Magic Ball

We decided to give magic ball tricks a go.

Holidays

Shifting the sandpit

Mum decided the sandpit was to close to the drains (guess what the plumber found when the drain blocked.) So mission move the sandpit.

Dad, Annie and the boys dug a new hole (and found bricks) so they dug it over a bit (and found pipes) so they dug it over a bit (in the rock hard dry clay, rocks and tree roots) and got the hole dug.

Next it was time to dig the sand out of the old sandpit into bags, fages and boxes.

Ready to move, come on dad heave, (it's a bit heavy guys.)

With moral support from mum, dad got the sandpit frame up and boy was it heavy. Mum suggested rollers and dad got one end up and they explored ancient moving techniques (we stayed inside incase dad dropped it on us, mum reckoned he nearly got the car, no where near dad says.)

In the new spot we all helped to wheel barrow the sand to the new location and spread it out.

Now our new new sandpit looks great and it's not near the drains (no more washing sandy kids in the bath mum.) Meanwhile Ben found the pegs and made a new belt. Ben's into belts and baldrics at the moment.

digging potatoes with dad

We all had a go a digging our potatoes and collecting our salad seeds, go Alex. We filled our box.

It was fun finding potoatoes, good one Alex.

I think the camera got a bit grubby.

Here's my potato.
Come on Annie.
Your turn again Alex.
You dig Annie, I'll get the potatoes.

Time to dig our Potatoes, we got out and took turns at digging and had great fun filling our box, now we're enjoying eating them. We also collected seeds from our salad greens some for replanting, some for spring.

Bubbles

Annabelle and Bridget made a bubble movie. Video is still playing up.

Great Chilli Cook off

Mum, Dad, Alex and I headed down to the great chilli cook off, (the girl's were at Aunitie Pam's.)
We tried 20 different chillis, only Dad and I though, (Dad got gout the next day so he probably shouldn't have.) My favourite was the motor bike club's chilli. Dad said it made his mouth really warm, his favourite was playgroups. Judy's chilli was pumpkin flavoured!
Hmmm.
Not bad Judy, you can have a donation.
We saw Mary tell her three little pigs story, with the Bruns our neighbours.
Then we finally got a look inside THE BIG RED BUS! I've been waiting to do this for a long time.
I was rapt.
But it couldn't take us for a ride, so we got on the other big red bus.
We rode up to Pukeora, but didn't have enough money for the ride back. Fortunately the bus driver let us back on and we got some more money to pay him back (and a fresh made, real fruit ice cream) in town.

I left my yellow balloon on the bus.
Back in town we got a ride on the fire engine, even better than the bus. Grandad says we should go to Auckland and see the transport museum.
Gaining literacy in the stories and symbols of our local town culture.

Alex's Birthday

Gran and Gran, Aunty Nell, Cody and Mikayla came down for Alex's birthday, we all headed down to the park for a walk.
Mum's voice" Auntie Janelle, Cody, Gran, Grandad, Mum, Bridget, Annabelle and Benjamin walked down to A’dene park. Alexander and Mikaela started to but then they hopped into the push chair for a ride. Alexander, Mikaela and Benjamin enjoyed the swing the best. The kids enjoyed the adventure playground and having a see-saw with each other. They discovered a Benjamin and Mikaela weight the same as a Bridget. They giggled and laughed and had a great time and didn’t want to go home for lunch.

After afternoon naps for the littlies they enjoyed playing together. They were very noisy and had a great time.

Bridget and Annabelle enjoyed playing dollies with Mikaela.

Later we put on a Mainly Music CD and the kids had a great time dancing together. The danced for a long time and they giggled and laughed. "

Cross country

Mum and Gran to us to the school cross country.
Mum's voice
"Today is the cross country run for school so the girls missed out on their swimming lesson and Benjamin didn’t go to Kindergarten. Mum, Gran, Benjamin and Alexander followed the 3 buses up to the farm. Benjamin said that the last bus to leave was the number 1 bus and the first bus to leave was the number 3 bus. The bus to leave had Bridget in it. I think she saw us following behind.

