A month already?

Wow, I can't believe that it is almost a month since I last posted. Where has the time gone? The school has been keeping us very busy.

It started off with grandparent's day at Medbury on 27 October. We were very lucky to have Robin & Phyllis come up for it. A bit of a flying visit for them but the boys thoroughly appreciated it. James' teacher took a photo of him with nana & then another one of him with Robin & Phyllis & these photos have since come home all laminated for the grandparents to keep. Must remember to give it to Robin & Phyllis when they are here next (only 2 weeks away).

The boys have brought home their effort cards for the term. Brent just keeps on bringing home the blue. This time every possible square that could be blue was blue. James has also started out in style with no yellows & a lot of green sprinkled with a blue or two. The boys are fantastic little workers at school, long may it last & I hope one day it will carry over to James' homework too.

We have also had a church service & the athletic sports. The boys tried their best & enjoyed their races. Scott went in the father's race & felt that some of the men that said they were over 50 looked a lot younger than him! Never mind in a few years he'll be allowed a step closer to the front.

It was Show week last week so the boys finished at 12 noon on Wednesday. I took them for a bike ride along the stop banks of the Waimak river on Thursday & then on Friday we went to the show. We got there around 9am & stayed until about midday when it started to rain. Luckily we had seen all we wanted to by then so we didn't miss out on anything. All the walking & excitement must have tired out James as he was very willing to have a rest after lunch. We went to mum's for dinner & she looked after the boys on Saturday & returned them on Sunday afternoon in time for James' party that he was invited to.

This week is junior school swim week at Jellie Park so the boys are probably swimming now as I type. Brent will be doing a double dose today as he has his swim lesson at 4pm this afternoon.The boys are practising carols for the carol service on December 3rd. James is going to be dressed up as a villager but we aren't sure what Brent is yet. Christmas is rolling around all too quickly & I still feel very unorganised for it. Better go & pick up the boys. Have a great week everyone.

Quiet Week

Well really the week has been quiet. The weather had been nice & the sun shone on Thursday, so much so that the boys had fun running under the sprinkler.

Scott & I went to Rotherams for dinner on Friday night. The taxi rides both ways were not fantastic. The first taxi was an very old car that rattled along & then the driver seemed to take some chances at the intersections. The taxi ride home was with someone who didn't know the streets of Christchurch very well so we had to give him directions all the way back home. This is from Blue Star taxis one of the more reputable taxi companys in Christchurch. I have to wonder where they find these people from. I suupose it is coming up to party season so everyone is flocking to be a taxi driver to get some extra money for christmas.

The meal at Rotherams was beautiful. It's a sumptuously decorated place with soft lighting & very helpful staff. We both started off having a seafood selection. It came on a large square plate with a round of salmon on bruschetta at the front. To the left there was a tiger prawn sitting on guacamole. Next to that was a basket with clam & mussels in it. Next to that was a seared scallop sitting on a ginger & pineapple coulis. At the top of the plate was a spoon with an oyster on it. We could choose how we wanted our oyster so we both chose to have it raw with a lime & wasabi sauce over it with a little dot of caviar.
For mains I had a beef fillet wrapped in bacon on top of a marrowbone stuffed with couscous. Scott had the lamb duo which is a lamb rack(just 2 chops) & a lamb shank.
Dessert was interesting. I decided to give pineapple infused with red wine & green pepper a try. The pineapple turned red & some of the cloying sweetness of the pineapple was cut by that infusion. It was served with a citrus parfait. Scott had the passionfruit cheesecake. The peice de resistance was the sugarwork that accompanied both desserts. I left mine intact but Scott ate all his. As we were leaving we were presented with a plate that had 2 marshmellows with a candle in each marshmellow. Around the edge of the plate in chocolate was written Happy Birthday Katrina & Scott. There was also biscotti in the middle of the plate sitting on some raspberry couli. What a lovely way to end the dining experience. It was pricy but such a lovely treat & we will be going back again. It is actually our second time going there & yet again it was fantastic so I think we have worked out where our birthday meal is going to be next year.

Mum kept the boys overnight on Friday & then came with them for breakfast at Drexels on Saturday. She asked if she could look after them on Saturday night as well so we immediately said yes.

