The clingons

The girls on a homemade swing.

Our first family camping trip

We have succeeded in having our first week long camping trip as a family of 5. FOr this we visited Pataua South, which is just north of Whangarei Heads. Luckily or maybe essentially, the weather was fine through out and very hot. We spent each day down at either a sheltered and very flat estuary or round by the open beach. The kids had such a great time. Every morning Camryn would march towards us while we were enjoying our morning coffee with togs held aloft demanding to go for a swim. THis all before 9am. She was a hoot and we quickly realised that she really runs the family! Alexa had a new aim to learn how to walk on her hands. This meant a week of continual practising of hand stands, cartwheels and lots of falling over. She didn't quite get there, but must have developed much stronger arms after all her practising. We camped in style as there was one local shop at the campsite which made its own bread and buckets of 20c lollies as well as plenty of ice creams. In fact, it was these last things that gave us the only bartering tool each day... if you don't do this you won't get an ice cream. This worked very well on the older two, but unfortunately didn't have the same affect on the 2 year old. Needless to say she had many days with out an ice cream!

Wedding

We attended my cousins wedding recently. I use s because there were 2 brides and 2 grooms. It was a fabulous day with the sun shining and lovely grounds complete with cricket pitch, croquet, and a pool where my girls watched a dog for over 30 minutes diving in to retrieve a plastic duck. There were screams of delight/excitement when he shook himself anywhere near them. When we first arrived my father (Grandad) was just leaving heading down the hill to their tent site. You will see from the photo the tents in the far distance - in the hay paddock! The girls were keen to see him and so followed him off to the tent. Then they stood absolutely mesmerised as he proceeded to have an outdoor shower in just his underpants! They thought this was terrific! The day was so wonderful. A chance to catch up with many relatives and friends. The girls then danced themselves to a standstill well into the evening. Camryn refused to come off the dance floor but fell asleep in my arms with me doing the sway.