Easter Eggs

I have to say we don't have too many traditions at Easter in our house. Going to Church and making Easter Eggs is about it.

This is the third year on Good Friday that my children and I have made marshmallow eggs and coated them in chocolate.

Each child has a turn to make their own marshmallow and participate in the mess task of coating everything in chocolate, and I really mean everything. So after a long and exhausting morning each child had complete their batch. I heard everything from... when is it my turn.... how much longer do i need to stir... when can I ....Is it time to ....really the list of questions was endless. When I sat down at the end of this I had to smile at how much fun each child had had. I smiled too at how this tradition had become something which my children can wait to participate in.

This is the first year that my DH has been home to participate in the egg making experience. Usually he is out of the country with work. I am not sure how happy he felt as crowd control was his department this year. Holding back the eager, and at times tetchy, participants does require patients.

Here is McKenzie coating her marshmallow with chocolate.



Hayden just loves using the beater and here he is at the final moments of making marshmallow



Finally Andre really had a ball doing his chocolate work.

Every Little Girl Deserves a Moment of Magic.

My DD is a real tom boy. You can find her, on any given moment, climbing trees, using a hammer and nails, riding bikes etc etc. So I was really delighted when I captured a moment in time when she loved looking like a real girls girl.

She has the need to wear a white dress at an event soon. This dress was all that could be found and has about 3 layers of petticoats, bows and everything a pretty girls dress should have. I must add here that if I had a choice about style this dress would not have been top of my list. Anyway on goes the dress and DD developed the most beautiful smile. She twirled around and glowed with happiness as she just loved the dress.

Latter I look her outside so I could take a photo or two and I have to say I am glad that she gets her moment in time to wear a dress that she thinks is magical.

Just look at that smile




Don't you love the spontaneous twirls that come with the dress.



I even had a go at a very artistic style of scrapbooking with one of the photos. Not my thing really but I love what I have come up with for a first try.

Here is Every Little Girl needs a Moment of Magic.



You can find the credits here at Nuts4Digi

DD's homework

The homework my DD has this year is not the traditional variety at all. I am not sure what it's purpose is but it sure does take up heap of time. You will remember I posted earlier about the poster she, oops I mean I, had to make for homework. It was supposed to be done in an hour but these things needs heaps more time than the teacher anticipates.

Anyway last week it was cooking of some variety and this week this week it was to make a 3D model, a poster or a plan of a classroom. I have to admit none of them could be completed easily and with very little of my help. So after much discussion DD and I decided on a plan, of an ideal classroom. She drew a draft and I could see that it would take heaps of time to make the final copy. So I decided the computer was the way to go.

Firstly we went here so she could make her own printing into a font. Then with her direction I placed everything into the Photoshop programme. In 20 minutes this is what we got.



credits; everything is from Life365 by WW along with DD printing made into the font.

I have to say that I am not a believer that homework should need so much of my help but to get the job done this needed my input.

Since this was handed in I have been thinking that perhaps DD needs to learn Photoshop so that when her next homework project needs the computers help she will be able to have a go herself.

As for DD she was very excited at the way her homework turned out and really wants to learn how to do this herself.

A blogging award

The wonderful Melissa has given me a blogging award. This is a first for me so thank you Melissa. Take time to go and visit her blog it is always a great read. She takes wonderful photos and has great stories to share. Do drop in for a visit.



"The Dardos Award is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."

“Premio Dardos” means “prize darts” in Italian. This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.

The rules are:

1. Accept the award, post it in your blog together with the name of person granted the award and his or her blog link.

2. Past the award to 15 other blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgement. Remember to contact them to let them know they have been chosen for this award'

So I really do have some great blogs that I visit. Not 15 but I will do my best to guide you to some.

1. Beth Nixon writes a wonderful blog. Full of stories of everyday life that most people can relate to.

2. Flora's Blog is just like visiting a candy shop. She is a wonderful scrapbooking artist.

3. {A} . This blog is fabulous and fits in my must read list.

Hmmm I think that this is it for the moment.

Project 365 week 11 and 12

Just a quick post to let you see me Project 365 pages for week 11 and 12. I have come to the point where I need to decide whether I am going to get these printed made into a book now and consequently having 4 books to make up a whole. Or whether I should wait and make just one magnificent book. Hmmm Since I have never had any of my LO's printed this would be a first for me and the seer thought of what they might look like outside of my computer does make me nervous.

