Nom Nom

It's wet and dreary, and we need to make it through the last week of term. I decided this week was Pudding Week. A week of nyummy puds every day. 

Today was pretty basic, but knowing it was the first of many cheered up L&P no end. Jelly, peaches and cream.

 Slurp.

Wind

Last night we had a fearsome wind, and when we woke up we learnt that both the chickens and the guinea pigs had had a lucky escape. The guinea pig hutch is pretty robust, but I don't think the chook house would have stood a chance.

 Not quite sure what to do with such a  huge branch, but am very happy my girls are safe to peck another day.

(They are not in focus because I made the mistake of calling and they came charging at me!)

Proud Mama Rant

My children have been sharing their 'learning voyages' from school this week. Okay, it's a naff title, but OMG I love it more than the A 0.5 or some other huuuuuuge format 'treasure trove' they used to bring home at the end of the year at their other school. L11's was digital, and his favourite part was a photo he took in his photography lessons. We printed it out and framed it, and there was a little bit of drama when he accidentally dropped it on the way home and broke the glass - eep! But handily enough we'd printed it glossy, so we decided it worked just fine as it was. Who needs glass anyway? (Ignore the big white flash mark - that was my crappy photography this evening.) Apart from being creative and handsome, a school mother told me today what a gentle boy he was, which totally filled my mother-heart with joy.

 And this one - my lovely P8 shared her paper 'learning voyage' and actually made me cry when we read her writing sample. This is P8's character writing about me. Yes, I'm going to write it out because ha - my daughter just VALIDATED MY EXISTENCE (even though I'm not very generous with massages). She could have written 'my mum is a grumpy old poo who tells me off and doesn't work much', but instead - please note - with no teacher input, she wrote (even though I need to clarify that my hair is categorically NOT fuzzy):

My mum has green eyes like the sea. She paints her toenails pink. Her black hair is short and fuzzy. She gets fritened when a big dog barks at us. When I'm sad she cuddles me until I feel better. She likes to make fires in the evening, and read me storys. Every evening when I ask for a massage by the fire she says "I'm sure if you ask politely daddy will." On most Saturdays she takes me to the library. My mum paints my nails if I ask her to. We go shoe shopping together. My mum plants flowers in the garden and dresses like a fairy. Sometimes she lets me wear her clothes and make up. We play games and do puzzles together. She's always much quicker at them but I don't mind. I love my mum so much. 

Not sure about you, but I'm totally making sure I dress like a fairy tomorrow. 

Not Another Bl**dy Fire Post!

Yep. Although I included small children in this one too, for my future amusement. I found someone online who sells pine offcuts from his business, just heat treated so very dry. It turned out I bought a lot more than I had anticipated. Thank goodness I have willing stacking helpers.

They really were willing, although it's not showing. Maybe working too hard to smile? And yeah, shorts and t-shirt. It's not as cold as I'd like. C'mon winter!!

Even More Obsessed With Fire

L11 is even worse than me. I have 120 pics on my camera card tonight, and every one is of the fire. He's had a photographer come to school to give them lessons, and he's really seeing the world in terms of photos at the moment. He started taking pictures of the fire because he told me it looked just like a fire in an advert:

Then he started trying to do a long exposure to get fuzzy flames:

Then he showed me how to make the exposure really quick to get amazing action pics - this is when I thought it was starting to look interesting:

Next he did a huge long time lapse series taking a picture every minute for about half an hour while it died down. I haven't put them into a movie, but I think we will do that together one day.

Maybe it's a bit like a rorschach test and I'm admitting way too much about my mind, but surely you can see the spooky things in here:

We spent most of the early evening just watching and taking pics. Oh it's so good having a fellow pyromaniac to play with.

Obsessed With Fire

I've always wanted to be a pyromaniac when I grow up. Right now I'm just obsessed with getting the right firewood. I wasn't so sure about this new lot until I learnt about building a top down fire. Seems odd:

Worked like a charm.

