Awesome April & Marvelous May

Granny Deanna left us in mid April after a wonderful 7 weeks ! The tearful farewell at Auckland Airport was made bitter sweet by the surpise arrival of Jean & Quinton (Deanna's cousins) to also bid her farewell.

David is really thriving and growing but is also being a real "terrible two" - he has thrown a 17 minute temper tantrum and become quite bossy (wonder where he gets that from).

He has relinquished his necessity for his dummy (except for sleeping) which some of you know is a very big step and is weeing and pooing in the potty & toilet on a regular basis but not quite yet fully "potty trained" but we getting there.

The weather has turned, it's frigging cold, but hey, it's New Zealand. But it does not stop the boys fishing and it's a great reason to light the fire and snuggle on the couch.

I am also learning the art of slow cooking, Deanna very generously purchased us a slow cooker while she was here and I have made a few roast chickens, a lamb stew and a beef stew which have been gorgeous. What a pleasure to fill the pot at 9am with a whole lot of raw goodies and open the pot again at 6pm with a delicious cooked meal. The Noodlese comment is "supper is lishious & yummy, mom" !

We have also had a couple of unpleasent incidents this month :

David and I have had lice, yes, I know, yuck - we did not have lice at private school ;), so it's my first time, but we seem to have got rid of them (we hope) with an old kiwi remedy - suffocate the buggers with tea tree and glad wrap !

and..... i poisoned David & Deon, not fatally, but did an incredibly stupid thing by spraying insect killer instead of spray & cook on a baking tray, baked some pizzas for them which they preceeded to eat until the penny dropped and i realised what i had done - the sheer panic and horror that I went thru until the very cool & collected woman on the poison hotline told me to calm down and not worry and that the spray is far more harmful to bugs than humans. David was more upset that i snatched his supper away from him and he could not understand why he could not eat his pizza. Deon was slightly more horrified and felt rather queasy (the only side effect) for about a day. Of course, we can laugh about it now, especially Dave & Kathryn.

Last week was Deon's birthday, we had a huge party with all our wonderful friends & all the kids in attendance, the Saffrican men took a lot of stick from the Kiwis about the length of time it took to make the coals and cook the meat, whilst freezing their asses off in the bitter New Zealand winter. They of course, just crank up the gas BBQ and sausages are ready in no-time, but eventually we had real braaied meat the good ol' South African way.

The entire party had been planned around a Froggatt idea, which i was party to:
Kathryn "baked" Deon a chocolate cake, and when they arrived with the cake, Deon was thrilled and said "i haven't had a birthday cake since i was 9". Watch the video below to see what happened when Deon "cut" the cake .....
(sorry for the poor video quality)

The parties never stop here in Whangarei, last night was Kathryn's annual mid winter xmas bash, she has been hosting these nearly every year for the past 18 for a group of friends that met in auckland when they all lived there in a cul-de-sac in the 80's.

the dress code was smart, the table was decorated, the music rocked and the drinks flowed !

Deon cooked the wonderful curry that was enjoyed by all and he received a loud "Buy-a-Donkey" (you work that one out) from Kathryn. She also went to the all the trouble of getting everyone a xmas gift - most in jest but it's the thought that counts, right ?

We feel very priviledged and honoured to be included this year !