Oh well

Week 11



week 12



Enjoy

Little Tearaways.

I have moments when I wish I had more help around my house. DD does speech making sessions. When DH is away I am in the position to take DS's 1 and 2 with me. Now at 4 pm at the end of a term at school both little Mr's are full of energy and not great when it comes to using their ears.

Luckily the venue we are at has a small community hall the boys are able to make use of. Well this particular Tuesday, just last week, they spent the 30 minutes charging up and down the hall using their best voices, opening and shutting the doors and in general making a lot of noise and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

By now DS1 concerta has well worn off and he is hyperactive to the maximum. DS2, 5years, tells me that they were really good, did as they were asked and had fun. Meanwhile I am there thinking how I wish they would keep the noise down so as to not disturb the lesson, stop going in and out of the doors and generally listen just a little more.

Hmmmm

This is the one photo I took and made into a LO showing all of this.



Credits; paper from Spreading the Cheer kit by WW, scatter dots and frame from Kicking up the Leaves kit by WW
staple from Being Me by WW, heart holes from Ho Owls You by Cinnamon Design
alpha (recoloured) from Rock a Motion kit by Cinnamon Designs, WA Thoughtful a blog freebie, sorry it unpacked loose and I dont know by who. Fonts are Vaguely Repulsive and Underwood 1913

We are ready.

It is autumn here. We are still getting lovely warm sunny days but cooler night. This last weekend we finally did the last push on collecting our fire wood. It has taken for ages, well since the middle of January to complete this process.

Firsty we are really lucky that my parents have a 16 acre block of land with a large grove of a renewable resource, pine trees.



So in January the right number of trees for two families had to be fell. At that time they need to be trimmed of their branches, cut into rounds and then left to dry out in the summer days.



Next a splitter needs to be hired and about 3 days of splitting to logs takes place. The final step is to collect and stack the wood.

Well this weekend just gone we completed the last stage, collecting and stacking the wood. My bones ache, I'm tired but I know that we will be dry and warm all winter long.








I have to admit at this stage that, in our house, we are softies. Winter will involve only getting a couple of frost all winter long and it never ever gets close to snowing. This being so, I still can't stand the cold, even the temperatures we get. It must the those years of living on the equator in Brunei that has turned me into a softy, or so my DH says. I prefer to walk around with a t'shirt and shorts on with the fire going strong than to wear all my warm clothes inside with nothing warmer to put on when I go out.

It also saves us heaps of money by not using the drier. I can dry my clothes in front of the fire overnight while saves electricity use. Yah.

Don't think we are cold enough yet to light the fire. That is about 6 - 8 weeks away depending how wet things get and how much asthma DS2 is faced with this winter.

Basic Facts

I am trying to inspire DD to feel motivated to learn all her basic facts without making her bored or turning her off. I know, I am a teacher and get stuck, at times, thinking like a teacher. So my readers out there, what can you recommend some great ways to inspire an 8 year old to rote learn these necessary facts.

Autumn

Don't you love it...Autumn that is. Here in New Zealand autumn is officially here. I love the crisp clear days and the new life that I can see in the garden, that is excluding all those weeds that now have appeared. I love the changing colours of the large trees in my front yard. So I thought this Autumn I would take one photo a week of the Liquid Amber tree in my yard. I cant wait to see the trees leaves change from green through all the warm reds, oranges and yellows through to all the leaves falling off. I will try and post a photo a week starting tomorrow.

Big Boys Toys

You guessed it. I spent the day visiting a big boys toys display.....a military airshow. 50,000 people, about 20,000 cars, three children and DH don't make for a happy me.

It was a fantastically warm and sunny autumn day which was a bonus as it could have been much worse being autumn. The planes made all the right noises and demonstrated the appropriate amount of speed for DH and DS2 to be suitably impressed. DS1 whinged a great portion of the afternoon because he wanted a ride on something, looking was not good enough and DD and I followed along.

The hardest part of the the day probably was being stuck in the traffic jams for about 3 hours in total. I think coming home we traveling about 10m in the first hour. Yes with military precision traffic was smoothly funneled out of the two exits. Of course I say this with sarcasm as I am now really tired and cant wait to put my feet up.

Here is a photo of the slow planes, not sure what they are, but they were slow enough for me to use my point and snap camera.



and the family looking skyward