We have tidied away all the wallpaper stripping gear in preparation for Robin & Phyllis' visit. They will be coming to grandparents day at Medbury on Friday so both boys are highly excited about that.

Hopefully it'll be another quietish week this week. I have to make a birthday card for Danja & I want to keep cracking on at making christmas presents. Luckily some of them involve scrapbooking so I get to do that to make the presents.

Have a wonderful week everyone.

The Week Ahead

It is shaping up to be a busy week.

Monday Brent has his swimming lesson after school. Last week I sent him into the mens changing rooms by himself & he took a while to get dressed into his swimming gear. I think this week I might pick both boys up from school & have a change of clothes for both boys plus Brent togs. I'll get both boys changed either at school or at the pool & then we might be in the pool on time.

Tuesday Scott is working in the early hours of the morning. I have a layouts class on Tuesday night.

Wednesday Scott is in Wellington. I will be doing my last kindy library duty & showing someone else the ropes.

Thursday Club scrap have an online crop that I am hoping to be part of.

Friday Brent & James have a mufti day at school. I have a kindy committee meeting & mum will be picking the boys up from school & taking them to her place so that Scott & i can go out to dinner at Rotheram's to celebrate our birthdays.

Saturday is Scott's birthday & we'll be having breakfast with mum & the boys at Drexels.

Throughout the weekend there is a ScrapTown crop so I'm really hoping to get some layouts completed & maybe even some Christmas cards. I found out that the first Christmas post to Australia is November 18 so I better start working on the christmas newsletter & making some cards at least for those people in Australia.

Have a great week everyone, I will especially on Thursday. I'm not doing any housework on Thursday & hope to be scrapping most of the day.

Scrapbooking

These are the layouts I have done this week.

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Saturday 14 October - Picnic at Orton Bradley Estate

Dad rang through the week wondering if Scott & I wanted to do anything this weekend for our birthdays. We decided that a picnic at Orton Bradley would probably be nice. Dad brought his little BBQ & some sausages & chicken. Jo & I brought some of the non meat picnicy things.



It started off being a lovely warm day. We had lunch & then the children went off to play on the flying fox. Scott got involved & played on it too.

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Unfortunately the clouds came over & the wind became quite cool but it was a wonderful day out & the boys fell asleep on the short ride home. We found out that it was 10 minutes faster to go via Gebbies Pass rather than via the Sign of the Kiwi. We have since found out that there are some geocaches over there so we might just have to go back again another time with the co-ordinates on hand.


PS: For those people who want just the photos of Brent & James on the flying fox try this website http://crigsnzphotos.blogspot.com/

School Started Tuesday 10 October

James started school this week. I took some photos of him in his uniform on Monday evening so that we wouldn't be too rushed on Tuesday morning.





On Tuesday morning in the car James was saying I'll walk myself in mum. I said no I'll go in today & we'll sort out your locker & get everything to your classroom. His gungho attitude left when we got to the locker room. He stood by his locker & said what do we do now? So we unpacked his bag & he still stayed near me. We dropped Brent off in his classroom & I said to James you show me your room. He stayed right beside me. We got to his classroom & I asked him where his desk was & he still stayed beside me. We said hello to his teacher & he still stayed right beside me. A boy asked him to play with the Lego so he siddled slowly away & kept looking at me. In the end I went over, gave him a kiss & said see you this afternoon & left.

After that I went for a long walk in Hagley Park hardly believing that James was at school & not kindy. 11:30 rolled around & I looked at the clock & thought "no I don't have to pick up James, I can sit in the sun for a bit."

The best part of the day was going to pick him up. He has seen Brent running to me after school & that is what he did, he ran into my arms with a huge smile on his face. He had had a wonderful day at school & even shared some of the same classes as Brent.

He is in the same class as Brent for ICT, music & topic, which at the moment is on dinosaurs.

On Friday James came home with a merit award & a little award for being a busy bee & getting on with his work when asked. I could hardly believe that seen as I have to tell him things at least 3 times to get them done.

Both boys have had a wonderful week at school & I have had a lovely time just pottering around tidying my house.

