Anneke's Birthday Cake and Food

 Anneke celebrated her 11th birthday with a Prank party.  We put together a few food favourites for the guests to enjoy.

The urchins spent the morning icing the cake, or should I say, eating the skittles, and putting a few onto the cake.

Ice cream and caramel sauce sundaes - look again, mashed potato and gravy.  The guests gobbled them up!

Dirt Dessert

 Dirt dessert.  Unfortunately, a few of the guests were too scared to eat dirt, but most of them enjoyed the chocolate mousse and crushed oreos.

 Chocolate salad.  10 different types of chocolate bars, combined with whipped cream. 

 The chocolate fish are my favourite.

Other food included meatball cupcakes with tomato sauce icing, potty "poo and wees", and jelly drinks.

Airport Runway Bike Riding

 

Thanks to the Rotorua Bike Festival, we got to ride our bikes on the runway.  It was awesome.

McKinley joined us for Blood and Guts

A feed of fish and chips (plus blood and guts), and then we rode into the line to register.

 Registration started at 6pm, we got there at 6.30ish.  The line was long and full of interesting bikes.

 The urchins were keen to go, but we had to wait...

The event was so popular, it was about an hour later that we had got our bikes checked and our numbers.  There were over 800 riders keen to ride the runway.

Photograph by The Daily Post

We all waited until the 7:35pm flight arrived.   Once the plane parked and was out of the way, the rollerblade derby riders marshalled us onto the runway.

The grins of everyone involved tells the story.  Erik and Oscar were faster than us.  They got to ride the runway twice.

Photograph by The Daily Post

It was a great feeling getting to the fire engine at the other end of the runway.

 Fantastic sunset for all the riders to enjoy.

 Quinn was surprised how hot the lights of the runway were.

We were one of the last to finish,

 Fun, fun, fun.  

The urchins were surprised how smooth riding the runway was, and how far they could glide their bikes.

I hope the Rotorua Bike Festival does this event again.  Fantastic family fun!

Cabinet Building and Bruises

 

Quinn wanted to change his room around a little, and needed a desk for College, and more storage space.

 We all worked on the cabinets and desk. 

Elvis helped all day, lucky us!

The birds were a big help, especially when they slept / pooed on the instructions.

 

 The instructions were not particularly good.  I struggled with the placement of the four rails, and the diagram showed FIVE!

 Somehow, I managed to drop one of the desk legs on my foot.

"Ouch!!!"

 Fortunately it was only bruised, but I had a fashionable limp for a few days.

All finished

Quinn's Artwork

Jimmy

Quinn and Escher

 

Three years in the making, and now it is finished.  Quinn is very pleased with the Escher Tessellation effect.

The quilting took forever, the metallic thread didn't really like my sewing machine.

The wait is over!

 

Every Summer, the urchins anticipate this moment.  Orange marrow season.
It was late this year, due to the extremely cold Spring, and subsequent late planting of the seeds.

A heirloom vegetable, (squash), passed down from each generation to the next.  

 Super easy to prepare, and cook.  Cut in half.  

 

Scoop out the seeds. 

 Place in a pot, and put in about 1 1/2 to 2 cms of water.  Steam for about 10 minutes, until soft (check with a knife).

The best part, fill with butter (and Mama's Tomato Relish if there is any left), and eat with a teaspoon.

Another tradition for the next generation.

Sing-along boys and girls

So this is what the urchins get up to in the holidays.

No bruises, but I am still sore.

Four days later and I am still sore, but there are no bruises.  An hour of jumping, falling, and trampolining with the urchins, has taken it's toll on my body, but hey, you only live once.

The foam pit was the best, but nearly impossible to get out.  Rolling over the top of the foam worked the best.  At one stage a small boy just had his feet showing, and his older brother had to pull him out.

The urchins challenged me to several races on the obstacle course.  The winner wasn't me, and it was hard hot work crawling in the small spaces, trying to prevent the urchins getting in front.  Thank goodness for water bottles.  The urchins don't like the taste of Hamilton water.

Wall to wall trampolines were fantastic, and we chased each other, played tag, dodge ball, and had a fabulous time.   An hour was long enough, and my body is thankful we didn't stay longer.