Easter extravagances

The easter hols are coming to a close, and we're still very much alive after two weeks of guests, girls at home and breast-feeding 7 week old babies......it's a lot to juggle, but we're doing it, and whatsmore, actually enjoying it, in a frazzled sort of a way.

 

Over the Easter weekend we went gourmet  with an excellent passion fruit cheesecake (thanks to the highly unexpected appearance of large quantities of delicious cram cheese at our local store, miracles never cease!)
  Still on a fermented food high, I tried a sourdough fruit brioche (an interesting idea!). Brioche is a traditional French easter thing, so the guests enjoyed it, though my jury's still out, sourdough maybe shouldn't go here!

We did even get some easter chocolates, thanks to some ultra thoughtful guests, the local store had let us down on that one!

 

In anticipation of a chocolate free time I had even gone  the extra mile to do some real painted easter eggs, blowing eggs is too much fun for young and old alike!

Then we had a brief break from guests, enough to have a restorative weekend off, and get gussied up to head off to our first dinner dance en famille (this makes it all sounds rather posh - but it was just poisson cru and chow mein served in mass under a lot of tents with some local dancing and drunkenness)

 Then we've been back into guests, but we all seem to be finding our equilibrium. Amaiterai certainly has figured out where he likes to be best......

 ........and Matotea and Heimana have been enjoying some impromptu horse-riding lessons.

Amaiterai's first month (and a bit!)

Blogging and babies don't mix!
Yesterday Amaiterai was 5 weeks old, he's thriving and has already gained 6 cm in length and over 1.6kg in weight. The month since he arrived has gone by in an eventful blur of sleep-deprivation!





We said goodbye to April a few days after the birth, having learned a thing or two about sourdough and lilikois (passion fruit). Inspired by April, I've gone off on a fermented food frenzy, making sourdough burger buns, sourdough rice crackers and sourdough potato pancakes to name a few, I've also had a go at my first batch of kim chee and a very passable ginger beer! Probiotics are us!

Naturally we celebrated St.David's day (March 1st for all you non-welshies) as well as Wales' victory in the six nations rugby, with a blistering win over England in Cardiff.

We've had a film crew visit us to film our extremely talented trilingual girls, for an educational programme about multilingualism, to be broadcast here in Tahiti.

 

 The grandparents spent the best part of Amaiterai's first month with us, babysitting their hearts out, before a return to chilly Wales a week ago, they left in the snow and two months later returned to snow!

We're enjoying hot and sunny weather, though there is a little coolness to the mornings, heralding the arrival of our autumn! In the meantime there's work to be done in the garden - Amaiterai is not the only thing growing round here, look at these fabulous irises that have just started flowering here in th garden.

The jasmine, ylang-ylang and honeysuckle are also putting on a impressive olfactory experience at the moment. The most exciting new acquisition is cacao, Viriamu's friend in Tahiti he sent him some pods, so now I have Roald Dahlish dreams of creating my own chocolate delights! Talking of chocolate we're running up to the easter hols and our first busy period at the guesthouse with our new recruit! Hold on for a bumpy ride....

Introducing Amaiterai - a Rurutu homebirth baby!

 Yes, he made us wait, but on tuesday 19th february around 7h30 our son, Amaiterai Rhys Teuruarii was born here at our home in Rurutu. The first baby to be born in Avera, Rurutu for over 20 years! The birth went without a hitch, thanks to my wonderful midwife and all the family's support. We went for a water birth in an inflatable paddling pool in our living room, an experience that none of us will quickly forget!

Three days on we're getting ready to say goodbye to April, a sad day, but she leaves behind her a happy and thriving family! Thank you! 

Fit to burst!

So here's a turn up for the books - I'm as pregnant as I've ever been. On wednesday I turned 38 weeks, which is a first for me - having had both the girls at 37 weeks and a few days, and there's still no sign of him!

 It just goes to show, you never can tell. It serves me right for being so sure he was on his way a week or so ago. Viriamu has been and gone to Tahiti, setting off to the big smoke for another salon, while I stayed home with the girls, parents and April. The girls morphed into quite a handful without papa's watchful gaze. But he's back now, after getting stranded on Rimatara for an evening when the plane had 'technical' problems, see flat tyre!

Fortunately for us, the salon went well, thanks to my stunt-double living in Tahiti, tattie Tracey, who was able to save our bacon and do the salon for me! She looked suitably fabulous in her local getup, and set off a whole lot of gossip by being there in my place, Viriamu's new vahine popaa, (he should be so lucky)! She even took a whole load of fabulous pics of her and her kids at the salon.........