Nearly Over

We are nearly done, the Dad is in charge for these two afternoons while I work. The TV is back and the tent needs to come down. Loads of cookie dough has been made and ready to roll for lunches. To be honest, I think come Monday I may just say a quiet thank you to the Ministry of Education. Think I need a holiday.

The Ballet

by Lily B.

On Thursday night me and my Mum went to the ballet. The dancers are from Russia. The Dance was called Swan Lake. Before the ballet we went to Arborio at the Library for dinner. My Mum had Pizza and I had fish and chips. Mum said I had to eat with my knife and fork! My Mum did my hair like hers with 12 clips and lots of hairspray. I don't have a favourite part of the ballet, I loved all of it. The Jesters were funny. It felt like a dream. I went to bed after eleven o'clock.

Random Happenings

I can't believe the holidays are nearly over and there is still so much we haven't done! We haven't made it to Pukekura Park yet, it's on the list. We are meeting up with friends in the morning and Lily and I are off on a hot date tomorrow night. Super exciting. I will trap her in a room and get her to write all about it on Friday.

Who goes to the beach and doesn't take the camera?

Me! So the big trip was great. Lots of kid fun, managing to find things to explore that an adult wouldn't think of. Such as the attic, I think if they were a couple of years older it might have been hard to convince them they couldn't sleep up there!!! 

We stayed at this amazing little beach bach: www.bookabach.co.nz/4361, lovely and clean and child friendly. Fully fenced, a park just across the road and the beach a short walk away. We will be visiting this wee place again.

I took lots of photos at the bach, but I forgot the camera when we managed a trip to the beach between the rain showers.

It was loads of fun going away with other children, the kids had a great time, plenty of hide and seek and other random games!

Blown Back from the Beach

We survived the trip. My goodness, the gear required for a night at the beach is the equivalent to 4 nights. So many sets of clothes! We had a great time but I haven't had a chance to sort all the photos (or the washing), so I will leave you with this quick wee series of shots taken this afternoon in an effort to keep a little boy awake. Last year when Jack was at morning kindy, he and I would bake so many afternoons a week to prevent sleep and the induced late night antics of a boy who really needed to drop his day sleep. He is actually a pretty good baker, apparently by the end of the week Lily and Jack want to make a cake "free range style" in the kitchen. I'm thinking with Lily's reading and Jack's measuring skills we could be in for a treat ;o)

and secretly I hired Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the old version, because I know you'll ask) to take to the beach, after reading it to the kids last week. We dragged out the tiny tv from my nursing training days and plugged the dvd player into it. What a hit! I suspect the wee TV will go back to his house tonight, but it has been a lovely afternoon recovering from our beach adventure. 

Books, Blood and Thermo-Regulation

We made the book sale. The kids enjoyed it but I think they were a little overwhelmed by the size of it and the amount of books! All the books in the children's area were spine side up, so hard to dig over and the tables were pretty high for small people but they did manage to rat around and find some great books. I went last night along with half of New Plymouth, so glad I waited for a quiet time to take the small fry. I found some really old school, simple books. One about blood, all about red and white cells in really basic terms, great resource. I find we rely so much on Mr Google these days but nice for the kids to be able to pick up a book and read it to find information in their language geared at their level of understanding. Lily got a great old book full of science experiments and she is desperate to make an egg pop out of a bottle but she wants to write about that next week. The suspense will keep you on the edge of your seat, I am sure!

The rest of the pics were taken by the incredible Mr Tim. He took the kids and the dogs to the beach for a run. It was as windy as anything but evidence shows that thermo-regulation does not develop until after the age of 7. Subject at hand: Lily.

They all came back covered in sand. Only a fraction of what is to come. A friend and I have hired a bach for a night, around the coast a wee bit. The weather is meant to be good tomorrow and then turning to custard over night. Fingers crossed for some fun adventures!

The End of the First Week!!!

Another day, this one required coffee and cake with a friend at the end of it. But yipeeee, it is Friday!!! We have survived the 5 days without the TV and we are actually enjoying ourselves (most of the time). Yesterday after getting home from fishing, the kids came down to the lounge and Lily laughed and said she was going to turn the TV on because she had forgotten that it wasn't in the lounge, it was really funny and I might have muttered a wee "haha" under my breath. We all sat down and were just talking about what we could do next time to catch more fish and a whole lot of blah blah blah. We seem to have a lot more "3 kids and Mum" conversations, which can only be good for small peoples language and negotiation skills (not so flash for my sanity). 

Today we had to make a sign and I had seen a recipe for home made paint on  my favourite website. So make we did. It required a few simple ingredients and made one awesome mess! The best kind of fun. 
For the special people in my life like Toni - you can click the wee collage below and it will make it a little bigger for you to see.

This afternoon I made some playdough and the kids added glitter. You can see from the photos who was totally hooked! There is a pic of Jack and Lil's hands but the rest are of the Mouse. Meggie loves play like this, she can stay engaged in it for the longest time. Kindy is going to rock her world. I think she might just rock kindy too.

Tomorrow - we are hitting the 24hr book sale super early and then having a wee breakfast treat on the way home. Not sure what else the weekend holds but phew....I hope it includes an afternoon nap, for me at least!

