We have finally got our new kitten!
Some of you will realise that there is a remarkable resemblance between Cara (our previous cat) and this one, and you would be right.
The new kitten (as yet nameless) is also a seal point Birman. The brown markings on her face, legs and tail will darken as she grows.
We picked her up from her previous home last night after the kids had swimming lessons. That was an adventure in itself as the house was in Papakura, and not in the township, but out about 10km into the surrounding farmland. We had very good directions to get there, although the part of the directions that we got off Google maps was the windier route to get there.
She managed well on her first night here, sleeping in the family room in her bed, although not all night... she came out from under the couch this morning. Still, I had half expected her to cry all night and wake me up, so in the end I was very pleased. It was actually Daryl that woke me up with a text from London at about 3am that said simply "miaow". He was in a painful mood it seems. I have however had my revenge, by texting the very same "miaow" back at around 2:00pm this afternoon, which converts to around 3am in London.
She has quickly decided that she likes her bed, and like this evening, will just wander over and hop in to have a sleep.
Sorry about the quality of the photos, she is too curious for easy photographs!
We will be sure to tell you her name.... once she has one.
Well, we survived the craziness of last week, and now I have time to give a brief summary of how it all went.
The "Kids for Kids" concert at the Bruce Mason Centre was pretty good really. There were 450 children from various schools across Auckland in the choir, with Suzanne Prentice singing the solos. It was well done, and Kyla had a great time.
On Friday, Kyla took part in the Kiapara
Schools Triathalon. She chose to enter as an individual rather than as part of a team, and so she did all three parts herself.
In the swim leg, she swam at a steady pace, but was not fast and was 3rd to last out of the pool.
On the cycling leg, she did well, passing several other competitors.
This left her in a good position, and on the run she passed more competitors to finish in 2nd place!
Well done Kyla! (and she looked like she could have just kept on going for a while longer.)
After competing in the triathalon during school, she had her birthday party on Friday night. She chose to take a few friends to West Wave to the pool, and so they spent about 1 1/2 hours swimming and going on the hydroslide. Following this, we went across to West City for dinner. We gave the girls $10 each, and let them decide what to buy for their dinner. They had a lot of fun doing this. After dinner, they went for a short wander to look at shops, and eventually spent some change we had given them on lollies. They all seemed to enjoy the whole evening, and I think Kyla really enjoyed the freedom and feeling a little grown up.
On Sunday we got together with the extended family for Mother's Day, and to celebrate Kyla and Jayna's birthdays.
Kyla had a birthday cake which she kindly shared with Jayna. And so, Kyla is now 12! We are feeling a little old.
Oh, and they did all play soccer on Saturday again. 3 more wins, Braden's team won 6-0, Kyla's won 2-1, and Lauren's team also won, but I am not sure what the score was.
This is a crockpot recipe I have been meaning to try for a long time. It reminds me of being in the US last year where we tried a BBQ pork bun at one restaurant chain.
The basic idea is that browned blade steak (or some other cheap cut of beef that needs slow cooking) is dusted with a little flour, and browned. It is then put in the crockpot with 1/2 c water to 1.5kg of beef, and cooked on high for about 4-5 hours, or until you can shred it with 2 forks.
The liquid is removed, and the shredded beef is returned to the crockpot. To this you add a sauce of 130g tomato paste, 1/2c tomato sauce, 2T molasses, 2T balsamic vinegar, 2T worcestershire sauce, 1tsp mustard powder, 1tsp chilli powder, and 1tsp salt, along with as much of the retained meat juices as you need to get a nice consistency.
The beef is then reheated on low for a couple of hours.
This is served in rolls with red onion slices (the recipe says raw red onion, but we decided to be less odourous and cook it). Really tasty, and easy. I think that I will give it a go with pork some time, and see how that goes.
The kids loved it, and the 1.5kg of beef gave us enough for dinner, Daryl's lunch the next day, and a little bit to go with our wraps for dinner last night. Not bad for $15 of meat.
So, tonight we are off to the Bruce Mason Theater in Takapuna to watch the Kids for Kids choir performance.... a bunch of kids choirs from various Auckland schools singing with Suzanne Prentice to raise money for World Vision. Kyla is part of Waimauku School's choir. That is after the kids soccer practices that start at 3:30. Braden's team has a practice game this afternoon, finishing at 5:20. So after that we will head home to get them changed, then get to Takapuna by 6:30-6:45 when Kyla is supposed to be there. Something is missing from this plan? Oh, that's right... I need to feed them. Hmmm, not sure when that will happen.
Tomorrow Kyla has an inter-school Triathalon, and after school her Birthday party down at West Wave pools. Then soccer Saturdy morning for all 3, pick up a new bed (off trademe) for Kyla on Saturday afternoon after Daryl's soccer game at 12:30, bake dessert for mother's day when we get home, then church Sunday morning, ice birthday cake for Kyla on Sunday afternoon, dinner with the whanau Sunday night...
Time for a lie down I think.
It does indeed seem that all I ever do is cook and take kids to soccer at the moment, or it may look that way as that is about all I manage to write about here. There is indeed more to my life at the moment, some days I clean or work too.
Anyway, the soccer results for this week (minus details as I was not there for any of them)
Kyla's team: won 1-0
Braden's team: won 6-1
Lauren's team: won 6-1
And the food challenge for the week? 
Kyla had the privilege of choosing the ingredients for this week, and chose pumpkin, marshmallow and passionfruit.
Kyla decided to make baby pumpkins stuffed with tomato and bacon risotto.
She scooped the seeds out, and roasted the pumpkins, then filled them with the risotto, and topped them with parmesan cheese before popping them under the grill to brown. We had them with lamb and salad (the garden is still producing well). Score: 4/5 - the taste was great, but the texture of the pumpkin was not very good - the variety was the issue here, not the cooking.
Yesterday afternoon I made mallowpuffs for the first time. They were not particularly difficult, although I was amazed how sticky and messy you can get trying to get marshmallow mixture into a piping bag! The chocolate dipping also proved to be slightly messy.
The score: 4/5
Very tasty, and I think nicer than bought ones, especially as they have dark chocolate on them and the biscuit is nicer. The kids seem quite happy to eat them.
(and no, I didn't eat both of them from the picture!)
We picked her up from her previous home last night after the kids had swimming lessons. That was an adventure in itself as the house was in Papakura, and not in the township, but out about 10km into the surrounding farmland. We had very good directions to get there, although the part of the directions that we got off Google maps was the windier route to get there.
