We had a good, busy weekend.

Friday night was Girl Friday, hosted by the lovely Erin and Danae.  These two sisters have more creativity in their little fingers than I have in my entire body.

A welcome sight upon entry to “An Evening in Paris”

Beautiful table-scape with custom-made “Cafe Vendredi” {Cafe Friday} place mats

Folded serviettes {napkins}

It’s the little things that make it so special 🙂

“Springtime in Paris” cocktail

Savoury crepes in the oven

This was actually a relatively small group.  Many people are away on holiday, making the most of the New Zealand summer.  I didn’t mind.  Regardless of the size, it’s always a fun time with women from a variety of backgrounds, all talking and enjoying a meal.  I’ve never left a GF evening without feeling special, ministered to, and refreshed.

I am still figuring out my camera settings and decided that the following photos looked best in sepia or black and white.  Bear with me!

To wrap it all up, we were each given a party favour – homemade chocolate hazelnut spread…

This was after Chris had started to sample it with breakfast on Saturday morning…

By midday, he’d emptied the jar!

Later Saturday morning, Joe, Chris and I headed out for a bit of a walk.  We normally head to the Farmer’s Market downtown, but I was tired and decided to sleep in.  We went for a walk around town instead, and headed to a local park in the afternoon before I went into work for the evening.

Joe had a wonderful time on the play set.  Chris was teaching him how to drive…

I worked that evening, which meant that I didn’t get to bed till nearly 1am the following morning.  I was up by 7am with Joe, and then it was off to church at 8:30 for Chris to do set-up and for me to be in the creche {nursery}.

Sunday evening, we headed over to the Auckland Lantern Festival.

The festival is an annual event held in Albert Park, and is in honor of diplomatic relations between New Zealand and China.  We went a bit early, so as to avoid the crowds and to see things before Joe’s bedtime.  The lanterns were beautiful.  These are just a small sampling:

Like I said – we got there early, and it was already quite crowded.

Chris wanted to sample some of the food on offer.  He made his way through the lines and purchased a box of chicken, sweet and sour pork, rice, and veggies.

I was willing to sample some toffee strawberries.  The name sounded interesting, and when I saw the “limit two per customer” sign, I figured it must be something worth trying…

They were… interesting.  I ate one, and Chris finished the rest.  They had a hard, crispy outer shell that had a strange aftertaste.  The inside was incredibly juicy and sweet, but not sweet enough to get rid of the candy shell taste.

We headed back to our apartment to put Joe to bed.  Later that night, I was able to watch the fireworks dispaly from our windows.  Absolutely gorgeous.

All in all, a great weekend 🙂