Weekend in Pictures: Part Two

When I asked Rosie and Harry what their favourite part of our weekend was, they both quickly replied with the same answer...throwing snowballs at Daddy. This has been a standing joke in our family for quite some time and they have been planning and looking forward to this snowball "attack" for weeks.

I helped them to create some suitable snowballs and we had a great time throwing them at each other!

Taff put on a great show of being "surprised" by this snowball fight, despite the kids openly talking about playing a "trick" on Daddy with the snow, all the way down in the car. :-)

Rosie was keen to make a snow angel, something she had seen in a book...

...just look how much she is enjoying it! One of the best parts of being a parent is watching your child experience something brand new. It makes you see things and appreciate them through their eyes.

My favourite part of the weekend was to follow. The weather on the mountain turned from dry and overcast, to snowing. I have never ever seen snow falling and it was beautiful. We all caught snowflakes in our hands and marvelled at them.

As the snowfall became heavier, we decided to head back down to our car and it was lucky we did. When we were on the bus on the way down, we heard them saying that they were getting ready to put out a call on the mountain for all 2WD cars to come down immediately.

When we got back to the car, it had a lovely dusting of powdery snow. We had a brilliant day at the mountain and the kids are already asking when we will be able to visit again! Part Three, the final instalment of our weekend will be posted tomorrow. :-)

Weekend in Pictures: Part One

We are back! We have had a busy weekend and have spent a long time in the car but it has all been worth it. Rosie and Harry's reaction to the snow was exactly what we thought it would be and more.

It wasn't all sooth sailing as Taff was struck by food poisoning from a chicken sandwich at a service station on Friday night. To add to that, I came down with a bad eye infection on Saturday morning and a terrible head cold.

This wiped both of us out for much of the weekend but we battled on and I don't think the kids noticed too much. Kids are good like that, aren't they? :-)

When we first arrived at Mt Ruapehu it was overcast but dry. The roads were in great condition and after parking at Scoria Flat we caught the free bus up to Whakapapa. It was bustling and busy, Rosie and Harry were super excited to finally see real snow.

We were initially going to get the family sightseeing chairlift pass but it looked quite grey up the mountain so we decided to get the chair lift down to Happy Valley and hire tobbogans.

We towed the kids up and slid down a few times before we cottoned on to the fact that this was very tiring in soft snow! For successive runs they had to walk beside us up the hill while we towed the tobbogans, much easier. :-)

We had a few races and looked at some of the snowmen that people had made. There were lots of families around and the Whakapapa staff were excellent with Rosie and Harry.

They lifted them on and off the bus and chair lifts, it was more family friendly than I anticipated. I had read that it takes hours of preparation for one hour in the snow when you have small children. This was definitely true. Organising all their warm clothing, snacks and preparing them with lots of conversation about where we were going, etc, required a lot of preparation. A lot of questions arose from the visit too, especially when Rose found out that the mountain was a volcano!

Part Two of our weekend will be posted tomorrow. :-)

Road Trip!

A last minute decision and a late night motel booking but we are off on a road trip this weekend! We are taking the kids to the snow for the first time and they can't wait. We have been planning to do this for a while but have been waiting for "ok"weather as the mountain isn't a pleasant place in bad conditions. We will be leaving from Hamilton tomorrow morning and heading down to Mt Ruapehu.

We have decided to stay in Taupo for the night and perhaps take Rose and Harry to see some sights around Taupo before heading home on Sunday. We are very excited! I may miss a blog post tomorrow but will be back on Sunday night. :-)

My New NEST Treats

A few days ago I popped into Nest's 1/2 price sale in search of new cutlery. We have had the same set which we received as a wedding gift (a long time ago now!), however over the years several pieces have gone missing and we seem to have acquired a few extra pieces as well.

Although we still use this set for every day, I really wanted some special occasion cutlery. I was very happy to find this Bond set included in the half price sale and having used it for the first time last night, it will be very hard to go back!

Each piece is so shiny and heavy, I am certain my food tastes that little bit better as well! lol. It feels like a little bit of luxury at home and I am all for that! :-)

Happy Birthday Taff

Happy Birthday Taff!

Tonight we had a quiet birthday dinner at home to celebrate, with some of Taff's favourite foods. I decided I wanted to cook a three course meal and go to a bit of effort as we usually just go out for dinner. This was a nice change!

 

After consulation with some foodie colleagues and Google, I decided to make Bruschetta with a tomato and basil topping as a starter. I expected this to go down like a tonne of bricks with our two littlies, but to my amazement, they loved it.

For the main course I cooked something I have never cooked before...steak. I am really not confident with cooking steak but Taff always orders it when we go out so I really wanted to give it a go. I chose some eye fillet and after a few minor hiccups, I got there in the end. Note to self, the line between 'rare' and 'well done' is a fine one!

We enjoyed it with some roasted wedges (thanks for the tip Sarah!) with aioli and a nice salad. My bearnaise sauce was neither here nor there, next time I think I will leave it. :-)

Taff's favourite dessert is pavlova so we plonked a little candle into his mini pavlova and sung Happy Birthday. Rose and Harry decided to dress up for the occasion. Harry (of course) chose Spiderman and Rose went all out and chose this shiny purple top and a pink and white polka dot skirt. There was also plastic heels and fake jewellery. Clearly I haven't taught the 'less is more' lesson well enough yet! lol. They were actually very cute and rushed around all afternoon cleaning the house and getting ready. It has been a great evening and it was wonderful to spend it together as a family.

Rosie's School Sharing Morning

Rosie's school had a sharing morning today and I was lucky enough to be able to visit! It is rare for me to be able to attend events such as these so I was really grateful for the opportunity.

