pictures pictures pictures

I'm posting right on top of myself but there were far to many photos so I'm spacing them out a bit.

Have saved these for last--my new favs...

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Christmas wins!

A couple of years ago I read about an idea (I think it was one of Ian Grant's) for a pre-Christmas adventure--get your kids up out of bed one night and drive down Franklin Road to admire the fairy lights. I am all about memory making moments (especially those related to Christmas) so on the eve of the eve we bundled our sleepy (yet extraordinary excited) little girl into the car and headed out. And of course it all fell completely to custard. Don't you just love it when the adventures you plan for your kids end up being anything but fun? On the way back home, with two screaming babes in the back of the car, I felt like I could have submitted my much anticipated 'eve of the eve' fairy light extravaganza to Fail Blog. Parenting...FAIL.

We made two fatal errors: 1) by the 23rd of December the traffic is backed up for hours from every possible direction. And error 2) I assumed that my baby would sleep beautifully in the car the way his sister used to. We now know that this is not so. :)









So we never made it to Franklin Road (managed to pull a U-turn through lanes of standstill traffic), however we did spot some pretty lights. Traffic lights and street lights and such. Of which I took a few pictures that remind me of Monet paintings. And Sophia points at them happily and exclaims 'look at the Franklin Road fairy lights'. Bless. :)










And the other little bit of pre-Christmas fun I had planned was to make coconut marshmallow, package it up and deliver it to my friends as a gift. Hmm. Take 2 at pre-Christmas fun = marshmallow FAIL. Actually, although the end result wasn't gift worthy it tasted pretty good. It was the fact that I blew up the electric beaters (literally--explosion and black smoke) that accounted for the fail. That and the heavy consistency that flattened into a marshmallow flounder on the tray. It was salvageable however (just) and I am game to have another go soon. After I've purchased some new beaters.


While I'm on the topic, here are a couple of other Christmas fails from Fail Blog... Hehe.











As for the pre-Christmas WINS, there are many.

#1 nothing quite like Mum's Christmas Mince Pies.











#2 a bit of pre-Christmas painting.











#3 pre-Christmas BBQs when the weather is warm until late.

#4 taste testing the practise run of Dad's Christmas day potatoes.











#5 the Christmas Eve sunset.











Have I said the word Christmas enough?

And then, of course, there are the many many wins of CHRISTMAS day...






































































































Well done Christmas, you win.


I had a few wins with my camera also and I'll post them shortly. To view more Christmas pics click here.


Hope your Christmas was filled with many many wins also. (Christmas Christmas Christmas.)


x

cute kids & clever people

Wow is this weather intense or what? Auckland may not know whether she wants to shine or pour, but she definitely knows how to do muggy. Eek! I've spent a large percentage of my days this week with baby in arms, rocking and jiggling then peeling his sweaty little body off mine and into his bassinet. And Sophia has spent a lot of her time covered in sand, her skin whiter than ever under layers of sludgy sunblock.

















And we've been doing a bit of Christmas baking and much present wrapping (not to mention the present shopping which is now complete--phew).

















And there are many other things I've intended to do but haven't quite gotten to. As per usual these December weeks have disappeared and Christmas Eve is now days away. So I'm left with not a lot to share but a few pics of the little cuties we've spent time with recently. I can't get enough of shooting kiddies at the moment so I'm sure there will be many more of these to come over the next few days...

Love them!

And as for those clever people I alluded to in the title of this post...

The beautiful, talented and unbelievably inspiring Dee from Tiny Eyes and Dee*Construction painted this exquisite portrait of our little William. We just love it! So special. Clever lady...check out her blog and facebook...

And when I saw Lyla (one of Dee's custom dolls, pictured below) I had to nab her for my little niece. Of course, once she'd arrived I was tempted to keep her, but that's how it goes--the best pressies are the ones you want to keep!

















And the other clever lady I have been wanting to showcase (yet again) for a while now is my ultra talented mum. She recently exhibited and sold out--it's stunning stuff. The following is a shot of my fav...

(Check out Mum's website here.)











Exquisite!


















A while back now I bundled up my littlies and took them to Mum's exhibition. Sophia checked out the art and then made her own. And I can't help but thinking that she is a little artist in the making. :) [The above pieces are by artist Suzanne Day--unfortunately no website to link to.]


















I hope to be back at least once before Christmas, I'm not liking posting so infrequently!

Hope you all are managing to enjoy this period in the midst of the madness!!

x