Sydney trip day 1

Up at 4am - eek! Wasn't too bad though. Crept quietly out of the house. At least *I* thought I crept. Adam tells me I'm like a baby elephant... Left the kids in Shannon's capable hands with a manual I'd written with as much useful information as I could think of for looking after our little monkeys for three days. Got to the airport and had breakfast in the Koru Lounge - one of the perks of Adam's frequent travelling :) Arrived safely in Sydney, although had some fun turbulence on the way (I'm one of those people who gets excited and actually likes it when we go through turbulence!).
Now I'm waiting around while Adam does some stuff at a couple of the chapels then he can drop me off in Sydney centre for the afternoon while he carries on. And tonight will be dinner by the opera house! More to come soon...

New Day Care

Tilly and Zach had their first settling in visits at their new day care centre on Thursday and Friday this week. They loved it and had no problems saying goodbye to me :) They're looking forward to having two longer days there this week.
Here's a couple of pictures of them just getting stuck in to it as soon as we got there.

Haircuts

We took Zach to get his haircut yesterday and on the way Lani asked if she could have here's cut too. Normally I would just do hers at home, but she really wanted to have it done at the hairdresser's like Zach. So after a bit of thought we let we have her first cut at the hairdresser's. Tilly also wanted a picture taken even though she didn't have anything done :)

Zach's drawing

I love Zach's drawings at the moment. He's at stage of them having cute little details on them. It's interesting to watch and see what he notices enough to include in his drawings.
He just showed me this drawing, along with an exclamation of "Look Mummy, I drew President Monson"

My new job

So I realise I've made mention of this in other posts but haven't actually shared the details. After 2 years off to be a stay at home mum, I'm going back to work on 23rd April.

First, some background. I worked through having all the kids and the plan was that it would stay the same when I had Tilly. Except... I was then a mother of 3, aged 5, 1 and 5 months when it was time to start work again. I went back for the start of the school year in September, but within about 3 weeks I knew I couldn't handle it all. I was a zombie, totally in the twilight zone, trying to do a demanding full time job (high school maths teacher by the way) and mum of 2 still very small ones who impacted on my sleep. So I handed in my resignation. I still had to continue through til the end of term (December) because that's how it works in England - you have to hand in your notice by half term and work til the end of the term. So it was 4 months in total of just getting through. I don't actually remember much of it but Adam tells me I just wasn't really conscious :D

So in Dec 2009 I rejoiced in becoming officially unemployed :D I relished being at home with my kids and being able to take Lani to school. I have never once complained of having to do the school run. I didn't get to do it for Lani's first year at school and feel like I missed out. And she did. I think it's a real privilege to be able to take them and pick them up, get to know who their friends are, who the parents are and what their teacher's like. There's opportunity for the teacher to chat to you about little things that have happened that she probably wouldn't bother picking up the phone to call you about. So I've loved being able to do all the things a mum at home can do and just being there for my 3.

But the time has come for the next phase. We really want to buy a house and the prices are so high here that I really need to be earning if we're going to achieve that. Plus, the kids are 3, 4 and 7 now and I think it will be much more manageable. We came to this decision around November last year, after much thought and prayer and work from me to accept it :) Next cane the issue of finding a job. A bit tricky that because of timing. School starts in January here and so it was too late in the year, most vacancies had been filled. And I really wanted to go back to the school I'd worked at when we were here before, but I'd already seen a vacancy come and go back in August before we'd decided I'd go back. I applied for the only one that came through for a school on the shore, but after a few weeks heard back that it had already been filled. I thought that I'd probably missed the boat.

Then one day in February I was having a particularly hard day with the kids. Zach had been playing up recently and he seemed bored. I was getting annoyed this was happening, despite my efforts to try engaging him more and teaching him the read and write. So I stood in the kitchen and prayed something like this: Look Heavenly Father, this isn't working. I'm trying here, but this is not good for me and definitely not for the kids. Something needs to change. I think it would be better for Zach to be in a structured preschool and getting more stimulation than I think I can do. I don't think I can be what he needs at the moment. So please, if that's the next thing for him, please just help me get a job.

Within half an hour I received an email notification of a vacancy. At the exact school I wanted. Talk about direct answer to prayer! (although I didn't tell anyone except Adam about that cos I didn't want to jinx it!). I sent in my application that very afternoon. A few weeks later I was invited in for an interview and ta-dah! Next morning they called up and offered me the job. THE job, the very one I had imagined myself going back to when I did return to work.

