Thursday, December 12, 2013

March and April

March is always a month of celebrations here...

 celebrating with friend Bertha...a vintage themed birthday 
lots of fun!


 with the birthday girl

 Olivia turned 7 - with Courtney here

 celebrating with an after school party with class friends

 dinner with Dad and Mum and Marcel

 Devon turned 4 and we celebrated our 8th anniversary!
Anya came for the day seeing as we were having the party on Levi's birthday

 I took Rod out for lunch :-) 

 and last but not least, little Levi turned 1!
receiving a present from Marleen 

 it turned out to a be a bit of a cooler day so we were inside at first 

 hooray for Devon and Levi!
That's Sienna de Vos next to Devon  - he's going to marry her when he grows up
and he's going to be a minister - two definites in his life at the moment

 one spoiled boy

 kids giving Rod a hand putting up the wooden slats

 Dad turned 60 in April! Here is with his grandkids and 
cousin Eric and Mary's kids who are like his grandkids as well :-)

 spoiling the kids with a tractor ride!

 60 colourful balloons tied on the back
not sure who had more fun -  Dad or the kids :-)

 Olivia's teacher got married!


 visiting Rod on the job one day when they stood panels

 Mike and Kathryn were blessed with another beautiful daughter
Bryony

 Mum's surprise birthday present for Dad - an afternoon drive
in a convertible cadillac
watching planes land



and then to the city to get some lunch and enjoy a bike ride
along the river - photos of that are on Rod's phone...
Ok, I have to admit, I am a bit obsessive-compulsive when it comes to certain things...like hangers in the shops - they have to all be in the right size order and sizes together or I will rearrange them! :-) and like with this blog...I feel I need to cover the parts of the year I haven't otherwise it's just not right.  So anyway, here goes, way back to the beginning of the year...please bear with me :-)

December 2012/January 2013
We spent a wonderful 10 days in Bremer Bay with Fritz and Viv, Ed and Evette and even Jaco and Tin, who were visiting from Holland, managed to join us for a few days :-)  We had the best weather out of all the times we've been there, with just one sunny day after another which of course meant spending lots of time down at the many beautiful beaches.

 we are forever grateful to Evette who took her excersaucer and play pen along!

Look at our little babies!  It'll be a bit different this year!

our little beach bums

 pretty busy but still lots of room for everyone


 our happy little camper


 camping buddies Olivia and Tegan with a treasure they found


 Rod and Ed doing a bit of bodyboarding



 


 Dinner time!

 keeping up the tradition - out for dinner on our last night there

 Tin and I with our yummy desserts


 all packed and ready to go!

 soon after we got home we had to say bye to Jaco and Tin :-(

 cousins Anya, Olivia, Levi, Courtney and Devon

 out for coffee for Ingrid's birthday

 cousin Renier got married to the lovely Denise

 Olivia did swimming lessons for 2 weeks


 doing painting with Naomi and Chanel

February 

  school started again - Year 2 for Olivia


 and Kindy for Devon



 enjoying breakfast by the beach for my birthday




 love these little people xox






At the Park...

Here's some photos I took of Olivia playing at the park down the road the other day.







It's Monday
It's raining - YAY!!!
Olivia is sleeping - YAY to that too
I chopped all my hair off on Saturday...eeek!
Daylight saving is finished! It was dark at 7pm last night; weird!
It's wintry...I love it, I might head for my bed too. Olivia was awake at 5 this morning, snoozed for a bit till 6, didn't take her Dad's advice on going back to sleep, so got to go in bed with Mum till it was a sane time to get up (only b/c her Mum was sick of listening to her whinge and whine). So I'm feeling a bit sleepy...
Anyway, here's some pics from Saturday night. The van der Veen tribe had a BBQ at Paul and Heidi's place for Renee's b'day. (They might be put on one per day b/c the connection is soooo slow.)

The boys looking at Dad and Mum's Melbourne photos

the Girly Whirlys -- Heidi, Charlene, me, Annette, Renee and Ingrid

checking out some funny video clips

Akaroa

Akaroa
This is the awesome view you get as you drive down into Akaroa, a little town about 1.5 hous from Christchurch

On the beach at Long Bay, Akaroa

A shop with character

Morning tea in Timaru

Christchurch

Christchurch
Our 'Kozy Kiwi' - accomodation while in Christchurch

Rod, Kathryn and Rose on the cool blow up trampoline thing

Sunday night BBQ at the caravan park where we all stayed: Darryl, Rose, Rod and Glenn

Travelling...

Travelling...
more beautiful scenery

Mt Cook - NZ's highest mountain


river near Lake Wanaka

Cadbury's Chocolate Factory!!!

Aren't I strong!

Christchurch Botanical Gardens

all a bit bleary eyed at 5am @ the airport

sunrise above the clouds - beautiful!

Zachary

mmm, Olivia gets to lick the beater!

Tastes good Mum!


my little gardener

A busy bee