Halloween

We're always a bit half-hearted about Halloween, but L&P still managed to stalk some friends, hiding out with a stash of caps to explode, should anyone be brave enough to enter. . . 

 And they were. They were also completely horridible! 

(I only masked one because I don't know him, so I'm trying to protect his privacy.)

 Scarily ghoulish:

 Awww, and rather cute too.

Summer Might Just Be Here

or if not, spring is pretty good. There was much water (Swimming, and then we pulled out the hose and paddling pool, which still amuses them. Heh, only children in the world who need wetsuits for a paddling pool. No no, I'm laughing with us, not at us.) and then a  little sightseeing for overseas visitor, which makes you realize this place ain't so bad. 

The Chaps Get To Work

Cracked the whip and got Geeky Husband and Bunce working to fix the side fence, which a neighbourhood car must have driven into last week, since it was suddenly actually leaning on the house. There was a leetle bit of a discussion about how much wood we needed for the job, but in the end it all came together.

 There was even some left over to fix the front gate, so L8 got a lesson on how to use a seriously sharp chisel.

 He was soon put to work.

There was also enough left for  a pair of stilts, which were rather tricky to manoeuvre. . .

 until we decided to add wooden feet on the ends.

 Hmmmm, also enough for a rather elongated garden sculpture it seems. . .

You can trust the chaps not to underestimate a job ;)

Fancy Writing

P5's writing was published in the school newsletter this week. This is what she wrote:

My grandmother is very kind to me. I love my grandmother. She looks after me when L8 is doing karate. We play games and sometimes we make things like kites and sometimes I say "I'm having fun". My grandmother is the best thing in the world.

Awwww. Thank you Grandma J for making a wee girl so happy.

While I blogged that she also did a thank you note for a friend who handed down some clothes to us today. For that she used her special fancy writing. It's very picturesque.

Dead Stuff

There's an odour of deadness in my house somewhere. I did put rat poison under the house last week, so we're pretty sure it's dead rat. And it pongs. 

Today we thought it might be coming from the cupboard under the stairs. Pheeeeewy it does whiff in there. So after the kids were in bed we began to pull out all the junk, looking for a nasty surprise. Suddenly there was a clatter as P5 threw this out her room. . . 

 Ha! Funny girl. Geeky Husband even ripped off a wall board inside the cupboard of doom, but no luck. I'm not sure what to do now apart from wait?

On a less repulsive note, lookie what I found in a library book today? I neeeeeeeeeeed to knit these.

Which will mean I need to learn how to do colourwork. Which may just mean you all end up with scary Christmas jumpers, much like this.

*Disclaimer * I stole this picture off the internet, so if you accidentally ended up here, this is not my family. Just so it's clear.

Not Having a Blog Post

I sat down after L&P were in bed reading and realized I hadn't touched the camera all day and had nothing to share. Handily enough, when I went to kiss P5 and turn her light out, she'd spent her reading time writing a book. So here she is, reading it to you:



I love her punctuation, especially since the whole thing was done completely independently.

Once In A Lifetime

Don't know what's become of me! Rugby is hardly my kind of thing, but thought L&P would like to remember the parade hype and throw some streamers, so we decided to bus on into town

along with about 200 000 other people. 

P5 looks wacked because we went swimming this morning too, so she wasn't keen on the standing and waiting part. I wasn't keen on the lugging heavy child part, but we all liked the yelling and throwing streamers part. Whoop! We did it!

Go ABs!

I didn't actually plan this pic, but took it of the lego as we were playing with it just because it looked interesting. It wasn't till this evening I realized how fitting it is for today. Fingers crossed. . .

Self-Discipline.

L8 has two alarms. At 8.05am he practices a kata.

And at 6.55pm (okay it took me three minutes to get the camera sorted)

 he does five press ups.

It's pretty cute.

One Small Step For Humanity

but one huge leap for L8. Here's the boy who wouldn't actually get his body in the water without clinging (and possibly yelping) before this week's holiday swimming programme. . . 

Even noodle-less:

 This one has done amazingly well too, for a girl who almost freaked out when she had to hop in to the wet without me on Monday.

Amphibious we are not, but I'm still pretty impressed with my water babies.

Our Productive Morning

It's just after 9am and L8 and I have spent the last couple of hours finishing off his movie after he brutally cut it yesterday. Editorial perfectionism is pretty tough when you are eight.

It Might Be Spring

but it's holidays, so it's rainy.

Luckily these chaps create sunshine inside my house.

Movies

I looked into iStopMotion a while back and really really wanted to give it a go, but the demo version was bung and we couldn't get a camera to work with it. So today P5 and I had a go with iMovie to make a stop motion animation picture. You might guess that she had total creative control from the subject matter. We were the learning curve before L8 had a go, so be kind to us :)

I can't show you his because it's already 47 seconds long (OMG do you know how many photos that took?) but only has a soundtrack on half of it at the mo. He's going to finish it tomorrow. How much lego can you take?
And while I'm faffing with my blog, I'm just checking here if I can write big and small and colourful again or not. . . ooo yay!

Bought A New Map

before realizing we had absolutely no wall space left. It was narrowly spared the indignity of being hung in the toilet and after a wee bit of a shuffle around it now hangs proudly in the lounge.

Yeah, I know New Zealand is too high.

Happiness is

splattering paint

squirreling yarn

spiderman-ing with your mates

Tiny Gems

I have a writer in the house. I haven't had one before, so it's thrilling for me. P5 told me a few weeks ago that reading and writing make her happy, which in turn, made me happy. I have a reader in L8 too, but he's not a happy writer. What a difference, when a child actually enjoys writing. All the time. These little gems are littered around my house every day - zero input from the big ones in the house. . .



In case they come out tiny, there's a 'moon chart' (not sure where that came from), a note explaining she's going exploring the world, an invitation to a party, and a club book (clab book) - one of many she has made for friends when they join her and her brother's scooter club. There's grids inside for some kind of stamp for each visit, kinda like a club (sorry clab) passport.

This one she wrote while we drove for a few minutes today, since she can't possibly get in the car without the obligatory paper and pen.



These scrappy bits of paper are so precious to me.

Geeky Husband is out at poker with the car, in which is the camera and the memory card full of pictures from today.

Thank goodness for the family album, also full of memories. Look at my lovely mum.

I remember polishing that mirror and thinking it was the most beautiful thing we owned.

Two Cute Things

I made a cutsie newborn hat for a distant rellie. Unfortunately it's reallllllly weenie, and I'm not sure it's gonna fit even a really new baby. P5 has worked out it just fits Big Lambie. You know it's a lost cause now eh?

P5 also did this cute drawing today. It's a car with an All Black flag on it. I especially like the perspective on the wheels.

Making

P5's made herself a computer.

Only the best for this girl - check out her eye for the details:

Even if I can't manage to get a picture of her with her eyes actually open.

Robots

Went to see the school robotics champs. Saw some good robots.

And robot competitions.

L8 got to try out the Martin jetpack for size.

As did P5. Okay she might need to grow a wee bit more first.

There was definitely some awe.

L8 is quite determined to build robots once he gets to high school now. I asked P5 if she wanted to build a robot to tidy her room, and her typical P5 response?

-Yes. And one to wipe my bottom. And to eat my dinner.

All those pesky chores then :)