Geocaching for the week

There is a different type of geocache at the Canterbury University. It is one where you stand in front of a web cam & get your photo taken. We had tried to go a while ago but we got the timing wrong. On Sunday 8 October we decided to give it another go. We got there & waited for quite some time. James was very interested in a birds nest so he missed being in the photo. This is us at a cache called UC IC.

This week

What have we done this week? That's a good question. We have filled up the days but luckily most of it has been with cheap entertainment.

We start off each morning by taking dad to work. We have had the bikes in the back & we would stop off at Hagley park on the way home & ride (I walk)around the north Hagley Park. This has been a wonderful way to burn off that excess energy that the boys just seem to have in abundance. We had to give a couple of days a miss due to the weather but Thursday brought a smile to my face. It had been pouring with rain on Tuesday & Wednesday but Thursday dawned clear but with a cold wind blowing. We went around the park & the boys had a ton of fun biking through the puddles. They were laughing & so excited to find puddles to go biking through. I had older people just walk past me with smiles on their faces & say how great it is that I'm letting the boys do what boys do "get dirty!" The clothes when they finished had mud splattered up them & they were wet but they had had fun, so much fun that it exhausted James & at 11am he was having a nap in his bed.

Tuesday we went into town to get the last bits of everyone's uniforms from Ballantynes & to have lunch from Scott. It was actually a quick trip that cost us nothing in car parking fees, much to my surprise.

Wednesday James went to the doctor to have his 5 year old well child check & to have his immunisations. For those who want to know, James is now 18kg & 108cm which is average (not a surprise). He was really good for both immunisations & didn't cry or flinch for either of them. He had a huge lump come up on his arm on Thursday & Friday from them but today that has subsided & he's back to his cheerful self.

Thursday's excitement was going biking through the mud puddles & watching a family of duckings come so close to us that we could have reached out & stroked them.

Friday neither boy wanted to go biking so I did housework & gardening & then in the afternoon the boys had a picnic lunch. After lunch we got our cameras & headed back to Hagley Park, this time to the Botanic Gardens. Unfortunately we were too late to get any photos of the daffodils but we saw some very strange sculptures using rubbish. I have to say they didn't do much for me but I think the boys were fascinated that I called it art. We were there for an hour & a half waiting for Scott to finish work. We picked him up & then went up to mum's for dinner. The boys stayed with her overnight so this morning Scott & I got a sleep in.

I had a crop today & completed a layout



Tomorrow I'm not sure what we will do but I would like to try some more caching. Might just have to wait & see how receptive the boys are to that idea.

Next week the term starts. What a week it's going to be. James received a letter today from his teacher so he's all excited about finding his favourite book & a toy beginning with J to take to school on Tuesday (they start back on Tuesday). On Monday Brent has his first swimming lesson in the big pool which he's not so happy about, hopefully when he gets in he'll realise it's not so scary as he thinks it is. I'm going to start hitting the gym routine to work away the tears that seem to fill my eyes at the thought of my baby going to school. I'm going to miss having him around. He's a little character, full of joy, mischief & ingenuity. School is the best place for him & I think he'll thrive there but a part of me is very sad that his little being won't be around as much.

Saturday 30 September

I had seen the signs around the city advertising a Thomas & Friends day at Steam Scene so as it wasn't a rainy day we decided we would take the children & have a look. It is out at McLeans Island & it has it's own miniture railway that runs through the area. For only $1 a ride per person the boys (big & small ones) got to have 2 rides on it.



They also have a big railway that runs through the area as well & there was a little steam driven caboose named George that we took a ride in. Being steam & an enclosed area it was very hot inside but must have been a nice way to travel on a cold day.



There were traction engines & fairground music boxes all running on steam. The boys enjoyed it & absolutely loved going on the miniture railway & didn't want to leave around 3:45 when the miniture trains stopped running. What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Home Again

We packed up Wanaka & left at 1:15 on Friday afternoon. It was a very quick ride home, we were home at 5:45. We did have one stop & that was a very brief one in Geraldine.

Saturday both boys had their last swimming lessons for the term. James is starting to really get to grips with swimming by himself.


Brent has mananged to achieve all he needs to to get his stingray certificate.

