6 Years Old

Yesterday was a manic day, I was so tired by the end of it. I fell into bed at about 9pm and didn't surface again until the cat disturbed me at 4.30am.

Ben however had an awesome day. He got boiled eggs for breakfast just like he wanted. I really like getting into the tradition of letting the birthday person choose what meal we have for dinner, but as we were going out to his party and it was going to be a long day, plus I had a feeling he would ask for homemade pizzas, we let him choose breakfast instead this year!

He was a very lucky boy and got some lovely cool gifts.

And a home made birthday cake

Then he got to take 9 school friends to the local museum for 2 hours of fun and games.

As mentioned previously, we are only doing a birthday party for their 6th birthday because it is their first one at school with new friends, from now on he will be allowed to bring home 2 or 3 school frinds for dinner / McDonalds / Mini Golf etc until his 10th Birthday when he will have a party again.

It will do my head in each year if we have to find the time, money and effort to do a big party each year, plus I do not think they appreciate it if it happens every year.

Happy 6th Birthday Ben, I know you had an awesome day.

Father's Day

Here in New Zealand it is Father's Day.



So to all you wonderful dads out there, may you have a special day of being spoilt for all the wonders you do for your families.

My Daddy Is The Greatest

My daddy is the greatest;

The best dad there ever was.

He always brings me lots of joy;

He’s my very own Santa Claus.

My daddy can do anything;

He’s smart as smart can be.

I love to walk and hold his hand

To show he belongs to me.
I love my daddy!

By Karl Fuchs

From PoemSource.com

Please go check out this poem website I found. They have some amazing cute poems. You will find them here at Poemsource.com

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday darling Ben,

Happy Birthday to you.

Our big boy is 6 this weekend. Man where has the time gone?

He wants a big friend filled party at the local museum, so we will see how the day turns out.

Also Happy 40th Birthday to a dear friend of mine, Debbie in Auckland, thinking of you on this special day.

Also Happy Birthday to my Cousin's Husband, Daniel. Even though you are in Tonga on holiday, we are still thinking about you.

A Special Long Night

This time 6 years ago, I was just heading in for a long night........... of labour that was!

Yes my big baby is 6 very soon and this day, which is actually the day, before always gives me the goose bumps as I remember what I was doing this day in 2003.

I remember having a twinge at 9am and not thinking too much of it.

I then remember having light twinges on and off all day about every 40 minutes and again thought nothing of it! It was a very windy cold day and I was at home all by myself whilst Steve was at work. Seeing as I was only 38 weeks there was no reason for anyone to be with me, it was just another day.

I made a wheatbag, because I wanted one for the baby's cot and remember sitting down at 2pm to watch Oprah, and eat a tuna fish sandwich. I do remember standing for 30 secs at the beginning and again at 2.30, oh and again at 3, funny, was everytime I had a twinge!

I remember after it all started to roll along that maybe, just maybe our baby was going to be born on Sept 4, but as we got closer to the end of the day I realised that no it would be the 5th.

I remember both my labours and how the days went. Alex's I don't get so much time to wallow in the remembrance as it all happened on the same day, but with Ben I love having this special day to remember all to myself before his birthday celebrations kick in tomorrow.

Grandma with her very special delivery at 1.30am!

Grocery Challenge

The grocery shop challenge that I am undertaking has now started.
I will not be listing what I am eating for meals each day, nor will I be listing what I brought each Saturday at the shop.

I know we have a decent amount of meat in the freezer, and although we are going to go through this, I am not going to not buy meat this month just because I want to lessen the bill, I want to try and get this challenge to assist me in keeping my bill down well after September finishes.
Anyway, if I do use up all the meat in the freezer, I will then just spend more in October refilling it and that to me defeats the purpose. Although having said that, the meat in the freezer needs to be used up so it doesn't get lost in the depths of the deep freeze and end up staying there for 2 years!

I will be writing a post at least once a week to say whether I accomplished the challenge each week and if there was something I feel I particularly saved on then I will mention it.

I look forward to reading the other sites that are also participating in the challenge, even though 99% of them are in the US, to see how they have accomplished their challenge.

