Gymnastics with school

The girls have been practicing their routines SO hard over the last few weeks for their inter-school gymnastics competition, and it all paid off today.  Jaimee had been working especially hard on being able to do a forward roll to a stand without putting her hands down on the floor for support as she gets up.  She finishes a roll with one leg straight (I think this is a scar tissue flexibility issue, she just cant tuck both legs together!), which makes it twice as hard to get on her feet from a roll.  My heart was bursting with pride today when she pulled off her floor routine BEAUTIFULLY - nice sharp straight movements, holding her plank for two seconds perfectly straight and rolling to stand WITH NO hands touching that floor.  A big smile and a salute to the judge left her with an "excellent" on her score card.

Kate did really well too, considering she is very young to be in the gym comp.  She FLEW through her floor routine in about 20 seconds flat (see the video, its nice and short!) but was definitely one of the most tidy routines in her wee class.  If only she had slowed down a little bit - the same issue Jaimee had the year before actually!  But don't you worry Kate, you got an "excellent" on your beam routine, which was awesome -   I am sure I would have fallen doing all those tricky movements up so high.

A fun afternoon for me and Luke too, playing parent helper and helping walk the kids down for the event. Luke LOVED having a turn in the foam pit.  I even managed to sneak in a wee flip on the trampoline much to the amusement of the kids in Jaimee's class.  One of the coaches who does gym with me on a Monday night was judging the beam, so it was a bonus to be able to yak to her and point out my wee angels (who she said did a beautiful job!).

Well done girls, it must have been very rewarding to see all that hard work you  put in practicing both at school and at your gym club each week.  Jaimee got 3 straight "Excellents" for her floor, beam and vault and Kate got 2 Excellents and a "Very  Good"!

We finished off our busy day with a working bee when.  Gramp Muz and Granny came over to help us with our home.  Gramp Muz cleared the gutters for us, there was about 10 years of gunk in there, and there is an actual garden growing in the carport guttering - no wonder it was overflowing!   Granny filed, sanded and puttied the top skirting boards for us ready for painting.  It was a real untidy mess so was hard work, leaving her coated in a layer of dust.  She mentioned needing a mask, so Jaimee helpfully went and fetched her a lovely dress up eye mask, giving Granny a good giggle.  The kids were a bit tired and grumpy after their big day, but after a yummy dinner and a hot shower, they were happy to snuggle up with Grampa Muz for some stories - he always lets them choose one each, so they get 3 stories! A lovely end to a  busy day :)

Caliente Poker - or Galiente as we know it!

Growing up, there has been one game that has stood out above all the rest as our family favourite.  Galiente.  It is a card game with a poker twist, and we have played it for 3 generations now.  Mum grew up playing it, and her father made these awesome boards for her and her sister's families.  When dad and mum divorced, the game didn't die - my stepmother crafted up a paper board version and we kept playing it with both sides of the family.  We can't wait to teach the girls this family game which always means lots of laughs and fun around the table together.  

As we wrapped up a laugh filled game with mum, Murray and my uncle John (up from Masterton, what a treat) last night, I mentioned to mum that I have never found anyone else who knows how to play this game or has even heard of it.  We decided to do a spot of research, after all - the entire world's knowledge is now accessible  thanks to google.  So Google we did, and found....zilch.

Apparently this game does not exist according to the powers of the internet.  And then I asked mum why the board had the word "Caliente" painted in tidy letters on it.  "Oh, thats how dad wrote G" she replied.  Hmmmm...I googled "Caliente" this time,  instead of Galiente.  

Again, not much.  Although there is a card game called Canista Caliente, it was clearly not the same game with a totally different game play.  I then googled images, trying to find a similar board to ours.  I finally came across this one tiny reference in Australia - a board that someone is trying to sell, although they had no idea how to play the game at all.   It was clearly the same game as we know though, with the same board layout as we use.  But where is this game from?  Uncle John and mum remembered the name of the 1940s games book that Gum Gum (my grandmother) owned, but even the version of that book we found online doesn't mention this game at all.  It mustn't have made it to later editions!  

the board i found online

So I am now determined to put this game on the internet for safekeeping and to hand down the rules and fun to my own children.  This game is a family tradition, and it seems, a bit of a family secret too! 

Here are the basic rules of play:

Part A:

1. Deal out a pack of cards between all playing, discarding 4 cards as you deal. 
2. Everyone gets 100 coins/buttons at the start of the night to 'gamble' with and puts one of each of these into each compartment on the board at the start of each round of play. 
3. Each player now looks at their cards and plays a round of poker based on what is in their hand.  Players bet, with the money going into the poker section on the board.   If they win the poker hand, they get the money and also the right to begin the next part of the game.