Next term he will be a shark & having his lessons on a Monday after school.

We went & had dinner with mum on Saturday & she has looked after the boys all this week. Scott has had the last few days off work so he has been painting windowsills & stripping wallpaper in the spare room. I have been doing the housework & trying to declutter wardrobes & toy boxes.

Scott starts back at work tomorrow so I will have the whole house to myself. I'll go for a bike ride do some housework, get into the garden & then maybe I'll do some scrapping. I haven't done any scrapping since I have come home from Wanaka despite not having the boys here. On Friday I have my assessment at the gym & then we'll have dinner with mum & pick the boys back up again.

Next week is the last week of the holidays & we will be shopping for school clothes & new summer clothes for Brent. I would also like to take the boys caching but we'll have to see how it goes. Maybe a picnic might be good too.

Geocaching

We left Invercargill on Tuesday & drove back to Wanaka. Wednesday & Thursday we did geocaching around the area.

On Wednesday we went into Cromwell & found the fruiful cache quite near the fruity sign. The next cache we went to was in the Cromwell cemetry. Unfortunately we didn't have the print off to tell us what we were looking for & couldn't find anything. We then carried on to Bannockburn & found 2 caches up in the sluicings. That is a very interesting place to look at & I want to go back there again & walk to Stewart Town. It was lunchtime by the time we did those so we went & had lunch at a little cafe on the road to Queenstown between Bannockburn & Cromwell. After lunch we drove back to a nasty nor west wind in Wanaka.

On Thursday we went back to the Cromwell cemetry this time we knew exactly what to do so we watered Private Ryan's rosebush. There was no actual cache to be found but it was nice to know we were doing a good deed by watering the rosebush. We then went to Roaring Meg & found one of the caches there. There are 2 in that area but one of them is down by the river & they siggest it is not a good one for children to go to. Scott & I will have to do it one time when it is just us down that way. We then carried on through the gorge & went up the top of the Crown Range where there was another cache which had a travel bug in it. We left the bug in there as apparently the owner wanted to have photos taken of it on a ski field. We knew we were leaving the next day so we left it behind. Jumped back in the car & went back home.

I have been to places I didn't know existed with this cool new hobby & Brent & Scott really enjoy it too. I think James enjoys the finding of the cache rather than the driving to get to them but it takes us to some very interesting places.

I only took a few photos of us caching.

James' Birthday

We opened presents first thing in the morning. Unfortunately we had left james' present at home in our wardrobe. After playing with his lego off shore racing boat we decided to go geocaching. We went off to find the Henry the Tuatara cache. There were a few paople hanging around so we went inside the museum to see the real tuatara. It was a cold bleak day so Henry wasn't actually out of his tunnel but we did get to see a couple of baby tuatara and a couple of older ones.

We went back to the house for lunch & then went out to Edendale to find another cache. This was Brent's first find, no arguements from James because he was sound asleep in the car. We then headed back to Invercargill for afternoon tea at Zookeepers followed by dinner at Robin & Phyllis' place. Phyllis made James' favourite cake for his birthday cake. It was a lolly cake which she very cleverly shaped into a big 5.

Magnus & Danja

We loved getting to see Magnus & Danja. The boys enjoyed the fact that they could really start to play with Danja. Last time they saw her was Christmas time when she was just over a year old. She is closer to 2 years old now & is more able to play with the boys.

I loved holding Magnus, he's such a snuggly little boy.



Scott also got to hold him.


Even Brent wanted a turn at holding him.


I also got to have a few (very few) cuddles from Danja.

Christchurch to Invercargill

We packed up our car on Friday & headed down to Wanaka, leaving home at about 3:30. We had a very pleasant trip down with a stop at Geraldine for a fish & chip dinner which we ate in the car. We arrived in Wanaka at about 8:45 with the boys asleep in the back.

We stayed Saturday night at Wanaka & then on Sunday we had lunch at the Wanaka dinosaur park with Lara & her children & Nik. It was fantastic to meet these scrappers in real life after talking over the internet with them for the past months. Unfortunately Brent decided that he wasn't going fast enough down the slide & decided to sit on his polar fleece & he spun out of control incurring a black eye for his exploits. That ended the lunch & we got in the car to go to Invercargill via the Crown range. James fell asleep at about Frankton & then by Kingston Brent was asleep too & neither really woke up until just short of Invercargill.

