Easter

The boys woke at 6.30 and totally forgetting the fact that a bunny may have visited, they proceeded to watch a movie in the caravan.

However, by 7.15 they had been to visit a friend’s caravan and suddenly remembered who should have visited. So they started to tear the place to pieces.
They came and told us sleeping wide awake big people that the bunny had missed them out and had not visited. Then with the help of their friends proceeded to tear the place to pieces even more on the ever determined quest of finding some chocolate eggs!

However, Ben had requested that we could do an Easter egg hunt like last year. Unfortunately he seemed to have forgotten this part so early in the morning.
I however, was on the ball and had the hunt all sorted, just not laid out ready to go. So while Steve calmed herded the roaring crowd, I quickly ran around the park and laid the said trap.

We then let the boys loose to see what was discovered. We first let them know that maybe the bunny had left the eggs in the car. This lead to them finding the puzzle start but for some reason Ben had it in his head that this was for a treasure hunt and not for eggs, so stepped over it and carried on looking for eggs. When questioned he said it was for a hunt, which we then had to mention that usually a hunt had prizes.........like possibly eggs? This hit the spot and suddenly they were on a hunt mission.

After sorting the clue and finding many others they found the lost eggs. They even seemed to forget that the bunny had been late in delivering them anyway. They also seemed to have not noticed that they had run up and down the campsite at least 4 times and were now using loads of energy! Wow mums are so sneaky sometimes!

The rest of Easter has been lovely, a nice relaxing chillin’ time at the caravan with friends.

A lot of card games have been played in the last 4 days.

The main one being “Phase 10”, a Rummy based card game with a twist. You can play with 2-6 players and the more you have the longer the game and the more frustrating it becomes but man is it good. It has kept many of us occupied for many hours this last weekend.

Leading on from this, many have been playing “Rummikub”, a tiled based card game. Again, I love this game and so look forward to being able to teach the boys when they are slightly older.

The other one that we have played is “Skip-Bo”, another basic card game that is suited for the children; well at least Ben at almost 8 has been enjoying it and also learning about strategy. I think maybe we have started off his love affair with card games and how much fun they can be.

I also had the pleasure of teaching my boys how to play “clock patience” this weekend and now they both keep getting out a pack of cards to play on their own.

However given the current state of the weather, anyone know of any ducks that want a new home? We have enough water for them and have you got an umbrella to go with that? Yes it has decided that raining is the best possible way to ensure everyone gets very wet and stays home.

Although whilst at the caravan I don’t mind the rain, ok the caravan is not very big and so 4 people stuck inside does have its moments, but it is so much fun watching the poor campers trying so hard to pack everything up without everyone getting too wet! Whilst also trying to explain to the kids why they have to stay sitting in the car whilst mum and dad pack everything up? And that ‘no’ they can’t have another ice cream whilst they sit and wait!
Such fun to watch.

Hope you Easter break has been as enjoyable as ours and that you didn’t get too wet and the kids didn’t get too sick from excess chocolate consumption!

Challenges

Yes I have been a little slow on completing these, although, as I always state, I am always thinking about them, so haven't totally forgotten them.
I have however completed 2 challenges in the last week or so but whilst being at the caravan I have been unable to load pictures from the camera so will do another post about them when I am home, so I can use photos taken to show all.

I have managed to complete the following:

#31 - Go for a walk on the beach in the dark.
#88 - Have a family meal by candlelight

I think I need to maybe print this list of challenges off and hang them in the kitchen, that way I will see them everyday and maybe manage to complete some more a little quicker.
Just wish there was a challenge on there for managing to finally get to a music concert to see my favorite band play or even managing to complete some official further study after not studying for over 10 years!
Maybe I will just keep those ones as personal ones I have managed to achieve, maybe off of my bucket list which is part of challenge #62.

Keep on challenging yourselves

Movies

I love watching movies, ok I am very select about the type I will watch, not in for much body count here I am afraid, although hubby loves high body count, so always a conflict when choosing a movie!

Give me a good comedy, family saga, romance etc and I am happy.

Since the boys have come along, we haven't got to the movies as much as we use to, but then we all know what that is like, but that is life and I am not going to go on about it.

We have taken the boys to some movies recently as well, managed to see Tangled over the Christmas break, which went down very well in this house, we then also got to see Yogi Bear, went down well with the boys, but can't say Steve and I are rushing to see it again, to the point that we will not be obtaining it on DVD when it becomes available.