Part B:

1. The object of this part of the game is to get rid of all the cards in your hand.  The winner of the poker hand begins by playing a card of their choice.
2. Once a card is played, the person who holds the next card in the sequence plays it, and so on.  Ace is low, King is high. 
3. There are "STOP" cards in the game that halt the sequence because you discarded four cards when dealing.  So you may have tabled a 5 and 6 of hearts, then someone else tabled a 7.....but nobody has the 8.  That means the person who held the last played card (the 7 in that example) gets to play another card - but now has to change coloured suit from red to black.
4. "STOP" cards can also be created when a run of cards is tabled that begins at a number above the one you hold (ie if the 5 hearts was played already, your 4 hearts is now a stop card).  
5. Kings also are STOP cards naturally being the highest.  Accordingly, Aces can be hard to get rid of as nobody will play one before this lowest card!  
6. If you play your hand right, and keep an eye on the tabled cards, you can play a whole run of STOP cards without anyone getting much of a turn.  
7. There are money cards through this part of the game, where you can collect money from the board.  Money cards are: 10,J,Q and K hearts, Q&K combined of hearts, and the almost impossible to collect "7,8,9" run of any suit.  That one normally isn't collected very often, meaning that each round more money is added to it as you pop a coin in each compartment again....it can be quite a jackpot to collect it!  
8. Obviously, if you have a money card, you want to try and table it quickly or you might not get your money before somebody gets rid of all their cards.
9. Once somebody gets all their cards out, they are the winner.  Everybody else counts how many cards they have left in their hand and puts that amount of coins into the kitty on the board, which the winner collects.

We like to keep playing until somebody has no money/buttons left at all to play with, and then work out who has the most money - they win the night!  If there is uncollected money on the board still (again, that 7,8,9 run can be HUGE) we often play a "show and tell" poker hand for each compartment left, with the winner adding that money to their pool.

...And that my friends is the game of Caliente.  Or as we have been calling it, Galiente!

***********************STOP PRESS***********************

I interupt this blog to inform you that I have FOUND IT!!!! By pure chance, I have stumbled across this web page with basically the SAME GAME (although their rules have a few slight differences)...it was hiding under the crafty alias of "Royal Rummy".    Ah. I can rest in peace now knowing this is a real game.  Although apparently it is known by a zillion different names!!!

Murders, Art and more....

I am relieved because I have been wanting to write this blog all weekend and my silly laptop wouldn't connect to the internet, putting me into a slight state of panic..but all has returned to normal and I am back online to hash out my weekend for my beloved readers (haha, that sounds so silly eh).

We have had a great weekend, well worth blogging about.  We kicked off with a long awaited and much anticipated dinner party with our friends.  We get together every month for a games night with the Dempsey and Winters family, having turns hosting the night.  This is a really fantastic way to keep connected, both for us adults and for our children, who all have just as much fun as we do together.

This month it was the Dempsey's turn, and the game was a murder mystery party.  It was SO much fun!  The mystery was set in the 1950s at a class reunion, and I was to come as E.C. Leigh (get the pun in the name....?), the popular and bubbly cheerleader, who has a secret child with the murdered victim.  Marty was the rich manager of the murdered victim and with his hair greased to the side and with business cards for all, he got right into his part.  I had lots of fun doing cheers with my pom poms and acting the ditz.  With accusations flying around the room, and new clues emerging every round, we all had a blast.  I am so keen to do THIS kind of game again, and when I got home we hopped on trade me for a look.

Unfortunately, they are not cheap to buy, even second hand - averaging around the $40 mark with delivery fee.  Still, that works out to be only $10 a couple if we all chip in, so I have already ordered the next game - a 'honky tonk' western bar murder!
Keen to do more of these, but not so keen to shell out money for games we won't use again (once you know the murderer it takes a lot of the fun out!), I am chatting to my friends about creating a hireage system for the games that we all own together.  If we lend them out for a fee of $10 per hire, our friends get to play the game for a fraction of the cost and we can pop the money into a jar towards buying the next one....OR we could do a swap with someone who already owns a game so we both get to play a new ones. I am quite surprised there isn't already some sort of swap club organised in New Zealand.  These nights are so much fun - just check out the photos.


On Saturday after swimming lessons, we picked granny up and headed out to the Art-X Exhibition in Napier to see her art displayed and to check out the others on display.  This exhibition is fantastic, we always enjoy the variety and talent on display from all over New Zealand.  Mum sold a picture on the opening night which is brilliant.  Marty and I could never afford anything on display, most of it  is of the highest quality - I think the price on the one we picked out as our favourite was well into the thousands!  Of course, it is a bit of a gamble taking three young children to an Art Exhibition.  Note to self, DO NOT try this after a late night.  Luke refused to sit in the stroller, instead he decided to copy us as we pointed out aspects of the artwork we liked.  Unfortuantely - he has no spacial awareness, and his fingers were pointing and making direct contact with some of the art.  "NO LUKE...don't prod that canvas...don't touch the glass"....shudder.  I just don't have a spare $10,000 to cover the costs if he popped a hole in a low hanging piece.

