Disco Fever!

Jaimee had her first school disco last night.  When I saw it in the notices the other week, I was so excited - I love any excuse to have a dance!  And then I read on... that "parents were welcome to join us for coffee and an information night in another room".  Oh stink, I guess the disco is for the kids, and I have to be a grown up.  I am sure I can sneak in one dance though!  Me being me, I asked the new entrants teacher if she thought Kate might be able to come along, as she starts school visits after the holidays (oh my goodness.  5 is coming far too quickly).   All good, and I had two very excited little girls ready to 'disco!"  

I had input into their outfits this time, knowing that if I let them choose alone, they would be discoing in their Disney Princess dress ups, and I want to give them just a little street cred now they are school girls!   When we got to school, I realised that i had made a good call!  Oh my. Some of these little kids are so grown up!    Some girls had full makeup on and strappy dresses on, some of the boys looked like miniature 18 year old rappers. 

 I thank GOD for innocence.  My girls still refuse to wear jeans, and love anything pink,sparkly and girls.  They still listen to Hi 5 and sing to Mainly Music songs.  They don't know who One Direction is.  They normally watch preschool shows too which i think helps with the innocence.  In saying that, this morning Jaimee announced that she "wants to watch Disney channel like her friend Jordis ' Cause we have it mum at our house!  Not Disney JUNIOR - the big kids Disney channel".  I told her I would take a look at a few shows and decide if she was allowed.  She replied "like iCarly or something eh mum?".  Marty cracked up at this reference - she really has no idea who iCarly is, but had heard about it from her friends!

Anyway, back to the disco.  Did I mention it was LOUD?  Not just loud, but nightclub loud! The intermediate kids kept sneaking the volume up and changing the playlist to their favourite songs.  During a particularly bad ear blasting of 120 kids singing along to Katy Perry "Firework" in the wooden hall, my girls came to me in tears with their hands over their ears.  I got talking to a few teachers about it (I know, I know - typical me, solidifying the "annoying school mum" reputation again) and I think next year they plan on having separate disco's for the junior/senior school. Good call!

The kids did enjoy themselves though, although there wasn't a lot of dancing going on - more running around and yelling over the music.    I tried to get the girls up for a dance with me, but they didn't co-operate.  Drat.  I was gutted, i can't dance if no one else is at a school disco!  Kate was right in there with the 'big kids' who happily took her under their wing.  Check her out pulling Jaimee and another girl from her class across the floor!!! Break dancing perhaps...or mopping the floor?  

Well, the first school disco is over and both girls woke up declaring that they were going to have "disco birthday parties" next year.  Hehe...the girls are always going on about their birthday parties: who is coming, where they are going, what they will eat/wear/do.  I guess that this is the only area in a little kids life that they get some control over, and they spend all year letting us know that they own this day!  I might encourage this one though, maybe I can get up and dance at THEIR discos.....

SPRING! Finally!

Yesterday, I had been on total "Mum" duty - taking the girls (and Luke) to swimming lessons, followed by a trip to the library with all the kids.  Then it was straight to a birthday party with Kate...and by the time we got home, folded the washing and fed the rabbits - it was time to make dinner!  Whew.  

  Today was Sunday and the entire pace of our day switched to "a day of rest"...well, for most of us (Marty had a special job to do).  After a great church service (I got a day off Kings Kids to sit and listen, which was just wonderful and refreshing for my soul) we came home and just could not stay out of that glorious sunshine any longer.   Once a tired Luke was in bed after his busy morning,  Lunch was eaten on the picnic blanket outside and that set the tone for the whole afternoon.  

Marty was awesome and got straight to work on the vege garden that desperately needed a good dig over ready for spring planting.  It had become like concrete after a very wet winter of lying dormant, and the job was just too tough for me so I had commissioned Marty for that one!  As soon as he got started, the girls let out a cheer and were quick to find their own gardening gloves and spades.  A big worm hunt began as they 'helped' daddy.  The girls even got into shorts without groaning for this job, which makes me realise just how much they have missed the sunshine and dirt - my girls normally kick up a fight when told to take off skirts and dresses!  

As I walked back inside after lunch, I came to the conclusion that I did not want to be inside.  The sunshine was just too appealing - I love spring days like this, when the sun is warm enough to enjoy but not so hot that I can't sit in it.  I grabbed my book and a lemonade and managed THREE chapters of my book!  I felt like something out of a disney movie as I listened to the sounds of my happy girls, and watched our cute bunny rabbits bound around me in the sunshine.  Jaimee grabbed my camera and took this photo of me....

Ahh.....Sunday Afternoon BLISS.  Recharging in the sun with a book.

