Wednesday, 31 August 2011

Pencil sharpeners on planes?

Does anybody know if you can take pencil sharpeners in your cabin luggage? Or are they considered a prohibited sharp item as they have a removable sharp blade?

Monday, 29 August 2011

Oops

While taking the rubbish out this evening, I managed to brush the bag against my leg...and there was a bit of glass in there. So... I now have a few stitches in my leg. The cut isn't too deep but was enough to require about eight stitches.


Saturday, 27 August 2011

Snow Holiday 2011

Last weekend I took a day off work to make a nice long weekend to go away and enjoy some fun at the snow. We just picked a fairly random weekend after the school holidays, and it happened to be a very good one: the week before was the biggest cold snap of the winter and one of the coldest in years... which means lots of snow! The forecast for Saturday was "cloud, clearing", so we decided
not to hurry down, rather having breakfast at home and getting down to Whakapapa for lunch before heading up the mountain for the afternoon. By the time we got to the village, there were thousands of people around, because of the sunshine and recent snow. The road up the mountain was closed because all the carparks were full, but we were let through to get to Scoria Flat - roughly halfway up the mountain. It's usually a spot where you can fit chains if required, but was being used as a carpark so they could get more people up the mountain. We had lunch there and then caught a shuttle bus up to the top. The weather was perfect, so we got a few toboggan runs in. The sliding area this year was much longer than last year,
and shaped reasonably nicely - it was also faster than last year. We tried to get Ben to go by himself on the toboggan, but the first run he did, he got smashed in the ribs by someone else on an out of control toboggan. So he didn't feel like sliding again by himself. The kids also made a snow man with a carrot nose that had been specially brought all the way from Hamilton!

Sunday morning was fine and cold (got down to -7.6C in the village where we were staying apparently!) so after some breakfast we headed up the mountain again. We were early enough to get a park this time, although we were down in carpark #10, so it was easier to catch the shuttle bus up from there than get the kids to walk up! There was a light breeze blowing, which made it rather icy. After a few toboggan runs
the kids were feeling rather tired - a combination of the cold and not-particularly-good night's sleep. Ben and I went for a little bit of a walk up the other side of Happy Valley to explore, and then it was time for some lunch. Everyone was exhausted, so we just went back down the mountain to have a rest in the cabin. After a rest, we went for a walk down to the stream behind the holiday park (where we had a snowball fight!) and a short walk around the village which we'd never done before.

Monday morning was time to pack up - we'd had a much better night's sleep, so we got packed up and back up the mountain for yet another day of perfect sunshine, this time without any wind. Being a weekday, there were far less people around, so we had some nice quiet runs on the toboggan (this time Ben did go by himself, although he still fell off each time!). Mel was feeling a bit weary after walking back up the hill a few times, so I took all three kids for a walk again. Ben said he would show Joanna how to climb the icy mountain, because he was a big boy! We all managed to fall over and slip a little bit on the way up, but got to a nice spot to look down on the ski slopes. And then Ben decided to keep exploring and then found that he could slide down some of the nice smooth icy stuff on his bottom. Joanna thought that was a grand idea, so she joined in.
And Naomi in the backpack on my back was bouncing up and down, wanting to join in. After that we just had lots of fun climbing ever higher, finding nice spots to slide down on our bottoms! We had a couple of final toboggan runs before heading home (and Ben slid the whole way down by himself, without falling off!).
After lunch, it was time for the drive back home, along with a stop at Over the Moon Dairy in Putaruru to get some yummy cheese... and some rest to recover!
The flickr set has lots more photos, and the videos on there are also pretty funny!

BP#3 Construction Birthday Party

We did this one for Ben's 2nd birthday. The original plan was to have the party at our local park, but it was raining on the day so we had to have it at home instead.

Invitation: Was a photo print of a dumper truck with text on it.

Decorations: We didn't have any as we had planned to have it at the park.

Food: We timed the party for the food to be a brunch meal. The food was pancakes, croissants with ham, cheese, maple syrup and jam for the guest to put on as they liked. We also had some cut up fresh fruit.

Drink: There was milk and juice for the kids and tea and coffee for the adults.

Cake: Was a toy dumper truck filled with edible dirt. This was made with cubes of chocolate cake, scoops of chocolate self saucing pudding and chocolate biscuit crumbs. This is the easiest cake that I have made. Just throw it all in the back and it looked great!

Activity: We had planned to take some diggers and dumper trucks for the kids to play with in the bark chips at the park.

Thankyou gift: Was a small construction vehicle (digger, bulldozer, roller) that the kids could use in their sandpit at home.

BP#2 Am I a Kiwi or Am I an Aussie? At least I know I'm turning One!

