Two weeks late(r) again...sorry!

Hi there blog family
Vicki has asked where the heck have we been, and yes, we have been remiss with our postings. Not for lack of doing, but more from lack of 'being-able-to-stay-up-late-enough-to-blog'.
Where shall I start....
With family. The kids' virus was happily transferred to me, so I felt unreasonably yuck for about 10 days. Paul (touch wood) seems to have escaped... must be a virus with an XX predilection.
Mum and Dad are back in the land of the Long White Cloud, and it is nice to know they are back, safe and happy, in Alexandra. Sounds like they had an amazing trip. Makes me want to rush over to be hosted by Vicks and Andrew, and have the de luxe visitor treatment!!!
The farm. Well, the vineyard is complete (only an irrigation system to install, but that's not urgent). The roses and the vines are planted, and now we go up there daily to carefully examine each stick for signs of budding - I'm sure I saw something yesterday. Will post pictures once we actually do get the first buds. As a friend said today, the first Te Horo vintage is now in progress! (Thanks Hannah!).

Lambing was completed in 3 weeks flat, and we had a respectable 140% lambing rate. The 2 pet lambs are thriving, and have sucked their way through $210 worth of milk powder, far more than their meat value (apologies to the vegetarians). The things we do for our kids! The other lambs are bonny, and it's not unusual to see passers by stop in their cars, and admire them over the fence. The oldest lambs were 16 kg when Paul and I weighed them at 4 weeks of age, so we are hoping for some good growth rates.The potager is ticking over, but needs some serious attention, and seedlingsto be planted out for the summer. The potatoes I planted in late winter were going gang busters until a late frost burnt off the tops - I'm hoping they make a miraculous recovery, or there goes all our Christmas tatties.

Puppies [aka fur babies]. After disbelieving the breeder that the puppies would only be house trained at 6 months (at the earliest - yeh right!), at 7 months of age we are now revelling in a marked decrease of P and W in the house. Amazing but true. We didn't believe it either - these puppies are cute, but seriously thick in the hygiene department. Last weekend Paul completed what the kids have dubbed the "Puppy Palace", a run that they can dig, run and poop in to their hearts content. They really like it too (as do we!). This week was the first Puppy School class at Kapiti Dog Obedience Club, and was a hoot. Loads of puppies of various breeds leaping around and half choking themselves in excitement. The kids and their dogs did really well (well, they did do SIT well). It was so much fun, and Paul and I had a few giggles at the out of control dogs there, took us back to our vet practice days.

The school fair is tomorrow,and I will close this epic entry with some pictures of a cake for the fair and treacle tart that Kyra made (unassisted). She seems to have inherited Grandma Wanda's baking genes...

Toodle pip.