Busy weekend

Well, I am still exhausted after a very busy weekend. It all started with me crazily trying to finish knitting a test knit for the fabulous tikki (Georgie Hallam) - Darwinia. I adore this pattern and love the finished babydoll that was completed at 2:30am on Saturday morning (although I count it as being finished on Friday night as it would have been had I not been interrupted by all the children's activities that required far too much of my time and attention on Friday afternoon!). It was knit with Bendigo Woollen Mills cotton in Damask Rose (now discontinued). More pictures (and details) on my Ravelry page.

Is this not the cutest wee babydoll/dress??? The newly turned three year old modelling it is pretty cute too of course (although I may be slightly biased ;-) )

Then, Saturday started bright and early as we anxiously checked the skies to see what the day's weather would bring, as we had planned to have Tessa's birthday party (a Teddy Bear's picnic) at our local park, down by the beach. Sadly the weather was marginal (and windy) so we opted to make the decision to have her party at our house instead. This, of course, resulted in a mad flurry of activity as we raced around tidying, cleaning and preparing. Kim disappeared part of the way through this activity, taking Tessa with him, to get some bits and pieces - including the all important cake, which he assured me was under control. He'd told me earlier in the week that he'd take care of the cake, so that would be one less thing I'd need to stress about - but of course that just led to me stressing about what we'd end up with, lol!

Anyhoo, they were supposed to be back by 10:30am (party at 11am) to put finishing touches on everything and greet guests, but ended up arriving at about 11:05am, after one of the guests had already arrived. Older children were then sent off to a bedroom to quickly wrap some Bear Hunt 'treasures' and then hide them in the backyard.

The party was lots of fun, with a wee Bear Hunt, and lots of trampoline jumping, swinging, toy playing with and eating going on.

 The boys

Julia's Tim 'resting' with Jasper!

 The girls (well, some of them)

The food

The birthday girl

And of course, the cake and beautiful cupcakes that were organised by my lovely friend Jamara and some other friends who all conspired to surprise us with them (with Kim in cohoots with them!)!!

Delicious chocolate crackles made by the lovely Julia

All in all it was a fabulous day, made so by the generosity of so many people - mwah! to you all :-)

And then, I was at work at 7am the next morning, so no rest for the wicked! Whilst at work I got a phone call from my dear friend Justine, who along with her gorgeous family (partner Paul, and two boys, Luca whos' nearly 18 and Connor who's nearly 15) has just begun a nine month long trip WWOOFing around the North Island. Justine was ringing to confirm that they were arriving at our place at around 3 that afternoon to stay that night - I, of course, had completely forgotten!!

This meant that I couldn't go out to Tessa's friend Lucy's birthday party out in Upper Hutt that we'd planned to make it to as soon as I finished work at 2pm. We will make a special trip out there soon though, to take Lucy her birthday pressie and see them one last time before they move to the warmer climate and busy metropolis of Auckland.

Justine, Paul and the boys duly arrived at our place and we spent the afternoon and evening catching up and having a lovely time together. I have to say it's a bit scary seeing how big Justine's boys have grown! At nearly 18, Luca is SO tall - he towers above all the adults, and Connor will probably do the same (and is already taller than me). Justine is a week older than me - so that just makes me feel old as her kids are no longer boys, but young men. And quite terrifying to think I am old enough to actually have kids that age!!

They left on Monday late morning and I sadly (and slightly jealously) farewelled them and returned to my messy house to face the clean up of the weekend's activities and reflect on the many wonderful events (and the odd drama) that occurred over the previous few days. One image that keeps flashing back into my head was when Julia's wee man Tim was on the tramp and just sort of walked right off it!! He'd put his arm out to lean on the net - but we have no net, so the poor wee guy just fell right off :(  He was fine after a few sad minutes, but gave us all a bit of a heart attack!

I did take some gorgeous photos of Justine and her family but won't put them up here in case they're not keen on me publishing photos of them (will update with pics, if they're ok with it).