For the love of Cast Iron

I love cooking with cast iron.  Chili, cornbread, mince meat pies, fruit pies, omelets... if we cooked it, it was cooked in cast iron.  Thanks to our great friends we have three sizes of skillets, HUGE, medium and small.
A little while back Grace and I baked an apple pie using the apples from our backyard.  Our apple tree produces more apples than we know what to do with, we're in them up to our ears, so any way to use them we are psyched about.

My chili recipe is one of John's favorites, so it is made often in our house.  In this picture you get a good idea of how grand our big skillet is, especially when it is compared to the smallest which I use for corn bread.  I LOVE cooking with them all, thank you to all our friends who gave us these wonderful skillets!

More Kayakin' Pictures

These are a few of Yan's pictures he took on our sea kayaking trip back in April.  I thought they were great.

During our trip we paddled up near a sea lion playing around in the sea weed, you can see how close he was in these two pictures.  

Duped by Eight-Year-Olds

Every morning between 8:00 and 8:30 Gracie's friend Tayla knocks on our front door, meeting up with Grace so they can walk to school together.  And every morning Grace is still in the "readying" process when she arrives, which allows for some casual conversation between us and Tayla around the kitchen table.  Last Tuesday morning was no different.
Hanging on our refrigerator are several of the awards Grace has won so far this year.  One for outstanding achievement in the school's Annual Cross-Country run, another for achieving her personal goals in the classroom, and (the one that caught Tayla's eye) for school-wide recognition for her good behavior.  These are given out every Friday in assembly, one child from each room is awarded a certificate for demonstrating the schools goals or ideals.  Tayla made the comment to John and I that she had not won one of these yet this year... John makes the quick statement that he bet she could if she really tried.
Later that day when Grace returned home from school, Tayla was with her, which is the case most afternoons. Tayla stayed for "tea" that evening, and that is when it happened...  Tea was patty melts and chips... While sitting at the table Tayla and John arrived at negotiations, he told Tayla that if she could earn one of those awards in this Friday's assembly then he would buy her one of their favorite lollies, a Brain Licker (this is the thing the girls are enjoying in the sugar monsters post)  These criteria applied to Grace as well...
Friday rolls around and we are off to assembly.  Several of the parents attend assembly regularly, we are lucky enough to be able to attend every Friday.  We quietly take our seats at the back of the hall with the rest of the parents.  Each week a different class leads assembly, two children from that class are selected to  direct things from the microphone at the front of the hall.  The usual topics were covered, sports reports and class projects.  Then it was time for the awards to be given out, Tayla's name was called... Before she was back to her seat she was already making sure we saw that she'd won, and that John owed her a lollie.  As if this wasn't enough, the children also win awards for good behaviour during assembly, the names are collected and drawn at the following assembly.  They drew a name out of the box, "Grace" was called and she proudly stood up and accepted her award and the knowledge that she too would be getting a Brain Licker.
After assembly parents usually wait on the playground outside the rooms for the kids to gather their bags and scooters and start for home.  Tayla and Grace were no doubt very proud of their victories.  Feeling as though he had been tricked John asked Tayla if she knew she was going to get that award when she agreed to the bet with him, "Of course" was her answer.  At this point they were scootering circles around us, in more ways than one.  Further more, when Grace stood to accept her award there was some question as to which Grace at the school it pertained to, the other Grace was absent so by default Gracie was able to accept the award.  We remembered on our walk home that the assembly during which Grace supposedly showed good behaviour and won her award she wasn't even at, she was on holiday that weekend with Tayla and they checked out of school early that day...
They girls had gotten us good and they knew it!

Done with Flippa Ball on to NetBall

Similar to basketball, but played with a soccer ball... Each team has seven players on the court each with a specific position and area of the court, wind attack, wing defense, goal attack, goal defense and so on... The ball is passed between teammates down the court to the goal, while in possession of the ball you cannot move your feet.  The goals are metal hoops at either end of the court, unlike basketball there is no backboard.   They rotate positions at the end of each quarter and each child gets to play at least two quarters.  They wear bibs with an abbreviation for their position displayed, to help in the organized chaos.   

Charlotte's mom, Sacha, coaches the team and does a great job.  Their games are every Monday night a big sports center here in town.  Mondays are always busy for us, after Netball we rush home to get ready for Girl Guiding at 6:00. Here are a few pictures from the most recent game.  North East Valley is the team in blue and gold shirts. 

Sugar Monsters!!

Over our most recent break we found ourselves content to stay close to home.  Originally there were grandiose ideas of trekking to the North Island or at least to the top of the South Island (at least 10 hours drive), but once the break was upon us and we found ourselves without commitment, time schedules or deadlines, we enjoyed the quiet stillness of our home.  Grace, being the social butterfly, had many sleep overs with her BFF Tayla.  The first of many beginning one afternoon when Grace and I had walked down to the Botanical Gardens to enjoy the sunshine.  We asked if Tayla could be dropped off to play for a few hours.  It wasn't long before Grace remembered that John had promised to pay her if she picked up all the apples in our back garden.  In sharing this information with Tayla, they began discussing their price and announced that they were ready to go back home.  There are TONS of apples that have fallen from our tree and are beginning to rot laying on the ground.  The girls spent about an hour picking up apples till they were all gone, they filled our wheel barrel.  They were tough negotiators, John held his ground and paid them each   $3, they were lobbying for $10 each.  No sooner than this money was in their sticky little hands were they out the door and down the block to the Dairy.  This place has shelves lined with lollies, ice cream by the scoop, drawers of popsicles and coolers full of sugary drinks... A kids paradise.  They always choose to spend their pocket money in this way, coming home with little white bags full of sugary treats, stained tongues and lots of giggles.  On a sunny afternoon you can usually find them sitting outside the door to the dairy enjoying some frozen treat.  They come home sugared up and we send them back outside to expel their energy.  The school is a very short scooter ride from our house so typically they wheel down there and play on the monkey bars with other friends that have also been kicked from their houses, no doubt for the same offense.  After their most recent Dairy raid we discovered a lolly pop stuck to the mantle and a gummy alligator under our couch (the girls had the run of the living room that day) So as a result we have now imposed the Dairy Law, basically stating that if they wish to spend their hard earned money on lollies they MUST bring them home and set them out on the kitchen table.  The candy will then be rationed as we see fit, hoping to gain some control in this sticky situation.  It is amazing how quickly they go from sweet cuddle little girls to raging tornadoes of crazy, the sugar does something to their brains, sort of a Dr. Jekyll Mrs. Hyde effect, and it can get quite scary.