Another Birthday and Family Fun

Take one crazy family ......... hum, think that would have to be my one!
Take another birthday, which we seem to have lots of in this family.
Mix it all together with ...........a duck race!

Yes you read right...a duck race.
And what follows is a mad series of pictures depicting our fun filled afternoon in the sun throwing plastic ducks down a small stream leading into a lake!

The birthday cake

decoration of the ducks was desired

some people have wonderful ideas, but will it help them win the race....?

 

Some ducks were spoilt with flowers

others were prepared for a long ride with supplies

luckily none of them sank!

however some did manage to find the bushes

so out went the cavalry

No duck got left to float away on the lake!



And at the end we all celebrated with gorgeous cake

It was a wonderful family fun filled afternoon, with lots of laughs and crazyness. Apparently there is talk of an annual event, so watch this space for next years adventures.

Stubborn

I have several posts written and waiting to be opened up to the big world over the next few days, but I just had to write this little bit.

I am a very stubborn independant person, have been for many years. If I want something, then I do not just sit around and wait for it to happen, I get on and do it myself. Fraid I have been very independant for many years too. I am not really sure how Steve ever puts up with me?
Ok, so he is a very stubborn person as well and so I am not at all surprised that at least one of our kids has turned out stubborn too.

Ben is very laid back, goes with the flow and nothing fazes him. Yes he gets all panicky when there is change involved but he seems to skim by and manages to miss the bad stuff.
Alex on the other hand, well he is as stubborn as they come, in fact even worse!

When he finds out what is for dinner, if he decides it is something that he doesn't want / like / fancy then you have no chance whatsoever of getting him to eat it.
He will actually sit there, at the table, and watch everyone else eating dinner. He will sit there with tears in his eyes telling you he didn't want this because he didn't like it / want it / fancy it.
And the thing about it is even though we tell him there is nothing else to eat, no snacks, no cereal before bedtime, nothing at all. He will still sit there and not eat one little thing, nada, nought, zero, zilch.
He will then leave the table when we all leave the table and he will carry on with his evening and then go to bed, without having eating.

And that is it, he stands his ground and doesn't budge. He will just sit there staring at you with a tight lip determined not to eat one little thing!
If he manages this at 6 who knows what he will be like when he gets bigger!

How Many Does it Take??

A couple of weeks ago it was Grandma's birthday.

We invited her over for dinner and a cake was made for her.

As it was also the last weekend before my first essay was due in, I removed myself from the cake making business and left it down to the other 3 members of the family.

It seems it takes all of them to make a cake, even a packet one at that!

I did however decorate the cake when it was complete.

Royal Wedding

This is one event that can not just pass by without people commenting on it.
Me, being British, even though I live in New Zealand, was glued to the tv for the whole of Friday night here. We even let the boys stay up for the whole thing, well at least until they fell asleep on their own accord.
Alex sadly only made it until 8.30pm so there by missing the main event (but we recorded a highlight show the next day for Alex to watch because he got very upset that he had missed the wedding. He actually wanted to know if there was going to be a 2nd one as he had missed the 1st!), Ben however managed until 10.30pm and only missed the kissing on the balcony.
But to me it was a wonderful time to explain the British Monarchy to them and be able to show the people and explain who they all were. Ben thought this was great fun and got to know who was who.

Was it OTT at all - never, it was done with great respect and tradition. I loved the fact there was hardly any flowers around, thus showing that they had not spent excess $$ on stuff that was not necessary.

The groom - he looked very dashing. He managed to smirk several times when being watched, even though he tried so hard to keep a straight face throughout just like he has been taught over the last 30 years. He also tried very hard to not turn round and watch Kate when she was walking up the aisle, however he did have a sneak peek just before she got up to him. I love the fact he turned and whispered to her that she was looking beautiful.

The Bride - she was beautiful. She out did what everyone was thinking and went with a dress that was so plain and traditional. I was so pleased. I hoped that she would prove all wrong and not go with something very wild, hippy and modern. I think she may have proved to people that she will mix in with the royal family so very well. The Grace Kelly style wedding dress was a wonderful shape and style. I also loved the head piece with the old tiara and the way the veil hung over the back of her head in an old style as well.
She walked up the aisle with such poise and style, I honestly thought her father was going to cry. It was obvious that she has taken everything on board that they have taught her over the last 6 months but has still managed to keep it real, lets hope they do not try to knock all that out of her over the years to come.

The Bridesmaids - were so cute. Again their dresses were plain and simple and I loved it.

The Service - was perfect. They sang all the hymns I love, the prayers were perfect without going over the top, the reading was short enough and so was the sermon. However I was sad that he didn't have a ring. It would have been so nice to see him wear a ring as well. I also hope that they had a sneaky kiss in that back room after signing the register and before they came back out to face everyone.

The Balcony - we all hoped this would be a fun and joyous occassion and it was. It was fun to watch the little bridesmaids so taken with the planes that flew over. To see Kate's face when she first stepped out of the door and realise just how many people were down below watching them. Also the fact William kept talking to her and that he asked her if she was ready for the kiss.

