Still Kids

During the school holidays I took the boys to the big shopping mall. It happened to be the day they had a big advertising campaign on for the new Ice Age Movie.
I didn't know this and we had only gone for an hour for an ice cream as a treat.
However the boys managed to get pictures like these whilst there

Sid the Sloth

Scrat with his precious acorn

Such a great treat during the holidays.
Luckily they haven't really asked to go and see #4 at the movies, so obviously not that bothered by it.

Surprise Visit

We have just survived the first week back after the 2 week school holidays. The boys were great through it. They managed a few days at a holiday programme which they loved. I do have pictures of the production they were both involved with at the end but I will post those pictures another time.

My dad currently works in China, and he suddenly surprised us all by coming back to New Zealand for a visit just as the holidays began. It was awesome to have him here. He managed to come and stay with us twice and each time he stayed for 2 nights. The boys had such fun with him, it was lovely to see them with him. We even managed to attend a Super 14 Rugby match. We don't watch a lot of sport but to have the opportunity to go and see a live game is always fun.

everyone is chewing on warm mini doughnuts

I was actually taking part in the Scavenger hunt at this time and totally forgot to get a picture of someone playing with a ball!
The game was very interesting, a lot was always happening at the other end of the field to where we were sat so everyone had to keep turning behind them to look up at the large screen. Seemed very odd to have the game happening off to our left but everyone was turned looking up to their right!
The team I was supporting won but it was also the oposing team to the grounds we were sat in so sometimes it was difficult to cheer for your team as the other supporters were more dominent. It was fun though and we had a super time.

What did catch my eye though was this ATM machine in the grounds

Yep its mobile and stored in the back of a transit van. What I loved most was the wheel clamps on all the wheels, just in case someone tried to drive away!!

Missing A Little

I have been away, what's that, you didn't notice, oh well nothing missed then.
I got to go to Auckland with Steve at the beginning of the week just gone whilst he attended a work conference. Me well I got to lounge around a hotel for 3 days on my own.....yep that is right no kiddies.
They were at home being spoilt with Grandma!

This was my room for the enitre time

Yep pretty nice and dreamy. The tv was normal stuff although seeing as we don't have Sky then it was nice to catch CNN whenever I wanted and also the odd movie.
I would have treated myself to a Pay to View movie, there were a few I wanted to see, but at $22 each I really could not justify it. So I skipped on the movies and promised myself that when they come out on DVD I will rent them for $6 instead.

We went out to dinner at a friends house the first night and when we came back this is what we found....

A bottle of water and a glass on the bedside table (each side of the bed!)

Chocolate on the pillow and slippers on the floor by the bed

I could get use to this service!
Wonder how I get this at home??

Holiday Programmes

What do you do with your children during the school holidays?

We have always sent our children to afterschool care and they in turn run a holiday programme.
Ok the care is done through the YMCA and their holiday programme is huge.
Their age groups are split into 3 due to the numbers.

Ben has always thrived in this enviroment and we had no worries adding Alex to it, however I was aware that he didn't enjoy it as much.
Now I am aware that I will never find somewhere suitable for both of them, nor could we ever handle having to send them to different places!
They always enjoy the activities on offer at the Y, but we do feel that they spend a lot of time sitting and watching movies. Ben again loves this but Alex doesn't. He doesn't mind watching movies but on his terms not by being forced to sit and watch something. However it came to my attention a  few times that over the lunch period, the kids all had to stay in the kitchen room and watch a movie whilst the leaders split themselves for meal breaks. Which in turn meant that if you didn't like the movie on offer you were stuck there.
Now we have always explained to our boys that if there is a movie on that they are not enjoying then they are not forced to sit there and watch, they can do something else, but turns out they can't, and I was not sure if I agreed with this?

At the end of last year someone mentioned another holiday programme they had come across, there are loads of them by the way!
This was an art based programme, now before you start thinking we have budding artists in the family, let me assure you that this is by far Ben's worst subject, but turns out this programme is art based, therefore encompassing all areas of art, not just drawing or water colours!
So we investigated further and decided that we could only give it a go.
So this Easter holidays they spent a week at Artmakers. And guess what....they loved it.