And then Kate decided to through one of those rare COMPLETE meltdown tantrums after Granny stepped in to sort out a fight with her sister.  She started this totally angry SCREAM that she just repeated over and over again.  I yelled for Marty to take Luke, hoisted her up and under my arm - ignoring the many disapproving adult eyes on this awful child and her mother - and carried her down the stairs and out the front door....still screaming.  We sat on the steps until she calmed down.  It was not pretty.  Yeah....like I said, do not try the art exhibition after a late night.  Not so fun.

Later that evening, while Marty was out for Wild Alpha, I was considering getting dinner started when I had a brainwave.  I searched through the paper bin and found what I was looking for.  All the kids jumped in the car and we went to Burger King and ATE IN - this is a total treat for my kids.  The paper bin search had resulted in finding the vouchers that meant we all ate a full combo meal for only $15.  Yes, $15 to feed four of us dinner.  Thank you Burger King, no cooking/dishes for mummy to do AND my kids felt like they were getting the ultimate treat for tea.

Its been a good weekend.  Check out the next blog to find out how we finished it on Sunday night...

The Lounge: Stage One

When we moved in to our lovely 1950's home four and a half years ago, we had big plans for it.  Unfortunately, big plans goes hand in hand with big spending and most of those big plans have slowly faded into a "one day" dream.  We did manage to put a shower in, that was kind of important.  We painted the bedrooms (over the wallpaper, lazy perhaps but it looks fine to us).  We did the insulation and put central heating in.  And then the money ran out and the kids increased...and everything came to a grinding halt.

The list is a mile long.  The house needs rewiring. The lights aren't earthed. The gutters need replacing.  The windows need to be re-puttyed and painted.  As does the entire house actually.  The kitchen could use a face lift.   The carpets are down to the threads in the bedrooms, and buckled in the lounges.  The laundry lino has peeled away right back to the concrete, and the laundry cabinet doors fell off ages ago.  Luckily the laundry is detached from the house and nobody really sees those things.  Sadly, that kiwi gene called DIY does not seem to be in our blood.  We would rather take the kids to the park or watch a movie and turn a blind eye to our mustard coloured doors and the gate that doesn't quite open right.

A few weeks back, I noticed one of our church members fixing a gate at a home I was visiting.  Oh...a handyman.  I could so use one of those.  I inquired as to whether he could take out a fireplace, which was next on our "one day" dream list (we purchased the wallpaper for the lounge 4 years ago and STILL haven't put it up because we wanted the fireplace gone).

He agreed to come take a look, and he did.  Then today he rang me up and asked if I would be home so he could get started.  Gulp.  This is it! Something is actually happening on the house! So very excited.

It all happened very quickly.  The fireplace came out so quickly, I missed it because I left the room for a minute.  We were both surprised not to find a flue behind it, the chimney really was a chimney and we could look up it and see sky!  And then the tough bit - our concrete mantle.  I actually missed the photo opportunity when it finally came away after a lot of sledgehammering, chiseling, huffing and puffing.  Poor Shane had been sick recently and told me it didn't take much for him to pass out.  I got water and watched nervously.


The girls were delighted to come home and find a big hole in the wall and to be given the chance to pull some wallpaper off.  They did this with great delight and lots of grins.  I remember pulling wallpaper off walls as a kid, it really is a very satisfying task, and our lounge is so easy to strip because the owners had put THREE layers of wallpaper on top of each other!  We agreed there is no point taking the bottom layer off, it is so tight and smooth, but the top two have peeled off in about 5 minutes flat. We can't wait to see the room all finished with a smooth jibbed wall (the bookcase is coming out tomorrow), our funky wallpaper up, the TV mounted up high - the chimney will hide the cables nicely...and then I can finally dream about carpet.  Happy sigh.

And the cherry on top? Our amazing church friend stopped me when I mentioned payment to him, looked me in the eye sternly and told me If I mention money again he will go home. right. now.  He reminded me that I could earn more money teaching, but I chose to take the pay cut to work for the church, and this is his way of giving back while he was in the position to do so.  I am trying to swallow my protests (which he refused to hear) and accept this gift of love.



 But I did tell him the next job he does for us WILL be paid for...and I am pretty sure we have enough work to keep him busy for a good few years!

Mission lounge: end of day one

Family Life

I'm sitting here sipping a coffee waiting for Marty to drop the girls home (he has the car for an appointment later).  I figured its been a while since I wrote a blog, not that anything exciting has happened in the last couple of weeks, but its time to write anyway - I'm pretty good at waffling on after all.

