Discovering Digital

Well you can already see some changes on this blog & it is due to a digital scrapbooking course I am doing. I am finally able to work out how to do some stuff in PSE4 & look at that I can personalise my own blog banner.

This is the title page & a couple of other pages that I have been taught how to do from http://www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com/my.php

I am really enjoying this class becuase it is not only teaching me how to do scrapbooking digitally but I am learning how to use PSE4 at the same time.

So this week I have been taking a digital scrapping class online.

Scott is still sick but he has now given me his sore throat too, so we are both on antibiotics at present trying to fix ourselves up. Luckily both boys seem to be getting over their colds & don't seem to have caught our sore throats.

Not much has really happened this past week, probably because we have both been feeling so awful. Scott's been at home more than at work but then he had to work over the weekend so really any chance of getting better flew out of the window with that.

The boys & I went into town last Friday to have coffee with Scott. While we were there we went into Bally's & bought Brent his new shorts. After Brent's winter shorts problem last year we decided to buy James a couple of the smallest pairs of shorts. What do you know, just like Brent they are falling off him. Hopefully by buying them a term early I can try & adjust them so they don't fall down. James is very excited by having some of his uniform & P E uniform already.

James started back at kindy yesterday & was happy to be there. I was very happy to have him there too, because the noise level in the house dropped substantially for the morning. Poor Brent was a bit lost though. He is not allowed to watch TV unless we are in the room with him because on Tuesday both boys managed to swing on the tv cabinet doors & made the tv fall on to the ground. I was far from happy considering that's the second time they have done that, so their punishment is only tv when we are in that room. That doesn't really happen all that often so now the boys have to entertain themselves without tv. It's been quite good because for one day it got them to do a bit of imaginary play & colouring in. Today however both boys have rediscovered the computer & they have been playing on that.

When I went to pick up James yesterday I got there in time to see the teachers unpacking the boxes from Every Educaid. It was the trains & trainset that I had managed to get a grant for. Just to see the children's excitement was encouraging to me, & a spur to keep me plugging to get all the grants I can for kindy.

Coming up in the next week is Brent starting the second term & swimming starting for the term with James going up a class. We all go & get our haircuts done on Saturday & watch out I may be sporting a new hair colour.

Monday 17th April 2006 & the week ahead

Scott was still feeling sick so I had to drive home. The boys helped clean the upstairs while I washed the linen & towels & cleaned the downstairs bedroom. Scott packed the car & then we were off home. We left at 11:15 but we were in heavy traffic all the way until the Inland Scenic Route & Thompson’s Track. We didn’t do too badly really given the traffic & arrived home at 4:15.

Today Scott is still feeling sick but says at least his legs don’t hurt. He & the boys picked up Mo this morning & then got a few groceries for the week while I did the cleaning & laundry.

Tomorrow Scott is supposed to be going to work but I suppose that depends on how well he feels. The boys are still on holiday so I am thinking up some fun things to do to keep them occupied. Luckily at the moment they seem to be quite happy biking down to the corner & picking up acorns. I might take them both to Hagley Park & go for a walk through there with them & see what we can see. The weather is supposed to stay good for the rest of the week so I have been wondering about taking a ferry across to Quail Island & going for a walk to see the wrecks. I’ll just play that one by ear.

I also need to go into town & pick up a couple of pairs of school shorts for Brent that Ballantynes have in stock finally. Of course they do, it’s the summer uniform shorts & the boys are going into winter uniform at the end of the holidays. Typical really. Never mind I’ve got James following along close behind who’ll need shorts too, so even if Brent doesn’t ever wear them James will.

Hopefully I’ll catch everyone up on what we did this week, next week sometime. Have great holidays everyone.

Sunday 16th April

Easter Sunday & yes despite James finding a lot of dead rabbits in the past two days the easter Bunny did come to Wanaka. The boys were awake & rearing to go at 7am to find the easter eggs. It was pretty chilly but they had a lot of fun finding the little easter eggs all over the garden. It also looked like some of the birds might have enjoyed some too, either that or the easter bunny got so hungry he ate some of the eggs & left just the wrappers to prove it.

Scott came down with the flu & really was like a bear with a sore head all day. We made the decision that if I would drive home we would go home on Monday.