Maybe you might like to set yourselves a little challenge??

Food Prices

As you may have read in the past few days, I have joined Mary over at Owlhaven in her September Grocery Challenge.
Try anyway you can to cut down on your weekly grocery bill.

One tip I acquired from Sophie Grey, Destitute Gourmet, was to go to your grocery store and know the every day price of the items you regularly buy. This would then assist you when you see something on special, because if you know straight away what you normally buy, then you can see if it is really truely on special?! And whether it is something you regularly buy and need!
Supermarkets are notorious for putting something on the end aisle with a big flashing sign and everyone immediately thinks "Hey special, lets get them!"
But when you get home and think about it, you realise that in fact they never were really on special because even though you brought the 2 items for $3 and thought it was a great special, they usually sell for $1.49 on everyday price!

Now there are several ways of knowing this information, which does take time to collect by the way. You can either carry a notebook with you when you are shopping, which has all the regular items you buy in alphabetic order and the everyday price written next to it or you can use your printed shopping list from the computer and have the price written next to it on there.
Having it on the shopping list is my preferred way to do it. Then I do not have to remember anything extra to take with me to the shop.
Then when you see something on special you immediately have the regular price written in front of you to compare with to see if you really are getting a special.

The reason I am mentioning this, is because several months ago, I tried yet again, to get the regular prices of my normal run of the mill weekly stuff written down so I could save.
It actually involves going to the shop, on your own, and slowly walking round the whole shop writing down the regular price of the item.
Now I never finished it and have realised that I need to do it again to get up to date prices, but that is what I have immediately noticed, the prices really have gone up!
Now we normally spend roughly the same amount of money each week at the shop and we are still spending that same amount, even though the prices have gone up. So maybe I am already succeeding at this September challenge because I am managing to keep my grocery bill the same even though the prices have gone up?
To compare I have noticed the following over the last 3 months:

1. Rice was $2.99 a bag it is now $3.75
2. Cordial was $9.72 a bottle it is now $10.33
3. Tin of Chilli Beans was $2.54 it is now $3.65
4. Tin of Tomatoes was 89c it is now 99c or $1.09

So yes is the answer when ever someone asks you if the cost of groceries have really gone up. I have the proof.

Spring

Today is the official first day of spring in New Zealand.

We have been having some lovely sunny days leading up to now.

So much so that all the rhododendron trees have been in full bloom.

We have one in our front yard. Here is what it has been looking like recently.

Sadly with the storms we have had at night the petals have not lasted so long on the tree, but when the sun is shining and it is in full bloom, it is a glorious sight as you come in our driveway.

Storms

Last week we had some horrific thunder storms at night.

No obvious sign of them coming over, just 1am and crash, boom and down comes the rain!

The first night it happened it was all anyone could talk about the next day.

We didn't notice any damage anywhere. The trees were all still standing etc although it was not exactly very windy so we weren't expecting too much damage anywhere.

However, several days later Steve happen to notice that one of the ariels was hanging off the roof of the house! We hadn't noticed any change in tv reception, although we haven't been watching much tv now we have the Wii!

So a quick call to our friendly electrician who has an extra long ladder and all has been fixed.

September Challenge

Mary over at Owlhaven has many times before set challenges to spend less each week on groceries.

She has even written 2 books on the subject of feeding a feast on a set amount per week and also how she survives with 12 in the family! Yes she has 10 children!

So I have decided that I am going to try my hardest to cut down on our grocery bill during September. It means no more impulse buys in September. No deciding to just nip to the supermarket for some meat for dinner when there is plenty at home in the freezer.

I do go to the supermarket during the week, but only for bread and fresh fruit. I have always done this and have always managed to walk in and walk out again with only the things I need. Sadly I love fresh bread rather than frozen and I am not stopping this as this is one area I will not compromise on!

It means sticking to the menu that my shopping list is built around.

It means using what we have at home in the cupboard first before deciding to rush out to the supermarket because we feel there is nothing to eat. Maybe even making up a batch of cookies from scratch so that there are sweet things to eat if someone fancies something.

