Trade Me love

One of those days where you have to love trade me! When our old neighbours moved out (way back in May!!) they took their netball hoop. :-(

With the netball season nearing I started looking for a new hoop on trade me... one dollar later....

Sweet!!

♥

Why I know Kieran is my son. Reason # 339

In the car on the way to school:

Kieran "Man! I normally see hardly any licence plates with two numbers the same, but the last 5 out of 7 cars had them!"

We think in numbers, we see patterns, we have maths brains.
My boy.

♥

Haircut Phenomenon

Will has recently had his third haircut- I think perhaps I might be getting a little better at it despite the challenges presented- like a squirmy 2 year old with a double cowlick right out front.


But I do have a bit of a problem. I wonder if any body else can attest to the haircut phenomenon?

It seems the shorter a kids hair is- the more likely they are to be boisterous and cheeky and troublesome and just downright naughty.

Some kids at school especially the freckly ones that have really short hair- you can almost guarantee that they will be ratbags.

I've noticed that Will has very definitely got his cheeky on a whole bunch more since I cut his hair. So has the cat. :-(

♥

Cooking Class

Kieran is a year 8 this year- that's form 2 for all your old schoolers- that means he is doing 'Tech' (Manual for the old schoolers) Last year he did sewing (not really his thing) and wood work. This year they have started with cooking and Kieran is absolutely loving it. He has come home each Friday and, if possible, made whatever it is they made that week. The first week they made bread case savouries and he taught M and W to make them as well...








They were totally delicious- I like the creamed corn, ham and egg filling the best.

♥

Will-ictionary

If we are chatting with Will (almost constantly when he is awake) we understand most of what he says. If you are chatting with Will there are a few things you may need clarification on. So I have prepared a small lexicon of Willisms for your use;

Chicken-Mixtle- We have three sets of animal cards and in the 'Wild Animal' set there is a "Chicken-Mixtle"


Chocit: A brown coloured food substance- very yummy.

Peas: A polite word often used when making a request, as in "Can I have a Chocit peas mum?"

Cina-min-min; Cina-min-min is a lovely smelling spice that we put on french toast and is also Mrs Salt and Mr Pepper's daughter on Blues Clues.

Mido; Mido is a chocolate malt flavoured drink that you add into milk. Will is a big fan of 'Mido milkshakes'

Gawakenmouldy: An green dip, great with corn chips.

Avatardo: The main ingredient in Gawakenmouldy.

Food Pwocessor: The kitchen machinery used for making various items including Gawakenmouldy.

Hey-e-opter: A vehicle used by the Airforce and Navy with rotors versus wings.

Seat sprite: A type of Hey-e-opter.

ProPadder: Used by the engines on the Orions to help achieve flight.

A-nuv-in: one more as in "Can I have a-nuv-in cwacker peas mum!"

oven: a different option, as in. "Not that cwacker I want the oven one peas Mum"

Fweckles: A number of small brown spots found sprinkled over Wills nose.

Igina: A part of a woman's anatomy found 'south of the border'. (Apparently some days Kieran has an Igina.)

Ukalady: A musical instrument played by Merenia, looks like a miniture guitar.

Onchillady: A mexican flat corn bread. We have Chicken Onchilladys- they are delicious.

Anslinky Anslinky: Is a black cat who is a character in the Hairy Mclary books.

swat sides: What Will likes to do when he is finished one booby- he likes to swat sides to the other booby.

Mudge: A delicious Chocolate confectionary.

Pop goes the Eagle: A line in a nursery rhyme.

Tiny Hair: What baby Jake has on his head.

Stattered Cloud: A weather condition in which there are a moderate to high number of clouds in the sky. As opposed to "tiny cloudy" where there are a few clouds or "solid cloudy" where no blue can be seen.

Ontanna Ontanna: A female teenage singing character created by Disney and played by Miley Cyrus.

Dantartar, WitchieMtaw, Stephen and Donald; Three current members of the New Zealand Rubgy team, the "All Backs".

******

While we are on the subject of dictionaries one of Will's favourite activities when we are looking at the animal cards is to "Do it on the puter peas mum?"So we go to dictionary.com and click on the speaker feature to listen to the way the name of the animal is said. Like here.

