Family fun and facepainting

It was a wet and foggy weekend recently, and the kids woke to find the Skytower had disappeared!
“Mumma, where did the Skytower go?” Harmonie said in despair. “Maybe someone chopped it down!”
Luckily, we scored invitations to a family fun day at Auckland’s Ed Hardy store.
Ed Hardy is an incredibly trendy global brand of clothing, bags, sunglasses, hats, shoes and more, often spotted on celebrities.
The Newmarket store was decked out with x-boxes and playstations, and there was Sushi, and bacon and egg sangers to munch on. C. had two!
The kids were lucky enough to have their faces painted by Carmel McCormick, New Zealand’s fabulously talented face painter and body artist. She’s the woman responsible for the hugely successful Air New Zealand ad ‘Nothing To Hide’, which features AirNZ staff in the nicky nude. (Their rude bits are never seen, and their uniforms are painted on).
She was lovely, and just amazing to watch, because she was so talented and so fast.
The kids scored goodie bags filled with chocolate, drinks, and Ed Hardy goodies like mouse pads and stickers.
Even better, they were thrilled to meet two Kiwi celebrities, Lee Donaghue and Bonnie Soper (Hunter and Morgan from Shortland Street). The actors were gorgeous and very sweet with the kids.

Our usual kitchen window view

Not this weekend though

Startstruck! H. with Lee and Bonnie from Shortland Street.

And again with the gorgeous Bonnie

C's face - thankfully not as risque as the AirNZ ad

And Miss H's - she loved the attention!

Murder Burger - and birthdays

So I turned 21 again today (not), and The Princess made sure everyone at school knew about it. Including my real age. Cringe.
I'd already been given my present - a lovely landscape painting Husband saw me admiring at a recent art show. But he also plumped for a fab video/camera which is winging its way to me from Hong Kong as I type this. The fab new thingy will allow me to post videos as well as photos apparently.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

I got loads of lovely homemade cards and cuddles from the kids, and they really tried to be on their best behaviour (read between the lines there. They Tried.)
With my lovely mother-in-law arriving tomorrow, and a big weekend planned, I gallantly informed the family I didn't want to go out for my birthday. 'Cos I figure we'll be doing enough (and spending enough) over the next few days. And having craved really nice fish and chips for, oh, about three months, Husband decided we'd try the local takeaway.
But on the way to the fisho, the Princess spotted Murder Burger. Or as she says it: Murger Burder.
We've spotted this everytime we've driven along Ponsonby Road. (Which is a lot). With the image of a white, red-eyed kitty, Murder Burger always makes the kids crack up.
So we decided to go there instead.
Yes, I know. In the old days, pre kids, I would have preferred champagne and silver service. But Murder Burger, with it's funny slogans and fab, honest food, was divine.
The food is organic and healthy, yet cost just a fraction more than we would have paid at somewhere like KFC.
For that we got:
An organic grilled chicken, cheese and salad burger for me
An organic BBQ beef, bacon. cheese burger for him
Chips and sauce for the Princess
Crumbed chicken tenderloins, with garlic mayo dip for the Dude.
Organic preservative-free cola and juices for drinks.

Missy loved swigging from a bottle! C. tucked into his meal with relish, but refused to be photographed.
Friendly service. From people who spoke English! And delivered exactly what we ordered.
It was lovely.

Their marketing team has a sense of humour that really appeals to me too. For example: Meat will make you happy lonely abandoned Nanna/freelance web designer/unmarried 39 year old feature as some of their ads.
Afterwards, I opened a bottle of bubbly at home, while settling down to watch my fave soap here, Shortland Street. It is absolute crap, with bad storylines, wooden acting, wincing, grimacing, and more ... but I am getting slowly addicted.
The best present of all? The kids have gone to sleep in their own beds, without a fuss.