Our First Hangi

We experienced our first real taste of Maori food culture when the camp staff hosted a traditional "hangi" meal for us this week. The food was cooked in the ground (you can see a bit of the process below) and was quite an undertaking. A hole had to be dug, coals had to be lit and a fire had to be started at 4am. The feast consisted of pork, beef, chicken, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, squash, cabbage, stuffing and bread pudding. I must confess, the bread pudding (which was the only thing not cooked under a mound of dirt) was the only thing I really enjoyed. If dirt has an aftertaste, it was deeply infused into all of the hangi food. I found myself feeling thankful for outdoor cooking - the BBQ kind of way!!

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I kind-of hate birthdays

I am reminded a couple of times a year (at birthdays and Christmas specifically) why we do no buy our kids toys. We took Corban and Dillon shopping for their birthdays last weekend and let them pick out whatever they wanted. They (thankfully) picked out the same thing - a very loud light up sword. Only problem: Eliot didn't get one. So while C and D ran around the house sword-fighting, E followed them screaming and trying to snatch them away. Would it have been worth the $20 just to get him one as well? As I listened to C come running to me whining (about 20 times n hour), "Mom! Eliot took my sword out of my special place!" I was ready to part with my $20. But then what kind of lesson does that teach? So I passed the buck. I sat with C and D and asked if they would like a good solution to E always stealing their swords. They did indeed. I persuaded them to use a bit of their birthday money to buy E a sword of his own so he didn't keep taking theirs. They were happy to do this. So, at their birthday party, they gave E his very own sword.

The only problem? Dill got a skateboard and a new battle has begun...