a proper blog

Eva's First Birthday

2011-09-13T03:42:00.001+12:00

Eva turned one this month and we designed her cake after her party dress! Love this gorgeous little niece of mine!

Best fish-n-chips eva…

2010-11-05T13:29:00.002+13:00

Initially, I thought the fish&chips at the Pig-n-Whistle were champion. The batter was nice and thick with a great dark beer flavor. But then I went to The Grange in Hahei (When Dad Cook came for a visit and we were on our way to Cathedral Cove). The presentation was over the top and everything came together perfectly. However, on our last visit to Hahei and The Grange I was sorely disappointed. (The picture below is my recent Grange experience – the magic of photography makes it look better than it was) Things were not up to scratch and as I recall I think those f&c cost me ~$35! I asked our waiter what happened and he said that he hadn’t been working there long but that the place was under relatively new management. So, I visit Oz with my mate Walid and we stop in to one of the only pubs near our hostile in Adelaide – The Union. It was a nice place, buzzing with the Friday after-work crowd. Under ‘Pub Classics’ the first item was ‘Coopers Pale Ale Battered Garfish and Chips’. For a measly $19, who could resist (Walid was paying)? The presentation was nothing special, but the first bite surprised me - I may have even made some dramatic response. It was absolutely delicious. The batter was on the lighter side which really allowed this great fish to jump out at you. I don’t know what Garfish is but I highly recommend it (at least at The Union). So, in my 4 years of sampling real fish&chips the best I ever found was in Adelaide at The Union.

Trevor and Val’s beach house (Mike’s B-day gift)

2010-10-02T20:49:00.003+13:00

What an awesome birthday I had! I told Kim that I wanted to spend the night away somewhere for my birthday. Kim secretly asked our dear friends Trevor and Val, who had offered to let us stay at their beach house a while back, if it would be available. It was and what a wonderful time we had! Look at this charming beach house – and it was so nice on the inside, too. My favorite part was the remote controlled fire place. This is about 1.5 hours north of Auckland near Whangarei. Here’s the view from the deck.At low tide the girls and I went looking for sea monsters. With some ambivalence, I report that we didn’t find any. We stayed for ~ 3 days which gave us some nice opportunities to explore the area. We found what is probably my 4th favorite beach, Ocean Beach (Karikari, Matapouri, and Omaha would be my top 3 – no, wait. Ocean beach is no. 3 and Omaha is no. 4). Kim and the kids are circled in this pic.It doesn’t look like there was anyone else on the beach because there wasn’t. Did this beach have a blue lagoon? Of course.Here’s daddy showing the girls how to…I’m not sure what I was doing.

Of all the fun we had on the trip, I think this might have been my favorite part.

What’s the word I’m looking for…

2010-09-06T09:09:00.001+12:00

Hilarious. Claire is the quintessential morning person. Here she is in daddy’s ‘shoe-shoes’. She is so bubbly and lively in the morning. She get’s it from her mum. Chloe and I are a bit more…hmmmm…reserved? Ok, we’re grumps in the morning. Well, we’re off to the beach for the week. We’ll post some photos when we get back. To our credit, Chloe and I do warm up nicely after a couple hours.

Christian's first six months!

2010-08-29T16:40:00.000+12:00

A visit to another planet

2010-08-02T15:57:00.002+12:00

Mate, I just had an awesome weekend in Oz. I friend of mine from LA was in Adelaide for ‘business’ and needed a travelling companion so I volunteered. I met him in Adelaide and we did lunch at a cafe before heading off to Cleland Wildlife Park. Standing in a paddock with kangaroos, emus, wallabies, wombats, koalas, tasmanian devils, dingos, potoroos and crazy neon birds with their synthesizer-like calls was like being on Mars. Here’s a wombat. They are strange animals – they reminded me of a mix between a pig and a dog. They were very playful and feisty. Marsupials, no less. Here’s me petting a joey in gray kangaroo’s pouch. Yes. These kangaroos were sweet and tame and if you give them a little food they’re happy to have you take a peek in their pouch. Their pouch is weird. It’s not just a passive little pouch. The mouth, at least, is muscular and you could feel the momma kangaroo contract and relax it. Here’s a 6-legged kangaroo. Here’s a 2-headed kangaroo. These kangaroos might just be the sweetest animals I’ve ever met. Were the emus sweet? Not so much.But they were quite exotic looking. The tasmanian devil (here eating a chicken head) was not sweet. They’re not especially aggressive or evil, they get their name from the cries they make at night which apparently are a bit spooky. The enormous pelicans were not sweet, but they were enormous and from the moon. Were the koala’s sweet? There’s an urban legend (in Oz) that the eucalyptus leaves make the koala’s high which is why they’re so docile and sweet. It’s just an olde wives tale. Or is it? My favorite extra-galactic animal was the red kangaroo. These guys were so sweet, they’d let you pet them even if you didn’t have any food for them. They were so gentle and nice, even to Walid (who argued with them about free will then called them racists). The rest of the trip was awesome too, but more like living on earth. p.s. if someone suggests that it was my fault that we didn’t get to see a spectacular ocean-side outcrop known as ‘the apostles’, they are probably exaggerating.

