Christmas Photos

Down here in New Zealand we don't do the holiday Christmas photo, and send it out to everyone, but I still wanted to take some photos of the kids. It's hard coming up with a theme as it's summer here, and kids with hot chocolate, cute pj's, etc don't quite fit in. Maybe next year I should put tinsel on the BBQ, they can wear shorts, t-shirts, jandals, and hold onto some sausages.  

So on Christmas Eve I was stringing up stars, and taking photos. There is so much more that I wanted to do - take some video, more stars, better poses etc etc, but ran out of time. But saying that I'm really happy with what I got. I also put the photos into a short video, which the kids loved.

One of the bribes I used to get them in front of the camera, was they could open some Christmas Crackers.

I also got some different coloured glitter to blow.  Emme didn't quite get the hang of it, but Mason was really good.

My Baking Buddy

Even after having trees around the house cut down, my kitchen is still quite dark, small and cluttered. I do dream of a nice modern clean Pinterest kitchen with perfect light, but alas it is what it is. My Mum has a beautiful white modern kitchen with lots of light and windows, and I do take the kids around there when we make gingerbread men at Christmas to take photos.

So…I was getting ready to bake my nieces 16th birthday cake when my daughter asked if she could help. Cake decorating is also a hobby, and I can get a little OCD on how things are done.

But this time I said yes, and how can you say no when she comes out in her cute little apron and Hello Kitty whisks.

I’m happy to report there were no egg shells in the mixture, most of the flour went in the pot, and as per usual when it came to clean up time she was nowhere to be seen.

Still mixing everything together with her Hello Kitty whisk.

I told her that she could make cupcakes from the left over cake batter.

The butter has melted, and mixing everything this time with the big whisk.

All mixed together, and in the cupcake liners.

This is when she disappears and I'm left to do all of the cleanup...hmmmm

Summer Beach Holiday

The kids love the beach, so it was an easy decision to spend our summer holiday at the beach.  This year we stayed in a cabin at Fitzroy Beach in New Plymouth.  It’s a great campground, with our cabin less than 20 meters from the beach.  We all loved the beach and campground,  and will definitely be going back again.

When we arrived on the first day, it was cloudy and overcast.  The kids quickly ran down to the beach to have a look.  They had to be careful as there were quite a few blue bottle jellyfish that had come in with the tide.  Luckily we had brought them some beach shoes, so they didn’t get stung.

There was no one swimming when we first arrived in the morning, maybe the blue bottles kept them away.  The overcast day was perfect for reflection photos.

Day Two

The kids were up early, racing down to the beach to have another splash around.  It was another overcast morning, so more reflection photos.  Mason also took down his skimming board that he got for his birthday to try out. Luckily the blue bottles were all gone, and we only saw one or two for the rest of the holiday.

We headed into the city centre for lunch, and then to the foreshore walkway. Along the walkway they had the Te Kupenga International Stone Sculpture Symposium.  Sculptors from across the world, and New Zealand were making sculptures from the local volcanic rock.  It was a scorching hot day, and they must have been sweltering under the midday sun in their protective gear.

Scootering back to the car past the Len Lye wind wand.

Day Three

Each afternoon the sun would appear from under the clouds and it would turn into a hot day.  The kids enjoyed boogie boarding in the sea, and would spend hours surfing the waves.

The next two days were spent at the beach boogie boarding, and enjoying the waves.  On the last morning I got up early, and walked along the foreshore walkway to the Te Rewa Rewa bridge.  I got there just as the sun was rising, and luckily there was no cloud covering the mountain.  On my next blog post I will share the pictures of the bridge.

My first attempt at making a Gingerbread House

Each year it is a Hancock family tradition to make and decorate gingerbread men to leave out for Santa.  This year as the kids are older I thought we could also make gingerbread houses to decorate as well.

As I didn’t have cutters for the house I found some templates on line and printed these out to use.  We went around to my Mum’s house again to do the baking and decorating as her kitchen is bigger, and nice and light to take some photos in.