And things are falling into place to make it happen. I feel very blessed that my Heavenly Father heard me, answered immediately and with more than I'd even asked for - he gave me exactly what I wanted, not just what I needed.


Apologies for a post without pictures, I do try to put pictures in wherever possible because no one wants to just read a huge passage of text :) But I don't think it would have helped my chances if after the interview I asked to take a picture with them all so I could blog about it after they offer me the job...

Zach's turn at eye spy

At the beach yesterday we were playing eye spy. Zach was having fun joining in, although did make a few mistakes understanding how things are spelt. Anyway, it was his turn:
Zach: I spy with my little eye, something beginning with "buh"
We had a few guesses, then...
Me: Give us a clue
Zach: Hmmm.... It's near a bush
Me: Is it bush?
Zach: Yes!

Zach - my young Padawan

Adam and the kids have all really got into Star Wars over the last few months.  Of course Adam and I have been fans of the movies for a long time (in our generation, who isn't?), but he's been watching the Clone Wars animations with the kids and they absolutely love it.  To start with we had the first series on iTunes, which Adam had bought with a gift card he'd been given for his birthday - before the kids even knew what it was all about :D  So they quickly worked their way through that - Adam lounging on his massive bean bag with the kids cuddled round him.  Then came the terrible moment when they ran out.  I went to the video shop one day on the school run and found that they had series 2 and better still, they'd been out a while so were on weekly hire, which you can get for $1 each on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  And so they went on whizzing through series 2.  Series 3 was released on DVD just in the nick of time as they finished up series 2 so I picked them up as a surprise for them.  They've now worked through all available Clone Wars episodes.  Series 4 has been aired on TV, but isn't available on DVD yet, so that's the next one to keep our eyes out for...

So Zach is very much into all things Star Wars and so I made him a light saber from the cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper.

Royal Easter Show

Yesterday (Good Friday) we went to the Royal Easter Show.  It's an annual event at the ASB show grounds.  Sam and Paul invited us to go along with them and I'm so glad we did!  I hadn't actually thought about it at all, had seen stuff about it last year, but not this.

The first thing we saw was these metal sculptures.  This one is from Alien, outside the window is Optimus Prime and in the background is C3P0.

There were lots of things to do included in the price.  There was a huge area of farm animals that you could get up close to, including rabbits, chicks, sheep, cows, pigs and llamas.  The first thing we went to see was the Wotwots show, which unfortunately was the low point of the day - it was rubbish!  They should have kept the Polkadots!! (The polkadots have done the Easter show for the last few years, not sure why they aren't this year)  It was just boring and our kids were fed up after 5-10 mins.

Anyway, it got much better after that.  We went through to the sheep shearing where they got Adam up on stage to ride a bike which powered the clippers so the kids could each have a turn at shearing.  Which was loads of fun to watch, until they pulled me up to do it!  It was hard!!  I could barely get it going because it was so stiff.  And then could hardly walk afterwards...

And finally Adam had a go while I powered it!

The next thing we went to was the Bushwacker show - Canadian lumberjacks.  They were great, and we actually went back to see them throughout the day when we were nearby and could hear the show going. They had two 50ft wooden poles and raced up and down them.  One of the guys was 3 times world champion at the speed climb - he was amazing to watch.  They went up with a rope around the tree and spiked shoes and this guy looked like spiderman going up.  He just walked right up like it was nothing.  And then when he got to the top he just kind of let go and slid all the way down again (there was a crash mat at the bottom).  It was so fast!

They also had this guy at the end who climbed all the way to the top and then sort of clowned around a bit - took all his gear off and threw it down, stood on top of the pole, juggled, was planking across the top of it and then finished with this:

The best thing was that you had no idea he got himself harnessed in up there.  He did it really slyly so our hearts really leapt when he "fell" off the top!

Next we went to the Zirca Circus, which again was very impressive!  The had a group of acrobat/jugglers first, then 4 gymnasts, next 2 clowns doing plate spinning and the grand finale involved a giant metal ball and 4 motorbikes. Brought in one at a time, they each went inside the big ball and rode around, going in every direction possible.  Then the next bike would come into the ring and go in the ball, until in the end there were 4 bikes in there together.  It really wasn't that big once there were 4 in!

The kids had a turn on one thing each - Zach chose the big slide, Tilly and Lani chose the mini ferris wheel.

We wondered over to where the horse events were, but they had finished up already, but the kids at least got to get up close to a couple of them.

