we've been away ... exploring new zealand in a campervan

is there any better way to spend a winter holiday than campervaning with friends ... somewhere near ohakune

we are lucky.  but it is only we you hire a campervan and go off the main trunk lines that you realise just how lucky you are to live in this awesome country.  in fact, we had such a great time we extended our holiday by two days and carried on searching out fresh snow and incredible beaches :)  here is a quick look at some of the places we took in.

we started with the central plateau and camped by beautiful lakes ....

the peeps thought the scenery was amazing ... almost zen like ;)

spending the days exploring the geothermal areas ....

and the national parks

we then hit the snow covered volcano mt ruapehi for some serious winter fun!

pollyanna's grasp of the sledding was far better ....

than her mother ;)

it was then on to raglan where spring looked like it had arrived and we didn't want to go home so we didn't ....

instead we went up and over to the coromandel ... where it felt like summer couldn't be too far away

the views were amazing

that view above was what we had to endure during lunch ;)

cathedral cove on the coromandel peninsula

we ended the holiday at some thermal hot pools in miranda ... we still didn't want to go home ... but this time we had to :(

cheesecake, london olympics style :)

quick post with a couple of photos from our olympics activities through the first week :)  steve had to make a british cheesecake as one of his contributions to our family olympic activities.  he did a great job so i wanted to share.  inspiration for this was found on pinterest from woman and home who made a very british cheesecake in honour of the queen's jubilee.  steve did a fantastic job given it's winter here so no fresh berries around, he used frozen ones instead.  they did the trick though, maybe not as full of colour but definitely worked to make the union jack :)

the finished cheesecake, complete with hobnob biscuits from the uk :)

this was the perfect dessert to watch the new zealand black sticks with!  the live games coverage starts ~8pm at night for us, so it is making for some tired peeps but they have coped well ... maybe because of the delicious food we have been eating from our second countries!

lest we forget

... as much as we are enjoying the olympics, when you hear the news this morning with the loss of two new zealand soldiers in afghanistan it makes you realise .... just how incredibly lucky you are to be enjoying sport while others are fighting on your behalf ... 

kia kaha to those that continue and to those we have lost ... we will remember

we are ready, bring on the olympics!

this is the ever changing chalk canvas that resides in our kitchen and is always changing, i added some felt rings with bluetac to complete it  :) tutorial for chalkboard canvas here

the british dinner was made last night,

roast beef and yorkshire puddings ... very tasty!

he loved the british dinner :)

the yorkshire puddings were totally new to polly and she loved them :)

the goody bags were handed out this morning,

i had my first ever walnut whip during the opening ceremony this morning (NZT), YUM!

the flags were hung out the front of our paddocks,

lucky for me it's a breezy day, so they look totally awesome ... but interesting to see if they survive the day out in that wind though!

the decorating was completed,

the four nations that make up great britain were aptly bought to life through lego ;)

ben made sure we had many olympic sports represented by our lego family, he did a great job with them :)

and we HAD to have some new zealand support going on ... we went with some large letters so no one can mistake who our number one team is ;)

the cupcakes were made,

we made over 60, some for steve's workmates, the peeps hockey teams, and our real estate agents :)

the peeps did a fantastic job of deocrating and making the cupcakes

 the peeps got busy making their 3D london buildings to add to the décor

hard at work

one of the finished london iconic buildings, they really are worth the investment as the peeps had the best time making them

and we are finally ready for the start of the games ... 

let the competition begin :)

i have linked up to the following parties :)

olympic survival kits

we are ready to go, are you!

ok, its a day (or two) late but late is better than never ;) after blogging every day for a year, it's hard to get back into the habit after a break away from it, it kinda goes lower down the priorities list ... i'll get there though because i love sharing!

the olympic kits i have made for my family to get us involved with the games AND to make it an enjoyable learning experience for us.  i home school ... so sure, learning is important to us but even if you don't home school, getting actively involved with all life has to offer must definitely be a top priority and that's why i find any excuse, occasion, celebration to get excited about and i MAKE my family join me and i encourage you to get on board too!  you can make the celebration fit into your budget, i guarantee you will find things around the home that will work and if you have a computer and LOVE free printables as much as i do, you are home and hosed.

if you are new here (welcome) i will catch you up with the idea behind our olympics celebration, home-style.  each member of the family has been given a "second" country to support at the olympics.  i make sure for every event i chose different countries so there is always a new culture to explore.  each person gets a goodies bag full of printables, recipes, foods, flag, books, craft ideas, information, and other bits and pieces from our country (new zealand), the host country (england, we've expanded this out to include the four british countries), and their "second" country. for this summer olympics we have usa (ben), australia (pollyanna), belgium (me), and switzerland (steve).

i made these bags, the same tutorial as i used here for the halloween goody bags ... just a bigger version of it!

i went onto the book depository (they ship free worldwide, love that!) and chose an official olympics activity book for each of the peeps, plus a fiction book that takes place in their second country.

some books to keep the learning going through the whole event :)

i then spent some time on the net researching some traditional recipes for each country and the host country.  i printed them out as each person will need to make a sweet and savoury recipe from their country and the host country during the games.  i made sure all the recipes were authentic ones and also something the peeps would be able to make with only a little adult help ;)

i have provided each person with their team lists for each sport and also included the new zealand team.  if you use the team lists from wikipedia you can download them as a pdf and print four pages to one.  the wikipedia lists are fantastic and my favourites as they provide the draws and tables the peeps can use to fill in as they see the athletes competing.

