September 1, 2024

April 15, 2025

Kia Ora!

Here we are at the beginning of September!

Brynn and I started our very own book club and Daniel wanted us to read a book that he had just finished and really enjoyed, so we did. James joined in as well. I'm glad Daniel wanted to do this with us and it was fun to sit and talk about the book (and have a Tim Tam slam for refreshment - if you don't know what that is, you take a TimTam (a delicious biscuit (what they call cookies here) sandwich with chocolate creme in the middle and coated in chocolate, or they have different flavors - coconut, dark chocolate, white chocolate, salted caramel, and more), nibble a little bit off the top and off the bottom and then try your best to suck hot cocoa through it until the biscuit has completely soaked up the cocoa and is falling apart, then shove it in your mouth and taste a little bit of heaven. Sadie first introduced this to us, but it is quite popular here - it originated in Australia.) ANYWAYS, back to the book club. It was a great meeting. Everyone had good insight and comments. I have tried since to have book club with more than just Brynn and I but have failed.

Brad and I picked out a couple gourmet chocolate bars to try. There was a brand called Hogarth (somewhat similar to Hagoth) and even had a ship on the front. The flavor was Root Beer and described as root beer flavoured dark chocolate with candied orange pieces. I thought it would be disgusting, but it was actually kinda good. The other bar was a chocolate coconut bar, this one was our "safe bet" since we weren't sure how the root beer one would go over, but I didn't really care for it at all. Not sure why, it just wasn't my thing.

The Hagoth bar. Doesn't it look so cool? It was so good. However, it cost $10, so it isn't something we'd buy very often!

And the Wellington Chocolate bar. Looks pretty again, but man alive I did not like it! And for $10 as well, won't by again.

September 1st was Father's Day here in New Zealand. We had a fun primary time, where we used the entire hour and had all the dads of the kids hide in the room next to the primary room. We asked them questions and they answered (using a microphone set up by a member of the bishopric, so helpful) and the kids tried to figure out which was their dad. Some of the dads disguised their voices and I think everyone had a good time. Also, the primary children sang the closing hymn for sacrament meeting (Families Can be Together Forever). They passed out chocolate candy bars to the dads, but somehow Brad got skipped and didn't get one, but he said that's okay. Hopefully he still knows he's a fantastic dad!

Here's Brad's breakfast in bed. I forgot to take a picture before the food was all eaten. Oops.

And now for some random pictures...

The have some condiments that we are not used to. This one, called mustard pickle, actually has raisins in it. I didn't mind it, but I didn't love it either. This reminds me, I need to try some other varieties.

Book club meeting. I had forgotten how fun it was to review a book together. I think I may have to insist on having another group book reading soon.

We were playing Telestrations and someone got the card where they get to pick the word and they picked Ram (from the Indian movie, RRR) and I had to try to draw it (and went the easy route, trying to draw a ram - the animal) and it was so horrible. We laughed so hard and I just had to take a picture to share with you.