Happy Halloween

Creativity stolen from pinterest again. 

I'd show you the original but mine would just look shoddy by comparison.

Heh Heh Heh

Round about the caldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.—
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot!
 Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

Eeek!

I'm busy painting the house, and L9 is busy freaking it up. He's in the Halloween spirit already, and apparently it couldn't wait. Subtle, but surprisingly effective. . .

Youth

L9 has read us out of house and home again, so last night I gave him Outliers to read. I put his light out as he was reading the 10 000 hours chapter, so I asked him what he might spend his 10 000 hours perfecting. 

"So, 10 000 hours of lego?"  

"Nah, then I'd just be really good at lego. What about farting the alphabet backwards?" 

Hmm. Worthy cause if you are nine. 

He helped me paint today (it's scary giving up control of the painting utensils to your offspring!). Although we are only about 1/3 of the way there, it's looking so much better than the yellowy beige. It's not an in-your-face colour, but it is cleeeeeeeean looking. FWIW given all our screens show a different colour:

P6 plans for Halloween

Boys Away On Camp

They have the camera.

We have nail polish, a DVD and chocolate.

Strawberry Fool

P6 made us roast chicken for dinner and strawberry fool for pud. Mmmm.

I'm still agonizing over paint colours. I decided I hated yesterday's attempt, but still wanted to go for turquoise. This morning I was convinced that half kumutoto

was the answer to my pale turquoise, duck egg dreams. But when I took the plunge and painted it up on a couple of walls. . . . it's freaking blue again. I'm thinking the surrounding beige is playing tricks on me, so I'm almost settled on finishing it in that colour just to see. I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm never this indecisive. Blah. Maybe I should have stuck with my first hunch, which was screaming pink.

Wah

I'm struggling with my painting. Colour confusion. It's not green enough. Everything greener is darker. I don't want dark. I'd show you a pic, but on the computer it's nothing like real life. Pale turquoise should not be so hard. 

Anyway. These guys like it. They always like the things I'm not sure about, and hate the things I love.

More DIY

It's been a weekend for it. First I stayed up on Saturday night, all by myself, madly rearranging my squishy lounge. I ended up taking out a whole bookshelf and moving it out of the lounge 'nook' to create more space. Then I had light issues and spoilt myself with a brand new dome light. It's so cute. And light. An old lady, such as myself, can even knit by it.  I do want to stand under it as it reminds me of one of those crazy hairdresser-head-things.

Today I used the old lounge curtains to make bedroom curtains. After waiting years to put a window in for more light (that one has a blackout blind) the little triangle windows are proving a problem with 5am wake ups. Bit tricky since there was no room for a curtain rod or track of any kind. Anyway, they don't quite hang straight, but pfft, near enough. Just need to get tie back thingies so they can actually open too. 

And finally, the horrid beige paint that I've been learning to live with for years because I'm too damn lazy to change a colour that runs from the stairwell, through the kitchen, bathroom, lounge, entrance. . . just everywhere? Well it's starting to peel off from our incompetent furniture shifting when we moved upstairs, so yesterday I decided - I'm going to do it. To make sure I do it, I test-potted all over the place. Only now I can't decide on a colour. I have no problem with bolds, but these lightish neutrals confound me. They look so scary, but then they all turn white as soon as you pop them up. Grrr. Plus, I'm quite sure I have more confounding factors than any other house in the universe. I want it light and bright, but it has to join up with our rock and roll red walls and not look gross. I'm quite obsessed with the turquoise and candy apple red combo, but it does have to go with a rainbow staircase,

 a green and purple window (it's much darker green IRL)

 and quite old yellowy/creamy white skirting and frames. 

 Seriously, who'd take that on just before Christmas?

Horror

I didn't take any pics today. I'll have to share a blog I stumbled across the other day. . . you know, you click on something, which takes you to something weird, which takes you. . . well, here. Everything. I'm not even going to comment. A Living Sacrifice. Name says it all.

Putting The Blokes To Work

Got Bunce over to help Geeky Husband and L9 re-hang the front door so that we could actually get in without holding our breath as we squidged past the coat rack. It's been three years coming  and now - whoop! - it's done. 

Bunce kept L9 busy,

"That, boy, pass me that quick smart!"

and made lots of bloke-ish noise.

He taught the apprentice the tricks of adjusting the height, handsfree, by using a spade underneath the door and how to wax the screws

and also a thing or two about builder's crack by the looks of it.

But it's all done and I can finally contemplate removing the revolting olive paint colour from the outside. Bunce tells us it's a solid Kauri door, so I'm going to have a go at stripping it back. It's going to be super. Even if at the present time it has a wee bit of extra ventilation. . . 

Yes Bunce, I've fixed it with duct tape for tonight. Thanks so much for all your help. Hope we haven't broken you too badly. Mwuh.

Makin' Stuff

I don't know which is more exciting - the "origami alien" that P6 made (her own design of course) or the crazy face she pulled for the pic?