I have to say I love this sign on the outskirts of Invercargill, it should go quite nicely with a photo I took at Easter time of the Indian going along the Wanaka runway.



We arrived at Robin & Phyllis' & had time for a cup of coffee before Erin & Neil arrived with Magnus.

Brent's Effort Card

Friday also saw Brent bringing home his effort card for the last part of the term. He was very proud of it, and with very good reason.

You can't ask more of a child than that.

Well done Brent what another fantastic term you've had.

James' last day at Kindy - Fri 15 September

The last day of kindy what a wreck I was that day. I still can't believe that my baby boy is going to school in 2 weeks. He made a playdough cake with 5 candles on it. To my great surprise he wanted us to say the colours in Maori as each candle was lit. He has never even wanted to count to 5 in Maori before but with Ngam & Kirsty's help he was able to say the colours. His profile book was given to him, it had been finished for quite some time because we thought he was going to school a term early.

At the end of mat time we got Joseph, Ammon & Rhianna to stand with James so we did get a photo of his friends before he left kindy.

Brent's Cross Country - Thurs 14 September

It was a beautiful warm sunny day, maybe a bit warm to be running around the course but there was an iceblock for everyone at the end of the prize giving. At this level it is just expected that everyone will participate & everyone gets a certificate of completion. In year 3 & 4 they run around the track 4 times (the young ones only go around twice) & can even win a cup for winning the race.

Brent ran a good race & let people climb up & over the stairs before him. He isn't competitive in this type of thing so was quite happy to come in the middle of his class. He ran well within himself so I think next year he does at least have the stanima to run around the course 4 times.

The Week Coming Up

Well everyone this is James' last week at kindy. He won't be there on Wednesday because he will be having a school visit until after lunch. He has been buddied up with a friend he met at Gymbaroo & he seems to be really starting to find his feet at Medbury. He seems more comfortable there than at kindy now & when i go to pick him up at mat time at kindy he is often not sitting with his kindy friends. he complains to me that they are so loud. It's funny really because I noticed Ronan did the same thing to James before Ronan left for school. I think it is just a sign that he is ready for school.

Scott starts his holidays on Thursday & he has already organised to have the electrician come in & fix our electrical problems on Thursday morning. Brent has his cross country on Thursday so James & I will go & cheer him on at that.

Friday will be an emotional day for me. James will be having his little leaving kindy presentation around midday. I'll be there with camera in my hand, hopefully getting some good photos. The end of my association with kindy isn't really until the end of the year after I hand over the reigns of the library & resign from the kindy committee. After we have picked up Brent we will bring him home, get him changed & then hit the road. Hopefully we'll be able to pick up some fish & chips in Geraldine or Tekapo on our way through.

We'll be heading down to Invercargill after lunch on Sunday & then having James' birthday in Invercargill. James is looking forward to it & we are all looking forward to meeting Magnus.

Keep well everyone & I will probably catch up with all my family some time in the next two weeks.

Geocaching

We gave Scott a handheld GPS unit for fathers day this year. He has had a lot of fun learning a bit about it so as today was such a nice day I asked if he thought we were ready to try geocaching.

Geocaching is like a treasure hunt using a GPS unit to find where the cache is. I found one called Why Maree? on http://www.geocaching.com I guessed that it would be near us & sure enough we headed out to the Groynes to try & find a cache. It really was a lot of fun & took us a good 20 minutes to walk to the cache area & then it took us about 10 minutes to find the cache. Inside the cache there was a notebook that we wrote a message in to say that we had found it. There was also some stuff we could swap if we wanted but we really didn't have anything appropriate to leave in it so we just hid the cache again.

We all enjoyed it although that photo doesn't make it look like James did. He was pretty tired but has decided he wants to try & find more.

I am hoping we can make this a family event once a week, especially in the summer. I have already gone back to the website & found some places to look in Invercargill & Central for our upcoming holiday.

