My terrible horrible no good very bad week

My credit card went missing! When we discovered it, I wished I was in Fiji

And I can't tell too much of the story but it has to do with a criminal here who managed to run up $2,000 but is now behind bars - I bet he wishes he was in Fiji!

Rotorua - Saturday - coming home

Saturday saw the end of our week in Rotorua. We stopped off for a last swim at the Waikite pools and then headed south. Coming into Taupo, there was not a cloud in the sky and of course the mountains were really clear. We stopped in Turangi for a quick cup of coffee with my friend Julie and then set off again.








It had been very cold in Wellington and on the Desert Road during the week, and just at the Tukino ski field turn off I saw some snow. I turned off and I had barely stopped the car and the boys were all out having such fun. It didn't seem to matter that they had no shoes or warm tops - they just played as it is the first time that they remember seeing any form of snow.

Rotorua - Friday - Waikite Pools

These must rate as Rotorua's best kept secret! About 20 minutes south of Rotorua turn right and travel 6kms to the softest, cleanest and cheapest mineral baths in the area. It is such a breath of fresh air to get away from the other Rotorua prices which are clearly aimed at the US$, Japanese Yen and GBP. $20 for the family and we spent a good couple of hours relaxing in the warm "oily" water. Previously there were two pools, last week they opened the third one which is a very natural pool - they were originally the changing rooms! It was a lovely day and Ross and I even got burnt! The water comes from a boiling spring a short distance away which is pumped out of the river and then cooled before draining into one of the three pools.

Rotorua - Thursday - Mt Tarawera

In the late 19th century, people came from far and wide to see the famous Pink & White Terraces- caused by silica build up. During the early morning of 10th June 1886, Mt Tarawera volcano exploded through a 13km gash so splitting the mountain and blowing up the Terraces. The village where people stayed before going out on the lake to see the Terraces was covered in mud and ash killing 17 people. In 1938 excavations were done and some of the village was uncovered as well as various items - beds, hats, hand bag, cooking utensils etc.








We walked around the village and through the rest of the property. There is a lovely stream with trout in it and a waterfall at the end. This set of stairs was only one of many to get to the falls. I choose not to go down, but the boys did.















This grove of poplar trees grew from fence posts.

After a lovely afternoon tea of scones and coffee, we then went on down to the lake.

Rotorua - Wednesday - The Luge

Wednesday we headed up the gondolas to ride the luge - well, the boys rode and I watched. It was a beautiful day out. Actually, it started out a bit overcast but soon cleared into a beautiful day. This photo is looking back down towards Lake Rotorua from inside the gondola







Each luge ride took about half-an-hour as they had to wait at the bottom to catch the chairlift back up to the top.











The chair lift also scooped up the luges to return them to the top

Rotorua - Tuesday at Hell's Gate

Tuesday dawned bright and clear so we went to Hell's Gate - lots of steam, small geysers, boiling mud and hot water. The walk around took us about an hour but really wasn't very far - we just enjoyed looking at all the thermal activity.










The boys found natural pigment and proceeded to paint their faces as well as their hands!










Then we had a mud bath - something we've never done before! The mud was enjoyably warm but the cold shower to remove the mud wasn't. Relaxing in the warm water spa afterwards was great and we did feel really good at the end of it all.

Rotorua - Monday

Actually Sunday afternoon as well! The boys love to play mini golf and we found this wonderful fun park that had a pre-hsitoric mini golf - complete with dinosaurs and steam holes! But there was lots more and Adrian bought them all tickets for the racing cars, bumpy boats and mini golf. They raced in the cars and then it started to rain so we checked that we could come back on Monday.









Monday it rained most of the day but we went back in the afternoon for them to complete their fun. And fun they had on the bumpy boats! Look at the glee on Colin's face!









The mini golf was in such a good setting with the concrete dinosaurs and the steam holes all around

Rotorua - Saturday & Sunday

We went to Rotorua for a week in the holidays so that the whole family could unwind ..and I think we did. We travelled north on Saturday 30/9 and as soon as I saw that mountain, I felt my soul lifting. The photo is not great as the mountain was covered in cloud.


In Rotorua, the boys were so impressed with the street gardens - tulips surrounded by contrasting flowers. We took quite a few photos on Sunday - which was just as well because the wind blew very strongly that night and lots of the tulips lost their petals. We also went to the craft market on the waterfront and were most impressed with this music scene - made out of wood

Art work on display

In April this year, the Year 6s at Colin’s school did a Rocky Shore theme. Then they had to create a piece of artwork – collage which could include paper, sewing, stuffing some pieces etc on a large piece of Hessian. I took some photos then and today Colin brought home at note saying it was on display at Capital E for the duration of the school holidays!

Gymnastics Competition Squad!

On 28th August, we received a letter from the Gym Club inviting Ross to try out for the Competition Squad the following week. He was so excited! he couldn't wait to tell people! On Friday 1st September he got so sick that he spent the weekend in bed. I kept him home on the Monday but he went along to the trials. feeling as sick as a dog. He worked so hard trying to show how well he could do and that his attitude was great. He got home exhausted and too tired even to eat

He then spent the rest of the week in bed really feeling not well at all with a horrible cough virus that kept us all awake at night. Week two and he was still too sick to go to school but we got THE phone call - yes he was in! He was so happy!