L9 spent all afternoon making his own version of Star Wars monopoly. Each of those containers holds a selection of cards - property cards, chance, community chest and the like. When I took the picture he told me "I made everything except the glass and pottery." Honest. Just in case you thought that was part of it. 

Ballet In Boots

This is a happy P6, before we headed off to ballet lessons this avo. She still needs the proper shoes, but I rather like her wild flingings in pink with her bovver boots.

And a random cutie from L9 out of the blue at dinner:

"The only way you could win hide and seek in a 1D world would be if you could run faster than the speed of light and your opponent couldn't."

Mmmm. Just what I was thinking too. Pass the salt please.

Lunch Smunch

I guess if I'm documenting my kids' childhood, I can't really miss out lunchboxes. I'm wary of posting a pic because I don't want to pretend I'm one of those mummies who looks like she always makes fabulous bento boxes full of nutritious goodies in the shape of small ducks and charming pandas. I'm not.  We do have fancy shmancy lunchboxes, but that was only an attempt to get them to actually eat. I'm pretty sure I survived primary school quite happily on a biscuit for play lunch and a white bread marmite sandwich for lunch every day, so I'm sure I over-think as well as over-pack. 

Blah, no more excuses or justification. The first thing I do in the morning is take a sip of the tea Geeky Husband has kindly made me. The second thing I do is start the lunchbox dilemma. Today I thought they looked good.

And then every afternoon I tip out way too much of it and wonder why I wasted my time. Yes, I do make them eat it before they get anything else if they've made a seriously shoddy attempt, but it's never easy.

Flars

'cos it's spring and I can't resist them.

oo lookie - those things I've been pulling out for years? They're actually the foxglove seeds I sowed when we first cleared the front garden. There's a bonus of being slack on the weeding front.

Sweets

for my sweet

Smiles

Seeing this pic of S2 on Aunty Iz's blog:

brought back all those days of closed-eye smiles from L-then-2:

Heee, cute little boys. They're still pretty cuddly and cute at nine too though.

Where Children Sleep

P6, where she sleeps, reading Where Children Sleep thanks to bookclub last night. I've linked to it online before, but the book is even better with the blurb about each child, and the lure that is a beautiful (albeit shocking) book.

Adventuring

Took my charges to the local bay/mud flats for some boy time. They did get out and potter with sticks. . . 

. . . but they still talked incessantly about Minecraft.

Playing With Our Cuzzies

Oh it's nice to have our cuzzies in the same land. We took them out flying foxing.

But I don't think anything was as big a hit as the tube slide.

Even I enjoyed a go on that one.

Freak Your Brain Out. . .

Croquettes and Matches

Sizzling in hot oil. Yum. All the best meals surely include a sizzle step? I made bacon and cheese potato croquettes, and I was proud of them. 

Can you believe one of my children moaned so much about them, I insisted she show some gratitude and eat up the three on her plate - it took her an hour and a half. The whole thing was depressing and dramatic enough, made worse by the fact that she burst into tears and needed a cuddle in the middle of it all - not because of the horror of her lunch, but because the book she was reading at the same time had a really sad bit in it. Perhaps that's why sensible people have the no reading at mealtimes rule. 

 On a happier note - after dinner we played with matchstick puzzles and it was all good wholesome fun.

 brain strain

 see the cogs turn

 enjoy success!

Vanilla Bean

stuck on the roof in the yellow evening light. 

A Day With My Girl

P6 and I got to hang out together today. It was lovely, and I was struck by how busy she keeps herself. I got to make bread:

while she decided to write a book. She didn't get too far past the cover, contents and first sentence before rushing headlong into reading and then creating her own Spot What, but it has promise:

I tackled the big organize that her room was crying out for. It needed more than her weekly pocket money 'tidy' because the books and stories and works were taking over, but I think I'm temporarily on top of it (gotta have a tidy room pic - just don't open those drawers):

 During my excavation I found all kinds of lovely things she has made in the last week or so. I adore this story that she wrote and illustrated in bed one evening:
The burning sun made the silver web sparckill. As I walked to fech some gotes milk I saw tiny dew drops in the grass. The sping wind hit my pale face lick a soft tenis ball.

 And also the lap top she made. Not quite sure how she has escaped my moral rejection of Facebook, but I'm pleased to see her Facebook is sensible enough to actually have a face.

 She also embarked on a bit of collage today. Loves a good bit of chopping and gluing this one.

P6, you are so scrumptiously delightful in your creativity! 

Second Rehersal

Loving it. Who's joining me next year?

Wheels

We braved the fearsome wind to play with our wheels on a local water reservoir. Both children really just wanted to have a go on mine. I was the only one who managed to fall over though - mostly because the wind was actually propelling the roller skates. Really thinking wrist protection might be a worthwhile investment.

 L9 came up with his own safe mode of travel.

 Thinking it's a pretty good plan really.