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.

Jack

Baby Jack, Cousin Jack, Nephew Jack.  He's 6 months old today and OH SO cute!  

Boys Getaway

Richard and I are not the only ones who had a break this weekend. Kip, Reid and Quinn got a break from us, and spent the weekend having fun with Nana and Poppa. They went on a bush walk, played miniature golf, explored the local country park which has a miniature train, a petting zoo and a fun playground. Poppa and Kip did repairs to the chicken coop and Nana scooped old chook poop and dug it into our soon to be fabulous vegetable garden. They had a grand time without us. Quinn loves his new wetsuit and can't wait to go surfing (aka boogie boarding). School gets out for two weeks this Friday and I plan to get all the kids into the surf and onto boards. Guess that means I have to dig out my wetsuit and shave my legs......

Weekend Getaway

Richard and I left the kids with Nana and Poppa and headed north along the West Coast of the North Island to a place we'd never been-Hokianga Harbour. http://www.hokiangatourism.org.nz/ We had no idea what to expect, and were very pleasantly surprised. Our accommodation was modest (http://www.omapere.co.nz/index.php?section=1 the website makes it look pretty darn posh... our room must've been the oldest one in the resort), but the setting was unbelievably spectacular. We stayed in a small town near the mouth of the harbour and our room was a stone's throw from the beach. I guess you'd be hard pressed to really call it a town, but it did have a gas station, a small convenience store and a bakery (that was never open). Driving to The Hokianga takes you through the Waipoua Forst which is native bush and home to the largest Kauri trees in the country (these are akin to the ancient Sequoias found in California). We felt as though we'd been dropped into a pre-historic movie set for the next Jurassic Park! Not long after emerging from the forest, we came to the spectacular view that Richard and the chickens are gracing. After checking in, we hoofed it a few kilometres to the headland at the mouth of the harbour. It felt and looked very like somewhere along the coast of Northern California. Luckily the tide was going out, so we were able to walk back along the beach. It was only slightly treacherous at one point where we had a choice of scrambling over fallen logs and rocks or racing the waves around the ocean side. Richard chose the former, I chose the latter. I got wet. After a shower and a nap, we drank a beer on the deck and watched the sun go down. Perfect. The next morning, our plans to take a historic harbour cruise were nixxed because of heavy fog (which NEVER happens....uh huh). On the way home, we drove to one of our favorite spots in the world-Opua in the Bay of Islands. We used to have an office there in our previous life and it's the spot we'll be picking up our charter yacht in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for photos and stories of the first family sailing trip!

Richard (duh!)

The chicken (maybe not so obvious).
Copthorne Resort (great lawns!)
Our room is the one on the right.
View from the headland at the mouth of the harbour looking back into "town".

View from the headland looking south down the coast.
The walking path.
Walking back along the beach.
Crépuscule avec une bière
Silver ferns doing their spring thing and unfurling.