♥

Why Cry Over It?

When you can just SUCK it up off the table?
♥

Will 2.25

Now that Will is 27 Months old.... (also known as 2 and a quarter).

He weighs... 12.6 kg (with his clothes on)
He measures.. 87 cm
He has ... 18 teeth


Will can....

• Walk and Run
  
• Dance
• Walk up stairs
  
• Pretty much go down the stairs forwards with no hands
• He can't jump yet but it's funny when he tries
• Pretend to be asleep
• Feed himself very competently- when he wants to.
• Say most things he wants to- just needs to sharpen his grammar a little.
• Read a few words like Will, Mum, Dad, Kieran and Merenia
• Count to ten sometimes and read some of the numerals.
• Undress himself and sometimes dress himself.
• Name 11 or so shapes.
• Knows heaps of aeroplane, animal and dinosaur names.
• Knows quite a few colours but always says purple first.
• Sing Roow, row and incy wincy spider.
  
• Sort of spell his name "W-i-ll-ll"
  

Will loves...

• His dad
  
• his brother
• his mummy
• Aircraft (any and all)
• Playing outside especially in the dirt
• Helping
• Water play and going to the base pool
  
• Bubbles
• his sister- especially having her home during the day,
  
• Talking- he likes the sound of his own voice
  
• 'Boystuff'
• The vacuum cleaner
  
• Tools especially his "Spanet" (Spanner) and screwdriver (when it's not confiscated).
  
• Reading stories
• 
• Building Towers
  
• Making art
• Being tickled, jiggled, wrestled, turned upside down, and thrown in the air
• Making Ruby react- this is strongly discouraged
  
• Taking photos
• Getting Dirty
• Playing 'BAAAAHHH!!!' with Kieran and Merenia
• Watching Za-za's Baby Brother, Maisy and Blues Clues in small doses
  
• Seeing how things work
• Big machines; vehicles, mowers, diggers, police cars etc

Will tolerates.... (read: kind of dislikes actually)

• Driving in the car
• Having to go where the big kids go
• Shopping
  
• People in his face when he's cranky or tired
• Not getting his own way
• Baby Jake
• Waking up
  

Will gets called...

• Will
• Willy
• Wilbur
• W
• Dubby

Will eats...

• breastmilk (we have just (finally) cut down to one in the afternoon- and it's going soon.
  
• Yoghurt especially chocolate
  
• Crackers
• Chocolate Chippie biscuits
• Chocolates
• Corn on the cob
  
• Sultanas
  
• bread
• Smoothies
• Milk Shakes
  
• Most things we eat for dinner- including spicy Indian food.

Will....

• Shares a bedroom with Merenia
• Spent his first night sleeping in a 'big boys bed' on the 18th of March.
  
• Wakes at around 7:00am
  
• Has a 2 hour sleep with me most afternoons
  
• Goes down for the night around 7:30pm
• Still has undetermined eye colour
• Generally goes through at least one change of clothes each day due to some sort of messy play/water/sandpit/gardening
• Is getting really good in the water.
• Spends much of his time just wearing a singlet, t-shirt and nappy.
  
• Talks a lot.
• Has phoned Carolann at least twice and Aneil's house once.
  
• Often asks; "What's that noise?"
• Cracks us up when he says; "It's a-nuv-in Blues Clues day- Wri-wrowl!"
  
• Calls the base pool "Nana Dotty's Pool"
• Knows the names of various All Blacks and the sponsors sometimes too.
  
• Had his first trip on a plane (The Boeing to Christchurch).
• Wishes he could go to Play Centre.
• is totally cheeky and rascally and mischievous and mad.
  
• And funny and lovely and cute and sweet and smart and incredible.

♥

New Starbucks Artist

Our Starbucks has an artist of it's very own now! She rocks the chalk pens!

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Twenty Seven Part 2

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Twenty Seven

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Duck a l'orange

In our house we have a running joke.

Ask Les what he wants for dinner and he'll say Duck a l'orange and baked alaska.

At Baby Jakes house they have ducks.

They had two big ducks.

Then they had two big ducks and a whole bunch of small ducklings....






