Lovin All kinds of Stuff

Thankyou God, it's Friday. My favourite day of the week. A Day I get to look back at the past seven days and say, I got through it. I came out on top. I found things to smile about, and be thankful for.

One of the things which made me smile (and laugh... and giggle... and snort) was this beautiful colourful girl all the way from Christchurch...

This is Miriam from MakeitGiveit, a blog-friend from way back. Before I even really knew her Miriam had sent me encouraging cards via snail-mail filled with words of hope and verses to lift my spirits. I imagined a wise and sensible lady. Someone sedate and demure. Hahahahahahahahahahaha... wise she may be but sedate? Not a chance. This girl is a hoot. We did not stop laughing all night at her stories. I just wish Miriam lived closer to Auckland so we could hang out regularly. I totally think we would be bosom-buddies if not for the distance. But thank goodness for blogging aye?? (Can I gently suggest you take up vlogging, Miriam??? You would be a HIT!)

The chance to hang out with Miriam came when my dear friend Sammy and I were invited to crash a bloggy house party last weekend. We took a road trip up to Warkworth and met six bloggers for dinner at the Sawmill Cafe in Leigh.

L to R: Sammy from Cherished, Cat from Catalina's Cottage, Deb from Works in Progress,
Leonie from Sunshine x3,  Laura from HootNZ and Juliet from TartanKiwi

The company was fab. The food, average. The service? Varying from slow to outright rude. I daresay the bloke who warned us he'd be kicking us out at 10pm if we didn't buy tickets for "the gig" would have been more polite if he knew he was dealing with a table full of bloggers.

A much better photo taken NOT by me (borrowed from Cat)

We left before dessert. Nuff said. (We were loving the Sawmill Cafe not-so-much.)

OK, back to stuff I'm LOVING. Bare footed photo finds (the stuff you find on your camera when the kids have been experimenting. Bare feet means the weather is warming up, summer is coming and little Kiwis everywhere ditch their shoes and run free. I know this may seem strange to non-Kiwis. But we Kiwis love bare feet and are proud of our leathery Hobbit-like appendages.

(Dash tells the story of a classmate who went barefoot in France. People mistook his barefootedness for poverty and gave the "poor boy" money. Hehehe. Not poor, just a Kiwi.)

I'm also loving bedtime backrubs, a new "soothing" technique I've adopted to help my energetic tactile kids calm down and relax so they can get to sleep quicker. They love it. And it's such a nice way to connect at the end of the day.

I've also been Smiling at further Photo Finds. Self portraits, some more successful than others...

Then there are the impromptu "snap mummy at her computer" pics. Keepin it real people.

Oh and the "snap-your-sister blogging" pics.  Those make me smile too....

Mostly because I love that my kids want to blog. A cool way to get them writing stories and sharing things that they love. Miss Fab has even figured out how to make collages and slideshows in Photoscape all by herself.

The Kids' Blogs

So.
Another week is at an end.
It had its ups and downs but it is finishing on a high.
I'm off to watch Miss Fab perform with her class in school assembly.
Then I'll take Scrag to gymnastics.
We have the whole weekend to look forward to.
I LOVE Fridays.
♥