James' Birthday party

We had James' birthday party yesterday. He invited 5 of his best friends from kindy & also Amy & Andrew. Having 8 boys running around certainly made things loud but we were very lucky that it did not run. We started offf with a treasure hunt & then had a pinata. After that energy burn off we played pass the parcel. Around 2:30 I brought out the cake not that James was very interested in eating it. He was more excited to play with his new lego knights. We finally got him up to the table to do the cake thing.

After that the boys went back outside to play rugby until it was pick up time.

We also let james have his birthday dinner last night. His choice was predictable so off to Mcd's we went. Unfortunately we had to go to the Riccarton one (because it is the one near us with a playground)& it is just awful. The playroom stank, the floor was sticky & most of the tables hadn't been cleaned off. I think I really prefer the Papanui one but it doesn't have the play area which is what James wanted.

I think James had a very tiring but happy day.

Latest Layouts

Since being back from Crafting Connection I have been doing some layouts. I have been doing a digital scrapping course through http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com

A couple of these layouts are from that course. The Boy oh buoy one & the Everyday one.

Craft connection 2006

I had a wonderful time at Crafting Connection & was thrilled to have my photo taken with Ali Edwards, Donna Downey & Cathy Zielske. I felt very inspired when I came away from all the classes even if I was a bit exhausted by the end of the weekend. The sad part was missing so many events back at home but that really is Murphy's law, everything exciting will always happen when you aren't able to be there.

I am hoping to be able to share some of my completed layouts/projects from Crafting Connection once they are completed.

Amy's Birthday

The boys were invited to both of Amy's birthday parties. There was a lovely tea on her actual birthday for family & then on the Saturday there was the party for her friends. The cake on her birthday was a very delicious ice cream cake & on her party day she had a Hi5 birthday cake. I managed to go to her birthday tea but Scott did the honours for the Saturday party as I was away.

Time Flies

when you're having fun.

It seems like an age since I have updated the blog & I feel that a lot has happened but I think a lot of it was really me trying to get all my homework done for Crafting Connection.

Since the last brief post we have had Amy's birthday, me going to Crafting Connection, Brent reading the prayer at the church service, Brent bringing home a fantastic effort card & Brent having a music evening.

Such a lot & unfortunately there are hardly any photos of it all. In fact we never got Brent's Effort card scanned this time, I will say though that it was better than the last one if that was at all possible.

Medbury's music evening was on Friday night. It was once again a fantastic performance & probably all the better when the school has been in the grips of a terrible New York Influenza A outbreak. Apparently half the staff have been sick with it this term & one of them has been Brent's teacher. Half Brent's class has had it but luckily (touch wood) Brent has managed to stay healthy. Back to the music. Brent's house (Clyde) sang so well that they came first for the second year in a row. I have to say it is nice that it is over, getting to school early 4 days a week was making for some long days & both boys are very run down & tired.

I think that I am having a quiet week this week, it took me all of last week to recover from the Crafting Connection weekend. This week it is back to the grindstone & the routine of housework & exercise, drop offs & pick ups.

Today You Day 5 - Saturday 29 July

8:14am You came down to my craft room proudly carrying breakfast for me, a wedge of cheese, some cashew nuts, a quarter of apple (core & all).

10:00 You went to swimming lessons

3:45 You made popcorn in the new popcorn maker.

Today You Day 4 - Thursday 27 July

I haven't really got a photo of this so I might just use a photo of the car.

6:30am You woke up & got dressed for school & kindy

6:45 You had cereal followed by frankfurters for breakfast. Weetbix for Brent & porridge for James.

8:00 We left for the school/kindy dropoff. Brent got dropped off first & then James.

Today You Day 3 - Thursday July 20

3:30 You had afternoon tea & got a treat of Pebbles to celebrate a good first week back at school & kindy

4:00 You did your homework. Brent had reading, spelling & his big red prep book. James did colouring in of things beginning with H & wrote a lower case h.

6pm We picked dad up from the airport after he had spent a day working in Wellington.

What's coming up

Today James went back to morning kindy & tomorrow Brent goes back to school. Yipee because I have had enough of loud boys voices yelling & screaming all the time.

