Haere ra Koro, haere mai Granny.........

hi! just sitting here at home ALONE!! and loving it, it is soooo quiet and soooo relaxing. The boys have gone out fishing with Brendon, Dad, Matt and Uncles Paul and Thomas to their fave spot, called The Cut in Maketu.......leaving me with a free morning to ah um write about my kids on the blog....
We've had a really neat but very busy week with Dad here, really enjoyed it and not quite ready for him to go actually. Boo hoo! He leaves tomorrow, back down to good old Palmy North. The highlight of the week would have to be our trip to Baywave Pools, i think the pools is pretty high on the 'really fun things to do' list for most kids, Kahu just goes crazy. Dad said to me at one point in all seriousness 'you don't think he's got ADHD do you?'. And they say that water is calming???? that definitely doesn't apply to Kahurangi Ross.
Anyway very soon we will be farewelling Koro but greeting Granny. For those of you whom i haven't got around to telling, Brendon's Mum Maggie and sister Tessa are moving in tomorrow! as they have decided to make the move from Whangarei to this beautiful place we call home, Tauranga Moana. They will be staying until they sort jobs, accomodation etc. So we will have a full house indeed, with my brother Matt also living with us. It's quite an operation we have running here you see, it's kinda like the 'Welcome to Tauranga' induction package deal!! similar to the Price household in Sydney, they do the 'Welcome to Sydney' induction package.
When we were in Auckland it used to get me down that we didn't have whanau around, used to feel quite lonely at times even though we made some fantastic friends. It just felt like everyone else had family that they were just popping over to have Sunday lunch with, or just leaving the kids with their parents while they did a spot of shopping etc etc. I used to wish we had the same......now i know you should be BLOODY CAREFUL about what you wish for.....!!!!!!I can't get away from family here, they are everywhere........!!!!!

ah ok i think i've just worked out the caption thing......not exactly rocket science is it. Here's Kiwa with his Poppa Fisher, my grandfather and of course the cake.

Ok i'm giving up-having trouble posting pics and getting fed-up with this bloody blog so i'll just try and show ya one of the cake. I did say bear with me!!!

I'm pleased to report that the cake was a great success-phew! It was a real mission and took Nanna and i five hours but it was well worth it, the kids got a real buzz out of it and when everyone had gone home after the party Kahu took great delight in hacking at it with a knife, pulling it all apart then reassembling it over and over again. He told me he was fixing the train bcos the train was broken and was taking it all very seriously, he's into rescuing, saving and fixing things at the moment.....i wonder where he gets that from????? Oh well at least we'll know who to turn to next time the car breaks down....
One of his favourite things to do is to get his toy cat and put it up in a tree, then he gets his firetruck and goes and rescues the cat! It's really quite cute.
Anyway i won't bore you with anymore of that stuff.
Kiwa wasn't overly impressed with the cake as you can see in the photo! Well you can't please everyone all of the time........
We are looking forward to a fun week ahead with my Dad here till next Sunday. The boys love their Koro and he them of course. He is very much the doting grandfather in every way, and of course I am so not complaining about having an extra pair of hands around for a week.
I think mini golf is on the cards for Koro and Kahu this morning, and then the big boys (Matt, Brendon, Dad and cousin Tiki) are golfing this afternoon.
Ah yes life is good....as for me, only ten hours to go until Desperate Housewives, man i love Mondays.
did i really just say that? Still time to delete...ah what the heck i'm totally hooked and not ashamed to say it!

Still can't figure out how to put captions underneath photos but i'm sure these ones are pretty self-explanatory anyhow. Nanna making the cake, Kahu destroying the cake, before/after, kids, party, presents......etc etc

Kia ora everyone!!! Well i have finally got my act together and joined the world of bloggers and i can't think of a better day on which to start than Kiwa's first birthday!!!! What more could a boy want for his first birthday...... Ooooh look Kiwa- it's a blog!!!!!
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of being in Kiwa's company, let me take the time to tell you a little more about him. His first name is derived from Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, which means the great ocean of Kiwa. Kiwa is one of our ancestors who is famed as a great ocean explorer and navigator. Joshua is after his Uncle Josh in London, whom i hear is a real character and top bloke. Other than that, Kiwa is a real charmer. He is happy, chilled-out and loves a laugh. Of course if you'd been around him this week you would think i were an absolute liar, as he has been sick with bronchiolitis and there has been nothing happy or chilled-out about any of it. Ask his Granny!! First Kahu got a cough/cold and then of course Kiwa caught it and ended up spending a night in hospital, i've just had it and Brendon is just starting to get a sniffle...my poor baby, NOT!!!! it hasn't stopped him going out on an all-expenses paid fully catered deluxe fishing charter today.
I'm off to make Kiwa's bday cake with his great-grandmother, my Nanna Molly Fisher. We are making a train, not just any train either.....don't worry there will be photos!! It has been a real team effort, my Aunty Mary-Jane, a cake decorating whizz herself made the butter cream icing....thanks MJ!!! Man i love having the whanau around.....it's awesome.
Kahu is struggling to get his two year old head around the fact that it's Kiwa's bday and not his, don't ya love two year olds......

I'm still getting the hang of how to use this blog so bear with me....! can't quite work out how to place captions underneath the photos, but the photos above are recent ones of Kiwa, the one on the left was taken today and No he's not wearing lipgloss, he's been eating pebbles.