And she was and they kissed twice, much to the crowds pleasure.
I also love the fact that they have not gone on honeymoon........because he has to go back to work. How down to earth is that. He tries so hard to be allowed to be normal for as long as possible and he is, even though they had a public holiday for the actually day of the wedding, this weekend is in fact a public holiday weekend in England anyway, so they all gained a 4 day weekend. So nice to see he has to go back to work and so therefore will honeymoon later in the year. So many people I know have done that nowadays.

I hope you enjoyed watching the parts you managed to watch. I think it was a perfect occassion and showed England in a wonderful light. I also think it did the Royal family good to have a simple, perfect yet tradition plain event that ran so smoothly and was not OTT

Transport

We must be one of the only remaining families in this century who are surviving on 1 car?
We just haven't been able to justify getting a 2nd car yet! It is not the cost, although that is an area of thought against getting one, but more the fact of we are able to live life without one at present.

We are lucky enough to have everyone have to be in the same place, more or less, every morning at roughly the same time and everyone finishes at the end of the day at about the same as well.

However, we just became a 2 car family for a small while. As I am studying, I have needed to travel to get to my weekly lecture, however, the day for the lecture is a busy one for us and not suitable for me to take our one car and leave the rest of the family to sort themselves out, too many activites etc would have had to have been cancelled just for my study. Now I am not against asking my family to adapt to something I am doing, but every week for 6-8 was a little unreasonable.

So we approached my mum and asked if we could borrow her campervan that was sitting around having a quiet moment. She was more than happy for this, although she decided that in fact she had use for the van for a couple of weeks, so therefore lent us her car instead.

So have we used it enough to warrant getting our own 2nd car?

Yes and No.

Yes, in that it has made life easier when there is something happening at work and one of us will be staying late. Yes when we have a judo night, saves Steve having to come with us and having to eat dinner at judo if he doesn't manage it before we leave. Yes it makes it easier so Steve doesn't have to run us all back home and then turn round and race back to judo so he can do his session, as his session finishes about 9pm and I can't leave the boys asleep in the house whilst going to get him......or can I? He also then manages to attend the whole session of judo and not have to always miss the first 20 minutes.
Yes, when there are things to do on the weekend and then you can both go different ways and get things done quicker. Also a yes for when I am on call and then if I get called Steve still has a car to be able to do things with the boys, like shopping etc.
A yes that I can see in the future is sports with the boys. Ben is just starting soccer this winter. With only one car then either everyone goes and endures the games or the family is split and 1 person takes Ben and the rest stay at home not managing to get any chores done outside of the house.
Another yes will be when I am on call for the weekend, about 1 in every 5, soccer will cause lots of hassel that weekend, because if I am called to work, everyone has to stay put whilst I have the car to get me there.

A big No, is the fact that apart from sports and the convenience of having it, mum's car has sat in our back garden collecting dust!
We can actually manage to go 5 straight days without using it, although we have just gone through the school holidays and so wasn't as necessary as during term time due to no judo etc, although when away over Easter, I did manage to go to the caravan a day before Steve because he didn't have as much time off work as I did.

Now I know when I was younger people did manage with just 1 car, but at the time activities did happen to be close by, mum's didn't work as much as mum's do now. Lots of other factors as well.
So are we getting a new car soon.......not that I can see. Yes we will have to bite the bullet very soon, but everyday we can manage without is another day that we don't have that extra cost

Useful Blogs

In the 6 years, (wow is it really 6 yrs already?) that I have been blogging things have changed in the blogging world.
Firstly when I started 99% of the blogs I followed or casual glanced at were from America. Nothing wrong with that, I have a love of the country so happy to read about it and people's life all the time.
Nowadays there are a lot more blogs from our home country of New Zealand.
Seems everyone is joining the blogging world and sharing a little glance into their world and life.

Secondly, all the blogs with useful information were sadly again based in the US, blogs that gave you reviews of products, retailers and great useful places to visit with a family etc.
How I wished there was something like that here in New Zealand?
With a growing family of 2 boys, who sometimes without realising it, do actually keep growing and getting bigger by the day, then I love reading about great places to visit that don't cost a fortune, that someone else has been to and highly recommends and is family friendly with something to hold every member of the family's attention.

Well, I have found it........




Let me introduce you to this developing blog written by Kiwi Mums for Kiwi Mums like you and me.
Welcome to Undercover Bloggers.

What It Is.......A resource for people who want to know the great places to go... and the terrible places to avoid.
The Purpose.....To harness the power of blogging to rave about our great experiences and warn others about the bad ones. To shout the praises of people and companies who go the extra mile. And to scold the ones who have forgotten that service is everything.

This blog is written by mums around New Zealand, so sadly it does not cover all areas of the country, but they are working on that one. So for all you people in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Tauranga then  there are some places that you might want to check out.
For those in Hamilton, well there will soon start to be some reviews of areas appearing.
For people in other areas who have places to shout out about then why not consider getting in touch with Nicci and seeing if you can't help out.
So when you have 5 minutes with a coffee, yea I know when does that ever happen! Go over and check out the blog and see if there isn't something that takes your fancy to use as your next place of interest for your next family day out.

