Another fun weekend in Le Bons Bay

What a busy weekend we all had...there was never less than 6 children in our backyard, sometimes 9 kids...busy busy. My 2, Johns 2 plus Britney,Leo,Willow and then Stuart and Liam....The kids all had so much fun they had the fire going the whole weekend and were out there till after dark on Saturday evening...all sorts of food was cooked and sampled and also many a crazy creation that you would not want to sample! There was not a single squabble the whole weekend between all the different little groups that were going on...I love it when the kids all have a blast...but man I was tired by the end of the weekend...I had cooked myself silly and done so many lots of dishes and as for the washing!!!

What to do with a bucket of pears and a whole heap of wrinkly apples...

I was lucky enough to be given a brand new juicer not so long ago, and today I made very good use of it....there is plenty of things you could do with excess fruit but for a change I juiced them...After putting it all through the juicer I took all the scummy stuff off the top then put it on the stove and brought  it to the boil then turned it off, during this process a bit more scum comes to the top and the end result is lovely clear apple and pear juice, I also added the juice of 3 lemons to help the fruit from going brown, I have now bottled it and by rights it should last on the shelf but I am a little on the cautious side and keep it in the fridge...I am now keen to go get a bit more fruit to do more for the winter months...

Yummy Fudge Brownies....these taste so good and gooey

Recipe for Chocolate Brownies
125grams Butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
5 T cocoa
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 cup brown or white chocolate, could also add walnuts if you like
Method
Melt the butter add the sugar...stir to dissolve, add the 2 eggs beat well then add vanilla, flour and baking powder, mix well then add the chocolate chunks...Pour into well greased and lined tin and cook for 20-30 mins at 180C...Take care to not over cook as they are best when still a little gooey in the middle, it tends to firm up a bit when cool. Dust with icing sugar...mmmmmm

Up dated puppy photos

we are all having so much fun with the puppies in the household. Mittens babies are getting more active by the day...look out look out it will only be a few days and they will be walking around quite well....they still spend alot of their day sleeping and our new sunny freshly painted verandah is where they spend most of their day catching the rays! what a life....Mittens Pups are called Miso, Sushi, Crunchie and Hershey...too cute
Sylvies babies are still pretty sleepy and the littlest one Petal is a bit needy and cries quite a bit she is very happy if you hold her...she has her eyes open and the other 2 don't yet...Sylvies pups are called Petal Peanut and Primrose(just came up with that name! kids hadn't decided) I may have to edit that name when they come home.

Pony Club Camp 2012

I took Zoe and Willow over to Pigeon Bay for the weekend and we all had heaps of fun. The weather was fantastic and the ponies well behaved. The kids did a big amazing race style treasure hunt on horse back and then a semi formal lesson in the afternoon, in the evening there was a quiz competition and Zoe and Willow ended up being on the winning team.Next day we went on an awesome walk 3/4 of the way out to the Pigeon bay heads across farm land....I walked leading Willow on Thomas...well walked is not really a good description of it...was pulled at a very fast walk by Thomas with Willow on board! He is a speedy boy. Zoe rode Shiraz beautifully...steady calmly and very happy together the 2 of them. Probably about 6 or 7 kms in total so as you can imagine I am a bit stiff in the body today...

Time with cousins

This holidays we have been lucky enough to have Sofia come to the Bay by herself to stay and play...She had a night with Allie and 2 nights with Mum and Dad...and during the day she spent a fair amount of time down here at the Lodge...she loves for Zoe to play with her and is in heaven when playing with Zoes Sylvanian families....Zoe tries real hard to let her ,although it is rather trying for her as she really cherishes them and looks after them well! Good job Zoe ....Sofia also enjoyed the outdoors while she was here and loved joining in with the cooking of mixtures and potions cooked on the outside fire...and while we are on the subject of cousins we now have Darcy staying for a couple of nights...Carmen and Tessa and Sammy are up at Mum and Dads and Darc is here.....We will have a few adventures in the next few days I am sure...the boys all had fun in the creek this afternoon and all ended up with wet gumboots!

Sylvie's little family

Well we were all rather anxious for Sylvie when she started to have her pups...her Labour started on Monday morning about 7:30 and by 2 o'Clock she was still pushing after having had only 2 little puppies...I called the vet and he was happy to drop in on his way to Akaroa,after a quick examination and an injection to sharpen up her contractions the vet left,and within 20 mins as he expected she birthed another larger puppy that he said was coming bottom first...I waited all day for more expected at least 1 more but no she has just 3...they seem very small compared to when mittens were born....anyway here is the quick photos we got today when she went out to the go for her business