A party

We had a great time on Sunday, lots of friends turned up and even though the wind was strong at times we enjoyed hanging out on the deck. The sun even came out!

Josh and I spent a few hours beforehand setting up sails and a fabric tent outside, laid a carpet on the deck and spread lots of pillows, cushions and mattresses around. It looked really cool and everyone enjoyed lounging there while sipping some champagne. The kids had the whole house to themselves and the next day it looked like a big box of toys had exploded everywhere.

I made some special candles for the occasion too, which I was very happy with. Tutorial to follow!

A party

Josh and I are born on the same day, four years apart... uncanny.

So every year we have a great party to celebrate both our birthdays. This one might be the last one in a while!

It was great fun, we'd postponed it a week because of bad weather but it was worth it. We had a beautiful sunny day, Josh had put up lots of sails for shade, and dragged the couch outside. Everyone should have an outdoor couch!

There was plenty of food and drink, people had a good time. I always feel a bit frustrated because I never feel like I manage to catch up with everyone, but it was so nice to have all our friends around!

The kitchen and bathroom are slowly shaping up, interesting to try out the new kitchen's layout for a party, definitely ten times better than our old kitchen!

Dino party

Seeing Tahi's been pretty much obsessed with dinosaurs for a few months now, it was only logical to throw a Dinosaur party for his birthday!
So of course I made a dinosaur cake, with a hired mould. It looked horrible (I'm pretty terrible at making birthday cakes) because I didn't put the icing on properly. No photos. But Tahi loved it and couldn't stop staring at it, I think mainly because of the dinosaur lollies I had stuck on it. Of course that's all he ate from the cake!
We hadn't organized any games this year, Josh is away working in Wellington and I was busy enough making Tahi's costume and getting the food sorted. It took me a week to finish his costume but I was pretty happy with the result, and Tahi thought it was great so that made it all worth it.
In all, a lovely chilled afternoon with friends and kids, hanging out in the backyard, munching on strawberries and sipping orange tea (a special drink I'd made, well actually it's orange marmalade mistakenly turned into syrup, but it works perfectly for drinks!).

Rhaaaaaaa!

The garden is looking pretty good at the moment, and we have been getting some nice veges from it lately, which is so very pleasing and rewarding! Below is my prize winning broccoli.