Saturday 15th April

Brent woke up at 6:45 as he did every morning & told us he was feeling sick. He had a headache. We had thought that we would try to be up early to get to the airshow early to get a good park. We ummed & ahhed about going. The sky was overcast & it looked windy, which day was supposed to be better, today or tomorrow? In the end we decided we would give it a miss so we made the breakfast that was going to be for the day we wouldn’t go to the airshow. What do you know? Brent suddenly felt better, so we hurriedly packed our lunch & everything to take with us & went in two cars to the airshow.

We left at 9:30 & we didn’t get very far before we were in a traffic jam. It took us 40 minutes to get to the airfield. We parked on the flat beside the Canberra Bomber & then walked to the front of the field. They had a good area roped off near the runway but away from the load speakers & we managed to find a spot. It was actually a great day to be photographing the airshow as the cloud was covering the sun, otherwise I would have been shooting straight into it. It was not cold either & really it only did a little bit of spitting from time to time.

The show itself was fantastic & because we had been & seen most of the static displays on Thursday there was no need to drag the children through the crowds to see those. The boys were really well behaved but did get scared (as did I) when the F111 seemed to sneak up on us for it’s dump & burn. The noise that machine makes is unbelievable & it reduced James to tears.

Brent was starting to tire around 3pm so we sent him home with mum & Scott, James & I stayed on until the end. James arrived back at the end of the day & told mum how he waved to the pilot in one of the planes & he waved back. He’s right too, because by 3:15 most people had left so we could get a spot up at the fence again.

It was a wonderful day & we all enjoyed it.

Friday 14th April

Because we had seen so much on Thursday we decided to give the static display day a miss at the airshow. Again it was a beautifully sunny day.

We did a bit of housework around the place & then decided we would go for a walk along the Waterfall Creek walk. It was a bit hilly & the boys got tired about halfway. I’m not really sure that we saw the “waterfall” but we did cross over a couple of streams. While we walked along the Catalina landed on the lake & then took off again.

The boys enjoyed playing on the beach after the walk.

Thursday 13th April

The boys didn't sleep in despite having gone to bed later than usual.

We spent the morning doing the grocery shopping & walking along the waterfront. The supermarket was packed & the packer said it had been busy since 8am. All the while there were a few planes buzzing around & an Iriquois helicopter flew low overhead of us at one stage. We had lunch & then tried to get the boys to have a rest because they were both very grumpy. It didn't work because not 1/4 of an hour into rest time than a jet came flying over top of us. What a noise, & from then on any rest was out of the window.

I suggested to Scott that maybe we should just take a leisurely trip to the airfield because obviously a few planes would be taking off and landing. What a brillant idea, even if I do say so myself! We got to park inside the airfield fence right up only meters away from the landing strip! and the planes! OMG they were all out either getting parked in their spots for Friday or they were in the air practising. We got to be inches away from this Kittyhawk & in fact if we had wanted we could've touched it.The first plane that we saw was this Orion which absolutely buzzed us. What a thrill. We watched it go through it's show routine (which I can now tell you is exactly what it did on the show days). We then saw the Seasprites do their routine. All this time we were able to stand mere meters away & watch it.We then went & looked at the static displays & there was hardly anyone there looking. Most of the onlookers were actually those driving in to Wanaka & stopping on the road side of the airport fence to look.We just couldn't believe our luck. We saw nearly every plane that was to be on display that day. The only things we missed out on seeing that day was the F111 which wasn't going to land anyway, the Belriot X1 & the Fastest Indian replica.

Oh & did I tell you how much we had to pay for this? It was FREEEEEEEEEE! Scott was so impressed he said he really didn't mind if he never got to see the airshow proper because he saw so much & with so few people around

Wednesday 12 April

I dropped James off at kindy while Brent & Scott to Mo to the cattery. We came home & were all packed ready to hit the road at 11:15. We picked James up early from kindy, briefly came home so he could do a toilet stop & dump off his kindy gear & then we were off.

We decided to have lunch at Rakaia to let the boys run around in the playground & burn off some energy in hopes they would have a sleep on the journey down to Wanaka.

The boys only did about 20 minutes sleep & were awake the rest of the way. We saw 5 police cars & a couple of speed cameras, one just after we had overtaken two cars. Hopefully it didn't flash us, I suppose we will know in a month's time.

