Big boy

Ben has graduated to riding a 2-wheel bike (no training wheels!). We took the training wheels off about 6 months ago, but have probably only practiced 5 times until last week, when he was riding well enough that I'm confident that he can ride his bike to and from school now (1.2km). He can start off, ride and brake safely all by himself. We've already done a couple of trips up to the shops (they are just across the road from school) which have gone without incident.

Christmas

Our Christmas was long, tiring, but good. It started with Naomi having a sleep-in, so we had a nice relax before having breakfast and opening presents. The kids surprised us by not bugging us about when they were getting to open presents. Later in the day with had the obligatory long, late Christmas lunch with friends. The kids have had fun playing together and Peter has enjoyed helping build another tree house. We will post some photos later when we've downloaded them.

The country comes to town

In late October, we went the the annual A&P show. Apart from seeing the usual horse judging, sheep dog competitions etc...This year there was a professional 'Lumberjack' show, where 2 guys climbed up really tall poles of wood and did some cool stuff with chainsaws. We also watched some 'sheep racing'. And the kids enjoyed getting up close with the baby animals again (well Naomi was a bit frightened by them, as they are still pretty BIG compared to the size of her).

School Gala

In November, Ben's school's PTA ran their first school gala (Kiwi for fete) in 10 years. Each class was resposible for running a stall and there was the usual performances by the school's performing arts groups and local dance schools etc. Ben's class was in charge of the Drinks stall, selling softdrink and juice. Other stalls included a number of 'side show' style games, food stalls and stuff to buy.





Ben's favourite was the 'Cherry-picker ride'.I thought the 'Splat The Rat' game was the best game invented for the day.

Trip to Auckland

While my parents were visiting us we went up to Auckland for a couple of days to show them the sights. The first day included visiting the Museum (to see some of the NZ culture/history stuff and experience the cool volcano/tsunami simulation room) and the Art Gallery (which has a cool interactive kids area). The next day we took a ferry trip to Devonport and walked around North Head (this was the kids 3rd visit, but we discovered some stuff that we'd never seen before) and then a trip up the Skytower when we got back into the city. The final day we visited MOTAT (The museum of Transport and Technology), which is kind of a combination of the Ipswich Railway museum (although covers more transport than just trains) and the Science Centre in Brisbane.

Ben's birthday party

Nearly a month ago, Ben had his 6th birthday party. The party was an adventure theme. Activities included: making parachute army men, a treasure hunt and an obstacle course. The food included: swap sludge, chocolate sinking sand, treasure bags, mossy boulders and monkey cupcakes. And the birthday cake was a Volcano. The boys had great fun and didn't want to leave.

Test kitchen

Next year, we are planning a trip to the South Island where we will be camping for 3 weeks without any electricity and nowhere near any supermarket (except for 4 times where we are moving from one campground to the next). So I've been scanning my recipe books for things to cook that don't contain perishable ingredients and modifying others. So each week for the next few weeks I plan to make a couple of these recipes each week to check for flavour, quantity, able to be cooked in only 1 smallish pot and a frying pan and...whether the family will eat it!

Things I have already discovered...

• you can make white sauce with oil instead of butter or margarine for the fat
• a box of 'no egg' (egg replacement, made for those allergic to eggs) should be all i need for recipes that contain egg eg. fritters.
  

Long term tenant of the 'To Do' list evicted

Today...I cleaned out/organised 2/3 of our large linen cupboard. About a year ago I had managed to organise 2 of the 5 shelves, and had never got around to dealing with the other 3, plus the floor space. With it being wet and windy outside today and in a mood to clean and organise my stuff (as 3 kids at home on holidays makes enough mess for all of us)...I tackled the task. This involved unpacking a bag and 1/2 a box of stuff that hadn't been unpacked since we moved in 1.5 years ago! So now all the shelves and the floor space are looking respectable, although I'd still like to get some baskets/boxes to put some thing in to make them easier to store and access (to make effecient use of the space). Unfortunately that will cost money, so it may be a while before that happens.

Christmas is coming... and has been

 We had Christmas with Granny and Grandpa B while they were here (yes, we'll blog about that one day!), which meant that we had to have a Christmas tree.  This was the most suitable thing growing in our garden, so it got hacked down and plonked in a pot:

 Today, it was time to get the "real" Christmas tree, from the Christmas tree farm.  We were only just in time - there were only half a dozen trees left to choose from.  Here it is, ready for two weeks time:

End of a very busy week

This week has been one of the busiest weeks...apart from all the normal weekly activities, there has been a number of extra Christmas things, as well as extra appointments. Christmas activities have included:

• playgroup Christmas party, and
  
• Kindy family Christmas Dinner.
  

Extra appointments have included:

• dentist appointments for Joanna and Naomi
• Ben's class sharing afternoon (where they share what they've been learning during the term)
• Drs appointment for me
• watching Ben's class performing a kapa haka at Junior school assembly

I'm looking forward to holidays!

Plugged In

As the kids get older the more we are having to interact with kid pop culture. Today I'm particularly thinking about movies. It can be hard to tell from a preview or synopsis if a certain movie is suitable for kids (the 'animation' filter doesn't work these days - 'The Incredibles' being a case in point) or if they content (language/actions/themes) that don't align with a Christian world view. So I have been using the Focus on the Family's 'Plugged In' website to do my research - somebody else has taken the time to watch the movie and compile a report noting all positive elements, spiritual content, violent content, crude or profane language, drug and alcohol content, other negative elements and a general conclusion.

I have found this useful to make a decision about the kids viewing in a number of situations including - DVDs we pick up in the kids sections at the library, movies that are on TV and 'movie nights' the school P&C has run.

A new favourite

Naomi came up with the idea of play hair dressers yesterday...It's the first time my kids have really played it. She dragged out all Joanna's hair stuff from the bathroom and proceeded to put as many clips and headbands in Joanna's hair as she could fit. Then today she has dragged out the hair stuff twice to play the same game. I can see it being a regular activity for the girls from now on.

In the news...

For those you who wonder what Peter's company does, here's a news article that gives you a bit of an idea (written because the founder of the company won an award).

Naomi's party

Naomi had a handful of friends over for a party... she had lots of fun eating cake:

And playing cricket:

Rewind: Naomi's birthday

We've fallen a bit behind in blogging stuff recently... we'll try and catch up over the next week or so!  Anyway, first up, Naomi's birthday, just over a month ago now.  I'll post some stuff about her party, but for now, here's her cake (it's an animated GIF, so click on the picture, and it should cycle through the stages of the cake being made...)