Easter Weekend

We had quite a busy long weekend, unusually so as I managed to take off work the Sat & Sun. I know,right, having to work Easter Sunday!?! So we made the most of it!

We headed to Whakatane (Fuk-a-tah-nay, not wok-a-tane- for you non Kiwis) to catch up with some friends. The boys were in heaven…other people’s houses are always more fun than your own!

rest stop in Te Puke

The boys were awesome on the almost 3 hour trip. I had every number of treat packed to keep them occupied if need be but they were quite happy to watch everything out the windows & occasionally engage in some singing!

guess who learnt how to ride without training wheels!? He jumped on, told Hubby to push him & he was away! Hubby was so impressed he hasn’t stopped telling everyone he comes into contact with.

I’m so clever

and then there was the bike. Now calm yourself down,Master 3 wasn’t wearing a helmet as we were at the park & he was being taken slowly across from 1 side to the other by Mister 7, who was in full regalia from having ridden all the way from home. ‘Coz I know there are some people who don’t let their kids out of their site without a crash helmet on, we just do things differently(but safely!)

An afternoon at Ohope Beach….

just chillin’

water was a little fresh

refused to lie down

freedom

not happy with the cold water

I love it

hard at work

dig dig dig

eating sand is good too

my first soft serve…OMG mum this is amazing!!

Kawerau hot pools….free & the pools are all heated & clean!

After our swim, before heading the 3 hours home again…which involved little to no sleep

Easter morning…

chocolate = must eat

get in my belly

hmmm give me lollies over chocolate any day

Gardening a.k.a looking for the Easter Bunny

digging

no Easter Bunny but I found a worm

Easter Monday – Raglan

drawing in the sand with toitoi grass

getting them both to look at the camera at the same time = impossible!

sand, yum

where can I dig a hole?

a big weekend for us…

sleeping in the car is awesome!

All in all a great weekend spent together…if only all weekends were 4 days long!! Today we are recovering, with the boys tired & miserable and very clingy. And 4 cups of coffee later I have resorted to a DVD & popcorn to curb the whinging for a little while. Now for the rest of the afternoon….

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Smoothie

Our first passionfruit of the season fall off the tree a little early. When I say “fall” I mean it probably had the help of one 2 year old cutie! It was purple but only just so I threw it into a smoothie with coconut water & frozen banana…I only got a couple of sips & Master 2 guzzled the rest! It was yum, just a hint of tartness, which we didn’t mind one bit.

Pizza dough…

I saw this pin on Pinterest & was intrigued…could it ACTUALLY work?

“2 ingredient pizza dough” Sounds simple doesn’t it? 1 cup of Greek or natural yoghurt & 1 cup self-raising flour. Knead, roll & cook

Well, firstly, the recipe says that if the dough is a little too wet just add another SPRINKLING of flour….you be the judge. Too wet?

No amount of SPRINKLING was going to do the job! Nor was any kneading!Want to know how I know that?I tried! No photos of THAT little disaster due to the fact my hands were dripping in dough.

I added roughly another TWO cups of flour plus endless amounts of SPRINKLING while kneading. Eventually I got this…

It was about at this point I realised I only had a teeny, tiny piece of cheese!So instead of a “normal” pizza I opted just to make garlic pizza with the small amount of cheese I had & loads of garlic! Trust me, there will be no vampires visiting this neighbourhood tonight!  Note to self : Don’t make this on a weekend when I have to get up close & personal with people who are paying me to teach them swimming…

And this was the final product..

Now, despite the shaky start, it tasted pretty good. The dough was light & not doughy, not even on the puffy edge pieces. Although I will make it a lot thinner next time as I prefer a thin crust I would call this a success. The boys ate it, even with ALL the garlic & Hubby ate more than half of it so it couldn’t have been that bad right? And it went well with the Thai pork & veg stirfry. Followed by strawberries & cream!YUM! Didn’t last long enough to take pics of that yumminess. We’ve been having our strawberries for dessert every night for almost 2 weeks now as well as there being enough for smoothies most days too. Although we have now put a net over the strawberry patch to keep the birds out…they were getting far too greedy! Now just the slugs & ants to fight with!

Strawberries…

Just ‘coz I know you’re dying to know how my strawberry patch is going what with the painted stones & all. Well, it seems to be mildly successful. Only about half a dozen have been lost to pesky birds, compared to last year when we lost at least half of all the ripe ones every day. Still early days yet so fingers crossed….

We have been enjoying them. By we I mean Master 2 & I, this is Master 3’s reaction…tongue out, “yuck mum”

Banana, strawberry, yogurt & spirulina smoothie

Strawberries & sun…

If you were a bird would you be fooled into thinking that these were strawberries???

No? Yeah, I didn’t think so either but once I’d put them in the strawberry patch, they actually looked ok. Provided the birds are “shape blind” as apposed to colour blind that is!

The theory is that the birds will go for the ripe looking “fruit” & get the rocks and then when the real fruit is ripe, the birds won’t bother as they will think they are rocks! Genius idea off pinterest, although their rocks were decidedly more realistic!

Original painting here.http://www.leewismer.com/RockPaintings.html

Admittedly, I have left it a little late as our strawberries have started to ripen at a steady rate so who knows if this will work. Fingers crossed! Although if it’s not the damn birds its the ants so I am researching the best way to go about it this year. Last year we had loads of berries but only about half were edible due to the above pests! If you’ve had any luck with a specific idea/product etc please let me know (chemicals are not an option though so only organic/natural products)

And the sun is shining today!*happy little jig* So the boys got to play with one of  Master 2’s birthday presents

And yes, I blew that up by myself…no foot pump or anything!

Throwing & catching

All in all a beautiful morning in the sun!