The Ethne Girl Dance AND Messy Child

The important thing to notice in these pictures is the location of her hips. She does this really cute little hip dance which I tried to capture in the photos. So cute! center-left-right-left :)

This is our messy girl. I bought her a long sleeve bib hoping to keep her from making such massive messes out of her clothes at every meal and snack. But alas it was to no avail :( Poor thing she just insists on feeding herself (not that I have the time to feed her like I did with the boys anyway) but she spills everything and just like the boys she wipes her hands on her clothes even when she has a napkin at the table. :( She really needs a full body suit, because even though she wears this bib she gets the bottom 1/2 of her really dirty anyway.

I take really good care of my kids clothes but they don't have any good stain remover here. Bummer! And I get tired of doing so much laundry and scrubbing of the stains anyway, so a full body suit for meals is just the ticket I think :)

Too Much "I Love Lucy"

A sure sign that my kids have been watching too much "I Love Lucy": Enoch and Ezra ask me: "Mom are your pearls real Japanese pearls or Macy's basement $2.98 pearls?" Mom: laughing says: These are more like Macy's $2.98 pearls. Enoch: "I thought those were real pearls?" Mom: They are but the are just cheap pearls because they are straight from the oyster and not polished or anything. Ezra: "but they are real?" Mom: yes Enoch: "Why don't you get some real Japanese pearls then?" Mom: Because they are really expensive Enoch and Ezra: "But you could go to Japan. They don't cost much in Japan" Mom: Maybe one day I will :) For those of you who are avid fans you need no explanation. For the rest of you here it is- Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel are in Japan where Lucy is wearing her $2.98 Macy's basement pearls. She finds out she can get real pearls that would cost $300 in the states for only $100 in Japan. She does what she does best, and comes up with a plan to pull one over on Ricky and gets guest star Bob Cummings to help out. All her plans go wild, but Lucy gets her way in the end as per usual--It is really funny! Yesterday Enoch said: "All Ricky cares about is money!"

I Live In A Musical

I live in a musical-no really I do. I just realized it when I watched this video: http://www.veggietales.com/videos/ Click on the link and when the videos come up Click on the video "Where Have All The Staplers Gone" and that is my life :)

I Finally Have A Piano

I can't tell you all how excited I am to finally have a piano after all these years. I took lessons for 10 years-from the age of about 6 to 15 almost 16 and then a year at college. But you wouldn't know it now. I have forgotten everything I feel like. So now I am going to re-learn. I just need a chair/bench and some theory books and music to play and hopefully I will re-learn quickly. I keep hearing it is like riding a bike, but I really don't believe that it will be that simple-we shall see. Right now it is on this lovely cardboard piece until I get something to protect the wood floor. :)

Ok everybody-wish me luck!

We Sure Love Having A Little Sister Around Here

This is Ethne in all her Girlishness. She is super cute and loves to wear all her clothes at once. She picks out several outfits at a time and wants to wear them ALL. She even loves playing dress up with the boys these days. They make her the queen, the princess, the sister or anything else that requires a female part. She loves it and usually picks out her own outfit :) Here she is showing me her Cheerios except that they are made in AU by a different company and although they look the same, have the same name and logo and box-they are really just a cheap imitation that isn't nearly as good :(

Don't forget to notice the cute little matching clippy (no that isn't baby talk that is how they end a lot of words here- chippies, nappies and clippies).

Oh yes and don't forget to see her girly pink heart canvas shoes :) She loves them!

These skirts are VERY VERY cute. I love them and I am have some fabric that I love that I am going to try to make a similar one out of after I get my sewing machine up and running. I hope it turns out ok. I usually have my mom around for help with sewing projects since sewing isn't my strong point.

We sure love you Ethne in all your girlishness and are super glad you are in our family. Mom, Dad, and brothers are really glad you joined us when you did. You are such a light in our family of mostly boys :)

Sitting On The couch

Sunday morning the kids all got on the couch to do Sunday scriptures with Garrett. He uses different church DVD material to teach them each week. Last year he went through a full program of church history with them. They learned so so much. They would watch video clips teaching about church history and then Garrett would pause it and have discussions about it with them. Adding things, letting them ask questions, expounding on details and getting them excited about it. Then when they were done he would draw pictures of what they had talked about on a sheet of paper, make a copy so they could each have their own and review all the material while they colored the pictures. This year they are studying New Testament with him and going threw the New Testament videos. They are loving it and it helps our Sundays to go more smoothly and gives them something constructive to do and time with their dad. The funny part about this picture is that they all crammed into the same tiny spot on the couch.... When we have this huge couch that can seat 5 adults :) Funny Kids!