Brent was very good this morning & helped me with the housework but as soon as you put both boys together the noise level just sky rockets.

I am doing a layouts class tomorrow night, kindy library on Wednesday. Scott goes to Wellington for the day on Thursday & Friday is the kindy committee meeting.

Brent is going to be going to gymnastics with Medbury on Wednesday mornings so it will be interesting to see if he starts trying to do handstands again. Also the 3rd term is the music night so I imagine we will be having to start helping him memorise some songs for that.

Sometime through this i will have to remember to keep making notes for the today you class so I'll be updating the blog a bit more frequently with all the homework things I am doing.

Have a great week everyone.

Creating

Not much creating has been happening this week, I've been trying to get some of the homework for CC2006 done. I found out that for the 10 classes I'm doing I need a minimum of 31 photos. So it has been a matter of going through old backup discs from last year to find the photos I need for class.

I did create a small 8 x8 layout yesterday after coming across a photo of James' 2003 christmas decoration. I have decided to give each boy an album about the decoration that they get each year so they know the significance of the decoration.










I have also played around with his photo of James from Rangitoto. I love this photo of him because it seems to catch his mischievous but exploring personality.



















So I had a fiddle & learnt a new trick that I have been trying to learn for ages.

Doesn't it annoy you when you have been trying to do something following instructions for 2 months & it doesn't work? Well it took me 2 months to work out that there was a box I needed to have a tick in to get a photo to look like this.

Quite a neat trick that I might try on Brent's photo of him & the new toothbrush.

Photo Decor Class photos

Yipee! I have found all the photos I want to use for this class. Now I just need to get them all printed off.



















I flicked the photo of Scott coming down the hill to a mirror image so that hopefully it could look quite good along the horizontal arms of either the L or the E in the word LOVE.

Today You Day 2 - Saturday 15 July

7:30am Brent made a milk drink "Quick" for him & James

8:15am Both boys went off with Scott to get Mr Puffy for breakfast.

11:00am We came home from doing some shopping. We went to Briscoes & bought some new toothbrushes. Both boys were dead keen to use them straight away but they had to charge for 16 hours. No surprises on Brent's colour choice. James would probably have chosen red if there had been that colour to choose from.













I am not sure which of these photos to use as the 6 x4 & which to use as a 2 x 2. I am also thinking that maybe the photos should be B&W otherwise how will I know if they will go with the paper we are going to be using? I think I might just print all the photos out in colour on Reflex paper & then see about changing or even doing a colour fiddle to highlight Brent's colour choice after the class is over.

Today you - Day 1 Tuesday 11 July

At CC2006 one of the classes I'm doing is Today You with Ali Edwards. The homework is to record 3 simple observations for each of the nine days.

I thought I would do my boys. Maybe I will do observations for both but only do 1 of the boy's observations for the class & come back home & do the other boy.

11:00 You both decided to play a game of "Find Jim the otter", a game that you devised after hearing the news about Jin the otter being found at Issy Bay on Rangitoto.



















11:30 You managed to find the otter but decided he needed fish so you went & threww a skipping rope out you bedroom window & pulled it back in with an imaginary fish on the end of it.





















3:00 You got to see grandad much to your surprise because you were expecting nana. Nana arrived about half an hour later to a lot of excited yelling from you both.


I also tried out going fully manual on the camera. I like the lighting & composition of this photo but I am a bit annoyed that it is blurry however as a 2 x2 inch photo it is not too bad.

Lake Lyndon

Today we decided to take a day trip to the snow. I had heard on the radio that Lake Ida was open for ice skating so we thought we would take a drive up there. We got to springfield & found out we had missed the turnoff. The helpful lady at the Springfield info centre told me that we could either turn around & go up the muddy road to Lake Ida or we could go to Lake Lyndon as there was ice skating there too. We decided we would carry on & got to Lake Lyndon an hour & a quarter after we left home.

The number of cars there was incredible. We obviously weren't the only family that thought cheap outdoor fun, let's go! The ice on Lake Lyndon was thick & the snow just to walk out to it was amazingly thick. The sun was shining, blue sky & a slight westerly wind but that chill didn't deter us. We don't have ice skates but the boys went out on the ice in their gumboots and had a wonderful time. It was the highlight of Scott's day because he had never been "skating" on a lake before.