The kids had fun rolling out the dough and making the gingerbread men and houses.  As this was the first time we had made gingerbread houses I decided to let them decorate the house, and then put it together at the end.  We did one house, and they had half each to decorate.

They love the decorating part, putting on different sorts of lollies to make windows and doors.   Once they had finished the house, they started on their gingerbread men.  Emme went for the pink and girly look, while Mason tried to make his look like zombies!!

I then started to build the house…..and this is when things started to go downhill!!!  I used royal icing and glued the house together, and it lasted only long enough to take some quick photos before falling into a heap.  If I had been at home I would have grabbed one of the kids dinosaurs, and put it in the middle and blamed it on the dinosaur!!!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and next year I will have a better plan.

1.       Research, research and research

2.       Overcook each piece and leave overnight so they are rock hard

3.       Glue each piece and leave to dry before adding the next piece…yes, hindsight is a great thing

4.       Or….buy a premade house, and not have to worry about steps 1,2 and 3.

So I have a year to plan the gingerbread house, fingers crossed for better luck than.

Mason having fun decorating his gingerbread.

Emme having fun with the decorating

The 2 minute gingerbread house.....

All I want for christmas is my two front teeth!!

In the space of 3 days Little Miss M lost her top and her bottom front tooth. Her top one had been wiggly for weeks and she wouldn't let anyone pull it out.  She's definitely a lot happier now that she can eat without sore wiggly teeth.

So two visits from the Tooth Fairy this week. I also heard that the Tooth Fairy spent 1/2 an hour searching the house for $2 to put under her pillow!!

These were taken when her top tooth came out, and you can see in the photos that her bottom tooth was on an angle and on its way out as well. Her other top tooth is on its way out as well.

All that she would give me was a couple of minutes to take photos, so I took what I could get!!!

I also had to write a note to the Toothfairy when she lost the second one, as she was at school and they went swimming and she lost it in the pool.

She was very worried she wouldn't get her $2 so I had to write a note and explain it to the Toothfairy.

I couldn't decide between B&W or Colour for these, so went with both.

King Edward Park

After our visit to Nowell’s Lake a couple of weeks ago Emme wanted to go to our local park (King Edward Park) to feed the ducks.  She had been there a few days earlier and one of the ducks had ducklings, so she was excited about seeing them again.

Unfortunately mum and her ducklings weren’t there but all the other ducks got their bread, and Emme was off to the playground.

I managed to get a few photos of her as she went quickly from ride to ride.

It was great to see the flowers in bloom, and next time I will bring my macro lens and spend some time up close with the flowers.

Trip to Nowell's Lake

We hadn’t been to Nowell’s Lake before, and my husband suggested we go and have a look one afternoon.

Nowell’s Lake is situated just south of Hawera in South Taranaki, and is a Fonterra Farms and Community Group Project.  There are two parts - the Nowell’s Lakes which are two ground fed freshwater lakes covering seven hectares, and the Walkway.  

We loved exploring the Walkway amongst the native bush, flax and Toetoe, and each section had signs where the children from local schools and Scouts have done plantings.

Down the track to the Walkway.

Having a rest on one of the many Children Only seats.

Asked for a serious face, and all we got was giggles.

Checking out the Bug Wall.

Looking for Crawlies (Freshwater Crayfish) in the stream.  We didn't see any this time, hopefully we can see some on our next visit.

Emme pointing out which way to go next.

Looking at her school's sign and where they did their plantings.

Some of the many birdhouses that are all through the gully.

Emme found this small bird egg lying on the ground, and picked it up for a closer look.  

Smelling herbs at the herb garden.

Looking back down the gully.

Local school children have grown and planted thousands of swan plants, so we will definitely be back between February and April to see the caterpillars and Monarch Butterflies.

We also took the 20 minute walk to Nowell’s Lake.  I didn’t get any pictures unfortunately as it started to rain just as we got there.  But we will definitely be going back, and I can’t wait to take more pictures then.

If you are local I highly recommend Nowell’s Lake as a place to visit.  For more information check out http://nowellslakeswalkway.blogspot.co.nz/