Happy birthday!

Isabelle turned 8 this week. We had a surprise birthday gift for her - a day trip to Christchurch! (Thanks airpoints!).

We were a party of three - Ewan and I accompanied the birthday girl.

Here's our plane.





Isabelle had a bit of a read before boarding. (You know you've reached a milestone when your daughter is currently reading the same book you are!).



As we turned south we got a great view of the turbines to the west of Wellington. I just managed to miss the shot. If you look closely you can see the turbines under the wing of the plane....er....



There were cuzzies and grandparents and aunties and a wonderful Grandma-made birthday cake.



Candles were lit and songs sung!





And invariably, there was the wearing of funny hats.




Thank you so much to everyone who made the day such fun! And happy birthday to our beautiful girl.

Romans

I have been reading the Roman Mysteries series aloud to Isabelle and Aidan. Originally I didn't realise it was a series - I picked up The Secrets of Vesuvius at the library because it fitted well with Aidan's interest in the Vesuvius eruption and some other reading we had been doing. But their interest was swiftly caught, and we have started to move through the novels.

After reading The Assassins of Rome the children constructed themselves "tunics" from some of Brendon's t-shirts.



Here's Aidan's interpretation of a bulla:



Aidan was so taken by his tunic that he wore it to school the next day. (It stayed on all day too - I was half expecting it to be bundled away into his bag by hometime).

Slice of (real) life

I've read in at least two different places recently that reading people's blogs can get quite depressing. Understandably, people tend to blog about things that they are proud of - things that are going great! So blogland is full of immaculate houses and month-long meal plans, happy, creative and peaceful children, vibrant living and amazing crafts.

So for something a little bit different, here's a snippet of a day as seen by Aidan.

I realised that Aidan had taken 59 photos. So I flicked through them and discovered that he had taken some picture of a block construction he had made.



A few close ups of this and that - balances, characters etc.





Sister.



And Ewan. No! Babies are not allowed in the dvds! (What? No, of course that is not a copy of Breaking Dawn. It is a Very Intellectual book about....chess. Yes. Chess).



Time to dismount.



And...ooo! A camera case. (Babies are not allowed to touch the camera case). Orla seems displeased.





Nooooo!








(Edits several photos).

Humph.




Mummmm! (Where is Mum anyway?! Shouldn't some positive guidance be being provided?)



(Will I be in trouble?)



Oh there she is! Scrubbing around on the floor picking up the lunch left overs. And probably the breakfast left overs. And probably the left overs from last night's dinner too.






(No! Don't seem to be in trouble!).





And that's it. Nothing else happened. No crafts, outings, extended conversations, witticisms, baking.

But definitely some cool block work.

Libraries are tasty

Aidan went to the library and found:




So today Brendon helped him make our first dinner course:



...while I helped out with the dessert.



Here's the custard being made.



Apricot jam onto sponge (bought by Aidan and me at the supermarket this morning).



On goes the custard.



Mixing the topping.



Sprinkles for that something extra.



Ta da!



Culinary casualties....(and why we don't have any photos of the oranges being cut up!).



And the main dish being served!



A very tasty meal. We have a little bit of trifle left over for dessert tomorrow night.

Show

Tonight we were treated to an after-dinner show.



There was ensemble dancing.



And an impression of a colossal squid.



...which was somewhat truncated!



There were feats of strength.




Duos




And trios.



All done to classical music from one of Isabelle's ballet cds.



Truly a joy to watch!

Go the lions!

Today was our rugby team's trip to watch the Wellington Lions at the Stadium. It wasn't the home team's day, but we still had a great time.




We met our other team members at some other lions.



Orla and Aidan added messages to the team.



Aidan was a natural on the mechanical bull.




Orla liked the bouncy castle and slide.




We sat down one end near the try line.




Not everyone payed close attention to the game. Actually between the hot dogs, hot chips, hot donuts, flag waving, excited team mates etc, it was amazing that any rugby got watched!



And of course there was Leo the Lion.

Block work

The blocks (being kept in our main living area) get a regular work out at our place. Ewan uses them as claves, dramatic play props (usually telephones) and occasionally as missiles.






Orla does balances, towers, and dramatic play props such as doors and castles. These photos (showing bridging) were taken by Aidan.




Of course, with a toddler around, vertical structures can have a short life. Aidan captured Ewan applying evasive manoeuvres.



Sometimes they do the multi-media approach. Here's some blocks, trains and Qui-Gon.



Here Orla has constructed a scooter.