11th Anniversary in Russell

Our anniversary this year turned into a family holiday with all 6 of us and all of us loved every minute of it....well almost every minute....after my hubby and I got over our festering little tiff that had been bubbling away for a few day. 

Straight into togs...typical

The Russell Cottages where we stayed were a dream. Definitely a place to recommend to others and go back to for sure

To make it a holiday to remember we decided to pay an arm and a leg to take the kids horse riding, and even though it turned out to be pretty average, drizzly weather, it was still a big hit

11.5 years since we were here (give or take).
Where my man first declared 'I love you'.....in the carpark of Woolworths in Kaikohe. So romantic

Despite running a tad late for church in Awarua, we made a quick stop so Bob could jump out and have a photo at the Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa. When I was teaching in her room before the end of term we did a monday madness about famous artists and Hundertwasser was one of them. Pretty cool to see one of his real life creations. I love it when learning comes to life.

The day before we went away Seth had a sickie morning....a nice big vomit in the morning, followed by a big sleep then a good ol' gummy bear tally chart.

Where has the time gone? I can't believe we've been married for 11 years. I know that's kind of a drop in the ocean against 32 years or 48 years or 66 years, but still. 11 years is pretty darn cool and although it's far from easy some days, I'd choose my guy over and over again. My one and only xxx

The girl's kids market experience

Last weekend the big girls had their first taste of what it takes to make and sell a product. They did really well but they both agree on one thing....'we're never doing that again!' Haha

They think it was quite a hard way to earn money...thanks to their Dad for hiking the hourly rate and making anything less than $50 for a couple of hours work seem like it's not worth it. Nah actually it's not usually that much, depends how generous he's feeling!

They really did such a great job and as it turns out, their interests and personalities really compliment eachother. Ella was the stronger crafter and Faith was the stronger seller.

The night before....

Aren't they cool?!?!?! We made 50 necklaces and 30 make your own kids. The potential sales would come to $200 if they sold everything at the price they wanted.

Pretty boring when you don't make any sales for a while

This critter stayed pretty close by me for all of half an hour then for the other 2.5 hours she fluttered around all of the other stalls and ended up getting her face painted (a girl was doing it for $1 but Dalls got it done for free)

Scored those clippy princess shoes for free too (only to lose them a few hours later at a party!)

Kiss that money box girl! She wanted to put it all out on the table and count it but I told her that was pretty bad manners so she had to wait till we got in the car. With a few before and after sales added, they made about $130 (I think that included my $7 I put in for change at the start)

Then on Monday Ella nagged her head off until we finally headed off down to Kmart with their money in their own little ziplock baggie. They were allowed to take $35 each. Ella bought denim shorts for $17 so she's still got quite a lot of left. Faith bought a box of lego for $29.

So proud of my girls for getting out there and participating and actually darn proud of myself for getting out there and participating too! It's totally not my thing but I really wanted them to do it.
Something we can chalk up in the memory banks of their childhood.