A Few Days Out With Out First American Guest :)

This last weekend in March we were lucky enough to have one of the Fry's good family friends, Alberta, come and visit us. We weren't quite set up for guests yet as we have no suitable beds for guests yet. If any of you are coming to visit you better let me know :) Anyway the point is she stayed at hotel right here by our house and not with us so I put together a little welcome basket for her to make sure she would have things to eat for breakfast and snacks. We tried to make it as Kiwi as possible so I picked theses up: This is a passion fruit-my family love these ( I like the flavor but have a hard time eating the seeds).

This is a Fijoa. You slice it in half and eat it up. Very Very Good!

She arrived Friday night late and we ate Indian Food, Naan, and grapes. We chatted until it was late and then Garrett took her to the hotel so she could get settled and sleep. Sat. We went to the Farmers market first thing in the morning (well sort of) then we went to pick her up and head to the city. On the top of her list of must sees was Te Papa the wonderful museum. Here are pictures from that: Ethne making friends- Oh wait sorry that one is out of order. This is the banana cake I made for her. This is a big thing here in NZ. They make them a lot to bring with bacon and egg pies to the beach. It is almost just like banana bread but with less sugar and with cream cheese icing sometimes. They don't always put icing on them.

Here is her welcome basket. A baguette from the local patisserie (the one run by French people that is REALLY GOOD). Good thing I got her a good one because she knows her bread-right Alberta? Then I got her some really good crackers and cheese, the banana cake and a bunch of NZ fruit. We had passion fruits, fijoas, golden kiwis, and nashi pears. I also got her some mini cucumbers without seeds that are supposed to be really good but forgot to put them in the basket since they were in the fridge. Welcome Alberta, we hope your stay is great-that is what the basket says. She brought the kids some light up squishy star toys and three bags of marshmallows :) Hurray for marshmallows. We took a bag to another American families house with some rice bubbles and made rice crispy treats-fun times.

Ethne at the museum looking serious!

Playing with the ark-mom I can't be bothered with pictures right now.

Garrett reading a book-

Alberta and the boys watching the mechanical baby and changing it's expressions-

Alberta, Garrett and boys at the museum still-

Playing the ukulele at the museum- Garrett was using a book and learning cords and the kids were just playing "music"-

Ethne had the pink one...

until daddy stole it for himself- I was just showing this post to Ethne and when we got to this picture I realized I would have to add both our thoughts--so as a side note I would just like to say you should click on this picture and see just what a great looking guy he is. G, you sure are cute-love you! And Ethne's comment when she saw this picture was: mine, Mine, MINE, MINE MINE---sorry honey she wants her ukulele back :)

I was the jungle gym for said ukulele players-

Finally she is ready to have her picture taken. She posed just like this for Garrett to take a picture. It was so funny we all just burst out laughing.

Here are the sausage rolls I made for our lunch on the go. I made them the day before and put them in the fridge. We just ate them room temp. With some nashi pears and apples. The rain cleared up just in time for us to go outside to the museum courtyard and eat our food.

After the museum we walked over to the flea market but for some reason the had closed up early and so we went to Moore Wilson's and did a little shopping. We dropped in at the Weta Cave and we saw part of the shop and took some pictures. Then since they were closing we decided to try them again on Monday morning. Then we tried to find a cafe still open to eat at, but since everything was closed and she hadn't yet had any fish and chips-we went to a fish and chips shop. We visited until it was time to take Alberta to the hotel and then we met up for church the next day.

These pictures are from after church on Sunday. I stayed home and made dinner and Garrett and Alberta took the kids to see the view of the city.

Wow this wind is invigorating-

Maori tongue everyone-

After that they came home to dinner and we ate and visited and said goodnight.

Monday morning the kids and I picked her up at 10 to 9:00 and went back to the Weta Cave to see the rest of the shop and watch the video. Then we dropped her off at the airport and said goodbye. The kids were so so sad to see her go. They were very emotional and when she was gone I tried to cheer them up and Ezra said "I just don't want to do ANYTHING!" and Enoch said "I wish I could go with her on the airplane but since I can't I guess I will hang out with my best friends" :(

The day before Enoch had said "I feel like she is my grandma". We told them that was OK she could be another Grandma to them. They are REALLY missing their grandparents a lot. :( Poor kids. It broke my heart to see them all choked up.