A beach trip a while back

2010-07-31T23:49:00.003+12:00

We finally made it to Matapouri, on our second attempt. Our first attempt landed us at Goat Island which was heaps of fun, but Matapouri was beautiful. See, I wasn’t exaggerating. That’s our sunshade which got demolished by the wind, and the little blip out there in the water is me and Chloe and Claire. We have a blast out in the water together with our swimming tube. The girls loved playing in a little tide pool. Claire almost drank the tide pool up. looks like paradise to me…

Neat-O Spider Webs

2010-07-21T16:08:00.001+12:00

The other morning I went outside and found that dew had collected on the spider webs in our yard.

And, some recent photos of the ninos.

Christian Collage

2010-07-01T18:58:00.000+12:00

With a special appearance from Chloe and Claire.

Has anyone lost their slug?

2010-06-30T21:15:00.000+12:00

Chloe found it (and a lost pill bug, too). We’ve told the girls, and Christian, but we’ll mention it to him again, that the only animals we don’t like are roaches and flies. Fear of dangerous animals is the best way of getting yourself attacked by one. That’s mine and Marlin Perkins’ motto. Here’s another angle on the slug (and pill bug) for possible identification purposes. The slug has been on a trip down our drain, but it just drains to the backyard so we can easily retrieve him or her. I think Chloe learned a valuable lesson about the tenacious slime a slug leaves behind. This will probably come in handy during adolescent encounters between her and her brother. Or she and her brother. It’s always the pronoun that sounds most preposterous.

The Polka

2010-06-28T21:01:00.000+12:00

Dots.

I wasn’t involved in the dressing of Miss Chloe, but I’m sure it was intentional that she be entirely covered in polka dots. She successfully navigates the obstacle course, I mean, our yard. She’s had this umbrella for many seasons, compliments of Granny L. Don’t tell Granny L (or Chloe) but it’s actually the only umbrella we own and sometimes Mum and Dad have to borrow it. If anyone could pull off this wardrobe stunt, it is the beautiful and wonderful Chloe.

…on a bicycle made for…

2010-06-26T20:48:00.001+12:00

…Chloe. A woman from Kim’s church group for mums was going to ‘throw this bike in the skip’ (which means throw it away) and Kim snatched it up. Chloe looks like a professional on her flash new bike. Kim could barely keep up with her.The basket is properly attached now.

Uno y Tres

2010-05-28T20:11:00.000+12:00

Speaking of cuddling with Christian… These babies love each other. And they know how to have fun.

This dinosaur is gonna…

2010-05-26T13:15:00.002+12:00

…Git You!!!! Rahhhr. Red Claw gave me a nasty nip. Cheeky Red Claw. Claire cannot get enough cuddles with Christian. Look how quickly Christian has outgrown his crib! Are more cuddles in order? Looking out over Hauraki Gulf from Mission Bay. Notice in the pic below the distinctive mount to the right, which is Rangitoto. In the last post I had a shot of downtown Auckland with Rangitoto as a backdrop from an approximately 90 degree angle to this shot. See what I mean about the symmetry? The girls were more interested in the seagulls! Another beautiful day in paradise – as close as you can get here on earth. And this is nothing compared to what real paradise will be! We can’t even begin to comprehend how glorious it will be when Christ reigns in fullness…

Lower Nihoputu Dam Trek

2010-05-25T15:07:00.003+12:00

This is one of our favourite treks – it’s taken me almost four years to finally get the name right. It’s only a 20-30 minute drive but it feels remote and secluded and it has a nice track that allows us to take the pram with no problems. Claire likes trail running with her sunnies on. And this is one of the lovely views of the river.Christian enjoys a sleep in the pram. This is our waterfall. We take a family photo here…maybe once a year. We forgot the tripod this time, so just imagine me there. Here are our previous photos and here. We spied New Zealand’s most dangerous animal, a walking stick (although, it is hotly debated that the hedgehog might be the most dangerous animal here). Mr. Stick. Kim and I have gotten used to the paparazzi and excited fans that Chloe and Claire attract. In this case we stopped at a nearby info. center on our way home from the tramp for an iced cream and were immediately recognized.

