Erica turns 6

We had to battle a really tough bout of flu to get there but we did! An all girl party of five - Catherine, Maia. Nicole, Sabine and Erica herself, of course, celebrated Erica's 6th birthday at the Teddy Factory in Sylvia Park, one of the largest mega malls in Auckland.

The girls got to pick their own bears, then got them filled up, christened them and made them birth certificates. They also got a surprise visit from Freddy the Bear who was asleep at that time, and to be awakened by the 5 screaming girls. To go with the bear theme, the cake was a Care Bear cake, lovingly made by mum. The lunch and cake was cut at MacDonald's at the Sylvia Park Food Mall, giving the girls time for a play at the playground

Celebrating with the Tans

We were in Melbourne just recently to celebrate with Justin and Mary their 20th Wedding Anniversary. The celebration began at their home with a beautiful mass where Mary & Justin renewed their marriage vows. All the 5 older children had a part to play in the mass - doing readings and sharing. I especially enjoyed the music accompaniment provided by the violion, piano and guitar trio. After mass, the Tan children sang "Stand by me", which I thought was very appropriate for the occasion. No Singaporean celebration would be complete without food & gambling so we dug into a sumptuous Chinese dinner at a restaurant closeby and then ended the night with Poker. It was fun to catch up with not just the Tans but also Cath and Tony's family as well as get acquainted with June and Henry.

We were totally pampered by the Tans the whole 10 days we were there. No cooking for me - yeah! No nagging the kids - they hardly fought because they had other distractions. Ming & Tim hit it off right away, and Erica had Isabel, Connie and Cassie to dote on her. Alphonsus and Ian got Mervin pretty hooked on poker. Justin has trained his kids well, actually ALL his kids play poker including Ming!I'm sure Ren won't be far away. I didn't have to decide what to eat and where to go - Mary had it all planned and under control.

We spent a wonderful weekend at Inverloch with the Tans and the Chongs, and whilst we were there, headed to Philips Island to see the fairy penguins. The children loved it!

We spent a day at the Weribee Open Range Zoo and saw some wild cats way up close.

Had tea at a pretty and quaint tea house called Mrs Marples at Sassafras and then caught the Puffing Billy.

On our final night there, we had an awesome Teppanyaki dinner at a Japanese restaurant.

I musn't forget to mention that we did a fair bit of shopping. Shopping in Melbourne was magnificent compared to Auckland so we got a bit carried away. You will soon see (in summer) the 27kg Kathmandu 6-man tent we brought home all the way from Melbourne because it was clearing at 75% discount off the normal price!

Camping in New Zealand - Back on the track

After the unscheduled dip, we were back on the track and the view just kept getting more and more spectacular. Surrounded by 360 degrees unobstructured views of the mountain ranges, we really felt on top of the world!
And just when we about dried up, someone spotted another watering hole, so off went the clothes again and into the water we went.

You'd think we were soaking in a man-made spa in some Indonesian island resort until you see the moutain ranges in the backdrop....

Yeah! this is the real thing, this is LIFE!

And this time, I couldn't resist getting into the water myself.

And Priscilla followed soon after..

When we had finished, all that was left to do was to contemplate the beauty of God's wonderful creation.

Camping in New Zealand - Macho Men

The walk to the Rainbow Falls was nice. The children had fun picking up stones - thanks to Priscilla's very informative geology facts. Soon their pockets were filled and guess who had to carry their stones for them????

Having walked about 3/4 an hour in the hot summer sun, the watering hole looked very enticing, but boy or boy were they wrong if they thought the water was also warm. The first few seconds was biting cold then it got better.

Whilst the guys were showing off their abs, we girls had our fun too.

After all that excitement, it was time to have the tuna & corn beef lunch we prepared at camp.

Tim is 9 (2 months ago)

Cake compliments of mum - it's a baseball alright!

Camping in NZ Part 2 will have to wait. I can't get the pictures out of my SD card - it doesn't seem to work which is highly annoying, so I'll post Tim's 9th birthday pictures instead.

My baby turned 9 on 15 February. Time flies. God blessed us with this little bundle of joy only 7 years into our marriange. He was the cutest little thing, and people used to just stop us at malls to admire him. For the longest time, his pacifier was his second and third finger - that was all he needed to fall asleep. Today my boy loves his Pokemon, gameboy and PS2. His new found interest is Baseball. Since he joined T-ball early this year, he's scored Player of the game twice and he's very proud of it. He'll be joining the Winter League in May. Tim plays the guitar very well too but he won't admit it. Twice he has done busking and once performed to the residents at the Metlife Resthome solo - on all occasions, he received lots of compliments. Our boy is still very much a mummy & daddy boy - loves his cuddles and kisses which we gladly shower on him.
This year's birthday we celebrated at Xtreme Bowling and then home for an Amazing Race challenge which yours truly planned and Mervin helped execute. The boys had a ball of time looking for the punga tree & hibiscus bush (what's that? we heard them saying), doing up a puzzle inside a tent, transferring marbles between bowls using chopsticks (the kiwi kids weren't too polite with their remarks at this station) and everyone's favourite - going through the water slide.

From left: Alex, Kurt,Liam, Tim, Gerardo, Connor, Erica, Justin

Camping in New Zealand - Part 1

We've talked about it for ages. I've always said "No way!. No bathroom attached, I'm not going." But with Robert's "challenge" and a reasonable "compromise", we did it and it was an awesome experience - camping at the Discovery Lodge in the National Park, Whakapapa (pronounced fa-ke-papa).

Our tents were modest compared to some flash ones lined up beside ours - but still we were kept safe and warm and that's what mattered in the end.......

We went prepared with the necessities - like the lamp & mozzie repellants, as well as comfy pillows and polar fleece blankets.

In winter, the mountains in the backdrop is a ski field, the largest one in the North Island of NZ. With the summer sun, and the particularly hot summer we've had, you can only streaks of ice....

Just at the foothill of the mountains is The Chateau (with the green roof). It's one of those grand old dames - like the Raffles Hotel in S'pore - apparently owned by a S'porean (probably Ong Beng Seng or the Kwek family - I must find out). Robert's parents spent their honeymoon there too (information provided by Joan)