We arrived in Wanaka at about 5pm.

A pretty uneventful day but the boys were very hyped up to see that nana was there.

Other news & coming up

The week ended with a clump of engagements.

Friday we had granny's interrement. The morning started out raining & cold but just as we were due to start the interrement proceedings the rain stopped. Was that a sign from above?

After that I went in & dropped Scott of at work & had a coffee with him. He had worked that morning from around midnight till 4 or 5 in the morning so he had a few moment free to have a coffee with me. Then I went back home to pack up the stuff for my kindy committee meeting. The teachers have found a new expensive kind of trolley that the children would love to play in, so I now have yet another grant application to fill in. hopefully we can try & get this funding from the Hillary Commission. So I now have to find funding for 2 laptops, stage 2 of the playground upgrade, fans inside the kindy building to provide ventilation & the Uni-tubs. What a lot of work. The hard part is sifting through the organisations & finding which one will take funding for what sort of equipment & then calling in the quotes.

Saturday has already been talked about & was very busy.

Sunday was the kindy working bee. As I predicted the same old people were there. Scott came to me & said there's a good turnout I turned around & said to him that they were all committee members plus one of the teachers. So we had about 6 families plus a kindy teacher there. The grounds look a lot better with the wood chips renewed, the paths swept, & the sand pit dug over.

Today was Brent's first day of the holidays so he, James & I walked or biked to kindy. Then I went for my jog while he biked beside me. We came home did some chores & then went back & picked up James. Both boys were tired at around 1pm & after having a fight they got sent to their rooms for rest time where they promptly fell asleep. They must be tired little boys but at least they don't have to wait up long to meet Scott off the plane from his day trip to Wellington.

Tuesday will be Scott's last day before he takes his Easter break off. Hopefully the boys & I will drop him off in town & then drop off James. We'll do some chores & I'll do some pilates & then we'll walk/bike down & pick up James. Hopefully we'lll pick Scott up from work later in the day. That night I have a layouts class.

Wednesday will be kindy library for me & we'll make it James' last kindy day of term. We'll put some new tyres on my car & put Mo in at the cattery before picking up James & taking off to Wanaka around lunch time. I hope by leaving a couple of days early we'll get a pretty easy run down traffic wise.

We'll be in Wanaka to watch the warbirds & just having some r & r before heading back home on Monday.

I hope you all have a wonderful easter break & remember some bunny loves you.

Andrew's 2nd birthday

Saturday was also Andrew's 2nd birthday. It was abeautiful sunny day so we had lunch outside. Andrew had been out to look at the planes so when he arrived home he was actually asleep but he soon woke up & joined in his party. His cake was a chocolate cake with Winnie the Pooh on it, very delicious thanks Jo.

Congratulations James

James received his swimming award on Saturday morning. He has now completed all the requirements to be a jellyfish. Next term he will be swimming in the lane next to Brent at the same time as Brent in the flounders class.

Scott & I are looking forward to both of us being able to watch the boys rather than one of us watching one boy swim while the other one has to keep the other child amused.

Well done James! 

Awesome Effort Brent!

As promised here is Brent's effort card that he brought home on Friday. No wonder he is very tired he is putting 100% effort into all his school work.

As a congratulations for this excellant effort card we went & had breakfast at Drexels on Saturday morning. It is an American style breakfast restaurant that the boys love to go to.

What a fantastic effort card! Well done Brent.

Other News for the week

James has done really well at swimming this term & last Saturday he got graded & he is now going to be moving up a class. Hopefully next weekend I'll be able to get a photo of him & his certificate for being able to move out of jellyfish & start being a flounder.

The big peice of news for me was that I got my first grant application for kindy approved. I was very surprised to hear that we got the full amount we requested from the CCC. This is wonderful because now we can buy some new Thomas the Tank Engine wooden, tracks & engines, as well as one of the activity mats that can be used with it. We also can now buy a tunnel for the children to crawl through.

Brent has been exhausting himself recently by staying awake way after we put him to bed at night & then getting woken up or waking up at around 5:45. This has meant that on Thursday morning he threw a tantrum over nothing before he even left for school. I kept him home on Thursday just so that he could calm down & get some rest. I'm not sure it worked though as he is still throwing tantrums at a drop of a hat & not getting much sleep.

