March Caravan Trip Saturday 18th, Sunday 19th

Jackie had a market on Saturday morning  so was  up very early. Duncan went  off to play golf with Barry, so I got to help Simon out with the kids. We headed off to the centre of town as there are large murals of graffiti  art in the process of being put up. Then we went to the square in Hamilton and Simon and Theo played draughts with the chess set.

Theo still needs some help with the jumping over moves

...but he has the demeanour of a champion

Not sure who won in the end.

... but I bet I could beat you all.

Then we went to the Hamilton Gardens - there was  the last of the roses in these gardens, but plenty of room to kick a ball.

 The maze had quite an Indian theme going on - much to the delight of the crowds of Hamilton's Indian community.

Theo quickly solved the maze

Simon and Claudia took longer - but Gran chose the wrong colour entirely and it didn't even make a maze. 

Miss Independent trying to decide what to do in the playground.

After lunch I went and picked up Duncan, and we had a cuppa with Barry and Liz and a bit of a catch up. After a quick snooze we headed back for baby-sitting duties while Jackie and Simon went out for dinner at a new chicken restaurant  Winner Winner(which had run out of some cuts of chicken!) Fortunately we managed to get both kids to sleep before they returned.

On Sunday we were expecting Duncan's sister Robin to join us for dinner as she was over from Australia for a reunion. I told Theo that we would have to bake a cake, and before we made it round to their place at 9.30am he had drawn - in the tradition of Great British baker - a view of what it should look like. Yes definitely  4 layers.

 But first there were swimming lessons to go to. If you look carefully you can see Theo in his blue rash singlet and togs doing his width with the flutterboard.

Thank goodness, he's come up for air. (With bathing cap as he has had grommets)

Yep I think I'll be good at this when I'm old enough.

 The cake was only a small one - the recipe One egg chocolate Sponge from the Edmonds book, but the decoration was lavish. The raspberries were $10 a punnet so we had to intersperse them with Marshmallows. Unfortunately - as you can see from the drawing the pink decorations were an absolute necessity.

There was also the need for a good dowsing of 100s and 1000s

Completed - 4 layers

Masterchef and cake.

I had given Theo a book - a bit like dress-up dolls except with laminated pirate characters and stickers for clothes. He declared we were going to have a competition to dress a pirate and he was going to be the judge. Simon, Duncan and I settled down to our creations. (Jackie was up at her grandad's  90th birthday). When judging time came, much was made of the prize to be given out and Duncan bribed Theo with the promise of a surprise and duly Duncan was announced the winner. Theo went inside to work on the prize. Quite a long period of time elapsed before he appeared with a parcel wrapped in brown paper and lots of sticky tape. Inside Duncan found a sandwich with salami, tomato and pesto!! We had had lunch but Duncan  ate it. Theo seemed content with his surprise of a $2 coin.

We went back to the motorcamp to get  Robin who was staying in a cabin there. She had hired a rental car to come down from Auckland. Simon had cooked a roast chicken and a roast vege salad and of course there was cake for dessert.

I was taken aback to find that Robin was no longer a hoarder and subscribed to the "either you love it or its useful" or you must get rid of it. Apparently her daughter, Hannah  comes around to supervise the clearing out of the wardrobe on a regular basis. It has certainly given me food for thought.