The Dawson adventures

I never did get to tell you about our Saturdays with the Dawsons and it's worth telling about so here goes...

The first weekend we had was the first Saturday after the hols. I left Will sleeping at home and went to the Dawson House- Les came over once Will was up and took the four big kids to the base pool. Leaving me with the three smaller kids... we went for a walk around the block and stopped by the playground.

We had lunch and then just hung out till Joz got back.

The next Saturday started the same but instead of Les and Co. coming over to the Dawsons when Will woke up I took the Dawson's to ours. Before that happened Hunter (5) and I had hatched a plan for some making we wanted to do based on something we saw in the Avon Catalogue.

So when we got to our place we picked up Will and Merenia and headed for Westgate leaving Brody with Les and Kieran. We spent a fair whack of cash in the $2 shop and the Warehouse. Got sausages and went home past JK so we could wave at Joz.

Back at home the kids did some playing....

Merenia, Brody and Finley (from next door)

while I got sorted for the making...

We made 2 Advent calendars strings. Each string has 24 pegs. And the Dawsons pegs each have 4 decorations and the Stockley's Pegs each have 2 decorations. The deco's will be removed each day and hung on the tree- in our case the kids are going to have little trees in their own rooms...

Then the kids did some watching while Will slept...

and then they did some playing till Joz came and got them. I really love those kids they are all kind and nice! But I can tell you I can't say that I have any desire to have 7 children of my own.

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New Tricks and old

Will has been doing this ball trick for a while now but the block stacking is new and very cool!

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Gracias To You

A little over a year ago before the blog Les and I both read a very good review of a little restaurant just down the road from RC Bandit and Scrapbook Studio and so we went there.

Yesterday we repeated the experience! Yay!

It's on Celtic Cres just off Marua Rd in Mt Wellington....

It's called....

The Decor is down to earth...

As is the serve ware...

Chicken Tostada
(Too good to wait for a photo)

But the food is YUMMY!!! Authentic Mexican.

And there's lots of cool stuff to look at...

And buy...

This is for Saskia and the gum was for me... do you remember getting stuff like that when you were little?

The people are super lovely and will recommend something for you. They also sell Mexican food for you to take home and cook. As well as all sorts of groovy bits and pieces- you should see the cool Day-of-the-Dead stuff!

They aren't open all that much... but it's worth making the effort to go- when they are.

While we were out Will also had his first visit to a model shop- he was well impressed by RC Bandit! And really enjoyed playing on the flight sim at Airsail. (Crashing is funny!)

Along the way we saw some interesting stuff and picked up a few good bargains....
Office Max 30m gold and silver wrapping paper 1 for $20 or 2 for $30 this'll do for birthdays as well as Christmas and will last for yonks!
Stationery World- Metallic pink, orange, blue and green book rings in a mixed bag of ten for $5.95 (good for mini albums)

And the interesting stuff...

Something being filmed in downtown Auckland City...

Lots of interesting people with stories to tell I'm sure and a couple of shops I'm going back to when I finally get the big lotto cheque!

And we finished the afternoon with what else but...
Starbucks!
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Yum- Weet bix Slice

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This little gem is Weet-Bix Slice- Sylvia sent the recipe back with the kids after she saw just how many boxes of Weet-Bix we had in the holidays. It's FLIPIN' Delicious!!!

Wanna try...

1 Cup Flour
1 Cup Coconut
1 Egg
125g Butter
1 T Golden Syrup
6 Crushed Weet-bix
1 Cup Sultanas
1 Cup Sugar
1 t Baking Powder

Melt Butter and Syrup, beat in egg and add dry ingredients. Add Weet-bix last. Press into pan. Bake 180 deg C until springs back. NB. Don't over cook as it gets really hard.

Thanks Syl for the recipe, thanks Les for making it 3 times already!

Thank Goodness for Karen and Jake as well... Jake stayed over here on the weekend and when we dropped him home Karen had got Jake another box of Weet-bix... Kieran only needed one more card Anthony Tuiativake- Jake needed that card too.

He opened the box.

He pulled out the first card......

Anthony Tuiativake!

He pulled out the second card.....




Anthony Tuiativake!!!!


And so our mission is complete. And I don't need to buy any more weet-bix for a long long time!

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We call him...

Baby Kong, Brute-a-baby or Destruct-o-boy....

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Sometimes you take some photos

And then you download them to the computer.

Flick through them with ms picture viewer.

And come across one that just stops you dead and takes your breath away.

Like this one... (you really should click on it for full effect)

The Rose is 'Auckland Metro'- It's Saskia's one.

Some recent fun in the shade...

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Eleven Pt 2

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Eleven Pt 1

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My December Daily Album- Sans Photos

So here's the December Daily album inspired by Ali. As I think I said before you prep the album before December and take a little time to add words and photos as you go along- I think I'm going to kiosk my photos every few days... and just deal with the shiny paper!

The cool thing about this album is that I have used a bunch of stuff from my stash. I have put the pages together relatively haphazardly although I did make up a calendar with the known events for the month and a couple of pages have been chosen to suit the content that i know about- like Will's 1st birthday.

I will most likely add in a couple more pages here and there where there's two things on the same day or a bigger story to tell. I also plan on adding the Starbucks Christmas cup as a page because I like it!

I am most looking forward the challenge of limiting myself to one photo per event- something I am bloody hopeless at!

Album; Lil Davis, AC Thickers, Enjoy and acrylic circle; KI Memories, Tree; MME and sticker; 7Gypsies

Noel PP; Anna Griffin, Number; Teresa Collins Designs,

Patterned Paper; Basic Grey, number; Kaisercraft, Fiskars threading water punch

Paper from album, Number AC Thickers, Sticker- old one from my stash

PP; KI- Sheers, number; AC Thicker

PP; Stampington & Co. frame; K & co.

Foundation is a Trading card pocket sheet, Number; Scenic Route

Patterned Paper; Basic Grey Number; TCD

Foundation; KI Mem Sheers, Number; TCD

Patterned Paper; MM, Number; Scenic Route

Foundation; Star Vellum (old stash). Number; Pebbles Inc.

Patterned Paper; Stampington & Co. numbers; scenic route

Paper from album, Number AC Thickers,

Foundation; KI Mem Sheers, Number; Kaisercraft

Foundation; Envelope, Number; AC Thickers

Paper from album, Number; Pebbles Inc.

Patterned Paper; Basic Grey, Number; Pebbles Inc.

Foundation is a Trading card pocket sheet, Number; Kaisercraft

Foundation; felt, numbers; old stash

Foundation; Textured paper from my stash, Numbers; playing cards

Paper from album, Numbers; Pebbles Inc.

Textured vellum from stash, Numbers; old stash

Patterned Paper; Anna Griffin, Number; TCD

Paper from album, Numbers; TCD

Foundation; KI Memories Sheers, Numbers; Scenic Route

PP; MM, Number; sticker from Stash

Sticker; 7Gypsies, Holly; Kaisercraft inked with TH Distress Ink Peeled Paint, buttons; Beutron
(Sorry about the blurry photo)

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