They came home each day covered in paint! Despite having painting shirts with them.
We got pages and pages of different patterns on paper that just had to stuck up on the wall for all to see. We gained models made from egg cartons, bongo drums and toilet roll shakers.
They spent the first 2 days doing art related activities (no movies or tv insight) and then the last 3 days were spent organising, planning and creating a production for the parents to view on the Friday. Suddenly they had to work as a team designing sets, writing lines and planning characters. They had to paint sets and design and make costumes.
Each morning they were raring to go and eager to attend. I never once heard "I don't want to go today mummy!" or "I don't like it I am bored mummy!"

When having to make that decision to put your children in care it is an awesome feeling to know you managed to do something good and right for them, at least once.
I will be happily sending them again, not sure if it will be all the time, as I feel they will enjoy a mixture of both places, Artmakers v YMCA, but nice to know I can mix it about a bit and get satisfaction on somethings!

Schooltime

Yes that time of year has fast approached and the boys are back at school.

6 1/2 weeks have gone by very quickly (but then so has January!) and I can not believe that they were actually eager to get back!
New bags have been purchased, new lunch bags too. All new stationery has been covered and named where necessary. Uniform has been checked and new brought if needed.

Today they practically ran into school and were eager for me to go as they had friends to catch up with and play with. Neither of them were too worried about mum standing there watching them, they were very happy to just yell 'Bye Mum' and be away.

The holidays have been fun this year. We have managed a very desent time away at the caravan, they have spent time at home with me, they have spent time at the holiday programme and they have spent time at home with my cousin. So time has been spent doing all manner of activities and outings which they seem to have revelled in.

One last holiday weekend to get through this weekend and then life gets back to normal for a few weeks until Easter!

Waihi

Near our caravan is 2 gorgeous little townships.
Waihi in one direction and Katikati in the other.
They are both about the same distance away and depending on what we need will depend on which one we go to for supplies.

They both have their own quirky little bits about them.
Waihi is a gold mining town with apopulation of about 4500 and Katikati (pop 3500) is known for its many murals painted on walls of commercial buildings, started in the 1990s as a project to regenerate tourist interest in the town and district, indeed the effort was recognised with the bestowal of New Zealand's 'Most Beautiful Small Town' award for towns of less than 8,000 population in 2005 by the Keep New Zealand Beautiful Society.

I have yet to take any pictures of the beautiful art work throughout Katikati town but I have taken pictures of the fun statues throughout Waihi.
In fact I will invite anyone to go to Waihi with kids and not have a good time for 10 minutes looking at all the statues around the town.

All around the town there are several beautiful statues depicting the old days.

I think everyone who goes to Waihi with kids has a picture exactly like this!

Bath time

I'll just rinse my feet thanks

There are more statues than this but I only have pictures of these ones, next time we are at the caravan then I think we need another day out to Waihi and some more pictures of the fun around Waihi

Upclose and Personal

As previously mentioned, that lovely cargo ship "The Rena" caused a little bit of disruption to peoples holidays this summer by chucking a little bit more cargo overboard prior to sinking!!

We managed to get to see one or 2 of the containers in person on the beach.

The boys were fascinated by it all.

Did I Tell You.....

About the wee little bit of rain we have had during the summer holiday so far?

Sure I did, but just in case you forgot......here are some pictures to show you just what it was like.
All I can say is just keep watching the water on the driveway...!

I was sat in the gazebo at the caravan at the time of this downpour and it lasted for all of about 5 minutes.
It then took about another 30 mins before all the water had drained away from the driveway!

Finally Beaten!

By the rain that is not my favourite sports team.

Here in New Zealand it is the start of summer.
The schools have broken up for their summer break of 6-7 weeks.
The weather is finally turning nice.
Everyone has gone camping.

We too went camping over Christmas, we left on Christmas Eve and we have had an awesome time.
The first 5-6 days were beautiful, just how you hope to spend a summer Christmas if you are by the beach. The sun was out, the boys loved playing with friends and everyone had a relaxing time.
New Year was slightly different in that it rained and rained and oh yea just for good measure it rained some more! The poor people in tents, got flooded and a lot went home many days earlier than they had planned too.
Then the sun came out again and it has been nice, the odd day of rain but nothing you can't survive.
That is until yesterday when it rained a lot more, continuously all day.

The forcast for today is for much of the same and I finally made the decision that I did not want to spend another day couped in the caravan. So we came home.
We were not wet, we were not flooded, we had plenty of food, plenty of things to do but we had had enough of spending quality family time in an 8x4m space in the rain.
We had washing to do and so I decided we needed a change of scenery.

