Up the Mountain

For Mike's last day off we headed to Turoa for some fun. But first we had to stop at all the BIG things...the big gumboot; Lily kept calling "where are you giant?"

Lachie was impressed by the tanks at Waiouru, he figured out which was the biggest (6 wheels versus 5) and would have nothing to do with the (ever so slightly) smaller one!
And the canons, luckily no-one asked what they were for!

We never found the bunny that would eat this carrot, but we'll need many more children to be able to give it a cuddle like Lily and Lachie insisted on doing! When we made it past all the sunshine and got up the mountain, we were in the clouds, wearing so much that we only had cold faces! Quite a few people up there, but the sliding slopes were mostly ours! Lachie's been talking for days about throwing snowballs at himself, but once there, that wasn't the plan...getting Daddy was! Then onto the sliding action!And a snowman too of course!

Eden loves watching people all around, and with half a dozen layers on was super cosy!
We paused for hot chocolate...
hot chips...and pineapple lumps...
Then out for more snow action, this time with Daddy behind the camera

Which meant I got to have a few goes, well, maybe a few more than that actually!
So much fun! We headed back via Palmy for tea and shopping.

And although we are enjoying a warm sunny day today, we're going back next chance we get...

Lily's New Friends

Special treat at Coffee group today, Sheree and Jack have baby lambs! The kids got in the pens and did a bit of pretending to be lambs themselves!

Lily just loved them licking her fingers. But she hasn't asked for one...yet!
Of course, she also had a lot of cuddles for the farm dogs, especially this one - I have never seen a dog more excited to see a bunch of two and a half year olds!
Bit of a run in the fresh air and the green grass... So then we decided to walk up to kindy to get Lachie, although I'm sure the girls had it sorted on their own!

Wait til you see photos from tomorrow's adventure (for Mike's last day off - although, he's not going back til Monday afternoon)

Lachie Takes Off

Check out what Mike and Lachie made this morning...

That's a tiger painted on the side...he used internet pictures for inspiration on decorating his Tiger Moth.

So far...

Here's my new "office": so far - showcased by Lily...the door's on! We were just about to put it in yesterday afternoon when I asked Mike if it could go left 50mm - he rolled his eyes, but did it anyway! And (like usual!) I had a point! Now when the doors are open, there's none hanging past the wall. Just working out the final inside layout...

One of the great benefits of having building materials lying around...gib ramps!

And huge thanks to Mum who's keen to spend lots of time playing with the kids this week so I can keep an eye on, I mean help Mike!

He had this morning off however to fulfil a promise to Lachie...wait til you see it! (the paint's just drying!) More later...

What Now

What Now came to Waipuk, and despite the freezing cold we paid a visit...something Mike's been longing to do since becoming a Dad 4 1/2 years ago! Lachie's was pretty cold - this was the only photo he could pose for!

We taped it though, and watched it later on.

This is "Grandad Tom's" Austin truck that he allowed What Now to destroy the day before. First they dropped a huge hunk of limestone on it (he works at the lime works)
Then they drove over the top of it with a bulldozer - Tom has absolutely no regrets!
Lachie and Mike were on TV if you knew where to look for them...but the still shot in this weeks newspaper's easier to spot!

Offline Possibly

As of Friday there may be some offline times

for us for the next week.

We have a few projects lined up for Mike's week off work,

including renovating (surprise!) the "office" aka computer cupboard.

Can't wait!

Obviously I will be taking photos of our daily lives, and anything really cool will get to the blog late next week or the weekend.

E-mail may be running - assuming I can connect everything up right (our broadband played up last time we moved stuff, but we should have it sorted this time).

So...hope you all have a good week, ours will include relaxed start times and late finishes!!

Artist and Author

At Kindy some kids have been making books.

Lachie's first one was about rugby, aptly named "My Rugby Book"; quotes: " that's how they run, run, run" "That's how they come out of the tunnel" Love the stripy jerseys! But he says they're All Blacks (like him!)

Next he wrote a book about Lily having the chickenpox (yes, she did - November 2005 - same time as him!), but then she got them again! Some kids were dying the other day at Kindy and apparently went home covered in green spots - probably the catalyst for a story like this. At lease he's pretending she's getting bigger!

Here's a diver - can't you just tell! Labelled are the flippers, air and the "plug goes in his mouth".

And no paintbrushes were used in this one, just fancy rollers (that's the accurate description of what they look like and what they do!)

Wonder where he got his artistic flair and story writing ideas from?

Have you seen my latest book? A Princess Tale - look in 'my other sites'...

The week that's been

Lachie made a wallpaper picture with some scraps

Eden found it's easy to stand up to the fishtank (and how much cleaner it looks from a distance!)

Lily made herself cosy in Lachie's "spare bed"

And she DIDN'T have a rest today!

When we got to Kindy today Lachie was making a garage with Adrienne
But they've put it somewhere safe to finish tomorrow
Lily made a door frame for the door - basic building principles taught at home!
While Eden pushed the chair around the lino to get a better look at everything
Eden saw Plunket earlier in the week...would you believe she's the same length as Lily at 9 months, and a bit lighter? Lily's nearly off the bottom of the weight chart now and off for her height, what's in store for Eden??!!!

Lovely lilttle girl - just can't hear us tell her