Once we arrived Benjamin ran off to be with his sisters. Alexander walked beside Mum and Gran.

A bit later the girls went off to walk the track they would run. Benjamin wanted to go too. Mum said he had to stay with us. We waved to the girls at the fence.

While we waited for the races to start Benjamin helped Annabelle eat her lunch. Then Annabelle had her race. We checked her on at the fence and watched her go around. She did some running and walking and chatting with her friends. She finished 7^th.

Bridget ran her race and she was puffed pretty soon. She had just gotten over her cold and had done no practices at home this year so ended up finishing last. She looked a little disappointed at the finishing line.

Afterwards we had a picnic lunch together and Benjamin gave Annabelle some of his lunch. "

Wearable Trash

Bridget and Annabelle got dressed up for the schools wearable trash awards so I got dressed up too.



Exploration fashion literacy. My sisters love things to do with fashion on the internet and T.v.

Reading numerals

We all helped dad tidy up the lounge this morning, and then we got to play trains. I showed dad that James had a number 5 on his tender and pointed out the black coal and dad told me about how the trains used the coal to make steam. Later I found Henry and showed dad the number 3.
Dad asked me about Peter Sam and Toby and I correctly spotted the number on their sides was a 4 and a 7 respectively. Dad thinks me recognising numerals, up to at least 7, before I'm even four is pretty brilliant.
I've been really interested in numbers and counting the last few months, and I regularly count things and spot numbers and letters. I've been spotting the letter B around town since Christmas. When I start counting things dad often joins in and we count together. Today I told dad I was three and would be four at my next birthday, and five after I'm four. So we counted everyone's birthdays in Maori and English.

"Playing with my trains. (finding trains in the box) Number 7, number 3 and number 4 too."

Alex's birthday

Alex turned two, so we had a little party at home, and will have his friends over on another day.
Ben "Alex's birthday party. We sing a song, happy birthday to you."
Annie "and we also sung it in Maori."

New Drum kit

Mum saw a drum kit for $25 in pak-n-save a few weeks back and decided to put some money aside for it.
Dad helped me clean up the lounge, my room and the sun room and then helped me set it up.
But it didn't last day. Dad had been watching to make sure I didn't hit them too hard, but they still broke. He looked at it and found it had a design fault with the skins held in place by six screws, rather than tensioned evenly around the drum. He tried replacing the plastic skin with a tough hide skin, but again it ripped where the screws held it in place. Mum and dad are now looking at other options. A $125 plastic and metal kit, a $600 kit, or Getting 3 tough drums for $200, +$40 + $40 from MTA and adding feet and attachments to them to turn them into a kit.
Sounds like we've got some saving to do. Meanwhile dad will see what he can do to repair the drums again. Ben ended up taking his drum sticks to bed with him. He took to the foot pedal liek a duck to water.
"I'm playing my drums, I bang, bang banged them and they broke. The little one broke, and I bang, bang, bang a bang, bang. I banged that one with my drum sticks."

Bunny Show

With the girls away on their secret bus trip with Nana to see cirque du soliel, we took the boys to the bunny show.

Ben' s voice "We look at them. I pat them. They were in a cage, we were looking at them in."

After that we went to look at the meat in the supermarket and get some groceries, as we'd been talking about how you can eat rabbits and Ben hadn't believed me. We looked at which meat came from which animal, but no rabbit meat was there. Later Ben took me back, telling me which meat came from which animal.

New bed

The boys new bed arrived!
Before it got here mum managed to find some cheap carpet offcuts to go over the floor boards, and the whole room is much warmer now.
Both boys love their new bed, now we're just waiting on the electrician to reposition the light, and add an extra one. (The boys have already killed one bulb in the mean while, so we may need to pull their fuse.)