A Scene From ET

The end of P8's bed this evening - one of these things is not like the others. . . 

This Is My Boy

at 11 years old. He had a haircut today - one that he didn't really want, so we agreed to leave it long on top. The hairdresser told me what a good looking boy he was, so she knows her job. I totally heart her.

He is a tricky one to parent sometimes, having (as my sweetest Mutti pointed out) the hot temper of his granddad, and ahem, possibly myself. But he is kind to the core. Even though he's the first to hack on her, he also looks after his little sister passionately, and should she have any difficulty, he's the first to  stand up for her. I love that as much as I try to point her in the right direction, often advice is better received from her big brother, and he always does his very best to help her out. He's completely honest to the core, and he has a maths mind that blows me away - it's so insanely easy to talk anything logical through with him because it just clicks instantly. 

See that little red spot underneath his chin? That's from resting it while he reads. He reads faster and a whole lot more than I can, and that is another reason that this boy of mine - he's an awesome kid, and he's going to make one amazing grown up too.  

Happiness is . . .

making a rubber bungee and having a high window to dangle toys from.

Been Painting Again

Would you believe the colour at the back is the same as the wall on the left? It is, really.

Playing

It was dark, hence the blurs, but the toi toi was irresistible.

Happy Birthday Aunty Iz!!!

I wish I was there to celebrate with you, but wish you a very happy one from afar.

I don't have any happy birthday-ish pics to share, but P8 spent the evening writing tankas (she read about them in a writing book) so I thought I'd share her favourite one:

The Hoodie Club

In P8's bed, listening to Mutti read us a story. . . 

. . . about poo.

Good Stuff

L11 did a whole lot of waterblasting for us, removing all the slippery green. Thank you matey. 

And P8 has started to draw little cartoons. Not sure where she got the idea from, but I  love them.

Size Six

Bought the first pair of grown up sized shoes for L11. He's going to be a tall boy. 

Scary Things and Housewifey Things

I don't want this to become a catalogue of whinging, but woah this week! Here's P8, completely fine after this morning's freakest fall up the stairs, landing on her neck. Eep and youch. Yes, the stair caught on the front of her neck, just where the voicebox is.  We joked later that she cunningly saved her hands from getting hurt by stopping herself with her throat, but it was pretty awful at the time. It made her vomit, and I was so worried it might swell and hinder her breathing. I did the scary drive to A&E counting down the minutes until I knew we'd be there. They gave her a steroid to prevent any swelling and painkillers, and she's fine apart from a weird croaky voice and the inability to scream (she keeps trying just because it's interesting how quiet it comes out). Fat lip, and banged up chin, but still my gorgeous girl.

So here's something positive I did, like a proper wifey, instead of a whinge. I fixed Geeky Husband's trouser hems. By hand. It wasn't so bad. I'm not sure why he's been wearing them with a safety pin for the last six months. 

  I like that picture L11 took, even though it has yellow in it.

Not A Massacre

I was going to say it's been that kind of a day, but actually it's been that kind of a month. After flat tyres, unexpected bills, lock outs, work dramas, and cinemas with no power, what's a bottle of nail polish that was mysteriously hiding on top of the fridge falling off and smashing into a gazillion pieces, spreading the brightest red nail polish all over the tiles, new fridge, carpet, wall, boots, windows, and my clothes?

Took and hour and a half to clean up, the wall needs re-painting and the carpet doesn't look like it will recover fully. Even more distressingly, neither do my stripy leggings.

Rainy Rainy Day

Fresh squeezed juice for my coughing boy, home sick today:

And not much to show, despite all the rain warnings, for the overland flow stream that runs right through our house:

5 Species in the house

. . . points out my sister. I know, I know. That's enough. Since we have two of each, that's ten pets, which anyone would agree is enough. It's all P8's fault really. 