This was Naomi's first birthday. Fairly specific, but there are a number of families who would have a similar situation, with parents born in a different country to the kids or kids living in different countries to which they were born in etc.

Invitation: Was a photo print of Naomi, with NZ and Oz flags on it and the text.

Decorations: Thanks to when my parents had visited just after Naomi was born, we had a packet of Australian flag balloons, we then got some black with silver fern balloons from the $2 shop here for the contrasting NZ theme. We hung them on the curtain rails and light fittings inside and around the edge of the market umbrella on the deck (The black NZ progressively popped over the morning as they got too hot in the sun!).

Food: For food we served food which BOTH Aussies and Kiwis claim to be theirs: lamingtons (the first time I've ever made them - apart from some fuzzy memory of making some in class at primary school), meat pies (the mini party variety), BBQ sausages on bread and pavlova.

Drink: We served 'Lift' (the aussie lemon soft drink) and 'L & P' (the kiwi version of the lemon drink).

Cake: It was two simple rectangle chocolate slab cakes, one was iced as an Australian flag and one iced as a New Zealand.

Activities: We had a gumboot (for the Kiwis) and thong (for the Aussies) throwing competition. It wasn't a distance competition, it was the person who got it closest to the target.

BP#1 High Tea in the Park

This is what we did for Ben's first birthday. We held it at Roma St parklands (on the grass between the lake and the ringroad - for Brisbane people), and had people bring their own picnic rugs/chairs to sit on. As with most first birthday parties, it was a mainly adult gathering, with a group of one year olds, as well as a group of toddlers.

Details of the party plan are a bit sketchy as it was a while ago now and I didn't record my plan like I do now. But this is what I do have:


Invitations: We think it was a photo print with text on it. It asked guests to bring a plate of food to contribute to the 'High Tea'.

Decorations: We strung a few balloons in the trees we were sitting under, mainly to help people locate exactly where we were in the park.

Food: As I said we asked the guests to bring a plate of food, so I didn't actually make anything. I did get my mum to make some smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches.

Drink: There was hot water in a thermos for the adults to make tea (a selection of fancy flavours), as well as juice for those wanting a cold drink.

Cake: It was a Noah's ark cake. I got the directions from here. Instead of baking the cake myself, I ordered slab cakes from Woolworths and cut to the appropriate shape (I used 2 layers of cake for the ark). It was a pretty ambitious cake to make, the royal icing animals were a fair bit of work - lots of different colours and detail.

Activity: For the older kids we had crayons for them to draw/decorate their party bags and then filled them with a small ball and a small box of dried fruit.

Party thank-you: As I said, each child got a small ball and box of dried fruit.

Finally starting the series

After promising a few weeks ago to do a series of post on my party plans that I've done for the kids birthday parties, I post the first few today. The earlier parties don't have as much detail or pictures as the later parties, but I hope people still find it helpful/inspiring.

Friday, 26 August 2011

Tax returns done!

The usual fiddling around because we have stuff here and there, but only took a couple of days. Just in time for me to pay more tax and wait another year to get it back.

Fashion marathon

Got both the girls to try on all their clothes for this coming summer...worked out what fitted, so now I can choose what stuff to pack for our holiday!

Thursday, 25 August 2011

Can finally do my tax!

Got the last piece of paperwork I needed in the mail yesterday. Now I can do my tax and Peter's tax and then look forward to the nice chunk of enforced savings to show up in my bank account!

Wednesday, 24 August 2011

All chooks on the lay!

We have collected 5 eggs the past 2 days, which means all 5 chooks are laying! (we had been at 4 eggs/day for a month or so) This means eggs are well and truly on the menu at our house. I made a savoury bread and butter pudding last night with the leftover pizza bread that I'd made for our snow holiday lunches...I used 12 eggs in it! And we still have 10 eggs in the fridge today.

Busy busy busy...

I haven't posted for ages...been busy with Joanna's birthday party, then getting ready for our snow holiday (post to come) and Joanna's actual birthday. Now trying to recover and tidy up from birthday stuff and snow holiday before I have to start packing next week for our trip to Brisbane.

Monday, 15 August 2011

I just saw snow falling outside our house!

It was only a few flakes which melted before they touched the ground, but it was still snow!

(Hamilton is not suppose to get snow - ever!)

Friday, 12 August 2011

Day has gone well

Everything has taken as long as I expected it to take. I would have liked it to be quicker than I expected.

Only stress was when I couldn't find the figurine that is the centre piece on top of the cake. But I found it after 20min of looking.

Busy day

Got to prep about 1/2 the food for the party, plus other stuff.

Thursday, 11 August 2011

Finally

Planted my garlic yesterday. I've planted 16 - 20 cloves and we are going to try and get them to grow a bit bigger than last year. The plan of attack is to fertilise regularly (with our worm wee) and water regularly too.

