Uncle Pete & Aunty Louise's Wedding || Set II

{Again, photos in this post are courtesy of Mum -- edited by me}

: : Three de Boers :) : :

: : Flower girl : :

: : Grandmothers : :
(Bride's side)

: : Hey Kayger -- another pic of me :P haha : :

: : Showing his servant's spirit ;) lol : :

: : Trying to leave?! : :

Bryce's Birthday Party

Despite my good intentions, the planning for Bryce's birthday party got left to the last minute. With a team effort (and a day without school work!) we managed to pull it off quite nicely, I think!

On the day preceding the party, we went to several shops, purchasing the needed items for games and lunch, wrapped the pass the parcel, decorated the house, and made some of the food. Meanwhile, Mum dropped Jarrod off at technology to finish his project (which didn't quite make the last day of class the afternoon before), and picked up the de Boers' two Maltese dogs to look after since their owners were away. (Well, all except for Dieuwe, and he had to work all day, and was going to be out late that night so it would be good for the dogs to come here, see some people and get some exercise.)  

The morning of the party, none of us were up as early as we should have been, so we had a fast-paced two or three hours, cleaning the house, finishing the games (i.e. spread two bags of chocolate bars through the sandpit), and preparing the food. Unfortunately this party lacked much of the baking which usually characterizes any party I organise! 

The day before the party, we knew of only one family who planned to attend, however despite that, we ended up with a good turnout! 

 : : Lunch was somewhat late in coming, but hopefully it was worth the wait! : :

: : Unwrapping lots of cool presents - thanks everyone! : :

After reading this post on the Wissmanns' blog, I felt inspired to try my own hand at piping chocolate to put on a cake. (Historically, icing cakes hasn't exactly been my speciality.) And no, this isn't an ice cream cake; one new thing at a time, right? Maybe next time . . .! I printed a stencil (search Google images for a colouring picture lol) of the train, and also the text. We didn't have any wax paper so I substituted with baking paper, taping it to the bench, with my printed paper underneath. I melted chocolate buttons, and piped them through a plastic bag. Then the paper went into the freezer until I was ready to put the chocolate onto the cake. Overall, I was quite pleased. Next time though, I think I'll put the paper onto some kind of tray in the freezer; pipe the chocolate thicker - I had trouble with it cracking; and do the text cursive, so they're all joined together. It was a bit awkward having so many small, delicate pieces and I was glad I had two sets of the text!

: : Singing Happy Birthday : :