 Once the girls lost interest in gardening, they decided to join me by also reading books...to me (and that concluded my own book reading!).  Jaimee had got a book on jokes from the Library, and although she didn't get a lot of the jokes herself, she had great delight in reading them to me.  I think the best one was when she said "How does a spider search for information?"  She paused in delight..."On the WEB!"  Jaimee actually got this one and said to me "get it mum, like a WEBsite!".  I had to laugh with her, enjoying a good joke together was special. 

 The added bonus to all this sunshine was that Luke slept for THREE hours today in a nice quiet house, waking a much happier boy, and also ready to come outside.  Check out his really cute summer clothes making an appearance!  

 Luke had lots of fun pottering around, having a swing and then jumping on the tramp.  He has just figured out how to "jump", and bounces his whole upper body up and down to make his knees bend, its pretty adorable.  He likes to run around the tramp in circles, stopping occasionally to concentrate on a "jump" and then throwing himself against the nets in some kind of daredevil game.  When I hopped on with him, he started a new game - collapsing on his tummy and just lying there for a few moments laughing his head off.  Then he would  pop his head up with a grin, and get back up for more running and jumping.  This was followed by another spontaneous collapsing on his tummy.  I am not quite sure what he was thinking, but it sure was funny to him (and me)!

I am so looking forward to many many more days like this in the sunshine with my family.
Sunday Spring Bliss.  Love it!

The Blossom Parade!

Today was the annual Hastings Blossom Parade to celebrate spring, and both our girls were invited to take part.  Kate was able to dress up and ride with her daycare crew, and Jaimee rode her bike as part of her school and the council's "iwalk" programme.  Both girls were super excited about being a part of the parade, and I had spent a few days making loads of blossoms for Rascals, as well as a few hours decorating Jaimee's bike for her -  so I was keen to see the finished products too!

I had double booked myself though, so Marty was on his own with the girls (wonderful Granma looked after Luke for the duration), rushing back and forwards between the two floats (which were about 10 groups apart on the route), taking photos and supporting his princesses like the amazing father that he is!  He was not impressed at having to be there 2 hours before the parade for judging, but I think that the "runner up for school" award was pretty cool to get - check out the HUGE balloon bike!  Needless to say, the girls were exhausted after their day out, Jaimee went to bed without dinner after all that biking.    

Meanwhile, I was at a "women's retreat" with my church family, enjoying chocolate fountains, lots of coffee, card-making workshops, clothes swapping, great speakers and lots and lots of laughing and sharing.  It was such a blessing to spend a day with these ladies, who encourage and motivate me so much.  I believe that this kind of love is what we need more of - we need to spend less time thinking up "new programmes" and "better services" and much more time focusing on how we can build up each other in love, reaching out and helping when we see a need, and encouraging and supporting each other.  This is what we need to do as "the church" - this is how we are to behave if we want to draw the community to the church - they need to see God's love and acceptance and mercy flowing out from us, they need to see us loving each other.  I was so refreshed from my lovely day out, thank you to my church sisters!  

It was even more of a blessing to come home to children in their PJS, fresh out of the bath, the dishes done and dinner almost ready to be served (lasagne, well done Marty!).  Have I mentioned that I love my husband!?! 

Kate waves to the crowd!

St Matthews 'Float" - that huge balloon bike!

Snippits into my week....

This week I....

have celebrated with Jaimee as she finally achieved her GOLD status on the Mathletics website - after 20 weeks of sitting down twice a week to gain her required 1000 points per week - this is a HUGE achievement for our girl.  She was presented in assembly with the school trophy for being the "Mathlete of the Week" and the youngest child in the school to have achieved gold.  Jaimee was delighted with herself, and so were we.  Even better news, we found out that the canteen voucher reward that the principal gives out for this is for $20 value!! That is at least 5 special lunches for Jaimee - she can hardly believe her luck!  

...Have been watching with interest as a new "facebook trend" was started by my friend Anna, who decided to cancel her account.  I really miss her lovely comments on my blogs, but I am amazed at how this has started a waterfall of people all deciding to 'cull' their facebook accounts (myself included) and put some much needed boundaries on this time consuming social spot! 

...Have been reading up a storm.  As noted in my previous blog, I have spent a lot of time with my nose in a book lately.  I am finding one book in particular very interesting.  It is a fiction book where a bible character (John the Baptist) questions and challenges a modern day pastor on some of the ways that we "do church".  It has challenged me to be more thoughtful and reflective on the way that I teach Kings Kids, the way that I am as a friend and as a christian.  Hopefully you will find some positive changes occur in me as a result of all this pondering...

