Hamilton Gardens

We decided to make the most of the last Monday before daylight savings ends and went to the Hamilton Gardens. The kids had a ball running though all the different gardens. They especially liked the edible gardens.

Finally a nice picture of me.

You know you're in NZ when you walk through the grass and see one of these...

and one of these....

Beautiful Ella-Rose. She Couldn't resist touching the water.

The boys + Lily.

Funny photo Tane!

Ella is so cute. Here are a few pictures of her before church.

Joseph loves being an army man.

Spaghetti and marshmallows

This week has been pretty hectic. It's school holidays, but Tane and I had a change of roles for the 2nd half of the week. He had time at home with the kids, and I worked some shifts at the hospital.

Firstly family home evening this week was great. For our activity, we decided to have a competition to see who could build the strongest and tallest towers with spaghetti and marshmallows. It was pretty hilarious. The Spaghetti are used for struts and the marshmallows as the putty between them.

Joseph teamed up with me, and Josh with Tane, with Anna-Maria helping us out. Joseph and I were doing pretty good at the start for the tallest tower, except we didn't count on one thing... BABY!! One foul swoop with her hand and it was all over... spaghetti was flapping in the wind, broken and sad.

After baby had dealt to Joseph's tower

Anna-Maria doing her own thing with the spaghetti and marshmallows

 Tane and Josh did well with theirs and managed to balance a book on top.

Getting ready to put it to the test.

It worked... just..Tane was scared to let it go incase it came tumbling down, but it did hold... for a short while... till the kids destroyed it.

Family Home Evening fun

In our church we are encouraged to have family night every Monday night. Its a time to get together sing songs, share each others news, have a lesson, play games... and the chldren's all time favourite part ... eat dessert.


One of our all-time favourite family home evenings was reading the kids the story of Captain Moroni and the title of Liberty. This was always one of my favourite stories... and Captain Moroni is such a heroic freedom fighter it appeals to the nature of our boys. After we read the story we gave the kids an old sheet which they were able to act out the story and rip their coat and write "Freedom" on it. They then attached these pieces of cloth to broomsticks/mops and paraded round the house holding them.

The kids had a blast making and waving them around. Some of the best FHE's have been the simplest.   :)