when she got out she was really excited. : :
She sat here for ages laughing, clapping, playing with Dad and then jumping.

: : Scenery out my window : :

: : Mangaweka : :
Anyone remember this off eDrive? lol 

: : Love this signpost in Bulls!! : :

So glad to arrive at Paekakariki Holiday Park fairly early so we didn't have to set the tent up in the dark! And hooray for pre-made bacon and egg pies that just have to be heated. ;)

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Danielle's Birthday {11yrs}

Here's a photo recap of our family "gift-giving session" for Danielle's birthday:

Each of us down to Diana has one assigned night per week to cook dinner;
hence cookbooks have made it to our gift lists. :)

It may be Danielle's birthday, but the presents intrigue several children.

Random . . .

Happy Birthday, Danielle!

For all those with whiney children . . .

Call the Wambulance!

Hahahaha! :D

Day 2 ~ Tuesday

On Tuesday morning, children began to wake up all too early considering the time we went to bed the night before. With us all in such close proximity, there isn’t much chance of sleeping for long once people start getting up!

We spent most of the day at the campground, setting and tidying things up. I did some school work (yeah, I brought some down with me), tried to play our ¾ size nylon-string guitar – which is seriously out of tune and I didn’t bring my tuner :/, watched Dr. Wile’s Where are they now? session from the 2011 Science by Design Conference in Auckland – it was the one session I didn’t go to when I attended the conference; but maybe I should have gone, because it was really interesting. Then again, there ended up being HEAPS of different talks at that conference, and no doubt all of them would have been good! This session was about homeschool graduates, and what they were doing in life as young adults; how homeschooling affected their lives later on; and, as Dr. Wile loves to do, refuting common misconceptions about homeschooling. Oh yes, and I better not forget the statistics he said the scientist in him wouldn’t allow him to leave out of the talk!

After dinner we went for a walk, bought trumpets {and I bought a study help to go with my school work . . . caramello chocolate :D}, and went to the beach. Of special interest to me was that all the telephone boxes down here provide free wifi!!

PS: More photos to come as I've just found I don't have as many as I thought I did :(

Mum's Birthday

: : Present from Maria : :

On each of our birthdays, Mum makes us a 'birthday dinner' (in past years we have chosen what to have, this year Mum just made something she knew we liked), dessert, a cake, and gifts (everyone gets to give something). For the last few years, I arranged something for Mum's birthday. This year, though, her birthday fell on a Wednesday, meaning I was at work, so Monique decided to coordinate something (as a surprise for Mum), with help from the little ones. Dad and I received numerous emails and calls throughout the day, with various questions. I received one email asking, "Bianca, how do I hide the emails from you so Mum doesn't see them?" A call involved talking to me from a bedroom, hiding the phone and running to the kitchen to check the instructions on the roast chicken packet, then back again to the room to tell me what they were. I think the girls learnt a lot that day (lol) but they did quite well, considering. :)

After work, Dad and I made a rush trip to several shops to buy presents. Then came the task of smuggling them inside and getting them wrapped, at the same time dodging children who wanted me to help with dinner and make dessert.

(Mostly) The girls made a roast chicken, roast potatoes, veggies, and gravy; for dessert I made blueberry crumble cake. When Danielle called me earlier in the day, I told her to make a quadruple batch of chocolate cake and put it in a large dish. Unfortunately, I didn't think to specify to use the one egg chocolate sponge recipe, so she followed the one titled chocolate cake. Basically, one dozen eggs were used, instead of four individual eggs. lol.

: : New cake server! : :

: : Presents : :

We gave Mum her presents after dinner, then had dessert. The cake had been made at the last minute so wasn't out of the oven until quite late; we left it for another night.

: : Blowing out the candles : :

Monique's Pressents



Lined up to watch and participate in the
gift-giving ceremony!



We gave Monique her pressents on April 7th. We had planned to do them sooner, but we didn't have many until then, and in fact we still didn't have them all! But one of them had a fast-approaching expiry date, so we couldn't wait any longer! lol



Pressent from Maria (2yrs)





Enthusiastic hug for Diana! (6yrs)





Hug for Mummy...




New handbag





Who doesn't get excited over chocolate? lol

So...she got....a Bubbly chocolate bar (which Bryce had already sampled...but that's another story!), a handbag, mud cake (!) (yeah that's the one I mentioned previously! It worked well for the rest of us, cos we all got to help eat it!!! haha), a gift card to choose her own watch, and SS necklace with CZ, 2 Winnie the Horse Gentler books, chocolate edition Scrabble, horse stickers, and a smiggle mechanical pencil.

And I hadn't manage to find anything I really wanted to give her (as had happened with Danielle), so I gave her an Urban Angel top and a Toblerone, at a later date. =)

That's one great thing about having a higher-than-normal number of children(!), it means more pressents, because everybody gets to give one!!! haha :P

Day After New Year's Day Part 1

Just so you know, my title is derived from the calendar...!