Her school is in the process of becoming certified as an International Baccalaureate school and I was able to learn more about the process and what it means for Rosie's learning.

She showed me her 'Letter of the Week' area and was very proud of her 'O Octopus'.

She also showed me her portfolio of published stories. I was horrified to read one particular story. "My Mum and I spent the weekend watching DVD's and eating popcorn, chips, chocolate, lollies and drinking hot chocolate". I can only imagine what the teacher was thinking when she read that little gem!

I was really impressed with how bright and stimulating the environment was. They have been studying life cycles this term and the classification of living and non living things.

Rosie and her friend Darnel were keen to show me their 'Mohawk Grass Man' and the bean plant they have been growing over the last few weeks.

I had a lovely morning and feel confident that she is being taught in a caring and secure environment.

Sick...

Rosie was still sick today and sadly, so am I. After coming home early from work, we both spent the day feeling icky and the paracetomol just isn't cutting it. An early night is in order for me. On a positive note, Rosie seems to have perked up considerably in the last few hours so hopefully the bug is on it's way out the door!

Naps

I am really not one for taking naps but today I made an exception. Unfortunately Rose appears to have caught a nasty bug and has been vomitting for the last 24 hours. It began on the way home from Hamilton yesterday and continued well into today. Last night was rough for her and she didn't sleep a lot so I put her down for a nap this afternoon. She slept for over two hours!

I didn't realise how tired I was until this afternoon and I was fading fast. It has been a while since I have had my sleep disrupted in the night so I indulged in a one hour nap and it made the world of difference. I can see why nap lovers enjoy them so much. :-)

Rosie's Mini Milestone

Little Rosie has met a mini milestone today. She can now ride a bike by herself! We drove down to Hamilton this morning and Papa decided that today was the day that Rosie would learn to ride without her training wheels. Last year I bought this Mocka balance bike for Harry and Rosie has been using it on occasion. As the name suggests, the bike really helped with her balance but she still wasn't confident on her big bike.

I really wasn't sure that she could learn in one morning, but after about 30 minutes of training from Papa, Rosie was riding on her own! She was very proud of herself and couldn't wait to tell me the news and show me her new skills.

She zoomed around Nana and Papa's driveway like a pro and I was a very proud Mum. :-)

When we got back to Auckland, Taff removed her training wheels from her bike up here and they spent an hour or so riding around and gaining confidence on her big bike.

 Rose is very cautious by nature so I was quite surprised that she picked it up so quickly. I was also glad I had my camera nearby to snap up this little milestone. :-)

I Told You So!

It has been an eventful afternoon and evening today. My beloved Nissan Pulsar ticked over at 300,000 km on the clock yesterday and right on cue, the problems started. She has been on borrowed time for quite a while now and I knew my blissful years of trouble free motoring must surely be coming to an end. I suspected that all was not well during my trip to work today. As I neared the roundabout in Albany, I heard the engine splutter a few times and the rest of the drive was very touch and go. We made it to school and I was already worried about the afternoon trip home. 

 

On the way home I got as far as the second set of lights and my poor Pulsar simply stopped. I was stranded at a busy set of lights for 15 minutes before a miracle occured and my car started again and I was able to drive it a few metres and park it up. The kids and I waited for Taff to come and collect us, we read books and listened to fairy tales to pass the time. You would think that would be the end of it...it wasn't!

I will preface the rest of this story by saying that Taff has given me permission to share it. lol. It seems that Taff has had a few car troubles in his time and was certain he could drive my car home in a way which would get the old girl back home safely. I repeatedly voiced my doubts about this, having driven the car and experienced first hand the way it struggled, coughed and spluttered but Taff was sure it would be a cinch! Let's just say that we made it as far as the Onewa Road overbridge (with me driving behind) before, just as I predicted, the Pulsar gave up. It took every ounce of self control to resist saying the words, "I told you so". In fact I am not sure I was entirely successful in my efforts!

After some coaxing, Taff agreed to call Roadside Rescue and 30 minutes later, the old silver girl was towed back to our house. It is a good thing that I am married to such a cheerful soul as Taff tells me that he actually enjoyed sitting on the shoulder of the overbridge and looking out to the city on a cold and wet night! Methinks he may be exaggerating slightly. :-)

I do not know the fate of my much loved Pulsar at this stage. I have owned her for 10 years and we have had many happy trips over the years. She will be towed to the garage at 7am on Monday and her fate will be sealed then. I hope she just needs some spark plugs! :-)

Plastic Fantastic

With the arrival of my new Tupperware treats, I decided it was a good time to give my plastics cupboard a much needed clean out. It had got to the point where things were flying out and hitting me in the head when I opened the doors! lol. As you can see from the photos above, there was no order whatsoever.

I had been putting off the task for a few months so decided to multi task and sort it out while cooking our Chicken Pesto Pasta for dinner last night. It was a 15 minute job and I was able to trash all the old lids and containers whose pairs had long since vanished.

I can now open the cupboard without fear of injury!

My Newest Kitchen Gadget

Last week I went to a Tupperware party and picked up a couple of new kitchen items, including this nifty little gadget. It is called the 'Squeeze It Decorator' and the Tupperware demonstrator made some yummy meringues with it. Tonight I decided to test it out.

It comes with a variety of nozzles and I used the largest star one to make the meringues. Rose helped me pipe them and we had such fun! She had never piped anything before so was very interested in the whole process.

I placed them in my second hand $5 pink laced bowl and we had them for dessert with berries and cream. Our whole family love meringues so I think I will be using my Squeeze It a little more than I originally thought!