Thanks for coming Alberta-We had a blast with you and you are welcome to come back at any time.

What are we going to do, the house is clean? AND Stay At Home Dad's

Enoch just said:
"mom what are we going to do today since the house is clean?"
I said: school
He said: "when school is over?"
I said: read and play
He got excited and said: "Ezra guess what since the house is clean after school we get to read and play"
Ezra gasped and said: "mom, are YOU going to play with US?"
I said: yes
He whispered to Enoch: "Enoch don't mess anything up. Mom is going to play with us"

They feel very much like we spend all our time cleaning-which isn't true of them, but it pretty much is true for me. I am always saying to them to go clean up the toy room or their bedroom or bathroom-empty the dishwasher etc... I want them to know how to help out and It is important to me that they learn- if you want to make a mess you have to clean it up. We don't have a magical fairy to clean up EVERYTHING-just most things :) It's ME!

They heard a song about stay at home dad and ever since they have wanted to know why their dad isn't a stay at home dad. When Garrett is working overtime they say things all the time like "I wish our dad was a stay at home dad! AND Why isn't our dad a stay at home dad?

The other day we wen't by Garrett's work so that the kids would actually see him that day and when we left Enoch said "how do you decide if you are going to be a stay at home dad? How do dads know if they will stay at home or not?" I guess he found his answer because a few days later this is what he said:
"I am not going to be a stay at home dad because I don't want to spend all day cleaning." He said " I will still have to clean at nights but at least I won't have to clean all day". He had quite a sour expression when he said it. Silly Boy!

The Way Ethel Talks To Fred

Enoch and Ezra are watching I Love Lucy and Ethel just said to Fred: "Fred that's the meanest thing you have ever done. If you don't give that horse to little Ricky I'm going to leave you!"
Enoch said: "mom, you NEVER talk to dad like Effle talks to Fred" lol I said: that's right and dad would never talk to me the way that Fred talks to Ethel.

Somes Island And The Warf

Wow, today was a very very full day. We had so much fun, got a lot of exercise and enjoyed ourselves immensely. We left the house early in the morning and picked up breakfast at a cafe in Strathmore on the way to the wharf downtown. When we found a parking spot we sat down a minute and ate our bacon and egg pies. We had a long walk to the area of the wharf we were going to and on the way we saw there we ran in to a big rowing race. It was quite a big deal. There were vendors all along the wharf selling food and goods to all those coming and going for the race.

We watched some of the races and were amazed at how fast they were.

There was also entertainment there walking around. Here is a giant red seahorse :) This scared Ethne into whining and fussing.

Here were are waiting for the ferry to Somes Island and enjoying an apple.

When the ferry came we bought tickets and then found out we had time to spare and that there would be no food or drink on the island for lunch so we would need to bring it with us. We walked down the wharf again to the vendors and bought these fajita tacos. We each got one taco and hoped that it would suffice with the oranges and water we brought with us.

Here we are on the ferry. The boys were nervous about sitting on the top of the boat and begged to ride on the bottom. We told them we would try the top of the boat and if it was too scary we would go down and ride in the bottom-Garrett informed me he had no intention of going to the bottom since he expected to get some great photos :)

They ended up really enjoying being up top and they watched for whales and dolphins which we ended up not seeing to our great dismay.

Here we are on Somes Island: We had high expectations of seeing a Tuatara, Giant Weta's, Skinks, Penguins, sheep, and Yellow-Crowned Parakeet's. When we first got there they had us inspect our bags to make sure there were no mice, rats, bugs, soil or seeds of any kind in them. Garrett said that was the first time he had ever had a bag examined for rodents :) Ethne did quite well walking up the steep trail and we let her walk all the way to the top of a big hill before we put her in the child backpack. She enjoys being in there so that was good too. I had a VERY full pack on my back and Garrett carried Ethne on his so we both got a lot of exercise hiking all over the island.

Here is a picture from up above of the ferry we took and the doc where we arrived.

Here is a giant weta in a weta box they put out to house them so that people can take off the lid and check to see if there are any in there. This Giant Weta was bigger than Ethne's hands and probably about the size of Enoch's. Amazing!

Here is what they call the Weta Hotel. They come and go and you don't know if there are any in there but we got lucky and there were 4 or 5 inside. You open the tree and then close it when you are done. The kids loved it.