We just saw Hop yesterday, it was ok, Alex wanted to leave after half an hour but we managed to convince him to stay, not rushing to see it again, but it might grow on the boys if they watch it again in a couple of months time.

We saw ads for a few that are coming out that we will endeavour to see Cars 2 and Kung Foo Panda 2. The boys both loved the first ones so will definitely give the 2nd ones a try.

Myself, well can't say there is much coming out that I wish to see, fancy seeing Arthur, the remake with Helen Mirren and Russel Brand, so that will probably be the next one to see.

However, we do have a lot of movies at home on DVD. If I like something then I tend to buy it to have at home to watch again and again.

I do find however, that you always get different things from the movie the 2nd or 3rd time round.

Last night we watched Kinky Boots, awesome movie, and got so much from it that I don't think I got last time, although it has been a long time since I last saw it.

I sometimes feel like I should give more movies the benefit of the doubt. I rushed out to see Blind Side when it was on last year, had heard great reviews about it and I love Sandra Bullock. However, not quite what I expected or thought it would come across as. I liked it, but it just didn't seem to sit well with me, must have missed some main points because it just seemed a little odd to me. Came away a little disappointed.

Then last weekend, I raided my brother and family's DVD draw in their house and came across it on DVD. Decided to bring it home and give it another try.

Really glad I did, understood it much better this time and actually enjoyed it. Not about to rush out an buy my own copy but glad I have now seen it again and understood how Sandra managed to get an Oscar for it.

The same goes for Valentines Day, after seeing it last year I decided that Love Actually was much better and this was just the American version of that. However I know have the DVD to watch and hopefully it will go down better the 2nd time......will wait and see on that one!

Get Well

I have to send get well wishes to my Uncle who is sadly recovering this weekend from a stroke. Not a bad one but enough of one to have left him with left sided weakness. His speech is good but his walking is a little troubled.
Going to Rotorua today, so may get time to pop up to the hospital to see him.

Also to my brother in law who apparently has lost his appendix.
Good thing he doesn't need it!

Get well both of you please.

What Would You Do....?

Once again the Lotto has jackpotted to $32 Million.
What would you do?

I am sure everyone at some stage has sat and dreamt about how they would spend it, how much they would give away and whether they would give up their current job?

We are no different, we have done just that, in fact last weekend, whilst out for the evening Steve and I had that exact conversation.

There would be the obvious things to start with:

1. Pay off the morgage
2. Buy a new car or 2
3. Take a holiday
4. Put money in trust for the boys

Then we started thinking of the next level, how to help family, giving to charity and helping organisations close to us.

However selfish it sounds, I would not like to just turn all my family into millionaires, I would however like to make then comfortable, so I would put money in a trust for them that would allow them to be morgage free and maybe take a nice holiday.
Due to tax laws etc on the money you win, we couldn't just give them the money out right, but the trust could buy their house from them, they could then rent it from the trust for a year at a stupid amount, like $1 per week/month and then a year later buy the house back for a silly amount, again maybe $1.

We would also then consider charity donations. Steve is a diabetic, so this is a charity close to home for us, anything to assist others in not having to live with this infliction.
Breast cancer is a charity close at heart for me, and this is the main one I would want to support.
Steve however, does also support the Heart Foundation and I am sure we can stretch to a 3rd charity if decided upon.

The next thing we thought about, was who else to support?
Steve and the boys do Judo and we would love to support them in some way. They do so much for all the kids and the Dojo could definitely do with some work etc.
Also the boys school. It is an awesome place, but like all education facilities in NZ, there is never enough money. They have a great little school pool that needs work and it would be awesome to help support getting that well improved.

So those are our dreams for this week. Will let you know next week if we were successful :)

One Little Step Forward

I have done it........!
"Done what?" I hear you ask....
Submitted my first essay for my degree course I am currently undertaking in all that spare time I have between work and family and life!

Not totally happy with it, but happy enough to hand it in on time, but at the end of the day I only want to pass it, not ace it with flying colours, although that would be nice :)

Next one is due May 10, and then if I pass both of them I have completed the first paper for my nursing degree, only 3 more papers left to do after that!

One foot in front of the other, keep breathing and smiling and it will all fall into place.