A Village Life








Monday, May 12, 2014

A Blurry Review of the Night

The scene was set beautifully, candles and flowers everywhere

The cocktail recipes for the night were well utilized of course! The Great Gatsby and French 75 were my favorite.

First arrival, still looking pretty fresh and sober

Dapper Dan


Most authentic looking of the evening goes to.....Tangiwai!!!



Donna and Craig

Mixing it up

Good conversation flowing and drinks in hand

Peter Crabb in red

Ooh la la Liz

Food still looking a plenty at this stage

Cake time; I blew out not only the 4 candles on the cake but all the rest on the island bench!

Clothes begin to rumple now as the night wears on

Old friends catching up; the lovely Norm, Hamish and Campbell

What's up with the daggers; smile Helena?!  Notice my costume change.

Dancin', dancin' dancin'.

Messy buggers

Now I lay me down to sleep.....little does he know his wife is going to wake him up a few hours later to go collect the kids.

Friday, May 2, 2014

At last...

At last, I can finally sit down and catch up on this truly neglected blog.  That's what happens when you decide at nearly 40 and with 3 young children to go back to school and get another qualification.  What was I thinking?  Or what was I not thinking?!  I totally did not realize how time consuming it was going to be to brush up on my science background in order to fulfill my "dream" of getting a post grad qualification in nutrition.  Anyway, half way through the semester now, mid term exam is over and I can kind of relax.  Chuck on top of that two weeks of cooking every meal every day for 30 hungry students while being in the midst of my kids school holidays.  Boy has it been a "fun" few weeks....not!  But the satisfaction factor of having gotten through to the other side is sky high.  Of course, I have had time to plan the big "4-0" party.  So the plan is........The Great Gatsby.....a proper cocktail party with everyone dressed with a 1920's vibe. 
In preparation for the evening of glamour, decadence and debauchery:

a local "moonshine"

my Daisy headband     




Whilst all this was being organized, 3 little elves in California were busy organizing something else...How amazingly lucky and loved did I feel when this arrived in my post a few days ago?!

40 gifts wrapped and labelled, ready to open on my actual birthday (I've got to save something for that post party Monday morning).
Thank you to my lovely ladies!
8 days till party time...more photos to come.