Visitors for dinner

Note: I'm unsure of the actual date I wrote this...
~~~~~~~~~
 We invited the de Boer family to come to our place for dinner tonight, the 5th of May.



Most of the day was filled with the usual ‘Saturday things’: cleaning, vacuuming, washing, ironing. And I actually managed to bake(!), I made 5 Star Chocolate Chip Cookies and a couple of chocolate cakes. Later on Mum put the roast on, Danielle made a self-saucing chocolate pudding for dessert, and Dad organised seating for everyone. (Yes, our family alone fills our table, when extended, so we pulled in the table from outside for the little ones to sit at.)


They arrived, and after some conversation, we all sat down to enjoy our meal. One table seemed to express their enjoyment more vocally than the other!


The dessert mix hadn’t looked quite right while being made, and it didn’t look nearly cooked when it had five minutes to go. So, Mum decided to use plan B – tinned fruit, ice cream, and the red velvet cake Anne Roos had brought.


After dessert had been consumed, my siblings brought out their certificate albums and various history projects to show Amie (Dieuwe’s girlfriend). Dad brought out drinks (go Coca-Cola! Lol), and Mum reminded me to take some photos for my blog (how could I forget?!).


All to soon, goodbyes were said, our guests left, and bath time began for my siblings (Think: Noise and chaos! Haha) More housework (dishes and folding) was done, and finally it is now bed time...G’night! =)


PS: I’m kinda tired now, so hopefully this piece isn’t entirely void of sense! :P

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

Meet and Greet

From 2-4pm on March 24th, all of us but Mum, Maria, and Laura, went to the de Boers' place to meet our minister's family, who had arrived from America the day before.
I was kinda sleepy, but it was nice to meet them!

The little ones were very taken with Snowy, Dieuwe's maltese puppy. (Sorry I just realised I don't have any pics of Snowy!)

And...Amelia Smith (5yrs) was very excited to lose her first tooth that afternoon! See if you can spot the gap in the pic:

Ok so I suppose I should introduce them a bit...

Mr. Smith is Texan, the eldest of 7 children, and was homeschooled.
Mrs. Smith is Canadian, one of 4 children (sorry can't remember where she is in the lineup!), and was also homeschooled.
The met through the church (The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland), and now have 4 children: Amelia (or Amy) 5yrs, Aaron (4rs), Owen (2yrs), and Keith (4 months).
You can read their blog here.

Guy Fawkes!

Sorry everyone, I think this is in the wrong order..
------------
Friday (4th I'm afraid, we had our celebration a day early) saw us doing (a little) school work, going to the orthadontist to have my braces tightened - my new colours are black, purple, and green, I usually only have two colours, so my orthadontist had to concentrate to get the pattern right lol! and popping into a couple of places on the way home. In the afternoon I did a fair bit of ironing and all the folding.
After dinner we went searching for suitable going-out clothing for everyone, and tidied hair. When we were finally ready (well it didn't actually take that long but anyway...!) we piled everyone into the van, and left for the de Boer's house (friends from church).
After arriving, we talked for a while, until everyone else arrived, then had dessert - trifle, a dutch cake, ice cream, and other nice-tasting things; I think it was all made by Mrs de Boer.

Once dark, we started the fireworks:

So what do you think is louder, the fireworks or my screaming siblings?? haha! =D
I hope the cars were ok afterwards...you know those fireworks that people hold while they fire? Well they were being fired towards some of the vehicles...above them though... =) lol!

Anyway after the fireworks were all used, we went inside to eat chocolote *grin* and talk...and, by the way, for those of you who were there, Dad kind of embellished his stories about my driving...haha! =D

We left just before 11, with a van-load of tired and slightly short-tempered people!

"Remember, Rember,

the Fifth of November,

Gunpowder, Treason, and Plot,

I See No Reason,

Why Gunpowder and Treason,

Should Ever Be Forgot"

Sorry I don't know who that's by, and no I don't like poetry...haha =D



Guy Fawkes / Fireworks

Hey everyone,

On Friday 6th November (this post is a bit late, I know!) we had a potluck dinner and fireworks in celebration of Guy Fawkes day, the previous day at the de Boer's house - dutch friends of ours.

There was a variety of food for dinner some being nachos (how's my spelling??), scalloped potatoes and potato salad.

I'm afraid I have a much better memory for dessert!!: Pavlova, trifle, 3(?) different flavours of ice cream, mud cake/choc fudge pudding?, some dutch desserts, etc.

The de Boer's have a 'Wii.' So, of course everyone wanted to have a turn on it.

They have a sports 'thing' with boxing, tennis, tenpin bowling, etc, and Mario Carts.

They also have table tennis, which some of us played. I hadn't played before, and found that I was a little forceful (?) with my batting, so the ball would hit the wall and bounce back to me, or land on the

floor, completly missing the table!!!

The 'Wii' (In photo from left to Right: Aaron, Auke, Jarrod)

No, I am NOT sucking my thumb! I'm playing with my braces, which could have something to do with the bracket that got knocked off!

Once it was dark we started doing the fireworks.

The 'mothers' or 'ladies' stayed inside and watched from the balcony and lounge-room above, and/or talked.

Watching the Fireworks Blake (1yr 7mths)

Below are a couple of videos of the fireworks.

The soccer ball came out after fireworks. Everyone was amazed at how far Bryce could kick it! Unfortunately he woulden't throw it for us, because he is really good at that too!

It was fairly late when we left, at the end of an enjoyable evening.

Seeya later, or a newer way of putting it,

Cya L8R!!!,

Bee