...asked the girls what they think mummy likes to do.  They replied "Jobs.  And reading. And computer".  Well, I am just glad TV wasn't even on the list, and that reading came before computer!  Jobs? I don't LIKE doing Jobs, but they certainly do take up a lot of my time girls!  Jaimee often says to me "Its very hard work being a mummy, isn't it? You get so tired being a mummy eh?" I assure her that although I do get tired and busy sometimes, it is all worth it and I adore my job being a Mother!

...Went to watch a rock concert last night!  My brother in laws band, Ninja Monkey, was playing so I went along to watch with my sister in law.  It started at 9pm and I wasn't home until midnight. On a THURSDAY.  It was loud, it was rocking, and I was a little out of my element!  But Ninja Monkey are a great band, and It was awesome to support them and to hang out with Shona.  However, I am super glad that tomorrow I am at a ladies retreat all day, where I can relax and recover while my darling husband braves the weather and spends the day with the girls at the Blossom Parade, which they are both taking part in!  

A windy beachy morning

Last night I looked in my diary and noticed that we actually had an empty Monday in front of us.  What a treat! How to use it best?  Digging over the vege garden ready for planting?  Nah, an outing with my adorable preschoolers sounded so much more fun!  I decided to treat them with an early trip over to our favourite summer spot, the beach next to the "Hot Chick" in Napier.  This beach rocks, because it has toilets and food close by, not to mention a great playground and boardwalk for bikes/scooters too.  It is not the greatest for swimming, but that wasn't an issue on this windy spring day!  

I thought some company would make the trip even merrier, so I popped out an open invite to some mums.  I did realise that most people have their days planned out in advance though, so as I was walking out the door I rang my mum, who is currently not working.  She was keen as!  Gramp Muz and Granny were ready to have a day "playing grandparents" as she called it, so we all piled in the car and headed over to the beach, with a fun stop on the way to take photos (and have petting time) of a friend's pony that mum is doing a portrait of soon.

Wow, was it windy! We braved the gusty wind with jackets, hats and jeans, but that did not stop the kids having a blast.  Luke was a little uncertain at first about the sand, it has been a while since he played in it, and he pulled his hand away in disgust when I first rubbed his hand through the warm grains.  After a couple more attempts, he got the picture - this is FUN!  He was soon playing in a bucket of sand with a spade in the other, and there were tantrums at home time.  Meanwhile, Kate tried to make castles, going down to the wet sand with her spade, then bringing it back to her waiting bucket.    We had a really nice morning, even with the wind - and the playground made for lots of fun too...we had the whole place to ourselves!  I promised Kate we will be back again, with time to ride her bike too, we will just pick a less gusty day next time.

Having mum come along had an added bonus to it....she brings along her awesome camera! Check out these shots of our morning....

 

The Bookworm within returns

I have always enjoyed reading. I blame my parents for installing the routine of reading for 1/2 hour before lights out every night - something that our girls have just started doing and something I STILL need to do in order to wind down for the night (and which has sadly taught my brain that it is time to shut down - I often read about 2 pages before I fall asleep, even in the middle of the day!).

I went through a horrid pause in my reading over a few months, I just couldn't seem to find a really good series to sink my teeth into - you know, those books that you just can't wait to pick up and that keep you reading "just one more page"!  Then I stumbled across the last book from a series I started AGES ago at the library (a young adult fantasy series) but hadn't finished and that was me.  I was hooked back into the luxury of the light and fast paced young adult section.  I have been SPEEDING through some books since that first one.  The Young Adult section is a bit like sneaking cherrios at the kids parties we frequent - I know they are a bit young for me, but they are just so delicious!  I like the depth of the characters, the creativeness of the plot and the speed in which I turn the pages.  Anyway, I figure that the writers for this age group have to be pretty talented in order to hold a teenagers attention to a book these days!

So recently I have worked my way through the Inheritance Series, The Hunger Games Series, and a whole bunch of others. I even admit to having read all the Twilight and Vampire Academy books (no, they are not gory vampire books!).  I really enjoyed "The Giver" by Lois Lowry, very though provoking story line that could lead to some great discussions.  I was able to recommend "Uglies" to a teenager the other day as a good read, and he recommended "Divergent" to me, which I just finished.  It is nice being able to connect with the youth, and I am learning that there are a lot of other adults out there like me sneaking cherrios between adult books....

....And I DO like adult books too, don't get me wrong!  Jodi Picoult, Francine Rivers...I could go on and on. I read across all Genres: fantasy, historical, mysterycrime, family sagas, christian fiction....I just love to read!

Recently I discovered a website called goodreads.com - where I can catalogue all the books I have read, rating them on a 5 star system, and then get recommendations based on those I enjoy.  I love lists, so I just enjoyed clicking all the books I have enjoyed thus far and those which I want to read 'one day' (this list is getting longer and longer thanks to all the recommendations!).  So you ask, what were my biggest 'FIVE STAR" fiction reads that grace my bookshelves...besides those I already mentioned?