So here we are at home, sleeping in our own bed, even though the caravan is comfortable to sleep in, with more space to wander around in, the ability to use the toilet without getting wet feet on the way.
We have got a few things to get done.
The courgettes have managed to go wild and we have 2 that are like baseball bats, I think we have marrows! Will get pictures and show you later. (left the camera at the caravan, so the boys will collect it when they go back next week)
The sunflowers are reaching the roof and need tying so they don't fall over, again will show you later in a picture.
The roses need trimming, the tomatoes need tying, the garlic needs pulling.
So just a few jobs that need to be looked at so we don't loose the whole garden in the weather.

We will go back, just going to let the worst of the rain pass before we do!

Long Weekend

It is Labour weekend here in New Zealand. It is also Rugby World Cup final time.

This is the first long weekend we have had since June, so everyone is in desperate need of a little time out. Luckily at this time of year we can get some lovely weather, so it makes it even better having an extra day to the weekend.

We are, as usually at this time of year, at our caravan. The wind is up but the sun is shinning and the boys have been running and cycling around the camp with their friends all day and loving it. I am getting nothing done, but that is how it should be, although I have managed to get 1 jigsaw completed (with help from the family) and I still have several others to complete.

The 3rd & 4th place rugby game is on tonight, and it sounds like there will be quite a party. The campsite has put up a projector in the BBQ area so all can see if they wish. I will be cheering for Wales, as I am just so proud of how far they have come in this tournament. I really do wish they were playing New Zealand on Sunday instead of France but hey can’t have everything.

On Sunday, then I think it will be big here, New Zealand are in the final and I can imagine there will be a huge crowd at the BBQ area for that one. We are going to let the boys stay up for that, it will be an interesting evening.

So here is to a great long weekend.

Up Coming Wedding

We have the lucky chance of going to a family wedding next month.
Now going to a wedding is nothing new for this family. There was one held last year, my cousin Lucy.
Steve and I got married ourselves 3 yrs ago and my other cousin (Lucy’s sister Kerry) got married 4 yrs ago. So there have been a few to attend over the years, which is quite surprising when you realise just how few people there are from the family in New Zealand. Really we should all be in Southampton, UK but that would be boring, so we are all here instead!

This was us at last wedding

Anyhow, the wedding we are going to in November is on Steve’s side of the family, and although he has many nieces and nephews, there has only been 1 wedding so far (6yrs ago) many babies but not many bells ringing! His niece, or should I now be saying our niece, is having a Civil Union to her girlfriend Toni. But for all simple purposes, there is a wedding and we are going.

We have told the boys about the wedding, they are so excited to be going to Nelson for a long weekend, in fact I really ought to start thinking about what they are going to wear. However we have not yet told them more detail about the wedding. They know their cousin Sarah is getting married and I think they may have heard the name Toni float around in the same sentence but they of course, because they have said it, think that Toni is a guy. Alex even asked if it was Tony from the Barber's that Sarah was marrying? Why would they think differently? They have never been to a wedding that isn’t like mummy and daddy’s.

Now it never crossed my mind to mention anything until some girlfriends casually mentioned it at a girls night a few weeks ago. Then I realised that yes we need to mention it and no it does not have to be a big deal. I discussed it with Steve who sort of agreed that we need to say something but he didn’t think it a big deal either. However, knowing little people and big voices, I would rather we mention it before hand.

Ben however is very good at dissecting conversations and will dissect it down to the smallest detail and recite it several times between when we tell him and actually going away, and seeing as my head can not take him dissecting it down over several weeks then the conversation with them will be had as close to the time as possible, mainly for my sanity more than anything else!

PS - any suggestions on how to broach the subject but keep it simple and to the point??

Holidays

This is the start of the 2nd week of school holidays.
Steve is off all of this week, I have Thursday and Friday off.

Will be interesting to see the following when I get home:

1. The state of the house
2. whether the washing has all been put away
3. is the dinner cooked or cooking
4. have they completed the list of jobs I left?

Steve did mumble something about "but I am on holiday!" but I think I just mumbled back something about "it would be expected if I was home for the week so where is the difference?"

Happy Monday all

Holiday Programme

My children are the unlucky ones who have to endure Holiday Programmes every school holiday times.
Sadly no sitting at home for 2 weeks with undivided attention from mum, who has a chart made up with every activity under the sun organised!