Ben' s Voice "Me and Alex climb up. (I like) climbing up the ladder. I like sleeping in it. Alex's is a cold bed. I like mine, my bed is warm. I don't like bouncing on it, it's made of wood. I like getting out of it, I climb down the ladder. I like getting into mum and dad's bed, mum and dad's bed is warm, I've got two warm! Dad is warm. Alex likes my bed, I like doing this on it (bent arms up and down alternativly, thumbs out )du du du duuuuu! Mum told me it's made of wood. dum dum dum, we will, we will rock you! on it and I like playing my guitar, dingy dingy ding on it. Wiggle wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle wig, I like doing that. I like doing, monster, monster moooonster."

Ben loves to drum

Now I've figured how to reduce video for upload in moviemaker, here's a video of Ben with one of the drum kits he makes himself, playing along with Queen.

Not his favourite song (we will rock you) but it's one of the ones he likes, watch how he gets both hands and a foot going, and adapts his kit.

Not to mention the great rhythm he keeps up.

I'm also working to capture the dingy dingy song he sings.

I wonder take him shopping to get him a drum kit or just let him keep making his own?

Telling Daddy Stories

This morning while mum had a sneaky sleep in in the boys room, the kids came and jumped on me. Ben wanted a Disney Winnie the Poo book, so I got him to tell me the story. Asking Him about the story reminded me of Christopher Robin's questions in the originals. So the book finished I got them to tell me a story with lots of "And what happened next? Did Ben go to? I bet he was bouncy, was it a bouncy dragon?" I got a story about Annabelle fairy, Bennie Dragon and Bridget Fairy (Alex was quietly pulling apart the paper towel roll and tin foil roll in the kitchen it turned out, he's into ripping things at the moment.) Ben bounced around and flapped his wings, then one wing got hurt, then another, then he died with Ben doing a magnificent death scene. He apparently fell on Belle fairies crystal city and they put cream on his wings to fix them. Then he helped Belle to go to the crystal cave to fix the crystal city up with more crystals which he attached with hammer.
The story had just finished when Alex arrived, needing a new nappy. Though the group broke up, Ben made himself some wings from a picture frame and flew around the house.
Later Granddad arrived in bus and even took Ben for a ride as he turned it around.
"Dragon bounce bounce I did have powers."
"My wings flapped and I fell off, my wings did, my wings were stuck. I flew up to the sky, 'I can fly, I can fly' I sing that song 'daggy daggy daggy dwagon' 'doggy dooggy doggy dwagon''doggy doggy doggy dog' 'dogg, dogg, dogg dwagons wings.' Belle and Bridget they fixed my wings up. With my wing it turned into a hammer and I bang bang BANG, just like that and a nail, my other wing turned into a nail and I fixed it and ow my wing hurts, now my wing hurts. 'bang bang bang beeeeeee eeee. bang bang bang, beee eee e e e , oo my wing hurts ooooo' "gruff voice" He got a hammer and a nail and I was hammering to hard. 'I'm hungry'" gruff voice "and the dragon said 'he's hungry I'm HUngry."

making a pie

I'd been listening to a history of pie making on the radio, talking about how meat used to be baked in the bread due to a lack of pans, to save the juices, went Ben said he wanted to make a pie. So I thought why not. We rolled out the dough and placed on it a chicken and some vegetables.
"Getting a pie, hey that's a fish he's eating our pie."
We wrapped it up and washed our hands again.
"We're folding it up."

Some Pumpkin seeds added decoration
"Pumpkin seeds on the top."
Cooked we checked the internal temperature, to make sure the chicken had cooked through.
"We burnt them."

"Cutting the pie."

"We going to eat it, we're going to eat the fish, no chicken is fish. Fish is burnt."
There was tea for two nights and the carcasses made me a rather nice soup the next day for lunch. We also made a pork pie with a piece of steak, some feta and herbs.
"Making some more."

"we wrap it up."

Trip to Scooby Doo

Mum took us to Gran and Gran's Then Annabelle and I got to go to see Scooby Doo on stage. (Bridget and Alex didn't want to go.)