Grandma Has Arrived

Well, my mom landed in Auckland at 8:30am and by 2:00 we had her working. We dug the potatoes in the garden and this was our crop. It was very nice and we are looking forward to eating some of these tomorrow with our roast dinner!

Grandma brought a TON of gifts for everyone...the Spiderman and Tinkerbell umbrellas (or Bacarella's as Layla calls hers) were a hit!!

Finally, this last picture sort of sums up the questions as to if Grandma is enjoying herself. I'd say "yes!"

General Update

Here are a few of the latest pictures of the kids. Shell's friend Zoe's son tagged along on a recent tubby and all three kids had a good time. I also particularly like the photo of Talor in the Tiger hat...he obviously has great taste in the team he supports. Go Tigers!

Pasta and Patriotism

Shell obviously doesn't have enough crafty stuff that she is involved in, so she has now started making home made pasta as well. It's delicious and always a nice treat to come home to!

One of the MANY gifts that my mom brought with her on her visit was this flag box. For about 20 years I have been holding onto the flag that was laid over my grandfather's casket at his funeral...now I can finally display it. I'm very happy to finally do so!

The First Spring Garden Update!

Today is a beautiful, warm spring day and we have been outside getting the garden ready. I can't remember if I wrote about this before or not, but last weekend we built a new raised garden from scrap wood. It came out really well and this morning we started filling it with goodies. In between the twine is where Shell and the kids planted our carrots. In the bottom left corner is some lettuce and in the bottom right is spinach. I plan to put a few tomato plants in the top two corners soon.

We also dug up, and fertilized, our bean patch. Last year we had 30 bean plants in that tiny patch and surprisingly we had all 30 produce! I decided to just put in 12 this year and may add to it later in the season if I want more.

After everything was planted Talor did the honors of watering everything. This is a picture of him watering the "big" garden and all the potatoes. These will be dug up in a few weeks when my mom is here in order to make more room for our summer vegetables.

Finally, Talor spent a bit of time playing around in the bark and he found a new freind. We thought we would show it off a bit. Better out of the garden than in it I think!

Layla Looking Cute

Hi everyone...here is a picture of Layla looking cute.

Not a lot is new over here really. I have two more weeks of this term and then a two week break with my mom in town...so that'll be nice. We have also enjoyed listening to the Rockford and U of M games this week...both had VERY big wins! Although we're many miles away, we are still avid fans! Congratulations to one of my old schools too...CMU had a big win against MSU today. I love it when MAC schools beat big teams!

Crafty Update

So here is the recent sewing/knitting....

...two little summer dresses for Layla, made from my fabric stash...

.... Talor decided he 'needed' butterfly wings like Kindy has so I had to sew these up, really quick job since a 3 year old doesn't have much patience :) He chose purple for him and red for Layla (she was asleep, its the only time I get to sew during the day)....

.... finished off Layla's Milo Vest. Notice the big graze and bump on her forhead, she was playing tag with Talor on the driveway and yip it ended with her falling over....

.... One night a week I get over to a friends house after the kids are in bed for crafting and chocolate biscuits. Here is the skirt I made for Layla last week, really cute (and easy) pattern off the internet...

.... and lastly a photo of me and my big boy, just because I think he is super cute and this is one of the few photos he actually weanted to have taken :)

"If Kashin Could See This, She Would Be So Excited!"

Today Auckland Zoo opened their doors to the public, free of charge, to celebrate Kashin's life. Kashin was the face of the zoo for over 30 years and had to be put to sleep this past Monday after her health deteriorated too much. Thousands of people turned up to say goodbye and we were all able to go behind the scenes to see where she is now buried. It was a very cool and special morning. Here are some of the pictures we took from the day.

This was placed just outside of the drive leading to the zoo entrance and welcomed people in.

It seemed as though all the animals knew something special was happening because they were all out and most were pretty active!

This was taken just before we left...it was a good trip!

There were a lot of pictures all over the zoo and random areas with sidewalk chalk for people to leave messages. Here are a few that we found as well as the kids putting their stamp on the day.

Talor said that he wanted to go see Burma because as he put it, "he must be really lonely now." Who would've thought that wouldn't be the last wise words out of his mouth today!

After walking to the top of a VERY steep hill (mom, it was the one we saw Kashin and Burma walking down when they walked past us on your trip last year) we were able to see where she is now buried and say goodbye.

What a day!

As we were leaving the zoo, going stop and go in the insane traffic in the area, Talor spoke from the backseat very quietly and said, "If Kashin could see this, she would be so excited!"