And then something bad happened one day after school. (Don't worry it didn't happen to the little ducks).

One Friday I was dropping Nnenna and Jake home after school.
She jumped out.
I jumped out and came around the car to grab Jake out.
Closed the door to find the male duck.
Nnenna took off round the other side of the car FAST.

The male duck is like a seriously over zealous guard dog. I headed around the back of the car as well... but the duck was quicker. I had 3/4 pants and sandals on so my ankles were unprotected. I tried to fight the duck off by whacking it with the baby bag. I was screaming. I slowed it down slightly. Swinging wildly while backing toward the house. In the end I had to leave the bag partially on the duck and run for the stairs. I thought I'd be safe once I got to the stairs and so I slowed down. Big mistake, the duck wasn't going to be stopped by some little old stairs. Candice was at the top screaming for me not to drop the baby (like I was going to drop the baby- um I don't think so) . Nnenna was running out with one of Candice's crutches- not something I could really utilise without dropping the baby so we ran for it literally slamming the door in the ducks open beak.

Candice was furious.

She was ready to let the Simba the Alsatian loose on the duck.

We calmed down. A little.

I snuck out the garage door and went home.

On Monday when I went to pick up the kids.

I asked Candice if they still had the duck. To which she replied;

"Yeah, it's in the freezer."

I know it wasn't my fault but I felt bad.

In the car I asked Kaycee if he was feeling ok about the duck.

He wasn't.

Kieran said;

"What happened to the duck?"

I replied.

"Duck a l'orange'

♥

Butterflies Doin' it.

We lost our internet yesterday afternoon (and the phone too- but phones are so old styles I'm not sure anyone even uses them nowdays) OH MY GOODNESS- I felt a little lost and I missed a couple of auctions on trade-me including a cupboard much like the one I am after which went for $30- are you kidding me $30??? I would have paid $100!! Anyway that's about all the time I have for writing blog posts today- way way too much to do. So without further ado I present ....

Butterflies Doin' 'IT'....

♥

Good and not so good eating...

Sunday was an interesting day for eatin'!

For one you can get these really good (deep fried) Banana doughnut type things at the market- um MEGA YUM. And steamed pork buns.

And this.....

YUM!! x 50!
(Oh my goodness though you should have seen the cockles (clams for the northerners) though... my Nana would have thrown a fit if we had brought those tiny piddly wee things back when we went cockling at the crib!)

And then there was this... we made the filling with our 'own' recipe for a Stockley Steak Pie.

We are trying a different pie (or 2) each month and rating them on crust and filling- this was the pie for March. Here's the pie aficionado inspecting....

And appreciating what he sees.

It was March 14 on Sunday also known as 3.14.....

In other words Pi.

Get it? We had PIE on PI day!
Unfortunately it tasted fairly poor and certainly won't make the cut for Pie day 2011.
♥

Where Glenna Colours My World

After a recommendation Glenna I went to the Avondale Market in the hops of finding a large cupboard like the one in my post a few days ago. I didn't have any luck with the cupboard- despite hanging around the seedy 'end' (Not so much one end as about a half of the market Glenna) of the market. But I did find a CD rack for $3.60 (all the change I had) and a set of tiny shelves which were probably a cutlery tray in a former life for $3.
All that meant I have more room on my scrapbooking table and a whole bunch of my supplies just got way more accessible and SO much prettier!!

Thanks Glenna, for the hot tip!!

On the downside I think I may have an addiction to paint and other 'colourants'.
♥

Evidence

Forensics scientists deduced the age of the suspect to be approximately 2 years.

♥

Web Stuff that's inspiring me at the mo...

Giant Dominoes. I really like these- I'm not sure why and if I got around to actually making them I would possibly find down the track that I don't like them so much any more, but hey I think they are cool right now.

Lego Soap. Way cool though I think Duplo Soap might be more practica in the long term.

Simon Page's Art. I like the design aesthetic of these posters and the geometry appeals to the maths nerd in me too.

Destination Star Wars. I like the design aesthetic of these posters and the geometry appeals to the Star Wars nerd in me too. :-)

Like I need any more good ideas. A great page of scrapbook page inspiration, some of it not applicable to we Kiwi scrappers but lots that is.