I do already look at our weekly bill and sometimes wonder where the money goes, I do follow a budget shopping list that I created, along with the menu, with advise from Sophie Grey, Destitute Gourmet. But still each week I look at the bill as we pay and wonder what the hell I have brought that made it cost so much?

I could go the whole hog and totally buy budget products on everything, but I am sorry, you only live once so why should I have to eat tasteless spaghetti on toast and use shampoo that always seems to dry my hair out?

I do already look at the cost of what I am buying and see if there is something slightly cheaper. I also check out the cost of buying the product in bulk over the single pack we need.

A classic for this is the rice we buy. You can buy it in a 1kg bag or a 5kg bag.

The 1kg bag is about $3.75 whereas the 5kg bag is $19.99.

A quick calculation and you soon realise that it is cheaper to buy 5 x 1kg bads than it is to buy 1 x 5kg bag. Sneaky on their part!

I am also getting very good now at buying only what we need for that week, not just deciding that we need tomatoes, so lets just buy 3 tins, when in fact for the week we only need 1.

So here goes the challenge, on Saturday, our first weekly shop for September (as I only just read about the challenge today so couldn't start it at the weekend just gone!) I will indever to bring our shopping bill down, I will question every item that goes in the trolley to ensure we actually need it. I will try to find a slightly cheaper alternative with out compromising my taste.

I will also keep you posted with how it is all going.

Wish me luck....! Oh and maybe you could set yourself a challenge too?

Walking

Last weekend we went to the caravan.

On the Saturday we had gorgeous weather and so we went for a walk.

Steve knew of this secluded beach that he wanted to find.

He said he knew where the path was, so off we set to find this beach, which can only be accessed by this path.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to go for this walk. The sun was shining, the water was blue as blue and it was awesome being out in the fresh air.

I took some pictures of the Harbour around by where the caravan is situated from the top of the hill we were climbing to find this beach..

It is beautiful and reminds me all the time why I love New Zealand in the winter and why we have our caravan situated where it is!

Once at the beach, when we had found it, the boys thought the water was the best place to be, Alex just can't resist getting wet!

Carseats

Alex is just at that point where the current carseat he has is still just suitable but at the same time the next stage of carseat would be fine too.

So today I finally sucumbed and went and checked out what the local shop had to offer.

They had a lovely next stage seat that in fact will cover the next 2 stages. A booster seat with a back and then the back comes off to make a big boy booster seat.

In fact I was so taken with the seat I decided to get one for Ben as well. His booster seat is ok, but it is very rigid and cheap and I really don't feel it was giving him adequate support and safety in the car.

So we came home with 2 seats, one blue and one grey.

Alex is still wearing a harness in this new seat, but it won't be long before he is just using the regular seatbelt like Ben.

The seats that they are coming out of are not ruined, they are in fact still in very good condition, but I do know some people are set against buying 2nd hand carseats. I know I am, I always prefer the boys to have brand new, then I know what has happened to them and how they have been treated. Not been involved in an accident or anything. Although at this age it really doesn't make any difference. But when they were little then it was a biggy with me.

So I put both seats on Trade Me, New Zealand's answer to Ebay.

I gave as much description about the seats as possible and I made sure the price was sensible, because after all, Alex's seat is in fact 7 years old. Most literature will tell you that you shouldn't buy a carseat that is more than 10yrs old. There is nothing actually wrong with a seat that is 10yrs old, just wear and tear could have affected it over that amount of time.

So in fact I was very reasonable with where I priced Alex's seat, so much so that compared to the others being sold at the time, ours was a scream. That was proved by the fact that it sold within 2 hours of being listed.

And they want to pick it up tomorrow!

Talk about not having it hang around the house and garage for several weeks before listing it! I haven't even had time to ensure it is clean!

Distraction

Sadly I have not been doing any posts due to a major distraction!

On Monday I won 'Mother of The Year', nothing official or anything like that, just in the eyes of the 2 people where it counts most......my 2 sons.
I won because we finally agreed to purchase a Nintendo Wii and yes you guessed right, Monday was the day I went and got it.