Now Ben has been attending since he was 5 and he loves it. No other way to discribe it, he has no worries going there, he loves the leaders, he knows them all, he loves helping out and organising people which they happily let him do. He would go 5 days a week if we let him.
He feels the same about before and after school care. Again, if allowed, he would go every morning and afternoon. So we have had no worries sending him there at all.

Alex, well he is a different kettle of fish. he goes because he has too, not because he wants to be there. He will loudly tell you he doesn't enjoy it but secretly I know he does, just a little.

He finds the holiday programme long, but then the poor things are there from 07.45 till 5pm on the days that they go, so I don't blame him, think I would get a little bored with the place when there like that all that time per day.
They do have organised activites but most afternoons it consists of sitting and watching a movie or 2. Alex doesn't mind movies but if he gets bored with it or isn't enjoying it, then he wants to do something else and I get the feeling from the boys that sometimes, watching the movie is what they are doing and there is nothing else to do, you are not allowed to go and chase a ball in the main gym area. So I can see how this would frustrate the crap out of Alex.

This school holidays, however, will be the real little test as Ben has just turned 8. That means he is now in the 8-11 age group and they meet somewhere different to the 5-7. So the boys are in seperate areas, seperate buildings to be more precise, on seperate grounds.
Ben, well no worries, he is somewhere he loves and will just go with the flow, if not then he will organise it so things are how he wants them.
Alex, well watch this space, will be interesting to see what he has to say about the whole day, what he got up to and how things went. Without his brother there he may have a fabulous day and be all smiles or we may have the 'I don't like YMCA' bit when we drive home.

However it turns out we will deal with it, although we have already had the stomach aches at 07.30 this morning!

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!

Sandcastle Time

Once again we have been lucky enough to get to spend some quality time at the caravan during the Christmas Holidays.
Everyone just loves it there as it is so relaxing.

The boys spend day after day zooming around the camp site on their bikes, which by the way, they are getting so good at using. They always get so confident on their bikes when there. It is great.
They are in and out of everyones tents and caravans as they play with all their friends and in fact sometimes we can go hours with not actually seeing them, but we are not bothered, as they know the rules for the boundaries of the camp and we know they come back when tired, thirsty or hungry.

It is a relaxing time for us as well, because of the boys not being in our face. We get to sit and think for more than 5 minutes before someone is asking for something.
There is nothing to actually achieve whilst there so no rush to actually do anything!
Just our kinda holiday.

However this year the new owners of the site decided to assist with it being a family friendly site and planned loads of activities for the children.
There have been planned cricket games, T ball games, sandcastle building, art fests and crab hunting.
The kids have loved it all.

Alex in particular enjoyed the sandcastle building. He got right into this, dragging daddy down to the estaury with bucket and spade and proceeding to design his dream building, well if you can call it that.
It was however all his very own creation and that is what I love.

There were many children there with parents, who stood back and watched their parents build their desired creation, not sure if the kids or parents enjoyed this activity more. The children occassionally got sent on hunting missions to find a desired piece of wood or some seaweed for decoration. But other than that the children stood by and watched their parents become kids again!

It was a well attended competition and everyone had a lot of fun in the mud sand!

Holidays and Sickness

Our Christmas holiday has been great. We all had such fun.
Alex desperately wanted to stay home for Christmas this year.
Turns out, that with having the caravan, we have gone away for Christmas every year and he decided that he wanted to have a Christmas where he could come downstairs and see the presents under the tree.
We really couldn't argue with that at all.
So Christmas morning was spent at home.

By lunchtime we were on the road and heading to my cousin's house for a family day.
Alex didn't actually seem to mind that his vision of a whole day at home had suddenly been abruptly cut short and now we were on the move again.
I had to make a dessert to take with us, so opted for a traditional Kiwi one and made a pavlova. Alex had strict instructions not to drop it and hold on tight.

We had an awesome family day, with 30 others, drinking, eating and being very merry.
We then spent the next 2 weeks at the caravan and there are many posts on the blog about the fun things we got up to.

