DISASTER!

Well, almost.
We are two weeks away from The Science Competition.
Yesterday the printer JUST STOPPED in the middle of printing out our cards.
Then K9 took his papier mache cave out of its mould and it fell apart in his hands - literally.

We are very thankful Mama suggested we try to finish a week early so that we would have time up our sleeves if anything went wrong.

We should be done by the end of the week - YAY!

catch up

There's so much to write about.
We had four days without Mama and L6 who went to hospital. It was really nice to have Dadda round more and to spend time with our friends and with Grandpa.
We've been doing things like visiting open homes (Dadda looks like he wants to build another house!), gardening, working on our science competitions, shooting baskets, making glasses and weather recording equipment, tidying the house for when Mama came home, riding bikes, playing cricket and lots of board games....
Last week we learnt the whole National Anthem. AllFiveVerses.

are you really busting?

By Mama

If you're not, you're requested to not use the bathroom.
A reasonable request by J11 as he's in charge of bathrooms this week.


But I do wish he'd learn to spell correctly!

we have the tools

Our church is taking part in "Self-Denial" at the moment to raise funds for the poor around the world. Each family has a little toolbox to put the money in.
They didn't all come with wax seals;-)


This week we had vegetarian dinners so we will be able to donate our *meat money* and today we are eating rice. Rice for breakfast, rice with soy sauce for lunch and rice with veges for dinner. We will be able to give today's food money too.

While we waited for the rice to cook for breakfast, we talked about and prayed for the people who have to collect their firewood from the forest and water from a well or river before they can even start to cook.


We are doing our dishes in a bowl outside to help us remember them more.

We have done other things too - but Mama said we have written enough - when you give, you should not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing! We didn't know that.

they fit in a small box

We've been keeping our clothes in one box each in preparation for travelling.
This week we're preparing by playing with only the toys we expect to take with us.....they fit in a small box.
So tidy-up is easy!!!!
We have two tennis balls, a pack of cards, half a dozen travel games, pens-n-paper-n-watercolours (and we want to make a mini flower press and get a compass too).
Yesterday L6 and M4 played with the balls for hours on end...they commandeered a broom to be a bat for a while!
Usually the neighbourhood kids play cricket with us afer they've been to school, but today we didn't have cricket gear so we all rediscovered the joys of "Go Home Stay Home". We're planning on climbing trees, spying in the bush and making obstacle courses another day.

I wondered what you were up to.....

Guys I love your enthusiasm.

You are so engrossed with this science competition game.

It is such a pleasure for me to watch you finding out information, throwing round ideas and negotiating the best way to do things.

I hardly even minded you BEGGING me to take you to the library - tsk tsk!

I know you're really keen on winning another prize (I can understand that - vouchers for books are my favourite thing too!!!), but even if you don't get a mention, you can be proud of the way you have worked on this project and I'm sure your brothers and sisters will enjoy playing this game as much as your Solar System Secrets one.

favourite friends

We really enjoy going to the Eds' place or having them come over or going away with them or going out with them or even bumping into them at the museum (that was fun guys). We just wish Mama and Dadda would organise get-togethers more often! We used to do things with them every week and we LOVED that, but it hasn't happened that way this year. About four years ago we both read about Ancient Egypt in our families and we were going to have an Egyptian dinner together....we've all read about Greece and Rome since then, and the Middle Ages aswell. Now we're both reading about the Renaissance and Reformation.....but still no ancients dinner!
However, last week we got together and enjoyed soup and bread and Mrs Ed's famous chocolate pudding.

The biggest boys:

The littlest girls:

they say winning doesn't matter!

We have been beavering away this week on a wee project.....but we can't say too much about it in case someone nabs our ideas;-)
For the past two years J11 and J12 have entered the Science Competition at the University of Auckland. The first year they got a highly commended award for their astronomy board game, and last year's website design came first. YIPPEE! They're not sure they'll be able to equal that effort, but they sure are trying!! This year the brief is another board game.....and all they'll say for now is that it has something to do with the weather.
K9 is also old enough to enter this year and he is making one about.....ooooh, we can't tell!

Watch this space.

Moving House

Mama and Dadda have a track record of staying in a house for under a year....well they used to....they lived in eleven houses in ten years! But now we have been in this house for five years. We gave it a big tidy-up this week and moved furniture around and cleaned every nook and cranny. It looks really nice now.

Here's Mama and Dadda's bedroom....


with the chair Mama recovered:


Here's one girls' room....


and the other one:


And all the boys are in together (the girls would be too except that there's only one set of bunks so they get split up)


Once someone said it was sad that we would never get to have our own room and Mama said that she doesn't expect us to do anything she doesn't do. She shares with Dadda and we get to share with our siblings;-)

Team Racer

Bikes play an interal part in many of our outdoor adventures...actually it's an adventure just to find your own bike in the assortment!
Apart from the fun of biking, we like to be like our Grandpa too. He's in his late seventies and he still gets out on his bike a few times a week. This summer he did a cycle tour with some other mates round the East Cape - 450km in three days. And he always does the 160km Lake Taupo cycle challenge. He's a legend.

L6 felt the need to identify his bike with a number plate - Mama thought it said COPS TEA, but in fact it's 78PST34....and that's just the first line! Numbers are routinely written backwards - seems to be a feature unique to our left-handers.



When Mama is particularly dreamy, she would like to get a bike and one of these for the littlest kiddos. Then we could all bike to the local shops instead of walking (which takes a couple of hours there and back) or instead of taking the car (which pollutes the atmosphere)

pyjama party

Yesterday Mama went out for the day and Dadda looked after us. We got lollipops for lunch;-)

We were still buzzing this morning....here we are getting ready for church!




(ok so we're all still in our jammies and haven't really started getting ready at all)

Tidy Today

We have done a big tidy-up. And Mama re-organised everything. Now she says there is no excuse for our stuff to get messy!

work or weed

This morning we didn't do our chores properly.

*sigh*

So this afternoon Mama worked us.

tidying tidying tidying

weeding weeding weeding

and there's even more to do tomorrow if we forget our lesson

Many Hands Make Light Work

Mama said we could make a path on the bank....we didn't need any more encouragement...off we went, K9 K8 L6 M4 and T2 for a couple of hours of hard work and lots of co-operation.










We carted the rocks around and laid out the path.













K9 had mowed the path first with the handmower and then went on to do the grass at the top of the bank too as a surprise for Dadda.














How do you like the handmower? Mama is really in to recycling things and she bought this for $5. It didn't work too well, but we attached the rollers at the back and now it does a great job. It doesn't pollute the atmosphere either ;-)