So I was the best mum in the world, because they had so desperately wanted one.
So all week we have all been finding out exactly what this wonderful family toy can do.
Who can beat who at what sports game.

On Monday night Steve and I played some great games. We were laughing and fighting all at the same time. I don't think anyone needs marriage counselling, you just need to put the couple in a room together and get them to attack each other at sword fighting on the Wii. They will have the world sorted in an hour!


The boys are actually very good at some of the games, their fine eye motor skills are definitely improving.

Anyway, got to go, it is my turn to crucify the family at 10 pin bowling....!

Cooking

Alex decided the other day that he wanted to cook a chocolate cake!

Unfortunately I didn't have all the ingredients necessary for him, but I did however have a Betty Crocker Double Chocolate Muffin box in the cupboard.

So he sorted himself out and with a little help from mummy, made muffins.

He mixed and stirred the mixture.

He put the muffin cases in the tin.

Then he started to spoon the mixture into the cases, using his finger to scrap the mixture off the spoon.

Sadly he also learnt how to lick his finger after each time that he filled a case, so a little bit of Alex was in every muffin.

He had a ball and made some beautiful muffins, although not that you can go too wrong with a box mixture.

Where Does the Time Go?

This week seems to have just disappeared from under me.....!

Steve went to Christchurch on business at the weekend, so that saw me at home single parenting from Sunday to Tuesday.
It was a good time and we had no major rows or tantrums.

Tuesday morning was a little bit of a nervous time as I started my new job that morning and I had to start work at 7.30am. Ben had to be dropped off at Before School Car, that opened at 7.30am and Alex needed to be at Daycare, again which opened at 7.30am.
So I organised to start work, on my first day!, at 7.45am so I could dump the boys prior to starting.
All went smoothly and I had an awesome first day at my new job.
I am working at a Private Day Hospital in Hamilton. Resonably new place, only been open 2 years and still only a small place, 2 theatres, but they are getting there and getting their name out there as a nice place to bring your little minor day procedures. So quite a few surgeons are giving them a try and liking what they offer. The patients seem very happy with the level of care they are receiving as well, so that makes all the difference.
The boys enjoyed going to the airport in the evening in their pyjamas to collect daddy as his plane landed. They even had a little sign that said 'Daddy'. They looked so cute.

Wednesday saw me back at work again, but I ended up there till 6pm, although when Steve came with the boys to collect me, I was in the tea room having wine with the manager and the owner, so Steve joined us, and it was really nice to get to know people. The boys thought it was awesome wandering around mummy's work checking everyone out!

Thursday saw me back at work again, I am still doing 3 days like previously, but now doing the 3 middle days of the week rather than split days. Is going to take a little bit of planning on my part with dinners and how the week runs, but hey, this was only the first week, it will get better organised!
The work was good and I even managed to get a scrub or 2 in, so really felt that I was actually doing something rather than just watching what they do from the sidelines. Need to watch from the side a little but when you have been in theatres for 15 odd years, it doesn't take you long to click right back into what needs to be done and just getting on and doing it.

So here we are today, Friday and it is my first day to stop and think all week. Although Alex and I have had lots of errands to run and loads of washing to put on.
I have been a good girl and went and had my annual mammogram today and check up with the Breast Specialist. So I have been poked, prodded and squashed all in the good name of knowing that everything seems good and clear for another year. Don't forget to go for your checks ladies, it is easy and painless for a nice peace of mind.

So here we are heading into the weekend, hoping that the weather will stay nice and pleasant.
Have a good one, smile and I will catch you after the weekend.

Bag Swap

I found a little swap going on over here a few weeks ago for a little friendship bag.

I have never made a bag before, but thought there ought to be a first time for things.

So I followed the directions from an awesome tutorial here and came up with this....

This is my first attempt, I have already learnt a few little things from making this first one. This is not the bag I will be using in the swap, I will be bettering the art of bag making and making another for the swap, but for a trial run, I was impressed with myself.

My mum has a pattern for another bag as well, so will give that one a trial run.

Depending on how easy the 2nd bag is, will decide on which style I decide to make for the friendship swap later on.