Unfortunately that wonderful time has now ended and we are back to work and holiday programme, well at least 3 of us are.
Me, I am off sick, yep that is right, first full week back and I am off for the first 2 days! I was at work last week for 2 days so have been back since Christmas.
Turns out my insides don't want to play the working party game and have been churning and cramping for 36 hours now.
Steve was concerned this morning and decided I needed to see a Doctor, which I had already decided myself at 3am!
So he happily came home from work at 9.30 and took me to my appointment.
I already had a feeling in my head that maybe I had Irritable Bowel, although we can not pin point any particular food that I have eaten that may have sparked it off, in myself I feel quite fine, although a little tired. So had looked the symptoms up on the internet, like all good medical personel do before going to see the Doctor!

The doctor sort of agreed with me and explained nothing I didn't already know.
He has given me some anti cramping pills and it is now a waiting game to see if they do the trick, although he wants to know tomorrow if they haven't.

Currently 3 hours after taking them, they haven't worked yet, although he did say a few hours. So hopefully by tonight things may have settled.
He has told me to stay away from food today, although I can't say I have eaten much this last 24 hours. I don't actually fancy any food but have had the odd moment where I feel rather hungry and I have eaten something because I know I will feel worse if I don't, but it has not been much at all.

So that is the start to 2011, let's hope it doesn't last long and that everything settles really soon!

Time Out

This is a type of punishment that we happily use in this house, although this time it was me getting "Time Out"
Steve had a conference to attend up in Auckalnd and I managed to go with him.
Grandma came and looked after the boys for us for 3 days, which was great.

He did ask me why I wanted to go, as he mentioned that he would be out at the conference for all the days, but that was exactly the reason, time all to myself.

Steve left me in Auckalnd at 8am on Monday and I saw him again at 5.30pm that evening. I managed to have lunch at my old hospital and catch up with old friends.
I enjoyed a pleasant walk back to the hospital and got to read a magazine for an hour before I met him at the evening drinks.
Tuesday was pretty much the same. He left at 8.30am and this time I didn't see him until 9.30pm.
I had lunch with a friend, did some shopping for Steve and then had dinner with my best friend.

By the time we got home on Wednesday evening I had had a great time. No one asking me for juice or food, no one wanting anything from me at all.
Seeing as Ben's habit at present is to sit in the lounge watching tv with Steve, and then to climb over Steve to come and find me to ask me to get him something. He will even come outside to the garage or upstairs to find me just to ask for a drink!
Go figure!!

So life is back to normal now, work and school, school and work, it goes on and on and one day ticks on into the next.

School Holidays

Like most people, when this time comes around, all mums and dads cringe and wonder how they will get through the time!
I am no different, and I usually only have 1 of the 2 weeks off with them. They go to holiday programme and daycare for the other week.
Well this week has been my time with them, ok, it has only been Thursday and Friday as we were at the craravan for the other part of the week.

Yesterday we ran around and did 15 errands, we left the house at 8.15am and returned just after 5 after collecting Steve from work. (we are still a one car family, so schedules have to be organised)

Today we have had a quieter day. We have had the boys hair cut, mainly because head lice does not bowed well in short hair.
Yes we have had our first ever taste of the dreaded nits!
I can see how easily it can be missed, as I never realised Ben had it until he spent the night with Grandma. Mainly because she slept next to him and so she saw him scratching. I hadn't noticed at all.
But all gone now after some determined energy for 3 days, guess if you really want to get rid of them until next time, then you have to be thorough and continuous in your campaigne to get rid of them.

Ben has also always gone on about the Indoor Rock Climbing he did in the last school holidays with the holiday programme.
Yesterday we drove past the building and I promised we would return to suss it all out soon.
Well today was soon enough.
It was awesome....!
The boys had a ball for just over an hour for $11 each and that even allows them to return as many times as they like all day. So we are going to go back and show Steve when we collect him from work tonight.
With 2 boys it would be really useful if you could find another adult to go with you as you can only harness one child at a time, but the boys shared the time nicely and took turns with me. Grandma, maybe you need to visit during the holidays one time and we will take them both again?
It was also very difficult to get pictures of them up the walls because I was anchored right below them and not able to move to get a good shot.
The following pictures show you the amazing walls in the kids section for them to climb, some one had an awesome imagination when creating these.

Ben actually got to the very top of the snakes and ladder one!

Alex had a ball for his first time ever, he soon realised that even though it was fun to climb the walls it was even more fun to let go when mummy had him up there and then absail back down!
He got the hang of clipping on the harness very quickly and always wanted to do it all himself.

Will be fun taking them there again sometime