Compare and Contrast. More ideas for scrappers.

Mothering Mothers. From Amanda Soule. I hear ya baby!

TED and Eve Ensler. I've loved TED for a long time but only just discovered Eve Ensler the other day via Kal B's blog. Eve created the Vagina Monologues and does amazing work for women around the would. Her Ted talks are both heartbreaking and inspirational.

♥

Kieran to Kasuga

By now you may probably know that Kieran is (hopefully) going to Japan in August for a Rugby exchange. There are approximately 30-40 kids going to Kasuga which is in the Fukuoka district on the Island of Kyushu in southern Japan. The kids are billeted in Japan with families from their host club and have a super awesome time getting taken around town and of course playing some Rugby. The parents of the kids stay in local hotels and motels.

Most of the kids are going with parents but Kieran is one of the few who isn't- it's going to be a huge experience for him. For one thing there's a better than average chance they won't have the requisite 10 Weet-bix per day that the boy is currently consuming. And then of course there's the fact that he'll be spending 10 days with some possibly non-English speaking strangers, far, far away from his own stuff and people.

The other big thing is the $2200 that it's going to cost just for the airfares, not to mention passport, spending money and gifts for his host family. The fact that airlines charge 12 year olds as adults is I think quite rude- but it's the height of crappiness that they don't do any sort of sports concession or youth rates or something for a trip like this. So we're on the fundraising wagon for the year ahead. (In fact it's looking like we might be working towards two peoples sports trips). Kieran has already spent some time working the sausage sizzle and is hoping to get a paper round as well. But we need a whole lot more.

This of course is where you come in. There are a number of ways you could help.

• You are of course welcome to give K money for his Kasuga fund. He'll be eternally grateful!
• You could buy your 2010/2011 Entertainment book from us. We are taking orders now.
• You could buy Chocolate from us... we have Caramello, Dairy Milk, and Top Deck bars for $2.50 each. Or $50 for a box of 20 for your workplace.
• If you are a keen golfer and enjoy Ambrose Golf. You could take Friday the 26th of March off and come play a round at Muriwai. It's $100 per person all inclusive (drinks & food etc) or $500 per team of 5. (You can enter individually- and they'll make a mixed team). If you are interested let us know asap! This would be cool if you know any corporate types or sales guys that like to take their clients out for a day of fun. I have flyers and such if you are interested.
  
• If you live in Auckland then we'll be doing some stuff like a Eden Park Clean-up (after one or two of the Super 14 games). Our fundraising dollars are allocated by the amount of hours we put in so if any of our friends want to come and help with that- it's more hours for Kieran.
• In a similar vein we were thinking of doing our own sausage sizzle locally and would love some help with that too.
• If you have some sort of paid odd job Kieran could do outside of school hours then let us know.
• You might know someone who is willing to sponsor Kieran or his team.
  
• If you have another great idea for Kieran to raise funds then let us know that one as well.
• Pass on any of the above info to friends and family who may be interested in Chocolates, Golf, or Entertainment books and we'll hook them up.

Thanks in advance!
Gypsy, Kieran, and Family.

♥

Right Now

Alone.

Listening to: Rodger Waters: Amused to Death- LOUD. (Awesome)

Working on: Photos for a mini album and then Digi Scrapping

Weather: Fine, damn fine.

Drinking: Nippy's Iced Coffee.

Considering: making Chocolate Fudge. Mmmmmm

Inspired by: The Challenges I set for this weekend Cyber Crop

Wondering: Where the F%#& my lotto tickets are. Same numbers for 20 odd years and now they are gone. What the significance was of the fact the hold music was playing 'our song' when I called the post office to see if I dropped the lotto wallet in the post box.

Eating: Crostini, Kettle Chips and Pineapple Lump Marshmallow eggs.

Thinking of: A musical story I wrote about an Island for the kids at Arthur Street, Carlos Nitis, Scott McFarlane, 7th Form, Les' Dad. (Funny how music triggers certain things).

Looking forward to: Spending a quiet night on the couch with the love of my life and talking about how much better things are going to get.

Doesn't get much better really.

♥