Day 10 Sunday The Homecoming

It is a beautiful morning. Grandma got up early and starting cooking for the celebration lunch.
Baked a cake,made some chocolate chop cookies with the help of Joseph and made pizza dough for the kids lunch.
With everything underway Grandma, JB and Sophia went to get the ingredients for the cooking contest.
Masterchefs goes Large.
After the shopping a quick tidy up and Grandad Dale arrived to taxi the Holidaymakers home from the airport.
Sophia went to help.

Lana Lucy Katie and Mia were on hand to welcome Dan & Helen back.
And everone settled down for lunch.


Chris was a bit late he had been out hunting and gathering and he brought back with him some delicious sashimi.
A great little in-between snack.
Lana came armed with the ingredients for a very good Caesar Salad.
And some lovely home made mint jelly which was bashed into the new potatoes.
A great flavour which went very well with the rosemary lemon and garlic rubbed leg of lamb.
Now the most important part of the day was about to begin.
Sophia was the convenor and JB and Mia were the contestants


It was all getting quite tense as the contestants got down to it.
The jugdes were pondering.






All over and it was a tie.
The convenor loved the food


So it was Goodnight to Grandma and Dale


They arrived home safely.

A very successful day

Day 9 Saturday

It was very cold first thing this morning.
But luckily it warmed up for the forthcoming Zoo visit
Now we have forgotten to mention a very important member of the family

Little Maisie she is very cute
JB loves her very much.
There is also Lulu but she is a bit aloof and she doesn't show her face except for meals.
After a slow start everyone was off to Parnell to buy meat for
family lunch tomorrow.
Grandma was also picking up beautiful Peonies for Mama, Katie and of course Grandma.
When they open we can put a picture on the blog site.
Then off for the Saturday Adventure went the Fantastic Four Grandma, Joseph, Mia and Sophia. First stop (after spending ages parking the car...
lots of other people had the same Zoo idea) was the cafe. Standing in line with the hoards was a bit trying. And after all that soggy chips. Amazing what people eat when they are hungry.

Time for the big walk around the zoo. The tiger looked magnificent but silly Grandma left the camera in the car so we only had the phone to take photos. The peacock
was really showing off but his beautiful tail feathers got lost in the background and he was too far away to get a good shot.
We did see beautiful little baby birds and a baby emu close up.
The children walked on the rickety bridge. The lions were having lunch and the elephant was having shower.




Time for the ice cream treat and playing on the slide.
Then "Home James and don't spare the horses"
The children had a few moments playing in the park
Guess who had to have a wee nap

Day 8 Friday

An uneventful start except JB had a little tiz with Sophia but the good thing about JB is he gets over it quickly.
Last week day breakfast with Grandma
JB had his usual actually came back for seconds.

Sophia had gone for the peanut butter and jam option. She also had this delight in her lunch. A big peanut butter day.

We think the flowers have absorbed as much colour as possible. They do look fantastic.

It was a full walking bus this morning Joseph joined it as usual
Sophia had already gone off earlier with Henry.
Grandma took off for a slightly smaller stroll today.
On return Grandma was on Goldfish duty.
The poor goldfish couldn't see out of their tank and it was very smelly.
On reflection Grandma has been too generous with the food.Look at all the bits of red food on the bottom.


Mia's Mummy and daddy were off to see U2 so Mia was coming to stay the night
Grandma picked her up from pre school and then they drove off to get Sophia and JB.
It was off to Drama we go.
Sophia's friend Ruby joined us.
After all the coming and goings of drama delivery the children went to play in the park.


Grandma watched them through the kitchen window...cooked dinner and had a nice wine.

Dinner was served

Sausage rolls and hash browns with peas and corn
A nice little spaghetti dish with monkfish, garlic and herbs for Grandma.

Before too long it was time for bed. Hooray a new book
Everyone settled down for the Adventures of the Wishing Chair...
It was so exciting Grandma read 2 chapters
So now it is Goodnight Sleep tight
Only 2 more sleeps till Mama and Daddy come home.

Day 7 Thursday

Another lovely day a little nip in the air.
Sophia and Henry went off early to school again.
Poor Henry scraped his nose on the bottom of the swimming pool. It is healing but looks a little sore.
Joseph went on the walking bus. A small bus today.
Grandma took a little stroll around the Dominion Rd, Mt Smart. Mt Eden Rd, Balmoral back up into Pine Street block. Kept her occupied while the cleaners were there to make the house nice and sparkly.
She also discovered Eiffel and went back to buy her lunch. Best quiche in Auckland
Sophia had a Brownie assignment. What happens to a flower whilst sitting in coloured water.
Well here are the stages. Started off with green colour. Grandma was so pleased with it she decided to go with a red one as well.
As you can see the green was the best the red just
developed pretty pink edges so far.




An uneventful afternoon. Shopping, Sophia at Brownies, Grandad Dale came over for a fish supper.
Joseph had meat sauce from the other night.
Sophia had pan fried fish, garlic beans and rosemary polenta along with the grandparents.
Delicious.
Joseph is on his last chapter of The Far Away Tree. Tomorrow night is going to be the start of The Wishing Chair.
Grandma is very excited about that.
Over and out for Thursday 23rd November.

Day 6 Wednesday

A nice sunny day.
Sophia went off early to school with her friend Henry.Joseph went on the walking bus.
Grandma went for a walk to Katie's house and had coffee. The mission then was to pick up Helen's car from Parnell. It had been sitting there since Monday night.
There was much going on at Churton Street the courtyard was getting cleaned.
Grandma scuttled away before she had to do more work.
Grandma walked up to school to pick up the gang and gang it was, Bianca,Sophia, Rebecca, Ruby Michaela and Joseph... we all walked together...an unofficial walking bus.
Bianca was coming to play before Jazz dancing lessons.
Here are the dancers

Joseph now has a new name JB short for Joseph Bon
Does he look any different?
I don't think so!!!
Still looks like Joseph to me.

Everyone drove off to The Dance Studio
The girls met up with Annabel

Dinner tonight was chicken, roast potatoes, broccoli and tomatoes,
Sophia and Joseph had to go to the park to wear off all the food then back for Jelly and ice cream.
After a quick hot chocolate, everyone fell into bed.
Another very busy day.