Fins Up!

As you may be aware, Shell and I (along with her family) are headed to yet another Jimmy Buffett show on Saturday night. We were getting a few things ready and the kids got into it. Here are a few photos of our parakeets. Don't roll your eyes, you know you like it! Fins up!

NZ Breakers Basketball Game

Last Thursday we took the kids to their first professional basketball game - the NZ Breakers vs the Cairns Taipans. The dad of Talor's best friend at kindy, Mikaere, plays for the Taipans (#4) so we wanted to go and see him. Unfortunately, Mikaere was still in Australia so we weren't able to see him - however, we did yell out to "Mikaere's Dad!" and said hello. We had great seats, met another couple from the Grand Rapids area (can you believe it - way over here!) and had a fun night overall. By the way, the Breakers won.

Summer Break 2011

I am lucky enough to get around 7 weeks off during this time of the year, and although it goes fast we have made the most of it this summer! Here are a few things we have been up to...

Bike Rides

More presents - thanks Aunt Jo!

Jelly baths - this is stuff that was in the kids' stockings and it creates a sort of gel texture with their bath water. It's very strange, but the kids loved it!

Shell and the kids have also done a fair bit of cooking - she's passing on her skills well and I have a feeling my waist line will continue to grow as these two grow older.

It's been a great month so far and we're looking forward to even more fun in the last three weeks. More updates will come by the time school starts, so keep checking back.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! We hope that you had very nice and safe Christmas and New Year celebrations. We enjoyed having everyone at our place again for Christmas morning where the kids, and adults, all got spoiled with presents. The kids' "big" present from Santa this year was bikes and they were/are a hit!

Here are a few photos of Layla waiting patiently for her turn to open a present. She REALLY got into it this year and LOVED her new quilt that Nana made - it even matches the one her doll has!

Once the presents were opened and food was eaten the kids, and Uncle Row, focused on assembling all of Talor's Lego's. He got some pretty cool sets and I think assembling them may have been Uncle Row's favorite part of the day!

Speaking of Uncle Row and Aunt Amanda, they outdid themselves again this year. Rowan put his craftiness to work again and made the kids a chalkboard of the states. He then mounted it to a board that was painted the colors of the flag. Although these pictures are great, it doesn't do his handiwork the justice it deserves. It is a very cool gift and one that the kids have been enjoying since Christmas. Aunt Amanda helped point out where Grandma lives, and the kids loved that too.

This now lives in the kids' bedroom with some chalk so they can play with it whenever they want.

One of the many highlights from 2010!

My grandmother gets to meet her great granddaughter for the 1st time when we visited the states in June/July.