He spent the rest of the week recovering and only went to school for two hours on Thursday and Friday. It is Sunday today and he is so much better

Photography lessons

from the wonderful Ngaire Bartlam! At a class at SENz where I was T/A for Ngaire, she told us how to get good photos of ourselves. "Someone else needs to take the photo and that person has to stand on a chair photographing down. A bit of lippy and you're away.

Ross turns 12

Ross chose once again to have his party at Tawa pool with an inflatable. His friends arrived at 3pm when we had birthday cake as Adrian was flying to Auckland later that night. We then went down to the pool where the boys spend two hours having lots of fun on their own private inflatable.















We came back home for home-made pizza and jelly and ice cream. Then they went downstairs to play PS and watch movies on Adrian's new home theatre. Ross had a wonderful day - as usual!

Teaching scrapbooking classes

I taught a scrapbooking class last term at College at the night school and again this term. Many of the ladies from last term asked for a further class. I am teaching Scrapbooking 2 in ten days time. Instead of doing a l/o, I am doing little technique books with lots of techniques in them that each person can then use later

New house in Tawa

no not us but my parents. They have the cutest little house that is three minutes away from us. They are settled in well as is the cat! The garden needs some work but they will work on it slowly.

Crafting Connection 2006

CC was hot, the Mega Crop was not! It was noisy, it was unorganised. Someone did the introduction of the tutors which I feel should have been done by David. There was also a quiz which was a waste of time because all she did was pull a name out of the basket for the winner. Because of the noise you couldn't hear her either. She didn’t speak loudly enough, she wasn’t dynamic enough to get that many scrappers excited, the make ‘n takes were a complete waste of time. Personally, I felt that every one who dressed up should have got a small prize; she could also have gone round to each of the groups who were dressed up and spoken to them and announced their choice of name etc.

As for the rest - WOW! Cathy Z was delightful, Ali was sweet and helpful and Donna was so funny. I didn't finish anything: I wonder if I will! In fact, I haven't even looked at the product bags we were handed in Cathy's classes. These were design talks rather than create classes. I do have some photos though.














Donna had these cute little craft drills that we played with. I'd love one - but I'd never use it again!

It was fantastic meeting so many online friends - we had fun at One Red Dog etc

Settled in

Well, we moved my parents out of their house and put their furniture in storage. The day they moved, we saw a house advertised and went to see it last Sunday along with about forty other families/people. It was just perfect and we were all thrilled when we got the call in the aftrenoon to say it was theirs. What was even better, was that they could move in quickly, so on Friday they moved in. We worked hard all day, but tey onle slept there on Saturday night. After doing more work today, most of the boxes are unpacked - there is just some sorting out to do.

They have two bedrooms, a conservatory, lounge/dinigroom and an internal access garage - perfect for them. They will need to do a bit of work in the garden but that's lomg term stuff. For now, they are settling in nicely and we will fetch the cat tomorrow and then the three of them and have the rest of the week to sort things out.

So tired!

On Sunday I sold my parent's house via TradeMe and since then I have been helping them pack their boxes and look rental properties. I have looked at six properties: three were yucky, two were nice but too far and the last one was too small. If the were comes to the worst, they'll get a long term rate at one of the local motels and put their furniture in storage. I really just hope that the right place turns up ...sooner rather than later! But in the meantime I am very tired and stressed (but then so are my parents).

Look at the new header!!

This is what the wonderfully talented, really kind Vicky did for me! And then she even told me how to add the code to Blogger! Oh and she is such a talented scrapper and one she's going to be famous - and then I'll be able to say "I know her". Thanks Vicky

This photo was taken at 4.15pm Friday

And yes they are both still in their PJs! They didn't want to do anything at all today except stay at home. I believe that children need time out to just "blob" so I was happy too.

Yesterday afternoon they came to the conclusion that they were actually very lucky to always have someone to play with - ie each other.

I really like how closely they are sitting together and the look of absolute relaxation on their faces

Some more achievments

Last year, Colin was getting around 51% on his Basic Facts tests and also getting quite stressed about the ten minutes they have to do the test. So I set him a goal: 75% and I didn't care about the time. He has slowly been getting closer to his goal and last Monday he got 85%! He was so proud of himself and I was so pleased too. Adrian has been working with Colin and his tables in the car on the way to school every day and this is clearly paying off.

Ross wrote the Australasian Maths exam a couple of months ago and got his results on Friday - Distinction which puts him in the top 10% of those who wrote the test. What an achievement! He also got a Class Merit on Friday for consistent effort in class. Last Monday, Ross also did his Grade 2 Gymnastics badge which he passed extremely well - they have to get at least 7.5 on all six events. Ross got three 9.5s!

We ate at Denny's twice last week to celebrate all their achievments