tourists

We took the Staten island ferry and checked out Ye Olde Statue of Liberty.... 

Paul and Joel couldn't resist the cheap on board beers...  

the pitts

We've spent our fourth of July weekend in Pittsburgh (home of Flashdance and Andy Warhol) with Joel's uncle David, aunt Alex and cousin Jacob. Pictured below on the steps of a neighbour's house at a genuine all-american block party. I even ate a hot dog!!!  (its not really meat anyway, is it?)

Jacob and Joel share a birthday (12th august if you want to start preparing!)....

 so they had an early celebration today with a fab gluten free cake. Check that baby out!! 

RR has loved getting to know her first cousin once removed.  too cute!!! 

Jacob gave RR some great hand-me-downs including a wicked pair of sunnies. 

from bruthen to the big apple via a little place called... tahiti

 Our 2 day stopover in tahiti was a great success. We laid low at our lovely little beachside shack - swimming, eating baguettes and drinking fresh coconut milk and generally resting up in readiness for our big flight to the states (which went just fine by the way!)

Et 'oui' I practiced my rusty french on some unsuspecting tahitians. 

Rakaia had her first birthday on 16.06 - and since we crossed the dateline she actually had 2 birth-days... one in auckland and one in tahiti. Lucky lucky girl!

The US of A

Joel's Great Aunt Ada and Uncle Seymour... We stayed with them at their retirement village in New Jersey for two days. "You wanna klondyke bar??" is my new favorite quote. What an experience to be looked after by a real jewish american granma from the joisey shore....

With Joel's Fabulous and Formidable Great Aunt Sylvia... 

Spending the afternoon at Coney Island with my oldest friend Paul (pickle dog) Williams and his partner Suzanne for the Annual Mermaid Parade... where a bunch of alternative/semi-subversive types (ie people we'd most prob be friends with) dress up as mermaids or sea-dwelling creatures of some description. Kooky and cool!!!

.....(more to come)

Field Mouse

photographic evidence!!

And here they are ladies and gentleman... FINALLY caught on film... !

time flies when your baby is having fun!

RR in disguise. what baby??

Well, I think this must surely be the longest we've gone without a blog update and I apologise to our millions of loyal fans (or at least Herbert, Lavinia and Linda) for keeping you in the cyberspatial dark. So what's news?

*RR has popped her first 2 teeth.... centre bottom. Haven't completely risen yet but definitely functional. They've taken a long time and cost lots of tears and difficult nights. They're also still to be captured on film -so watch this space-

* We've taken our first trip on the plane together to Jess and Harry's wedding in Newcastle. All went well but we did wonder how much fun a longer trip might be (ie 90 min was quite enough time to keep RR seated and entertained!!)

Dad and Daughter in their wedding splendour

RR inspecting Jess' bouquet

The wedding was at Catherine Bay (Catho to locals) just south of Newie. We stayed with Jess and Harry and some other mates at the great reception venue: the old local RSL that's been converted into a private house... which was a mixed blessing.... We got to party until our bedtime - and then we got to listen to everyone else party for a few more hours!!! (correction: joel had earplugs and RR slept like a baby - it was just kate lying awake and listening to the techno!)

on the catho beach at dusk