Cool Cupcakes

What fun!  The kids loved playing with the icing - it was just like playdough afterall!  We (the children) decorated lovely cupcakes to take home for our dads and significant men in our lives to celebrate Fathers Day. 

I was quite surprised with how well they did, and really didn't need much help at all!  Check out the photo album here.

Welcome Baby Liana!

Little Liana Joy Fransham was born to Nicole on the 17th July at 5.12am.

She weighed in at a lovely 7lb 13oz (3530grams), and was 52cm long.

By now most of you will have a had a chance to oogle this little cutie, and perhaps even have a cuddle!
 
A huge congratuations to you and your family, Nicole!

Cupcake Decorating Night

Wow - we had so much fun labouring over these little beauties for a couple of hours!

Emma came and showed us the basic tricks of the trade to get started and she was so helpful!  Even learning little things like how high your cupcake should rise in it's case while cooking makes all the difference to the icing.

We experimented with a butter cream icing, a ganache icing and a cream cheese icing as the bases under our top layer of fondant icing.  They were yum!  If you would like the icing recipes, download them here.

We were amazed at the creativity that was evident in everyone's cupcakes.  They looked really cool!  A HUGE thanks to Emma for a really fun night!  (See the album for more photos.)

Welcome Baby Danika!

She's so lovely!

Danika was born on the 27th June, 2011.

She weighed in at 6lb 10oz (3.005kg).

A huge congratulations to you, Sumeko & Mark!  We all look forward to meeting her!

Welcome Baby Makennan!

(This photo was taken by Amy Cope www.amycope.co.nz)

What a lovely little boy!

Makennan was born at 11.50pm on the 25th June 2011, weighing in at a nice 8lb 3oz (3.713kg).

A huge congratulations to you, Sara & Dylan, he is gorgeous!

Butterfly Creek Visit

 

 

Even though it was pretty wet, we still had a great time at Butterfly Creek.  The children enjoyed the chance to be outside, and us Mum's indulged in food and nice coffee's....  YUM!  We finished it all off with the obligatory train ride.  It's so cute how the kids always are itching to get on it, then once seated, they pretty much take it in their stride!

For a few more photos, check out the photo album.

Franklin Zoo Visit

Our visit to the Franklin Zoo was really neat!

We had a guided tour with the resident vet, and she was really interesting.  She has a real love of conservation, and of rehabilition for animals.  It was very interesting hearing her talking about her passion in relation to the various animals that Franklin Zoo is currently involved in rehabilitating, including their gorgeous ex-circus elephant.


Our guide was very skilled in making her talk interesting for us Mums, but also stopping periodically and talking on our children's level so they remained interested.

The kids had the opportunity to feed the Zebra, some sheep and a goat.  And of course the ducks.  :o)

This zoo is definitely well worth the visit if you are looking for something a little outside of the normal 'zoo box'.

Check out the album for more photos.