Maybe it is because he is trying so hard with his school work. It hasn't gone unnoticed by his teacher as when we got to school on Friday morning, he had a certificate waiting for him saying "Congratulations Brent for having a fantastic attitude towards school!" I wonder how the effort card will look this time? We were expecting it to come on on Friday but apparently they didn't get one so maybe it is coming home tomorrow.

The Week Ahead
Tomorrow I will have to go into the pool early & try & get James into a new class. I really hope he can get into the 10am class on a Saturday. Unfortunately there aren't many flounders classes in the morning on a Saturday & none of them look to be with Amy (the teacher he has had for the last two terms).

James has got a playdate with Joseph on Tuesday so he's very excited about that. That reminds me. I have thought about what to do about having his party & including his two kindy friends. I have decided we'll have a party come playdate kind of event for him & 5 of his kindy friends in July (before he goes to Medbury). Then he can invite his whole Medbury class around for his birthday party in September. Hopefully this cunning plan will work & I won't have quite so many boys to look after at once, not like Brent's party.

Friday is looking to be a very busy day for me. We are having granny's interrement (however you spell it) at 10am down at the cemetry. Then I have a kindy committee meeting at 12:30 & mum will take James to what is going to be his very last gymbaroo class. I have decided that with having kindy meetings on Friday afternoons it is best just to keep James out of gymbaroo next term. Brent finishes school for the term on Friday.

Saturday is going to be swimming, the last lesson for the term. Then off to Andrew's 2nd birthday party. We will probably be arriving late for it as the timing between ending a swimming lesson at 10:30 & a party starting over the other side of town at 11am is a bit tight. We will be there though.

Sunday there is a working bee at the kindy from 9:30 & finishing at 12:30. Following that there will be fish & chips for lunch. Hopefully we'll get some bark put down & leafs racked up & gutters cleaned out.

Hopefully on Monday I'll be able to update my blog again with photos from Andrew's party & James with his certificate.

New Layout #2

Yesterday was a scrap James day really. This layout is actually for a challenge on http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/ & is based on a Becky Higgins sketch. This used to be & still is in a way one of James' favourite pasttimes, looking through my storage containers & playing with them.

I showed this layout to Scott & his reaction was "didn't James used to be cute." Yes he was cute in those days but really he was & probably always will be my chief mischief maker. 

New Layout #1

Yesterday I got to go scrapping so I have finally done a few more layouts. The groundwork for this layout was actually already done last year at a layouts class at http://www.thememorystore.co.nz/Home

For the last year I have been snapping away photos of Scott & the boys hoping that some day I would get "the photo" for this layout. On the 19 March I got it. Brent & Scott had just come back from a ride through Bottle Lake Forest in preparation for the Bikejam & Scott was very excited about the thoughts of us all riding through there as a family. He went out that day & bought James a new smaller bike with no training wheels to try & get James to ride on two wheels not 4.

James is still not on 2 wheels but he just loves it when Scott & him practise up & down the driveway. 

Kids Bikejam - Sunday 26 March

One of the boys in Brent's class told us about the Meridian Energy Kids Bikejam

http://www.kidsbikejams.co.nz/

I signed up Brent & Scott to have a go. It is not a race it's a participation event & everyone who finished got a medal.

There were 700 children registered for the event that was biking through Bottle Lake Forest. Add in all the parents that were there & there must have been well over 1000 people. What an impressive turnout on what was a very cold & gloomy day. The 5 -7 year olds went off first with their caregivers. Brent had a lot of fun but Scott lost a wheel around the course so they had to stop & put it back on. Not very good when the wheel had only been put on at John Bull Cycles on Friday after having mountain bike treads put on it. Luckily Scott wasn't hurt but it did mean that they got stuck in slow traffic. There was an official photographer at the event & there is a picture of Brent riding through the forest. If the link doesn't take you directly to him take a look at picture 84 in the 5-7 year old group.
http://www.lintonphoto.com/eventphoto/gallery/g324/g324_01/framesetgen5r.html

Brent is already to do the event next year & couldn't have been more proud of his "gold medal".