I have been busy with all sorts of those little tasks that I keep meaning to get round to doing and never actually do them.  But I HAVE been doing them, so that's why I haven't been blogging - or even facebooking!  Nothing extremely important - working on my half finished cross stitch, playing 'hidden object' mystery computer games (I have the girls hooked now too), making cards (and sending them!) and updating the photo albums (never ending task).  I have even managed to start on one of the MANY books in my bookcase that I have been meaning to get around to reading.  Gone with the Wind is pretty good so far.

Yesterday I made it to Gymnastics for  the first time in two weeks, thanks to a long weekend followed by a migraine.  I am feeling the 2 week break in every muscle today too!  Last night I accomplished a backwards flip on the trampoline for the first time in my life.  It was such a rush, that I was shaking for about 10 minutes after - literally.  There is something a bit weird about flinging your body backwards in the air and seeing the world turn.  I didn't quite land on my feet, but rather crumpled into a heavy folded heap upon landing.  Very graceful, luckily nobody saw me.  They all heard about it after the second attempt though when I yelled out to them "I DID IT!"  They laughed at my shaking hands as I sat down to recover.

It has been pouring with rain here for the last 24 hours much to Jaimee's disgust.  She HATES the rain at night and spent most of last night in our bed after coming in terrified and crying yet again.  She doesn't like the noise it makes on the plastic carport roof outside her room and sobbed last night "I wish we could take the carport away".  During the day it can rain and she is fine, but at bedtime she just doesn't cope.

Luke has been talking more and more.  He says "Thank" now when you give him something.  He hasn't quite got the "You" part, but we are proud of him anyway.  He has this horrid habit of carrying the cats around the house.  He toddles after them saying in a sweet voice "c'mon....'tis alright" before scooping our very tolerant cats up under their front arms.  If you try and take the kitten off him, he says "no.  Mine!" and squeezes the cat harder in a loving deathgrip, so its best to just let him hold the cat.  "See! See! "ging-gles!" he shows me proudly.  The kitten attempts to hide by sleeping on the  top bunk, but Luke just climbs up.  We only know he is there when he yells out "MUM! HELP! HELP!" because he can't get down again.

Kate has been full of sweetness lately.  She has come into my room at 7.30am each morning this week, proudly telling me she has done ALL her jobs, even her bible study.  I was most impressed when she got stuck into her bible study on Sunday morning, even with Jaimee telling her she didn't need to do it on Sunday 'cause we would learn about God at Kings Kids.  When I commend her on her  good work, she says "...So, can I watch TV now?!"  Ah...the true motivation comes out!

I guess I should say something about Marty now since I have shared about everyone else.  He has been doing a Wild Alpha course each Saturday over this last month, and its been pretty cool seeing him develop some deeper friendships with the guys at church.  Each week he comes home dirty and exhausted after doing manly stuff like Motorbike riding, rounding up sheep on a horse or orienteering.  I just hope the rain stops before this weekend because he is meant to be staying overnight....without a tent it seems!! Hmm...I sense a cold and a bad back coming on.

Well, the girls are home and I am off to make the promised milo and popcorn I told them they could have over a movie in this horrid weather.  Till later...

Mishpacha

It's been a family day. In every definition of the word. 

We had afternoon tea at McDonald's with our extended family to celebrate grandads birthday. We always celebrate birthdays with a get together in Marty's family, which I love. I like singing happy birthday loudly in McDonald's and watching the cousins play and the adults chat. It's family being family. 

And then we went straight from there to spend time with our other family - our mishpacha, our church family. Mishpacha is the Hebrew word for the community/village/tribe/church family. It's the word that Moses used when he told his people to teach the children - not the parents, but the community of people. And that's why I love my mishpacha. Because they really do love us like family. Kate and jaimee giggled and grinned as Mr Hamish chased them around the hot pools, and squealed and laughed with their mate Chiara as they dared each other to dunk in the cold pool. The teenagers happily joined the younger  kids at the dinner table as us parents enjoyed a good chat at ours (just too many of us for one table sadly!)

Thank you both our families for a lovely afternoon. 

Jaimees dream

"This morning, I didn't get out of bed when you called me mum, cause I was in the middle of a dream"

"Oh? What was your dream about - it must have been good if you didn't want to wake up!"

"It was really good. I was a fairy and everything was clean and tidy....whenever I wanted to play with something then put it away, I used my magic powers and everything would be clean and tidy!  ....I was a worker fairy, and it was my job to dust and clean and tidy everything until it is all nice and sparkly"

"Hey, did you know I (mum) is a worker fairy too?! It's my job to dust and clean and tidy too!"

"No mum, you don't do the dusting"

(That's her chore now).

And here are the girls enjoying the first day of winter - in breezy fairy outfits face painting in the sunshine!