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.

Home Help

Some very dear friends of ours have an Au Pair. I wrote all about it last June.

I mentioned at the time about looking at getting a local university student in to care for the boys 2 afternoons a week. Well low and behold, we did.
As of the end of February we have had a loving young 3rd year student collect the boys from school 2 afternoons, bring them home, organise afternoon tea for them, assist them with their basic homework needs and then just generally be here until we get home at 5pm.
And the amazing thing about it.......it actually works for our family. Tuesdays before Judo are now so stress free and relaxed, everyone has eaten before Judo so no trying to serve dinner to 2 very tired boys at 7.30 at night! Chores are completed so no racing around the house getting frustrated because nothing is getting achieved. I am loving it.

We made sure they had their own car, in good condition with all the current insurance needs. We were not too fussy in whether they were studying childcare or not, we didn't need someone with that specific skill, although it was very easy to gauge whether they knew about children or not.
The person we chose is 20 yrs old and is the 2nd oldest of 5, with her younger siblings currently being 10 and 12, so got the immediate feeling she has been around younger ones for a few years and understands them.
We purchased 2 new carseats for her car, as both boys are still in seats and will in fact remain in some form of safety seat for at least another 6 years! Both seats will grow with the boys, both have backs on them at present but have the ability to grow to booster seats when they just need that little extra height to use the seatbelts in the car. So even though this was an expense we just had to carry, it was a worthwhile one. When she finishes at the end of the year, then I am sure we will employ another next year, even then when we purchase a 2nd vehicle ourselves then we will need seats in that car too.

I was very sensible and actually made a contract up between us that we all signed. She was happy with this and I feel this made us all comfortable with where we all stand etc.
I organise dinner for the nights she is here and then she just has to do a small amount of preparation work to serve it to the boys. If rice or pasta is involved then she cooks enough for us as well.

Money wise, then we are paying 60c more an hour than we were paying putting them into after school care for the hour, but the benefits so out weighs the money. The boys are more relaxed, they are at home enjoying their own surroundings, they have eaten at a sensible time of day therefore have more energy for Judo and they are getting their homework finished, which sadly did not happen last year very much at all, mainly because being at after care 4 days a week they got very tired and were not interested in homework at 6pm.

The plus side of this is that in the 3 weeks she has been here Alex's teachers are already commenting that he has come along really well with his reading etc because he is getting his sight words better and following through and this is showing in class. This was an area of concern for all at the parent teacher meeting last month we had to discuss our aims for the year. Alex is not as high in the reading levels as they would have expected and so therefore work needs to be done more around this area, so to see some improvement already is awesome.

Oh and the other thing....the boys love her!

Chores

I have a feeling that very shortly my family are going to kill my printer!
I have been finding it very stressful at present getting everyone to follow through on their chores within the house!
Now these are chores that the whole family have sat down and decided on, not just me dishing them out. The boys even sat with use agreeing on what chores went where and with whom.

As a few things have changed around here it was necessary for the chores to be on a list on the wall, a) so we could all keep track of who did what and b) so our home help knew who did what as well.

This however lead to me printing out a list of daily activities for the boys. Just the days of the week and listing whether they had before or after school care, whether it was swimming, library etc at school and also, not that they needed any reminding at all, what nights we have Judo on.

Although this then lead to me writing a list of chores for the morning in our house. If there is ever one area of the day that I hate it is the mornings. Ok so it doesn't help that I am NOT a morning person, not one little bit, however to add to this hopeless cause is the fact that neither are Alex or Steve. Ben however, springs out of bed at 6.30am (6am sometimes!) full of life and eager for the day to start which usually includes turning on the tv.
It has taken many a time to convince him to get up quietly and creep downstairs by himself, which he is happy to do. He will turn on the light in the hallway, go downstairs and then turn the light out, snuggle under a blanket on the couch and happily watch tv until others surface in the building.
Sometimes however, he will turn on his bedroom light and succeed in waking his brother up! Alex on the other hand could usually do with at least 30 minutes more sleep!
However on week mornings, we have made a new rule....everyone up by 6.30 and absolutely NO tv at all.
Everyone now has their chores lists so we know who is responsible for getting what achieved.
On Monday, first day of following the list, things ran very smoothly, there was no yelling or shouting, everyone knew who was responsible for what and things got achieved. I actually got to work in a very calm mood, and if I noticed it within myself then my colleagues must have surely noticed it too!

So even though the noticeboard in the kitchen looks like it has been taken over by laminated chore lists, if it makes the house run more smoothly and efficiently with everyone happier, then they are here to stay for a while.

Other Life

I have discovered that sadly there is a life away from the computer.
I am not entirely sure what it consists of but I think it has been my life for the last 4 weeks or so.
Life has just taken over, turned me round and plodded right on past.
I have often looked into the study at the computer with a longing in my eye, thinking of all that needs to be done and said and then promptly turned away and carried on.

I can't say that I am totally back, but hopefully if the boys (all 3) go to the caravan this weekend then I will have the house to myself and I might even treat myself to some time on the computer blogging.

Hope you are all doing well, surviving life and I hope to catch up soon