So anyway, this particular day counted as busy for us. First off was all the normal housework that needs to be done after the weekend (fun stuff!), then after various necessary preparations, we all piled into the Burtons' van (yes, Mum had refrained from returning it so we could use it for this visit!), and headed for the Campbells' place. Jarrod is friends with the Campbell boys, so our family and the Shellings' were invited to go over for lunch and a few games, in celebration of Seth's 13th birthday. We weren't the only ones running on homeschool time, so somehow, we managed to arrive before the Shellings(!). Well, ok, they do have 10 children, and the eldest is only 11, so I suppose I'll let them off...lol! Actually, Mrs. Campbell and Nathan hadn't yet arrived back from dropping off the Porsche they'd had overnight...so the timing worked out fine in the end!

Once everyone had arrived, we all had lunch, following which Mrs. Campbell got the games started. The adults, very young children, and I just sat talking for a while. We needed to leave by a certain time, so finally we rounded everyone up for birthday cake, and lastly, a group photo:

Sorry, can't give you the names as I don't know them all....! But Mr. and Mrs. Campbell are in the top lefthand corner, my parents on the left, and Mr. and Mrs. Shellings on the right.

ATI Conference (Part 1)

Finished 17th January.

Last year we went to ATI Regionals for the first time. It was held on Friday 22th and Saturday 23th July, at the Manukau New Life Church on Jellicoe Road.
We somehow managed to get up and arrive there on time(!)  to register - 9am.

Worship and notices were at 9:30, then the children all left for the children's program, which on the Friday was held at Manurewa Bible Church (Manukau New Life had a double booking so there wasn't space for the children there that day).

At 10 o'clock we listened to Steve Dulin speak: Put Everything Under God's Control.
Some of my notes from this talk:
"If A = B and B = C then A = C

A: You shall love your neighbour as yourself
B: You shall love your neighbours as I (Jesus) have loved you
C: Love yourself as Jesus has loved you"

"We can change the world if we love the world"

Morning tea was at 11am; attendees brought plates of food for snack times.

At 11:30 we listened to Dr. Bill Gothard speak on The Overlooked Secret of Personal Rhemas.

I have a lot of notes from Dr. Gothard's talk, however they're not making much sense even to me anymore!
But, did you know that every chapter in Isaiah is a commentary on a book of the Bible?

Then it was lunch time - 12:30 to 1:45. Mum and I picked everyone up from Manurewa Bible Church, and went home for lunch, after which we dropped them back at the church for the rest of the children's program that day.

On arriving back, we were able to talk for a few minutes before going in to the next session - The Rewards of Serving God and The Pain of Loving Money, by Tom Harmon.
My notes are just about nil for this talk, but I should note that Mr. Harmon is very interesting to listen to, as he is quite, well, animated!

Afternoon tea break was at 2:45.

Continue to Part 2....

December 23

Hi Again everyone,

Well, I'm going to start posting about our trip to Wellington with the day before we left.

Mum got the packing for most of the other children done before I got up, then some of us (Danielle and Diana went to our cousins house)  went shopping for the last few gifts, and anything else we needed to get before going away.
When we got home, I wrapped my pressents, and Mum and Dad packed their clothing and picked up to Burtons' 12 seater Nissan Caravan which they had offered to loan us for our trip since we no longer fit in our 8-seater!
Eventually, (and with a lot of help =) ) Mum and Dad decided to get Fish and Chips for dinner (well actually I had 2 Big Ben pies..).
After dinner it was already quite late, so Mum put the children to bed, and I started my packing.
Once we had all the bags packed, Mum put them all in the van, and I directed Monique on how to make lunch for the next day (so we can don't have to stop for lunch, and just eat it in the van), and helped get all the extra bits and pieces and put them in the van. Oh, and I 'helped' Mum decide where everyone should sit.
Monique and Jarrod were sent to bed not long after that (although they weren't very impressed about it!) and Mum went to put Maria to bed while I finished getting all the food, cutlery, etc....that we would need both for the trip down, and for staying in a backpacker hostel.
I got to bed quite late in the end, and probably only had about 4 hours sleep.

Bee

Girls Rally Breakup

Monique (8) attends girls rally.
They had a break-up night on ???? last year.

Everyone did a quiz, gaining or losing points depending on whether they got right or wrong answers.
I think Everyone enjoyed that!

Then one of the Dads (I think???) gave a talk about being a policeman and a christian.

Then the girls sung some 'Come into His Presence' song as a round, which sounded pretty good.

Then the best part - a HUGE supper!!!

Then we took a van - load of tired and grumpy children home to bed!!!

Time for the next post,

Bye,

Bee