Little Princess

Jordy dressed herself this morning. I didn't know that she was in her room choosing her own clothes and dressing herself!

I put on the nail polish!

This and that!

Torty follows us everywhere. He is the friendiest tortoise I know He even climbs up onto our laps!

Birthday Present!

Callyn got a lot of money as gifts for his birthday as he was saving up for a green, lego cargo plane but ........
when we went to buy it we couldn't find it anywhere but.....then he found something even better.....

a big, blue duplo plane that came with the airport terminal and tractor for pulling the luggage and a little petrol tank!

Callyn has been playing with this since we got it and even conned Jordy into sharing her duplo people from her school bus. They are all his passengers!

It's actually fairly large and we had to make space on the table next to his bed last night as the aeroplane had to sleep next to him!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Getting ready!

Callyn played his computer game right up until his friends started arriving for his party!

Jordy put on her own shoes........

...and Jordy took this photo!

Friends!

Friends!

Maniacs!

Tha Cake

I think it was about 36 degrees yesterday and we had an icecream cake so we had to cut it quickly and put it back in the freezer! This is a photo of Callyn's bike on the cake!

After Party

Monique was an absolute star - she arrived at the party at 2pm and looked after Jordy the entire time, taking her to the loo, feeding her , playing with her etc. She also looked after Callyn! Then she stayed after the party and helped me clean up and then swam with the kids! And that wasn't all.......we went to a friend's birthday party so she babysat for us! Jordy went to bed at about 8pm but when we got home at 11pm, Callyn was still playing with Monique in the playroom! I don't know where he gets his energy - must be from pure love as he adores Monique! Monique had to sneak out while Donovan distracted Callyn and this was at about 11:30!

I went to bed and at about 2pm I saw the lights were still on and Callyn had fallen asleep on top of Donovan in the lounge so I turned the volume of the TV down and went back to bed! At some stage in the night, Donovan brought Callyn to bed!

The Engelke's Home!

Now isn't this just the ideal spot! Lake Hayes Estate is surrounded by mountains, a river and a lake! You can look out of any window and admire a stunning view!

Muffin time!

I promised the kids muffins in January! So we bought the biggest chocolate muffins we could find and from their faces, it looks like they were enjoyed by all!

The End

It was sad departure at the airport. I really miss my family and wish we were closer instead of on the other side of the world! That is our plane outside. Air New Zealand. that plane will never be the same again as Jordy vomitted all over herself and the seat! She, and Abby and Archer, started with a tummy bug the previous night!

The Earnslaw

We went on a steamboat called the Earnslaw! It took us on a 40 minute trip across the lake to a farm where we had a tour and saw the lamas, deer, sheep and ducks! It was so much fun and a memorable outing! Sean saw us off at the dock - he couldn't make it as he had to work.

The Farm!

We saw some funny looking sheep that were really big and the kiddies had a chance to feed the lamb with a bottle! They were also given old scones etc to feed the ducks in the lake!

Sheep!

The farmer showed us how sheep were sheared and then shopped in the curio shop and missed the boat - on purpose! We wanted to play in the gardens and just relax a bit!

Boys and trees

The boys found the tallest trees and decided to see how high they could climb. callyn got so high I couldn't reach him and then he got stuck and couldn't get down. I had to talk him down as there was no ways I was climbing up!

Fun in the Lake!

The water in the lake was freezing but kids love water and don't seem to mind the temperature....so the clothes started coming off slowly and the kids started going in deeper...until they were sopping wet!

Jordy decided to have a little wee under the bridge!

Russ's 40th!

All the kiddies were awake very early and waited in the lounge for their dad / uncle to get up and open his presents! Joel made the traditional "DAD" out of duplo (Russ usually does it for all the kids). I helped the other children wrap presents the night before!

At last Russ got up and opened all of his presents. Ruth gave him a really cool watch and we gave him some 'takkies' and a Lord of the Rings book on all the sites where the fil was shot. The rest of the family gave him chocolates and Abby gave him a big mug and chocolates. One of the chocolates was one that she had won in frizbee golf at youth the night before and she saved it for her Dad - sweet, kind Abby!

Sean came all the way from Dunedin to share in the celebrations! Donovan and Sean went off shopping and Russ and I took the kids to the playground. After that I looked after the 8 kids while Russ and Ruth went to the pools and Donovan and Sean went grocery shopping. We had a braai for supper!

Check out all the candles on the cake!

The Village Green

We stopped off at the Village Green in town to have a picnic of KFC! The kids made a running route where they ran across the bridge, along the river, over another bridge and back to us. Russ timed them and the race was on! Even Jordy raced - head up, little legs running as fast as they could!