Blog Hiatus

Image from here

Just letting y'all know...That I will be off line for the month of May.I'll catch up with you all in June.

jacksta xx

Rainbows End

We went to Rainbows End for Joe's Birthday. It was a surprise until the morning of his birthday...I had been pulling his leg saying I had forgotten to organize anything or buy him a present. But he didn't  see the funny side. He said to Hubby as he was being tucked in the night before that "its not a real birthday if your mummy and daddy don't get you gift". Doh! silly me... I really should know better by now,  that you don't pull the sensitive kids leg. Don't fret, we got him a cool (but slightly over sized) bike for his birthday, and a trip to the big smoke with his family. He says it was the best birthday ever!

First scary ride for the kids.

Me on The Invader

Joe and I hooning around in carts ( the face says it all)

 Joe with his winning tokens at the arcade.

 Hubster taking the older two on the log ride

 

 Even Zak zak got to have a little bit of  fun....not much though. Being pushed around in his push chair all day wasn't much fun. Although I did freak him out by taking him on the "Gold Rush"...he was just 80cm tall. In hind site...not so good. I have probably freaked him out for life.

Completely elated after the power surge

I forgot how much I love adventure parks. The last time I went there I was as a teenager, a decade and half ago! The kids often ask if "can we go there?" when we drive past Rainbows End. "Nope. You are too short for the rides". Somehow the kids have grown tall enough...where has time gone? I felt a bit sorry for Joe though...he was just 5cm off getting to go on all the scary rides. 

We look forward to going again some time soon and this time I'll try the bumper boats!

Are you a big scary rides fan? 

happy birthday me

 

The day started bright and early. Hubby came in while I was still sleeping to say he had made waffles and was just on his way out to get our favourite coffee, Aww. And all before he had to bike to work at 7.15am.  

Mmm Bacon and banana with maple syrup. A great way to start the day.

I decide to make myself a birthday cake. I know its weird to make your own cake, but I haven't had a birthday cake in a few years. And I saw this beautiful one here, and NEEDED to make it! I combined two of her ideas and designed my own cake. It became a layered Neapolitan cake with a chocolate ganache drizzle. This is my first layer cake, and it was a bit hard to get all the layers exactly symmetrical. Any hoo tasted delicious.

Not my cake...the inspiration

the design

opps maybe just a bit too much drizzle!

A few friends to help me eat my birthday cake. Good times.  

And then hubby booked us into Topsail Restaurant. I love this place. It is just a small place with a lovely atmosphere with consistently delicious food.  We shared a starter the seafood platter. And then I had the duck breast over caramelized onion and kumara. And Hubster had the Wild Fiordland game. This place always serves their mains with a side of the tastiest roast pototoes (herbs and rock salted), some bamboo steamed julienne veges and two rolls to mop up the juices. 

We were thoroughly stuffed by the end!

Happy Birthday me!

A Good Friday

When I take a minute to pause and reflect what this day means to me and my faith, words do not come. How can words describe the pain at which our Lord suffered. And He did it on purpose.
So today we had a quiet Good Friday. After seeing Delissimons hot cross buns last week I was keen to give it ago this year. Last year we had Crossed chocolate cupcakes and red juice for a family communion type thing. This year was the real deal! So tasty! No yucky orange peel. And not too many raisins. I opted for red crosses. They were a little pink at first opps! But after glazing them they turned out the desired red. My sous chefs ~ Miss Joy and Joe did a great job with helping me whip these up. To be fair the bread maker did all the work. I really must make more bread in that thing.

Today I wanted to teach the kids about the first Passover. They seemed to already know quite a lot about the story from Exodus and back in Moses day. We had roast lamb for dinner and red sparkling grape juice. The kids always get a kick out of drinking from the pretty glasses...even if theirs is made of plastic.

They have not even uttered the words "when are our Easter Eggs coming?". Good kids. I picked them up a little Lindt Bunny each. As you can see Zak Zak has not learned to unwrap his chocolates!

May you all have amazing Easter Weekend. Silly me I accidentally rostered myself to work all weekend and Monday,  so at least we had a family day today.
 

proud of my boys

A couple of years ago we would never have thought Hubster would ever compete in a sport, let alone be seen in public in bike shorts. My once skater/surfer/ bogan husband now competes in Triathlons. Last weekend we went to Kai Iwi lakes to compete in the "Kumara Triathlon". The name comes from the fact that Dargaville is the Kumara capital of NZ. And as a bonus you get a box of kumara at the end of the day! Score!
He did fairly well. Last year he did the short course which he came a very awesome second! This year he challenged himself and did the long course: 750m swim, 20k bike ride and a long 8km run. Good on ya Piyar! Super proud of ya.

Super proud of this little guy- Joe. He continually surprises me. Hubster and I often worry about how might act in public. You see he is a little bit sensitive at home.
Yesterday was his assembly, and his first time speaking on the mic. We wondered if he would freeze and run off screaming. But no, he surprised us. He introduced his class to the school beautifully. Later in the presentation he had a wardrobe malfunction, I waited to see if he again would run off screaming, but he did great. I love those proud mummy moments.

 

I'm hoping he will grow up to be a good cook. Lord knows I could do with a chef in the family. He did a good job of rolling out his first "Roti", which is an Indian flat bread. A family favourite.

And this little monkey is going to turn me grey or maybe bald! He is insanely active and constantly up to no good! The other day I was down stairs fixing something in the garage and I thought he would hover around with me. I finish what I'm doing and he's vanished. I look over the road a see his little body across the road heading down to the park. We live on a fairly busy road. Im not going to think about what could have happened.
On the plus side he is learning new words everyday and is finally starting to enjoy reading books instead of destroying them. 

Somebody found my mascara!
Taken this morning...done while I was blogging this!