Fun with Food

Tonight we made tacos for Taco Tuesday. There aren't corn tortillas in NZ so hard shell tacos don't really happen. Sure I can buy a kit here but eeeww....not really that good. So I found on Pinterest a way to do flour ones hard & easy to fill. Woo hoo! Everyone loved them! If only I had remembered to get the ingredients for the Chipoltle guacamole I found - next Tuesday.

Max also had a great treat today. Starbucks had his cookies again!!! It's been over a week and they were even out Sunday, which is how we get through church with Mama. Thanks cookie Nana.

The best part of today is when we made snickerdoodle cookies for the first time. Yum yum! Max did everything. Added the ingredients. Mixed. Rolled the dough balls. Dipped them in sugar & cinnamon. Put them in the oven. ATE THEM!!

Plus just one proud Mama picture of how good Max is at stacking. :)

Creative.

We might not use the clothes pins to dry our clothes but Max found a great toy in them!

Tonight Max & I also tried a new breakfast. We mixed up an omelet & put it in our gingerbread pan. Max was very excited! We made them tonight for a quick healthy breakfast since our days start crazy & early (and seeing I try to squeeze in every last moment of the live Olympic coverage!) we need every short cut we can find.

We did try them because they puffed up HUGE! Didn't expect that, I'll have to fill the pan a little less next time but Max & I were both excited to try our creation. Two thumbs up!

We LOVE the Olympics.

Go Team America! Go Team New Zealand!

I absolutely love the Olympics!! It's strange to watch it in a different country than your own. The memories. The montages. The stories. The medal ceremonies. The national anthem. The flags. All different. It's one of the sad moments to miss reminiscing past Olympic memories & not feeling emotionally connected to the stories here.

That said, I am still loving it. And seeing Max & I are early risers, we have got to see some of my favorite moments. Swimming. American Flags. Gold medals. American national anthem. Sigh. Love it.

Lest you think I'm completely biased Max & I cheered for our Kiwi swimmers (looking for my sister in law Gracie as she watched her boyfriend's brother smack dab in the middle of London!)

Sam & Max are starting to feel better. Here's hoping for a gold medal week for the Acklands!

PS
Big shout out to our beloved Chiefs (our favorite Rugby team) for Friday nights awesome win. We stayed up late which almost killed me, but so worth it!!

Painting Fun

Max had a fun treat in the mail yesterday from Beach Nana (Sam's mom):: magic painting pictures!!!!

Max has been asking to do coloring at Starbucks by the fire this week. We planned for a date today. Arie ended up coming with us so both the boys
had heaps of fun painting.

Thanks Nana!!!!

Beach Day

We live 1 minute & 20 seconds from the first site of the beach. 4 minutes until we can get out. Some days you just need to remind yourself of that.

Sam is really sick (Had to miss class) & Max has a sore bottom & ear ache & maybe is getting what Sam has. Needless to say, it has been a long few days. On the upside we found a new doctor for Max that I liked. I loved Dr. Trist at the Mount so I was quite skeptical that I would find a good doctor here. But as most things have gone in Dunedin it was better than I hoped. Max & I both loved her. Max told her (in his little sign language) about the teddy bear doctor which helped him let her check him out. And she gave him not one but TWO stickers. Bestill a one year olds heart.

Between Max & Sam I was up the whole night. Whew what a night! I'm not complaining, it's just what Mom's do (and get 2 Starbucks wink wink) Max is currently snuggled up with Daddy asleep. Two sick boys. If you are the praying type pray for Sam to get caught up & feel confident as he tries to catch up.

Winter Warm

It's been such a warm gorgeous week! Still waiting for the "horrible cold weather." If this is a Dunedin winter I can do this. Sunny clear days. No jackets. Open windows. Very little rain. Did I mention sunny? Did you see our view?!

Lest I get too excited, I asked a friend this week why the negative hating on Dunedin weather. Well....brace yourself: summer is cold. Boo!!! Winter is gorgeous like this but evidently summer never really comes. Ugh. But last summer they had a freakishly warm awesome summer. Here's hoping for round two.

I'll still be at the beach because well you know me "the beach is my happy place." And we live 5 minutes away. So while Dunedin doesn't consider itself a beach town I consider you a beach town Dunedin. Let's be friends. I'll love you & spend time on your beaches & you give me sun.

Max had another fun filled week. Heaps of time with Arie (little cute blonde in pictures), painting, cookies, puzzles, friends, daddy time, new parks, movies in mom & dad's bed, carrying around his Bible(his new constant. So cute), animal crackers for cookie Nana & Pop.

All around great week!

Smile.

Some days I look at my pictures and just sigh. They bring a smile to my face. Max & his new buddy Liam. A new craft creation with sand from the beaches we have lived-minus the sand from here (thanks Mom for saving our wedding sand!) Max as king of the house all cuddled up eating puffs. Reading Max's little Bible after he brought it to me and crawled up on my lap and said "Bible." Daddy & Max fixing things together. Eating a cookie from Cookie Nana (my mom) in church with me Sunday morning. (He got in the car with his cookie and kept saing Nana Nana Nana & doing the sign for thank you. I finally realized he was saying "thank you Nana for the cookie" I asked him if that's what he was saying, Yep he nods. Smiles. He might not talk but he can communicate.)

Things that make me smile

Friday. Whew.

What a week!

Started off with an all day baby sitting day. Broken washer. Laundry at a friends. Sick boy. Sick husband. Bad migraine for 2 days. More baby sitting. The museum with two boys under 2. Skyping!! Decorating. More baby sitting. Packages in the mail! More decorating.

Our home is feeling a bit warmer. Max is still sleeping horrible. I got Starbucks twice a day two days this week. Sent emails & browsed pinterest quite a bit. And at times Sam and I laugh that sleeping in New Zealand in the winter is basically glorified camping.

It's Friday. Whew! We just finished our new little tradition: Indian food to go, and now Sam is off to one last study group for the week. Then rugby!! I might have bought chocolate to break out after Max is asleep too. Smiles.

Boys.

Today I began a new season. Life has been so chaotic that I just rolled right into this with little emotion. Being woken up every hour from midnight with Max screaming and walking out the door at 7:45am did make having an emotion nearly impossible.

I'm a chronic morning person so really it wasn't too bad. Sam is sick (has been all weekend poor guy), Max finally fell asleep on the couch at 6:45 and I had to wake him to go at 7:45 (never does he sleep that late!!) but I still was chipper. It's 10:16pm and I'm awake. Miracle. (confession: I had two Starbucks today. Don't judge me.)

I just sat down and ate dinner and perused a few websites. As I try to unwind, which typically takes 5 minutes but took an hour tonight, I am excited about not freaking out, going with the flow, and just enjoying the moment. This has not really characterized my life typically. Today was fun, chaotic, tiring, exciting, challenging and weird. These boys are all go and very adventurous. Max barely kept up with them today, but he did. He learned a new sign today: "I forgive you." Ha! The boys will be saying I'm sorry a lot I think over this new season. Liam and Ari talk incredibly well and climb like I have never seen boys this age climb. Max is going to learn a lot I think.

They are sweet boys and Max & I are pretty excited about our new days.

Rugby.

We heart rugby in this family.

My happy boy.

New rugby bed.

Fun season of life.

Go All Blacks!