We had lunch & then turned around & went 50metres up the road to an area where there was a hillside that people were sledding down. We had packed our plastic bags that the pellets for the fire come in & the boys used them as sleds. James was surprisingly not at all sure about doing it so he mainly stayed on a little slope.

Brent on the other hand was very keen to go up the hillside to have a sled to the bottom. Once he had worked out how to hold the plastic & then put his bottom on it before it slid off he was away laughing.

Scott also had fun sledding as well as chasing the plastic bags across the hillside when they got blown away by the breeze. He really enjoyed the sledding but thinks he'll be rather sore tomorrow.

What a great & cheap days entertainment. The boys came home rather tired but very keen to give it another crack next weekend.

School Holidays

It's the school holidays & it has been cold & miserable. Luckily there has only been a couple of days when the boys have had to be stuck inside all day. Usually we take Scott in to work & then come back home & have some toast. We then do an hour of tidying up & housekeeping & then we have morning tea. after morning tea the boys & I have been able to go out for a walk which has been a good way to get rid of some of that pent up energy. Back home for lunch & a rest time in front of TV. Then time for more chores & another walk before picking up Scott. It is quite a good routine & at the end of the week they get a reward for helping getting the chores done.

This week's reward was going to see Cars, the movie. What a great movie. I was wondering how long James would last when he asked "when's the end?" but the action soon picked up & he was able to sit through the whole movie. I loved the movie too because there was some bits that went flying over my boys heads that I could just laugh at. I wasn't alone in the laughing, there was another 3 mothers who laughed with me. In fact there was hardly anyone at the 9am showing. There must have been about 24 of us all up watching that movie. That's the great thing about having early risers because the next showing was sold out (11:20am), even at 8:30 in the morning.

Next week mum is going to look after the boys for a few days so I'm looking forward to that & hoping to use that time to get some of the homework for CC2006 done.

Brent's effort Card

Well what can I say about Brent's effort card. I picked him up from school on Friday 30 June & asked him how school was. He had a monosyllabic answer "fine". Then he clammed up totally. I asked him if he had got his effort card & he said "yes". We got home had afternoon tea & then I asked him for his effort card. What I saw brought tears to my eyes, I couldn't be more proud of how hard he is working at school.





What a great achievement Brent. I hope you keep up the hard work.

Creating

I have been having some fun creating some layouts recently. Somehow I find it easier to sit down & listen to Dr Phil & scrap rather than saying I'll scrap tonight. The pressure must come off me & I just sit & putter around with the layouts while watching Dr Phil. Of course Dr Phil is usually not on or is a repeat through the school holidays so this habit may not last for long.

Determination is actually one that I completed at ScrapCamp. I have been looking at it wondering if I should add something but have decided to let well enough alone & leave it as is. This is the journalling.

You got that bike for your 4th birthday & you had great fun riding it around the block with its training wheels on. You got to a stage when even though there was training wheels on, you didn’t really use them.
Dad & I decided on April 8 2005 that the time had come to take those training wheels off. When you saw what had been done to your bike you threw it on the ground & burst into tears & said that it can’t be ridden, that we had broken it. You were very angry with us even though we had said we were taking those wheels off before we did it. We let you be & waited for Saturday to roll around.
On Saturday dad took you for some practice rides down the driveway & to your great surprise you could ride your bike. It only took a week of practicing & then you were away, nothing could stop you!
I took you to a BMX track on 29 May 2005 to let you see what you really could do on your bike. You loved it & came back home & told James that he won’t be able to go to the BMX track until he could ride a bike with only 2 wheels.
With a little determination Brent, you can do anything, including riding a bike on only two wheels.

I am also dabbling in digital layouts using my PSE4. I'm really thrilled with this layout. It's the first digital layout I have completed without having any directions on how to do it.

Then there is the calendar page for February that I completed a couple of nights ago. It's simple but to the point. Hopefully if I keep the other calendar pages like this I'll be able to catch up & maybe even go back & do last year's ones.

I have also finished another one today but I haven't scanned it in yet so that'll have to be yet another blog entry on another day.