What we've been up to

I looked today and realised that nearly two months has gone by without me updating this blog! So I thought I would give a pictorial overview...

There has been a beach holiday

A baptism for Miss Meggie Moo

Another gorgeous wedding

A class trip to our local Kauri forest

There was 2 weeks spent here

But at least we had a great city view at night!

and since Mr T couldn't remember his trip to Auckland in this helicopter we stopped in on the way home

A raffle for Christchurch

It would be very surprising if you hadn't heard about the devastating earthquake that rocked Christchurch on February 22nd. The magnitude of this disaster is like nothing that little ole' NZ has ever experienced and the cleanup will be lengthy and expensive. Up here in Northland it is hard not to feel helpless towards the plight of our fellow NZer's as for most of us life is going on as normal.

The Man about the House has just returned from Christchurch where he has spent a week helping out. The pictures and stories that he has returned home with tell of a city that is full of destruction.

Apart from getting out and rattling a bucket for a couple of hours (and donating my husband for a week ;-p) I feel that I have done very little to help the people of Christchurch. Sooo I have decided to run a couple of raffles. Up to be won are 2 knitted vests from designs by the lovely Tikki.

The first raffle is for a "Milo" vest, sz 4. This is knitted in pure NZ wool from Christchurch in a gorgeous chocolate that is ever so slightly gradient toned. This looks great dressed up or over those kindy clothes to keep warm while playing hard.

The second raffle is for a sweet wee girls knit, an "Acacia" vest. This is a sz 3 and is knitted in a super soft bamboo (80%) and wool (20%) blend. So soft it can be worn straight on the skin or over a tee-shirt as it gets cooler.

Ok so how to enter...

Donate online through the Red Cross to the Canterbury earthquake appeal . Every $5 that you donate will give you three entries. Please leave me comment and give me your receipt number, donation amount and which raffle(s) you want to enter.

I am going to let this run for 2 weeks and the draw will be made by my very own local constabulary member on 31 March 2011.

I will also have this running IRL at the kidlets preschool.

Please note that I am happy to post these garments to the winners internationally or nationally :-)

Tomato goodness

It's full-on tomato season here. Apart from the usual fresh tomato dishes I like to make sure that we have lots extra to get us through the year. I dump all the extra tomatoes into the freezer until I have enough to make a big batch of yummy tomato soup. We loooove tomato soup and I find that its really easy to convert into passata or pasta sauce just by adding garlic and herbs.

This is my Poppa's recipe, so it is tried and true.
7lb tomatoes, fresh or frozen
8 onions, peeled and quartered
Salt (definitely non-iodised!)
Sugar (He would use white, but I prefer Rapadura for the extra nutrients plus the molasses taste)

Put into a large pot and bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until the onions and tomatoes are soft and juicy.

Puree all the soup through a mouli, making sure that you put the pulp through 2-3x to make sure you get all the juice out.
And yes, it is essential to make a mess while doing this and enjoy it!

Voila! Gorgeous red gold goodness. You can add a whacking great wedge of butter at this stage to give a smoother finish but as I use it for other dishes I leave the butter out until serving.

Goes down a treat...

A Family Wedding

This weekend we headed away to beautiful Matakana at the foot of the Tawharanui Peninsula. We were lucky enough to be going to the wedding of a cousin of the Man about the House. It was a lovely wedding in gorgeous gardens for a gorgeous couple!

Some of us preferred to run though...

And one of us preferred to sleep...

Summer heat....

No this is not a post about the weather.

Today is a scorcher, literally, you should see my shoulders!  The thermometer tells me that it is 32deg c. Where we live is in the far north of NZ, and it is known as "the winterless north" (more about that another day) but really our temperatures are fairly temperate and we don't have a huge fluctuation below 10deg and 27deg. So 32deg is HOT!

As the Man about the House was starting work at 2pm today we thought that we would go for a walk and take the kiddos for a swim before he left.  So it was off to the local river for a dip, and boy did it feel nice!

A delicious interlude to the heat!

Note: the water is actually very clean and clear but we have kicked up clay from the bottom as we got in. And Yes I have no hat on in the water and everybody else does and I am also the only one with red shoulders!

The First!

Ok, this is something that I have thought about doing for a while now. It seems like a good time to actually get going with it though as things are changing in our household.

My eldest, Mr T, has had his first day at school.  This is huge!! He is super excited and raring to go, whereas I am apprehensive and a wee bit sad. It seems like only yesterday that we were bringing home this small baby and suddenly its 5 years later and 2 more children. But he has had a great time so far and is settling in well.

It was also the first day back at preschool for my 3.5yr old, Miss Kei-te-pai. She was relieved to get back there to check that nothing had been moved over the holidays without her permission. I was a relieved to see her head back as well, but for a different reason altogether!

And on a different note, it was my first week to get a shoe on happily as well! After fracturing my (R) foot at the end of last year it is a big achievement to be able to do this and walk relatively normaly as well.

Buuuutttt, the whole point of this blog is to let me document the goings on in our house and life and see if I can keep some perspective on the general chaos and crazyness!  Wish me luck!