The rest of the day was filled with the Art exhibition (Adam and I really enjoyed that but the kids - not so much!), Zumba at the cultural stage, the Strong man competition, 100% Kylie (a tribute act, a bit too cheesy and naff...) and finally the fireworks display.

All in all a great day out!

Did you spot Tilly and Lani?

School Fair

Last Saturday we had Lani's school fair. Which another one of the mum's summed up pretty perfectly - we dinar our cast offs, time and baking to come and buy back everyone else's :D
But it was actually a really good time out with the family. They had lots going on. We started off at the toy sale were the kids bought a paper bag and then could fill it with anything they wanted. So we spent quite sometime in there! After that we let them each have a go on a stall and then the bouncy castles. They spent about an hour on the bouncy castles! Adam and I enjoyed just chilling out on the grass nearby in the lovely sunshine.

And somehow I've come away without any pictures - I guess we must have just been enjoying ourselves too much :D

Zach's last day at Kindy

On Friday Zach had his last day of Kindy.  After the Easter holidays he and Tilly will be in full time day care instead.  Since it was the last day of term, they were having a shared morning tea and a Pirates and Mermaids show.

Leaving kindy for the last time

Tilly found this black cricket in our living room so we caught it and took it into Kindy and fed it to the class frog.  Except it hid behind the frog's water container and he's not the smartest frog - just kept jumping at the plastic where it could see the cricket on the other side.  So we didn't actually get to see the frog eat it, but it was gone when we checked on it later :)

This is how Zach's people look at the moment.  I love it!  This is a picture he drew in Primary of saying his prayers next to his bed and the person nearer the front is me helping him.

Tilly was off somewhere pottering, I think I was doing laundry at the time and when I went to check on her I found this on the floor next to the fridge.  I guess she's in the sorting phase!

Junior Explorer's Concert

The Polkadots had a concert the day after Tilly's birthday - perfect timing, and it was only a gold coin donation for entry - even more perfect :D  They were presenting their new junior explorer classes, which look great, but are one during the day, so with me starting work soon, my two won't be able to do them :(
Still, they enjoyed the concert :)

Row, row, row your boat

Tilly turned 3

Tilly is at the cutest age ever in my opinion. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday she said "Pinks!". She also wanted a butterfly polkadot cake. She loves the polkadots right now and sings their songs all the time.

Here's a picture of some of the things she got for her birthday. I also made her a rainbow unicorn like I did for Hayley's Christmas present.

I'm so glad we got the lego, I can't believe we haven't got any sooner! All 3 of the kids love it and I love how much it gets them to be creative and away from the tv.

Bunk beds

The kids got bunk beds again and they're very excited about it. They had bunk beds in England and really missed them, so were really pleased to hear that we were getting some.  Paul dropped some bits off for us and Adam went and picked up the rest and they could barely contain themselves while we put them together.

They soon started playing with them and making dens etc. Here they are having put blankets up all round. They told me they had made a campavan which also turns into a boat and they were going to Waiheke :)

School run/scoot

Yesterday was my last term day at home before I start work, which means it was the last time of doing our usual routine of walking to school with Lani and Zach on their scooters. They love scooting and it helps make the whole journey a lot quicker :D Tilly has a scooter too, but is way too slow on it to keep up with us on the school run so doesn't get to use it much. I put her in the pushchair so we can go quickly.

But when I start work we'll be on a whole new routine. There won't be time for scooting to and from school, so it's a bit sad. We'll have to take them out for scooter rides at the weekend or something.

We recently took them up to Browns Bay where they enjoyed watching the big boys do they're tricks in the skate park :)

Genius idea...

I have had an amazing idea for a business! (Any entrepreneurs out there, feel free to steal it, I'm not one for starting it up myself...)

So here it is: a crèche/sleep clinic.

You bring your kids in to play and go into a back room that is quiet and dark and has somewhere comfy to lie down and sleep. For when mum (or dad!) just needs to have an afternoon nap, but letting the kids nap would have disastrous consequences at bed time.

How did I come up with this idea? Hmmm... let me think about that one... ;D

April Fools

This was our April Fools joke on the kids - made jelly in a glass with a straw and told them it was a drink of juice :)  I'd seen it as an idea on Sugardoodle (I think!) earlier that day so made sure I grabbed a pack of jelly sneakily while we did the shopping on Saturday morning.  They loved it and had fun re-telling the story of what had happened all throughout the rest of the day.