Monday, 8 August 2011

Birthday party plans

While in the middle of my party planning season, I've decided to publish the party plans for all the kids parties I've done. When researching my party themes I get lots of ideas/inspiration from the internet and this year I noticed that a number of my ideas have come from blog posts where people have blogged about their party plans. So I thought that me blogging/publishing my plans, might help others out there. Now I know the level I go to with my parties is more creative and involved than a lot of people (I've blogged previously about why), but the way I'm going to organise the plans, you will be able to just take bits and pieces that you want to use. Where I can, I'll include the links/references for where I got the ideas from. I'm also going to include which age birthday I did each themed party for, but a lot of the ideas (decorations, food...) could be used many different ages.

Have you ever been shown up by you kids?

Yesterday's kids church lesson was about 'The 10 lepers'...for craft they made a cool paper bag mask with sticker dots all over it for the 'leprosy'. Ben decided yesterday that he was going to take it to school today for 'show and tell', as well as using it for as the inspiration for his story writing for today. He made the comment this morning that he was thinking about what he was going to write, so I took the opportunity to ask him what he was planning to write, here is what he said...

"Yesterday at kids church we had the story of the 10 lepers. Jesus made them well again. One came back and said "thankyou"."

I admire his clear, simple explanation and willingness to share his spiritual learning with both his teacher and his classmates. I'm thankful to God that he has the courage and belief in the truth of what the Bible says. Also his natural, easy way of talking about Jesus with those he sees each day, is a small reprimand to me...why don't I talk more about the things I teach at kids church, am learning in the Bible, my christian life/faith in general with the people I see each day/week. It doesn't need to be complicated, long, deeply theological, just simple and truthful.

I am looking forward to hearing how he went this afternoon/evening.

Can I do it?

I need to make a big batch of playdough for Joanna's party (it's on this Saturday)...but I don't think my arms can survive all that stirring after this morning's workout. I might have to leave that job for tomorrow.

Dead arms

Had a different Pump class instructor this morning - the usual one is on holidays. And my arms are dead. I have always thought the usual instructor was a bit wimpy with her workouts and this has confirmed it. I feel like I'm not getting my money's worth normally now. I'm thinking about emailing the gym. It isn't like I have a choice of instructors, Monday morning is the only pump class on the days I go (and the only other option is Thursday morning, when I have Bible study).

Earring curse

In the last 24hrs I have lost 2 earrings (and not from the same pair).

The first I lost while walking home from the supermarket yesterday - put my hand up to check it wasn't falling out and the sleeve of my jacket caught on it, pulling it out, I looked for it but couldn't find it (it was dark).

The second one fell down the drain hole of the basin at the gym this morning, when I was getting them out of the bag to put on (I put them in a snaplock bag so they don't get lost in my gym bag).

Very annoyed.

Wednesday, 3 August 2011

What I'm reading

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a book from my Playgroup's resource library - Mothers raising sons, written by Nigel Latta. Nigel Latta is the kiwi equivelant of Steve Biddulph. I've just finished reading it.

In the first half of the book he basically argues that a lot of common generalisations about boys that are supported by 'research' are either totally blown out of proportion or completely untrue (a couple of those generalisations about the differences between boys and girls are actually based on a study done on some beetles!). So he wades through a lot of the common things we here about boys and takes you through the research and what is fact and what is hype.

The second half of the book has more practical stuff about strategies for dealing with boys at different ages, school, etc.

What I really like about the book was the facts he gave about boys that just reminded me a lot of the stuff Ben does/how he behaves is normal 'boy' stuff. And that it is ok that it sometimes might feel annoying for me. It is also helpful to have this information to be able to make decisions on which battles are worth fighting and which are just differences of opinion. It also gave some general guidelines about navigating boys at different ages - not a tick box style 'do this, do that' but more general goals that look at the bigger picture of raising boys, so you don't get stuck in the nitty gritty details.

I'm looking at buying a copy of this book for myself now - I think it would be helpful to refer to, to remind me that my boy is a 'boy' and the commonalities we have are greater than the differences.

Tuesday, 2 August 2011

Kitchen improvements - stage 1

Completed!

The gas fitter came this morning to do the certification on the stove installation (which obviously required the installation of the range hood and splashback).

The next stage on the kitchen will probably be revamping the cabinets - adding shelves; replacing the catches; and painting the doors.

Just remembered that electrician still needs to come back tomorrow to finish putting the faceplate on our new oven switch - the part hadn't arrived the other day when he moved the switch)

Monday, 1 August 2011

Splashback up!

Our oven switch is moved...our splashback is up on the wall...the gas fitter is coming tomorrow morning to certify the oven installation.