And here’s a really nice view of Auckland with Rangitoto (volcano) in the background from the info. center. Rangitoto is cool because it’s quite nearly completely symmetrical.

Pretty Ponies, Purple Pancakes…

2010-05-01T14:59:00.001+12:00

This blog post is sponsored by the letter ‘P’.

The pancakes, as promised in the title…but not purple. More like a pancake rainbow.

The girls were excited!

Balleting

2010-04-25T20:35:00.001+12:00

We’ve coined a new word. We’ve got heaps of balleting happening here. And we’ll be opening a school soon. Madame Chloe’s school of balleting for babydolls. It’s a special combination of ballet and cirque du soleil.I must warn you that only the most serious applicants should apply.

Claire’s Second Birthday Party!

2010-03-27T20:28:00.001+13:00

We delayed Claire’s birthday celebration this year because Christian was born the week before her birthday and we wouldn’t have been able to celebrate properly. We also decided to have the party at a venue thinking that the kids might enjoy it more and that we’d leave the clean up to someone else. Happy Birthday, Claire!Some bouncy castle… Carousel… Heaps of kids and gourmet hors d’oeuvres…

And a baby Goofy birthday cake!!! Also, she chose the dinosaur throne over the princess one. Her excitement can be seen 2 pictures up. Olive did a great job encouraging Claire’s candle extinguishment.

There was some iced cream.And a fun train ride. With some of the most beautiful girls in the world. Did the party wear Christian and Lucy out?

Three little giraffes

2010-03-26T16:02:00.001+13:00

Some recent photos of Christian.

Baby blue might be our family color.

Christian’s first yawn

2010-03-23T15:24:00.002+13:00

Quite an auspicious occasion that we were able to document. He’s warming up…just about to yawn… Viola. Look at that!He’s been working so hard. Ok, probably not really his first yawn. Here he is relaxing after a hard days work in Chloe’s lap. I love her little smile in this picture.

Christian’s first trip to the beach, proper

2010-03-23T14:43:00.000+13:00

We have been to Mission Bay which is like a sidewalk along the sea, even though there is a good deal of sand it’s not really a proper beach, although a proper beach is relative. Somewhere else, Mission Bay would be THE beach. Not here. Here’s what I call ‘the beach’. We took a little bacon and we took some kids full of beans. And that lasted about 10 miles until we got to a cafe. A few cafes and playgrounds later we did make it to Omaha Beach. Welcome to the beach, Miss Claire. This beach is 80km from Auckland and, in my humble opinion beautiful. So, it must have been crowded, eh? Not too many people in this direction… How about the other half of the beach…nope, no one there either. And, the star of the trip? No pictures, please. Is God’s creation beautiful?

Christian’s First Trip to Ambury Farm

2010-03-22T14:13:00.001+13:00

Well, he might have been asleep most of the time, but here’s a picture with him in it (the arrow). We were very excited to see a new horse to replace the previous one that died and there were piglets, too. Chloe looks like she’s herding them. Yeehi, pigs.

The lambs are getting more sheep-like. The little lambs…

Will all the blog posts be, ‘Christian’s first…’ forever?

2010-03-22T14:12:00.000+13:00

Yes. At least for a while. It’s an easy, descriptive title. This one is ‘Christian’s first trip to the pool’, although he didn’t get in the water. We went to Parnell Baths which is a really cool public pool. I say public pool, but this IS Parnell (said with a snooty accent, Pah’-nell). They did let us in, in fact, we had the run of the place. The pools (baths) are outdoors (as you can probably tell), heated and salt-water. There are lots of water features.

There are also hot pools (picture not included). Is that Ariel, the little mermaid? What did young Christian think of all this? It was a nice place to take a nap.

Claire Reading to Christian

2010-03-21T17:19:00.000+13:00

She hasn’t been reading for long, but she’s already showing her baby brother the ropes. Showing Christian how to do it… And him doing it on his own…very exciting. Claire doing some peek-a-boo. And us getting to tell her not to do this because her face might stick that way. Ahhhh, the circle of life and all it’s vindication.

Movies and the Zoo

2010-03-13T21:56:00.003+13:00

Well, as often as we do this I still love it. It’s just neat getting this close to a giraffe. And the sea lion exhibit is cool.

Later that afternoon Chloe and Christian had a good time hanging out and watching Lady and the Tramp. My favorite part of the movie is when Aunt Sarah arrives with her Siamese cats. I love that song… ‘there will be a head for you, a tail for me’.

Notice Chloe cuddling Christian’s feet.

Christian already knows how to make his ‘South Side’ hand jive thing. ‘Yo, I’m SouthSide and I will pop a cap in you if you don’t bring me my milk.’