a great day of partying today. we had our own party to celebrate our first anniversary in new zealand, and invited some of our bestest friends from church round who have played their parts in helping us settle in.
the day started with me taking the girls to their orchestra lesson (and me sitting reading all the weekend paper in the car)
then we came home to help but i don’t think our helped was that helpful so we were given permission to go to a local cafe for garlic bread and toasties
we walked past the local tool hire place which is always a treat
and a bit later we were sent for plunger coffee which we got from a posh coffee place
kezia did lots of blowing of balloons
and jane did lots of cooking
(she didn’t cook these chocolate fush)
and of course people ‘brought a plate’ so we had a great selection of cakes etc
our friends the dunnings even brought this fab cake picturing jandals (sandals) made out of jaffas (kiwi version of chocolate m&ms, but slightly orangey)
some of the kids played with the playstation in unusual and experimental ways
fleur got a bit worried by my photography but bruce loved it
here’s warren who i go walking with
and his wife debbie
and here’s some laughing. i had my portait lens on so i haven’t got big group shots i’m afraid
here’s buzz who i had lunch with in the week
we had a great time and i think our party people did too. we’re so lucky to have such good friends here already
once we’d tidied up from our party we headed out again to go to a leaving party for our lovely friend eugene and his family. we thought it was going to be a small part, but it was actually huge and involved a full sized pig and loads of Filipinos and people from our church.
i seemed to have failed to have taken a picture of eugene, but here’s Thomas who isn’t a filipino but is from our church (and in our life group)
and here are the shoes outside the front door which people waded through / over to get in (whilst slipping their own shoes off on the way in)
so we’re all quite partied out and ready for bed !
