Zara's birthday with a difference

Zara's birthday. 

We were never going to have a big celebration on her birthday and as it turned out, I'm thankful we didn't. NZ will remember this day as one of NZ's worst day's in history :(. The fateful earthquake hit that day. I was blissfully unaware of disaster until I got a phonecall from Albert's mum telling me that Louis was all OK. 

I had been at the swimming pool giving Zara and Kate some extra time in the pool as a birthday treat. We had invited guests for dinner that night to celebrate her birthday but they had to cancel to due the earthquake. I think most of NZ at that time was glued to the TV just as we were. We had afternoon tea (of potato chips (green ofcourse to keep with the theme) and lollies (again green)) in front of the TV as I wanted my girls to be informed of this major event in history. They got bored after a while as the TV kept showing the same images, again and again. So dinner that night of Pizza (take-out) was eaten in a sombre manner and it didn't taste that great at all. We haven't had pizza since. Zara was oblivious to it all, thankfully.

Just a few facts about Zara, to make sense of the pictures. Her favourite colour is GREEN!! Her blanket is green. Hence the green cupcakes, I especially bought some green icing gel. It worked a treat!

A family tradition is that on your birthday, the girls all pile into our bed early in the morning and open their presents. We bought Zara a new doll dressed as a flower, and guess what colour it was? We also bought her a little baby my little po.ny.  Zara is excellent in playing by her self and so the presents are giving her hours of enjoyment.
(This week) I found her pony's (she's got a few) lying down sideways next to her bed, they were sleeping, she told me! (I did tell her that pony's sleep standing up!)

Tabby makes an appearance - Is there any meat in those presents?

There's the doll :)

Zara's birthday at mainly music.

Family day 2011

My brother, my parents and us got together in March to have a family day. Here are a few photos.

Who is this handsome man?

Girls playing nicely at Oma's

Like Father like Daughter?

South Island Cousins

Due to the Feb Earthquake in Christchurch, we had some unexpected visitors from Christchurch. My Brother and family came up to the North island to escape from the earthquakes and managed to stay with a family outside of Wanganui. The bonus of this was that they were able to spend some time with us. TJ helped us with the laundry floor and the girls loved playing with their cousins.

Eva

Elijah with a grumpy pose for the camera!

Michaela and Eva

Esther

Happy pose for Elijah

Tabby the cat with Esther, Michaela and someone's hand ;)

Michaela's Speech

At school each year the senior classes need to write speeches. Michaela did very well last year with her speech on Veggies. She was one of five out of her class to give her speech to the rest of the school. Quite an achievement especially since she was the youngest in the class.

This year she chose the theme God and it will be interesting to see how she goes in class with regard to her peers. To me this has been one of the positive benefits of school and peers. Michaela had to write her speech at school by herself with a little help from the teacher but with no help from us! Obviously English is her strong subject, just like her father!!

Here is Michaela's Speech,

With God

You may thing we as Christians go out on Sunday mornings to discuss boring subjects. Others may think oh well I'm perfect and don't need God or God is just for nannies and babies. Well you are wrong God is for everyone.

I am here to tell you what we as Christians really do. I will explain this to you in three parts.
1. Who is God?
2. What we as Christians really do?
3. Why we need God

1 Who is God?
God is a spirit who created the world so we could have Fellowship with Him. In Genesis 1:1 it says "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". Unfortunately man sinned and that is why Jesus dies on the cross for us, John 3:16 explains this, it says; "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." This means that if you are a Christian you will die but when you do you will go to live with Him.

2 What we as Christians do?
On Sundays we go to Church to worship the most high God. Even though we are Christians we still go through hardships. Sometimes we get persecuted. WE are afraid but we have faith in God to carry us through our fears. When we die we go to a place called heaven that is so beautiful you could not imagine it. you too can share this place by believing in God.

3 Why we need God
Who can save you when you are in the midst of rubble and flames? In Matthew 7:7, it says "Ask and it shall be given to you." God answers our prayers by saying yes, no and wait.

Are you going to commit your life to Him? If you have already I'm glad you can go to that special place with me. If not I challenge you to think about having Him as your Saviour!!

By Michaela C

Renovation part 1 - Laundry

(We interrupt the family photo's for some renovation updates. This is the main reason why I haven't posted it for a while, hopefully things are back on track now :), )

As we all know before you can start making things pretty you got to do the preparation work!
Our laundry was in a state of disrepair, due to what we thought was a leaking water pipe when we first bought the house. Once we took all the lino off the floor we discovered (don't you love that in old houses ;)) that the floor boards were full of borer and had to be taken out.

Providentially my brother (TJ) and sister in law were in Wanganui due the Feb 11 earthquakes in Christchurch. TJ started ripping out the floor and put half the floor back in. Thanks heaps bro!! Albert and a helper did the rest of the floor. What a mission! Once the floor was in a storage cabinet was made to fit and then onto painting the entire laudry and toilet. Once painted Albert laid the floor.

Ventilation holes!

Old laudry tub

Looking from the kitchen into the pantry and toilet.

A lesson learned from renovating, a washing machine is a necessity, a shower is not! :)

Masquerade ball

During the school holidays, Michaela and Grace decided to have a Masquerade ball. They organised the family room into an appropriate venue with decorating it, re arranging the furniture, making invitations for the other sisters.  Good clean fun!