When we were talking about our crazy today, L11 pointed out that "at least we are at ease with animals now. Except dogs." Which is very true. A few years back he used to run out of a room if a cat came in. It wasn't a good look for a growing boy. So I think it's been good for them. But we're never getting a dog, 'cos I'm still scared of them. 

So the newest arrivals- here's Tweedledee - the cute one:

This is Tweedledum, who is more rodenty, and not as cute, but they need to be together as they are sociable things, and these guys were brothers who have always been together, so together it is:

That's two chickens, two cats, two canaries, two lovebirds and two guinea pigs. Just in case you were counting. 

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

P8 was given a present by our lovely neighbours. . . . 

Uh oh. And today they fixed us up with another friend who had a little guinea pig problem. Well, it was actually more of an ever expanding infestation. We took two boys so as to avoid getting in the same situation ourselves. I'm not sure about them just yet. They spent most of the afternoon hiding. We're hoping they chill out a bit tomorrow.

I think P8 is pretty lucky. L11 thinks we are turning into a crazy house. I'm possibly with him on that one.

How Well Do You Know Your Child?

We did this tonight and it was lots of fun. Geeky Husband scored three. That's three out of a possible SIXTEEN for both children combined. Hmmm... I can hardly scoff though, I scored a miserable six out of sixteen.

Either we don't talk to our children at all, or they come up with answers that are far too creative to be true.

Best thing was that a couple of times when they saw our answers, they wanted their own sheets back to change their own response. So yes, in fact we know them better than they do themselves.

Boomerang Knife

Last night L11 joined the local scout group. It was penknife license night, so with twenty minutes warning we had to make a penknife appear. L11's had gone AWOL during the move, but I managed to rustle up mine. 

Now this knife has been with me since a bunch of nurses I worked with bought it for me when I went on my OE many years ago, so it's very special. The best thing they ever did was to engrave my name on the blade. When I was in a tiny town in Northern Ireland I was walking along the road one day when a car pulled over and asked if we were the kiwi girls, and who was P? I owned up, rather confused, when the driver leaned out the window and returned my pocket knife, which I must have dropped a day or two earlier without me even realizing. Thank goodness it was named and hooray for small towns. 

Late last night L11 came home from his first scout meeting and promptly burst into tears and admitted he had lost the knife during a game of spotlight (i.e. running wildly in the dark). He was terribly remorseful, but I told him the tale of the knife's history, and not to worry because I was quite sure it would return. He could barely sleep he was so upset, and early this morning he and Geeky Husband went to search the local field before school - alas to no avail.

After I dropped the children at school I decided to have a look with girl eyes, and after a good 35 minutes walking through the frosty grass, success! This is the boomerang knife. It always makes it back to me, and to one very relieved small boy.

One Thing I WIll Never Tire Of

I'm quite sure it will stop happening before I get bored of it - sneaking a peek out the window at my little ones playing, running, barefoot and often muddy, till dusk.

Ahhhh, Lights

Chemistry flask lights I have been coveting for years.

Okay, so they don't give out a lot of actual light, but that's par for the course for my light choices it seems.

Down On The Farm

We were at a bit of a loose end and couldn't work out quite what to do, when we stumbled upon Kiwi Valley. What a great find! We loved the baby ducklings. Sadly it's too cold for them at this time of the year, so a number from this hatch haven't made it through :(

 We all fell for Clover the cow too.

 At first only Geeky Husband was brave enough to feed the animals:

 but soon we got braver and L11 came to terms with being goat licked.

There were pony rides. P8 is very into horses at the mo so she was delighted, as well as a little nervous.

I had a go, and it seems I also demonstrated how not to wear your riding hat.

 Geeky Husband joined it, but don't be fooled by the rope. He was led just like the rest of us, but the boy helped him fake the photo :)

And I was so proud when L11, who has always been terrified of horses, said he'd give it a go too.

Way to go L11! He was such a happy boy after he had conquered that fear.