The end of 2016

Wow the end of the year has rushed in on me...yeek!

We seemed to get faster and faster as the days went by.

My girlfriend and wonderful mother of "Alien Weaponry" cracked into our sewing of the "Cat tail sewing club" and this time our Christmas float was "The Panamails go to Rio with the Circus". I was aiming not to get so burnt out by buying most of the costumes but it didn't work out that way. I sadly right now do not have any photos of the full float but in time I hope to add some back in. It was fantastic and even though I was totally shaking most of the week and the day I really enjoyed it.

DD10 just shone (I'm her mother so of course she's my star). She had her 2 girlfriends walking with her through the centre of town 'flying' like birds (from the movie Rio)....they were followed by my wonderful DS7 and his little mates dancing in Rio style to the Pan Band. We also had our wonderful Circus Teacher and our friendly Alien Weaponry on fire-staff they both looked amazing.

Family xxx

The christmas show is so wonderful it gets us all excited for christmas then sends us off to bed with heaps of smiles and good dreams.

My Nana is still with us so we get to enjoy a lovely breakfast with her as the kids open their presents. This year we were very aware of the amount of paper wastage so we've moved over to material and ribbon which we brought from the emporium. The whole lot was much less in $$ that buying paper...HuuH??

 DD10 showing Nana some photos on her iPad. Nana loves photos.

 On Christmas Day we spend it with family for lunch. DD10 put on her outfit again to show off...was also a chance for me to get photos which I never seem to get time to do.

So this morning after our long drive to Auckland and back and visiting the Auckland zoo which is amazing...I'm trying to crack open my eye through the Hay Fever and think.

This years Hay Fever has not been so bad - hummm? Ponder the question. Is this because of our diet change? The season is not so bad? Or something else.

Learning has been steady but I feel I'm ready for some changes. I've been battling some health issues in 2016 and feel like I'm getting to the end of them so some energy is starting to come back...which is good

Because we need to start thinking about our next big step.

Phew...what a ride

Its now Spring weather and we've been pretty hammered!!!!
I seem to only be able to write about all the times we're sick LOL :-(


Each year in the term 3/4 holidays we head off on what the kids lovingly call Cindy Camp, Cindy and Ian Camp or Indy camp.

This year we made a huge effort and made it to Kawua Island...woop woop. Just about fired my brain in getting there as its been a huge term 2/3 with the last holidays being the Art n Tartan show. DD10 did SOOOO well on her stilts walking across the stage with 2 costumes and managing to keep out of everyones way and display her amazing stuff. Very proud moments.
We managed to pick up the backstage flu argh and DS7 then managed to collect the next 1-2 and still has not shaken it the next holidays :-(

But we and about 60-65 others all managed to grab a holiday together.
True to NZ spring weather we've had some huge storms with LOTS of rain. A few little ones were very frightened of the thunder and lightening.

DS7 little gang of boyz skimming stones pretty much all day.

Living in the wet-suit was pretty much considered a good idea

DD10 is waiting for her turn on the abseiling wall. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful family to give us these opportunities and our children can grow up thinking this is just normal.

The 2 monkeys playing cavemen...? Yup I didn't really get it but there were at least another 3-4 all living in huts and running round with 'swords' and 'knives'.

There was an amazing confidence course which little DS7 really wanted to get into. He had managed to cut his hand open on oyster shells argh and we went through pretty much my whole first aid kit keeping his hand together while he was off adventuring.
Note to self for next time...gloves? LOL or at least a whole box of super bandaids.

DD10 was totally in her element... Paddle boarding, Kayaking, Snorkeling for scallops, Abseiling, Bush walking looking for wallabies, Tag...and the show. Every year the kids put on a show totally on their own. Wow it gets better and better each year.







It was a wonderful environment with so much to do.
DS7 was constantly on the watch out for 'his' weka and protecting it from getting attacked by the others.

One thing we didn't count on though was the huge stomach bug which pretty much the whole camp came down with at varying times from the beginning to end of camp.
This was a very big
ARGH!!!!
DS7 who is already run down and paranoid with poisonous plants and germs is now even more so. He watched all his little mates come down with this bug and then he himself followed by me then DD10 and then Dave (who didn't even come on camp poor man).
Very roto or norovirus like and totally flattening.
Even a week and a bit later we are still not great.

But thinking of next year and we as a group have already booked so looking for an other adventure there.

Meditation

http://youtu.be/wrCuWpRXwLE

I've started again a morning meditation for myself early and then I do a meditainment meditation with the kids before our day starts.

Loving this from Esther Hicks

Ancient Egypt food

DD10 has had her eye on this for ages...we just can't find the seeds

Ancient Egypt food

DD10 has had her eye on this for ages...we just can't find the seeds

Printable Maps

We are often needing to print out maps for Grade 2 mostly.
http://d-maps.com/index.php?lang=en

and I'm sick of trying to find something that is free and good looking
This is a great site

Juice

I was really keen on juicing in summer but the enthusiasm kind of dropped off as the months got cooler.

So back for another season? We'll see.

This is the Liver Scrubber. Apple, carrot, celery, beetroot, ginger and kale.

Morning meditation

Chalk board drawing

Swimming with whales

A great story...though I did feel a bit panicked about the lack of air imaginary or not lol.

Our mornings have been great the last few days. Rested from our long holiday with the show then the flu then my 40th and then 2 weekends at the farm...tooo much!

Wonderful children working so hard and really enjoying the weather as its returning to warmer times 😊

Aspergers funnel

https://youtu.be/JAdvcmogGwI

This is interesting? I've not watched any links but I think working on the sensitivity issues is very important. Using meditation could be away of filtering and developing awareness. Also being away of the environment as many environments are suited to extrovert people's which is considered 'normal'  

Cleaning up term 2

August 2nd

It's pretty cold and windy here with 2 kids who are grumbling and sniffing 🤒

Lesson planning

I am really enjoying YouTube with all the help it brings into our lives!

If you pop onto my Pinterest pages you will see under home ed planning the pins to these videos on lesson planning.

So good to breath 

Gives me calm 

Chalk board seal

Our walk gave us a good up close view

Science nature and Fables

Mr Griff enjoying the sun as he sits behind DS7

We're reading the Fables...most of them are very difficult for DS7 to understand but still they are often funny to talk about. So far the hare and the tortoise has been the favourite.

We have also been reading some science stories. DS7 loves berry plants and we will often look out for them on our morning walk...bit sad the the plant has been sprayed by the council 😖 

I have promised that on our farm we will not spray the food so anyone can pick it. We could be lucky, I think the council maintainance ends before our property begins....so no spray?

Watching the sunset and painting it

Part of DD's science is to observe the sun set for a week.

She's been painting what she sees with different media

Watercolour has not been a favourite for years but is now becoming more used

Pastels and watercolour pencils created some frustration as well

Ordinary school paint with its first work up so far seems to give the most pleasure.

So we downloaded an app which helped her 'see' where stars are even during the day which has been great.

Which sparked a new layout of the glow in the dark stars on her bedroom roof.

So we'll see where next week takes us.