Water Fight

Mix together the following ingredients:

• a lovely day
• Water bombs (Daddy didn't realise that they had been sitting in the fridge for 2 days and so they were VERY cold)
• Water guns
• and the most important ingredient, 2 boys

Equals .... WATER FIGHT !

Hands up ... Josh & Daddy call a truce

Summer has arrived

Wow, what a day ... an expected high of 24 degrees, bring on summer ! We headed to the beach in the afternoon and all of us had our first swim for the season - albeit Josh and Daddy donned wetsuits as although the air temperature was blissfully warm, the water temperature was still rather cold !

After spending a few hours at the beach, we wandered home to barbeque some sausages ... don't you just love summer, somehow life just seems so much more simple and easy.

Chef Josh is on dinner tonight - anyone for a hotdog sandwich ?

The World

A good way to study the Map of the World is by doing a jig saw. This jig saw was a family affair and stayed out for nearly 3 weeks - that is how long we all took to finish it ... slowly but surely, a few pieces every night.

School Picnic

Today Years 1, 2 and 3 went by bus into town to visit Te Papa and then the parents were invited to join their sons at Schafers Park for a picnic lunch. They had also arranged for 2 mystery guests to arrive and entertain the boys with antics and give-aways ... the Cookie Monsters !!

Josh & Huddy, what a team

C'mon Josh, let's go and play !

Whilst Josh simply takes Huddy for granted ... Hudson on the other hand is very committed to Joshua and loves nothing more than for Josh to play with him on the beach. It was a lovely mild evening so we went for a leisurely walk down to the beach so the 'boys' could play.

How lucky we are to have these 2 little blond boys.

I swear Huddy is laughing, he loves the beach so much !

Let the creative juices flow!

After seeing all the 'guys' last weekend at Guy Fawkes, we thought we would have some fun and build our own robot out of cartons. So today Fionn and Ciaran came around and we did Stage I. It was a little stressful to start with - just imagine a double garage, albeit with the floor covered by a ground sheet, with about 8 test pots of different coloured paints, lots of paint brushes and of course 3 VERY excited boys itching to get started. You would not believe what colours you can get when you don't clean your brush and mix all the colours together .... eeeek!

Mummy was relieved and grateful we had to wait until the paint was completely dry before we could attempt Stage 2 which will be on another day ... watch this space !

Team effort - Fionn and Josh 'on the job' painting the silver 'body'

Joshua and his red clothes blend very well with his red box !

Clean up time - believe me, the paint was everywhere - all boys were stripped down to their underwear and sponged down with cold water from the bucket!

Two boys together

We rugged up warn this evening to take Huddy for a swim at the beach and I managed to capture this photograph ... simply a Dad and his son aimlessly walking along the beach chatting and sharing .... oh to hear what they are saying.

Up to Mt KauKau ... and back down again

We awoke to a glorious day so we took 3 very active boys (Fionn, Ciaran & Josh) and of course Hudson up the top of Mt KauKau. We had a very funny 'incident' in the car on the way to the start of the climb ... Josh found a packet of chewing gum in the back of the car - all 3 boys had a piece. The boys then decided to be 'adventurous' with this gum which turned into a moustache, an earring, you name it ! Well, not before long they had ALL (yes all 3 of them) got the gum stuck in their hair - and I mean really stuck ! We had to call into some random house at the base of the climb and ask if we could borrow a pair of scissors so then all boys sported a 'chop' in their hair styles. Not a bad lesson to learn !!

After that, we all raced one another to the top of Mt KauKau. I have to say ... Huddy, despite the metal plate in his back leg, takes a lot of beating - which is not a bad thing with 3 rather competitive boys in tow ! We played games all the way up and you would be amazed at what the "lolly fairy" can hide along the way!

We were certainly all relieved to get to the top where we shared our lolly find and had a picnic afternoon tea before heading back down to the bottom again.

Phew, what an energetic afternoon !!

Josh leading the way - let the race begin!

Lots of lollies, drinks and muffins at the top

All the boys on top of the world !

A slower pace as we head back down again

Luca comes for a sleep-over

It is amazing how much giggling, how much talking, how much playing there is when you have 2 little boys sharing a bedroom ! We had a delightful time with Luca who joined us after school on Friday and stayed over until Saturday. Luca is a lovely boy who is very caring and considerate and he and Josh get along so well.

Luca thought it was hot work playing tennis against Josh on the WII

Huddy gets in on the act with the bedroom antics !

Time for sleep boys !!!

Guy Fawkes

Remember, remember, the 5th of November ... a day that serves as a reminder to each new generation that treason will never be forgotten. However, that is wasted on the young ... Guy Fawkes is simply a fun day to build a bonfire or a guy, and let off firecrackers !

We had 2 nights of celebration ... one on Friday night when Luca slept over and we took the boys up to Mt Vic to watch the Council fireworks display over Wellington Harbour. It was a lovely still night and the display was quite fantastic - it does not pay to think how many thousands of ratepayers' money goes up in smoke on that one night !! But the boys were in awe of the way the sky lit up and the mass of colours that cascaded down the night sky.

And then on Sunday night, the local beach hosted their annual Guy Fawkes night. Anyone can enter a 'guy' into the Guy Competition and after the judging has been done, they are all lit and burned. This year we had 11 guys and some were very clever indeed ! We joined up with Niki and her boys, Fionn and Ciaren. What is it about boys and fire ? Suffice to say, all 3 boys got stuck into adding more driftwood to the fire and making sure that the guys really did burn to the ground ! We seriously needed long hot baths after that night !

You will be relieved to know this was a 'guy' and not a real woman !

One to remember ...

When I picked up Joshua from school today, we had no after-school activities. I asked him whether he would like to go straight home or to the Chocolate Frog cafe for a hot chocolate. His answer ... "lets go straight home Mummy and you can make a hot chocolate at home". My response "sure darling, but I can't make hot chocolates like the cafe".

And Joshua's answer .... "yes but Mummy, they make them for money - you make them with love".

Priceless !!