The Perpetual Party

As it always seems to happen in the Simpson house, Kip's birthday lasted for a few days. He had some of his new friends, their brothers and sisters and parents over for a barbeque. The boys had a blast running around the property, climbing trees, riding bikes, playing touch rugby. I had a few "party" things planned, but aside from the pinata (and the cake, of course) none of it was necessary.

Kip is 8!

Kip celebrated his 8th birthday yesterday. It was a mellow day since it was a school day, but Kip was pretty pleased with his birthday presents. His cake was a lemon cake that he'd picked out of an ancient Better Homes & Gardens cookbook of mine. It was really yummy-even if it was really ugly. Donkey is one of Quinn's latest portraits. He sneaks my camera about once a week and goes on a mad photo shoot.

Hot Holiday on Cool Running

For the last weekend of school break, we spent three days on a 45 foot sailing catamaran (Cool Running) in the Bay of Islands. It was Reid and Quinn's first time away overnight on a boat and they loved the experience. Lynn and Ken as well as Tara and 6 month old Jack also came with us. We didn't have quite as much wind as we would have like for sailing, but the weather was cooperative otherwise. We explored beautiful beaches, did some hiking, caught a few fish (well, Kip caught fish-Richard and I are not keen fisherpeople) and generally had a really nice time. We celebrated Lynn's birthday on Sunday with fresh-caught fish, sparkling wine and matches for candles in her cake.

The Elder Simpson Boy

Too cool to smile for the camera.......

Bushwalking

I took Reid and Quinn to our favorite bush walk the other day. We had a great time-them skipping ahead up and down stairs, me trying to keep up with creaky knees. The local bush walk society (yes there is such a thing) maintains this really cool boardwalk through what appears to be a primeval forest. I love to take the boys there because they can't stray too far and it's a great workout for me. After taking copious photos of them, I decided that I needed to train them to use the camera so that they could take pictures of me because nobody takes pictures of poor ole me. I think they did a pretty good job. Quinn almost cut my head off, but I ducked to get in the photo.

Wanted: Experienced Cow Wrangler

We arrived home the other day after spending the night "in town" to find two almost grown calves in our front yard. Well, Kip saw the big cow pies first, then found the cows "sitting" on our lawn. We think they must've been there overnight given the amount of leavings. Kip and Richard chased them into the sheep paddock until we figured out who they belonged to. They had somehow escaped from the paddock down the street and ended up in our yard. The owner lives out of town and was unable to help us move them. Getting them home involved herding them out of our sheep field, through our yard, down the driveway, down the road and into their own field. The whole family got into the act and in the end, I was running down the road in my gumboots trying to head the calves off before they got too far away. Too bad I was the one with the camera because I'm pretty sure I was a sight. After we got them home, Richard began scooping poop. All is well that ends well, and as far as we know the calves are still happily fenced where they belong.