Five things in March

A happy and calm month. How was yours? Ready on for five of last month’s highlights for The Judd Crew…

1. Games with Amelie

The bad weather in February convinced us to prepare for winter by buying a bunch of new board and card games and that is easily one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. We had a lot of board games for adults but nothing really to play with Amelie, except for CandyLand (cannot recommend, but that might be the version of me that has played CandyLand 5457422456 times in less than two years talking). We’ve been loving playing Operation (which is hard!), Guess Who, and Uno in particular. And we have Junior Scrabble ready to bust out which is going to be entertaining because she spells like a five year old (not bagging her, she is five). Looking forward to a cosy winter of family games!

2. Hayden’s birthday

We got out of iso just in time for Hayden’s birthday. It was still a pretty quiet one, but lovely. We went to Gringas for lunch (secret: Mangawhai has one of the best Mexican restaurants ever) and I made a delicious dinner and cheesecake (both Ottolenghi). I gave him presents that essentially equated to an old man starter kit (dressing gown, slippers, port…all it was missing was a pipe) but also have booked a weekend away for us in May, kid-free, so we can pretend we’re not old for a few days!

3. Ottolenghi smoky, creamy pasta with burnt aubergine and tahini

This is the dinner I made for Hayden’s birthday. It is so good. And not all that complicated for an Ottolenghi recipe! I’ve made it once more since then and it holds up. I think aubergine season is done now, but I’m already looking forward to breaking this out again next summer!

4. The Undoing

Ooh have you seen The Undoing?! Probably – I am always so behind on TV! But wasn’t it so great?! I’ve been really enjoying mini-series lately (suits my frame of mind right now – I don’t have time to commit to anything longer!) and this one in particular was so gripping and suspenseful. I also loved The White Lotus and Inventing Anna – The Undoing is definitely my favourite so far though!

5. Ann Mashburn

I bought the cutest top from this new-to-me brand recently, and have been wearing it every chance I get. Ever feel like a website just gets you?! I’m currently craving so many dresses, not that I need any because we’re going into winter, not summer…(this is the problem with following designers on the other side of the world…). It’s far too early to start planning for spring but I can see me wearing this dress in particular all spring long.