What a day. Do you know how much these kids talk? I know how much I talk and they have exhausted me! Busy but fun. Grandpa came down last night for work and rugby, he brought with him two big boxes of Avocados from his orchard. When life gives you Avo's, you...

go into business!!! They were $9 richer and oh so happy.

A fun time had by all. They had the yell going of  "We're selling avocados" at the top of their voices. I was so grateful we live up the drive and I had groceries to put away!!! Still plenty here so friends passing by call in!

After a lunch with friends we headed off to buy bait catchers with our hard earned $9 and go fishing. I figured with 3 kids, fishing with no hooks would be a winner. The weather....not so much. It was too hard to convince the small fry of this, even when we saw some boys returning from their adventures because it was too windy! So a fishing we went. Was fairly short lived due to sideways rain but they had fun and we can do it again tomorrow. Fish 1: Biesieks 0.

Finding Fun in the Smallest of Things

Creating our own fun took on a whole new level of extremes for Jack today. He got lost at the library. New form of Orienteering, Man Vs Wild or Jack vs Library (that he visits each week and the wild life are all stuffed toys in the children's section  - even then they are really high up in fake trees). He coped really well, he managed to find a librarian, who called his name over the intercom but we didn't hear it because we were still searching the museum part of the excursion, it didn't occur to me that he had doubled back. Eventually he made his way back to us, all grins and hugs. What a star. I was so proud of him, he managed to stay calm and communicate with other adults who could help him.

We are such fans of our amazing Library and Museum, usually visiting on a Wednesday evening after dinner in PJ's (kids only - this isn't Hamilton). It is really mellow, not too many people, the kids harass the librarians in the children's section while Tim and I chill on the couches, I've even heard some needles clicking!

I found another tricky time of No TV today. Arriving home and getting things sorted. It was around lunch time and the kids had some really tragic coloured teddy bear popsicle plastic things, they were terribly excited about them and needed to melt them to be able to eat them. Usually, I would flush them out to the lounge while getting lunch sorted but without the TV, the lounge doesn't hold that much appeal unless someone is reading something. So melt they did. All by themselves, the water was pretty warm to start with but they were super sensible and managed to make a mess melt their popsicles and eat some before the two smaller people lost interest and Lily melted everyone's to liquid and I tipped them down the sink (when she wasn't looking). Another successful science experiment. TICK! It is funny how the small things make them so ridiculously happy. And to be honest if I had the convenience of a *greyboxdistraction*, I would have used it prior to this wee event. I'm glad I didn't. 

Lucky for me, Tim took the kids to the Rugby tonight. Lily is pretty up with the play, she knew this was the last shield challenge for the year and we hoped to keep it for another Summer. The late night meant that two children needed to sleep today, which they did! Meg and I had a really nice afternoon, chattering and reading. She did ask for the dreaded box but was easily distracted. A new favourite for her today was the Little Yellow Digger, Jack used to love this but I hadn't read it a lot to Meg, she likes specific factual things, things that happen for a reason. So she loved this book x 5.

I took this photo pre rugby game, they were so excited - 

Another great day - fingers crossed for great weather tomorrow, we are going fishing!

Early Morning Energy!!!!

I think the early morning without TV is the worst (for me!). Our guys have always been early birds, 6am is fair game here.  Without TV it makes it rather difficult to laze in bed a moment longer! By 8.30am yesterday the kids had been up for 2.5hrs. Jack had spotted this mattress stored for the hols in our room (that is another story that involves a tent set up in Jack's room for the two weeks of the holidays). The mattress was the perfect landing for a well designed obstacle course that took over the lounge for the morning. They had a lot of fun, making rules, adding claps that meant you needed to go faster or turn around and go backwards. Lots of laughter.

by Jack B

gnhujkylri. jgyu jack i love dad
bbbaking is fun.

My Amazing Art Work

by Lily B





In the holidays I made  this picture with Teesha.  We were  playing teachers.The picture is of ME.  Teesha is 7. I really like Teesha.  Teesha  is  my neighbour.

Hope you liked reading what we have been doing in the holidays.

First Day Fun!

I was wondering how the "No TV" thing was really going to go down, all three mentioned the TV at some stage over the day, but it wasn't really a big deal. If someone was at a loose end, I read them a book and they soon got sick of that suggestion :o) when the sun was shining!

A few pics from today:

Lily - made by Lily from gingerbread dough
Jack - written by me in disgust when he requested cheese and sauce on his pancakes
Meg - scribbled in flour with direction from Miss Meg herself

I love that Meg is still part chubby handed baby but trying so desperately (when well rested) to be a big kid. She was so annoyed today when Lily, Jack and the neighbours kids were laughing when she was being all cute. She wasn't so well rested at that stage!

They all had such fun doing the ginger bread dough, it seemed more purposeful than boring old playdough. They were really focused on mixing extra flour into the dough and making shapes. Meg remembered the My Little Pony cupcake cases in the cupboard so that added another 20mins of play on to the activity.

Can you spot my industrious wee helper behind the bubbles?