- The Outlander Series (Crossstich) by Diana Gabaldon.  I just loved these books and own the entire lot.  The first books especially were fantastic.

- The Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean M Auel. Own them all.  Such a unique series - Read them three times now.

- Flowers in the Attic series by Virginia Andrews.  Haunting storyline, gripped me in my late teen years.

- Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye.  Keeping in mind these are fictional books, I just devoured them.  Didn't like the last book, but the first ones were AWESOME gripping reads.

- The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings - need I say more?

- Tomorrow, When the War Began series - read them in my teens and again as an adult.  Better the second time round!

- Pawn of Prophecy series by David Eddings - still working my way through these but they are very good fantasy reading.

- The Morland Dynasty by Cynthian Harrod-Eagles - a series that tracks a family generation by generation from the medieval time right through to today - needless to say, its a long series (over 30 books) and I am only up to book 26 which is set in the 1920s!

I could probably go on and on but those are some of my favourites.  I wonder if my kids will read these books?  Some of these series used to be my mothers, and I still swap book recommendations with her.  It is a nice thought that I could be discussing books with my girls one day.

Marty has had to become a reader after almost 10 years of marriage to one.  I had to teach him to enjoy books, I started by getting him a few autobiographies from his favourite sports people out of the library and leaving them by his bed.  Once he got into them, I discovered that there are James Bond books (his favourite movies)...we now own them all!  Marty is really enjoying Tom Clancy and Lee Childs and tends to stick to an author until he has read every single book they wrote before moving on.  His latest is the Game of Thrones series, so we got him the second book for Fathers Day.

  I will never forget when Paul Henry said on Breakfast a couple of years ago that we should just get rid of libraries, they are becoming so old fashioned in this techie age.  I was LIVID.  I love the Library and so do my children!

We are a family of readers....even Kate can read simple chapter books at 4, and both girls have been giggling as Marty reads them "The BFG" at bedtime.

This makes me happy.

The little things...

I started the day with my normal bible reading.  It was all about using time wisely and making the most of every opportunity.  I then had a peek at my facebook account and read a wise friend's blog about cutting back on facebook time in order to spend more time on actual people in her life.  Coincidence? I think not.

So I was prompted to do another big facebook 'cull' to help me stop reading for hours to catch up on random status posts and I made a decision to put some boundaries around my computer time.  I had noticed that I had started using it more and more after school - which is precious children time in our house, so off it goes during the hours of 3pm-7pm now!

 I also decided to use this blog more and my 'status' updates less - otherwise I find myself sneaking back to the computer to see who has commented or liked my posts all day long!  Anyway, I can say so much MORE on this - and we all know how I love to chat...even if just to myself as I type this!

Hopefully these small adjustments to my usage of time will mean more time for the little things like this:

Jaimee has been asking me for about a week to sit down and do "lots of little plaits" in her hair after a friend came to school with her hair in this style.  With no computer turned on, and the washing put away, I sat down with a coffee and cartoons and my kiddies and spent the next 45 minutes plaiting her hair in 16 plaits.  I actually wanted to do it in much more plaits, but realised that that would take a couple of hours and I needed to make dinner...Jaimee was happy with her 16 plaits and has gone to bed with them in so she can wear them like this to swimming lessons in the morn.

What else happened in my day?  One other big thing worth noting - this morning as I pulled out of the driveway, about to launch into our morning prayer, Kate piped up: "mummy, I am going to do the prayer today" she told me importantly.  I smiled.  "Ok darling".  She prayed for each of our days in turn, that God would keep us safe and help us make good choices and give us a nice day.  It was wonderful listening to her pray for her family.  Later, after dropping Jaimee off at school, she asked me if I could now pray.  It's so special that they want me to do this - I hope they still ask  me to bless their day for many many years to come.

Till next blog....

Luke and his bags!

Luke is walking now, and we are quickly learning to move everything that much higher!  He especially likes to get into my handbag - if the zip is slightly open he can worm his way inside and dump all the contents of my bag out one by one.  He especially likes my wallet (cards everywhere), keys and ipod.  He takes the keys to the front door and stabs them at the door, knowing that this normally produces results for mummy.  Clever boy, but please stay out of my bag!  

Today I gave him a handbag of his own to play with (Kate's bag actually) with a set of keys (old useless ones) and an old cellphone.  He took his bag outside and sat in the sunshine for about half an hour, happily taking his prized objects in and out of the bag with great concentration.    

 Once he worked out how to open my old flip phone, he holds it up to his ear to yak away before cracking up laughing at me watching him.  I hope you can still laugh at these photos of you and your handbag in another 15 years Luke, you are so adorable and we LOVE you!