Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was pretty fun and interesting.  I soon realized that it is not commercialized here in New Zealand when I didn't see heaps of heart shaped candy, balloons, soaps, or anything red and pink exploding all over the store aisles.  If you weren't to know what day it was (thanks to my handy calendar) you wouldn't even know there was a holiday among us.  No real mention of it at school or at any store until the day of when they started pushing some random perfume at the checkout stand.

I was going to have to be creative in order to not disappoint the kids this year.  I didn't have 3 Targets with in a 6 mile radius to load up on unnecessary decorations, candy and bags to fill with treats and toys only to be forgotten until Easter when I was to please them all over again.  Isn't that what we do as moms?

This is what I came up with this year.  Not feeling so crafty and to par with what I know I could have done with my normal supplies back at home.  Then again, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto.

Paper cut out hearts taped on the wall.

Heart pancakes for breakfast.

Walker helped by decorating his lego figures with Valentine's vests and a loincloth.

Enjoying Valentine's breakfast while Maddy still sleeps.

Valentine's dessert.

Chocolate Cake and Raspberry Lamingtons

Then after dinner and dessert we exchanged Valentine's gifts.  Abby went first.  She had been working all week on personalized letters for everyone in the family.  It was so kind and thoughtful of her and we all appreciated her efforts.

Then Walker passed his out to Mom and Dad.  Lovely letters to each of us followed by gifts he had made.  Shells from our beach trip that he had drawn personalized pictures on.  He had wrapped them in towels for us to unwrap.  I love the thought and effort that went in to his gift as well.

Then I passed out the rest of the families gifts.  I guess it works when you know your kids pretty well.  The boys got a new lego figurine and a candy bar.  They also got a chess set that I'm sure will keep them busy the remainder of their time here.  Abby got nail polish and a candy bar as well as some NZ stickers she can use for writing letters.  They all got a small canvas picture to paint that we can do on a slow Sunday afternoon.  Dad got candy and a new shirt.  So at the end of the day I think I was able to pull it off pretty well. 

Now on to Easter.  I haven't seen any plastic eggs yet and in America these would have been put out about a month ago so I'm thinking I need to start to hollow out eggs, do paper mache, hard boil about 50 eggs or maybe just get wads of paper taped up tight to look like eggs. We have a huge yard that the kids can have a hay day finding stuff in.  Any ideas?

Beach Time

Our original plan this weekend was to drive to Mount Maunganui and hike the base of Mauao.  It is a small mountain and as Maori mythology goes, it was once a nameless mountain that stood inland.  It came to rest in its current location after falling in love with a nearby mountain named Puwhenua.  When she did not reciprocate, Mauoa was so upset that he called upon his fairy-like friends to drag him towards the coast and help drown him in the Pacific Ocean in the darkness of night.  He made it to the end of the peninsula, but at that moment the sun rose.  His friends, being night creatures, were forced to flee back to the forest, and left him stranded there forever. 

Mauoa is at the very end of the peninsula and there is beach on both sides.  One side seems to cater to sand volleyball, surfers and sun bathers.  The other side held sail boats, barbeques and beach camping.  It is a beautiful beach town that is full of beach homes, apartments, eateries and shopping. 

So drove to the base and couldn't really seem to find the entrance.  Plus it was super hot and we were hungry for lunch.  So instead we decided to forgo that plan and hit the beach instead.  There we had a beach picnic, played in the water, walked along the beach front and found all sorts of fun discoveries like baby muscles growing on rocks and the most perfect seashells we've ever seen.  The scenery at this beach is amazing!

   

Scenery in the ocean

Mauou on the left

Completely flat shell

Perfect shells were everywhere!

Then we walked around town for a bit and found a great family restaurant for dinner.  What a nice way to keep the family occupied while dinner is being cooked.  So many fun things around each corner in NZ!

 

Then to finish off the weekend we relaxed by going to Church at the Tokoroa Ward for the second week now.  It's been great.  They are soooo kind and welcoming.  Spirit was great and they are nice to involve us in the lessons and activities already.   

Just the start of a 4 hr puzzle