i then used a whole lot of free printables to put in each goody bag, every thing from opening ceremony bingo cards, word searches and crosswords, bookmarks to personalise, olympic writing paper as the peeps will have to write something everyday about what they are witnessing, colouring pages, and some fantastic free country units from currclick.

the free printables and recipes

the next step is to make full use of the international section of your local grocers/supermarket.  before i went i googled the favourite foods for each of the countries so i would have some idea of what i was looking for.  for example, i had no idea (even though we are next door neighbours) that tim tams were an australian invention! the world is such a melting pot you will be amazed at how many things are in your local grocers that you use weekly that actually originate from somewhere very different :)  if you want some good ole' new zealand products check the lamb in the butchery dept, the kiwifruit in the produce dept (if it's zespri, it's from nz) ... you get the picture!  make it an adventure, i always learn SO MUCH putting these goody bags together for the family.

a table full of goodies from usa, australia, swiss, belgium, english, and new zealand. 

i added a couple of other bits and pieces, this time we went with real flags rather than colouring some in.   i found some truly british landmark puzzles, and a couple of other trinkets.

some more goodies

then fill the bags and you are good to go for 16 days of all out fun, culture, laughter, and crazy excitement ... jut the way every day of the olympics should be ;)

bring it on :)

what have we been up to ....

busy preparing, tomorrow i will bring you the kit bags i have FINALLY finished :) but for today, here is a pictorial look at some of the olympic things we have been doing this past little while :)

we made some very cool pasta art, during our studies about italy

we also made home-made pizzas for lunch that day :)

they were REALLY good!

while studying mexico we made the BEST home made tortillas ... they were so good the peeps told me i was never allowed to by store made ones again!

seriously these are SO good and absolutely delicious we have since made them 4 or 5 times!

 home-made tortilla recipe

• 3 cups of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup of oil (any oil we have used both olive oil and coconut oil and both are delicious)
• 1 cup of warm water

put all the dry ingredient in a bowl and use a fork to mix them together.  then add the oil and mix through until its evenly dispersed with your fork.  add the warm water and mix together.  i start with the fork and then once most of the mixing is done i get in their with my fingers and make sure it's all mixed together and forms a ball.  the above literally takes five minutes and most of that is measuring time ;)  then cover the bowl with cling film and leave it to rest for an hour or more.  i make the mix at breakfast, then leave it until lunch when we do the rolling out and baking.  

divide the dough into 12 even(ish) pieces with a knife and then roll out.  in a dry non- stick pan (that's right NO oil or butter) put in your tortilla on medium high and weight for the air bubbles to take hold, flip when brown spots appear on the underside (about 30 seconds) ... it really is that easy!  if i don't have my helpful chefs, i can usually roll one out in the time it takes one to cook.  we had some left over the other day and i heated them up for 30 secs in the microwave to go with our mexican dinner ... and they were still superb!

we have been doing a little bit of decoration around the house too! more on that tomorrow along with the finished olympic survival treat bags ... london style ;)

good luck to the junior women's all whites who start their campaign in 6 hours time!~

olympics food

food ideas ... olympic style :)

let's talk food, i love a good celebration and a good celebration involves fun, delicious food!  the olympics definitely falls under something to celebrate so i have been trolling pinterest for exciting ideas and come up with plenty :)  here are some of my favourites:

love these olympic torches from a small snippet ... such a cool treat idea for during the olympics and remarkably healthy as far as olympic style snacks go! 

this is TOTALLY impressive and this link to nanaimo bars includes a full recipe .. i had never thought to look for an olympic rings cookie cutter!

so after seeing this gem i went to google to see if i could find my own olypmics cookie cutter and i found ALL SORTS of cool food decorating things!

• the cake craft shop have a fantastic range of cupcake and cake decorating toppers and wrappers for the london olympics AND they ship internationally!
• on ebay uk, i found this cool olympic torch with flame cookie cutter
• and at cheap cookie cutters, you can get a whole ragne of cookie cutters, including the olympic rings AND they ship anywhere in the world!

love this idea from baby budgeting, we are going to use it lots during the olympics and you can see down below, the peeps and i had our first crack at it today :)

such a cool idea from scrappin'mom, an olympic brunch ... everything here was put together for the winter olympics but most of her ideas will work well for the summer olympics too ... i am especially loving the grilled cheese gold medals!

healthy food flags!  these flags were designed for the sydney international food festive and i think they would be an awesome edition to any olympics celebration ... this i am definitely doing one night during the olympics, i don't think i will attempt the new zealand flag though! ... maybe i'll get everyone to do their second country's flag as part of their kit ... oh the mind is turning!

love these cupcakes from oopsey daisy, she actually used them as a winter olympic birthday party treat for her son ... love that it is such a simple idea and totally doable for the amateur baker! the peeps and i are going to make these next friday for steve to take into work :) 

     

sugar cookies iced with the appropriate colours, they look so sweet!  full instructions and recipe from the decorated cookie.

love these olympic ring cookies from cake spy!  again a simple idea the peeps could help with :)  check this onto the to-do list!

great ideas right?  i love that people have so many creative ideas with food, it makes it so much more fun than your everyday sandwich!  as mentioned above, the peeps and i had an olympic style lunch today using the inspiration from baby budgeting ... we loved it, something we will be having a lot during the olympics.  

the busy peeps making edible olympic rings

we used not so blue blueberry jam, marmite (black), strawberry jam, cheese, and avocardo ... i have some definite ideas for alternatives to everything but the blue ... any ideas would be very welcomed!