Here is one of the many skinks we saw on our hike. They were everywhere. This is one of the most tiny skinks we saw but the others were so fast that we couldn't get pictures of them.

Here is the lighthouse on the island. It is very small and you can't even go inside but it is very picturesque on the island.

When we got to the very top of the island we found the sheep. Ezra was so anxious to go down the hill and feed them. I was a little apprehensive but I told him it was OK. They were afraid of him and they started away from him. He got the idea in his head that he would herd them up the hill to where all the people were standing. He had them almost all the way up when Enoch ruin the whole thing and chased them back down. I called the boys up and scolded Enoch for messing up Ezra's plan and told them I didn't want them to scare the sheep.

I gave my permission for Ezra to try again and for Enoch to help him. Enoch got really crazy with it though and a big fat sheep that was lying down tried to stand up and fell down and rolled almost over Enoch who was downhill from him. It scared all of us a lot and Enoch got kicked in the nose by the sheep as it rolled over, but he was able to move quickly enough not to get knocked down and rolled over. The sheep gave us a big scare though. It had a lot of trouble getting up and limped at first so that we wondered if it might have been terribly injured. But after it got it's footing it was OK.

Here we are leaving the sheep and heading back down the other side of the island after a little break.

I wanted to take a picture of Enoch and all he would do was frown. I said Enoch say I like sheep. And he started talking.

Then I said: Enoch, say I went to herd the sheep and all I got was this lousy kick in the nose and I finally got a smile.

We were waiting on Garrett before we could head down and Enoch and Ezra took the opportunity to take a little rest in the grass under the sun. Such a great day!

Just hanging out.

When we got back down the ferry was late so we took the opportunity to walk in the water and enjoy it's coolness after the hike. We were tired and hungry and worn out by this point but still had a lot left on our travels before going home.

When we got back to Wellington and got off the boat we headed back home. We came across a public swimming hole and these Maori boys making a splash. They were enjoying being the center of attention. A large crowd had gathered to watch them dive. These guys here though don't dive like we do in the states. They jump off and act like they are going to belly flop or land flat on their backs and then right before they hit the water they fold up their bodies and they try to make the biggest splash they can. Here they are curling up.

Here are the splashes from those two boys.

We also found a flea type market on the way home that we didn't know existed. It is there every Sat. and we had no idea, but there were so many talented people there with there handmade goods. Garrett bought me a necklace of pinkish pearls. They were just in there unpolished form-straight from the oysters so not expensive but I liked the untouched look of them. The style was more modern and the color was really pretty.

Speaking of jewelry-when we first got here I found a few of the traditional Maori symbols very attractive. They sell a lot of jewelry with the symbols carved in bone and in jade or "greenstone" as it is called here. I had told Garrett that at some point I would like to have one of these-maybe for Christmas or something. When we were at the wharf the shop I first saw them in was open so we went in so I could show Garrett the sort of thing that interested me. There were three that I thought nice but I was surprised that they were over $200 each so I dismissed the thought of getting one. When I was turning to go Garrett said OK which one do you want? And he pulled out his wallet. I was so shocked I really could have fallen over. Garrett is the most wonderful husband, but buying things for me has never been one of the ways he has doted on me. Never once has he ever pulled out his wallet and offered to just buy me something-especially something that expensive. I told him I thought he was being very kind and generous but we should just take a card for the shop and think about it a while. I didn't need to have the gift, but I must confess that his gesture meant a lot to me and I felt quite loved knowing that he is very conservative with his money, but was willing to open his wallet in my behalf. Thank you honey! One day I will let you buy me one :) Later that day is when we found the pearls and I let him buy me those :) After we got to the car we all kind of collapsed. We were all so tired. We went to Moore Willson's though on the way home to get some things for Garrett to make sushi for dinner that night. Here is his first attempt and he did a fabulous job.

He made them with raw tuna and salmon, avocado, cucumber, and of course ginger and wasabi. Not real wasabi of course because it is so expensive that you can almost never find it really. Even most sushi restaurants don't give you "real" wasabi. I have a hard time with large pieces of raw fish so I added a little cream cheese to my fish ones. I know it is mostly in my head but the thought of eating anything raw like that turns my stomach. I am better than I used to be and eating a small piece is ok but larger pieces make me feel a little sick. Garrett learned what to pour over the sushi rice to give it the right flavor and it looked and tasted very good. Great job honey!