do you have any trees that need chopping?

...coz M4 has a chainsaw to chop them down with.


He might need to learn a few safety tips before he's let loose with it though - he's insisting it should stand upright!


......and then who should come toddling up the stairs, but T3?
"Please may you take a photo of me an my twee-cutter-saw to put on da blog"


But that wasn't the end....L6 arrived with yet another one...we'll be needing a whole forest!

I wanna be dangerous

By K10

I wanted to make a catapault from The Dangerous Book For Boys that I got for my birthday, so I asked Mama if I could and she said, "Yes". I drew a plan, which I followed. Here's the end result:

I used chopsticks (which I got told off about), a bottle lid and copious quantities of wool.

sandpit sunshine

Mama lent out the window by the front door to take this shot without disturbing the happily playing littlies. More zoom would have been good, but that's A Wee Bit Technical.

it never rains - it pours

By Mama

Having impressed me with their origami skills, the boys asked to try out their Dangerous Book for Boys constructions.....
"Can I throw it out the upstairs window Mama?" J11 pleaded.


Why, oh why, would I say NO to that request?
What else would you do with a water bomb?

moooooooooooooooo

on a wet miserable day

all sorts of things can happen

not the least of which was

K10 turning into a cow

TUESDAY

By J12 and J11 (self-editted without any Mother-Help)

In the pouring rain we dashed across MOTAT to the Robot Exhibition. There were some remote controlled robots, which we were allowed to have some fun with. J11's favourite was a dinosaur that could run quite quickly and move its tail and head. K9 directed one of the dinosaurs *almost* under one of the cars that was parked there. There was a robot robot (do you know what we mean by that? it looked like what you expect a robot to look like) - it could bend down, roll over and say Hello, as well as move anywhere you sent it.

Do you have any idea what this is?
It looks like a piece of cardboard with straws and string, doesn't it?
What you can't see are the rubber bands attached to the back.

They work all together as a robotic hand.
When you pull a certain string, it will move a finger, stretching out the rubber band (just like a tendon). Of course, when you let go of the string the rubber band pulls the finger back straight again.

When we got home Grandpa used this to explain to us about his Carpal Tunnel surgery.
It was also easy to see why the end of Mama's finger hung lifelessly when she snapped one of her tendons.

Very Interesting.

Dadda Had These Blocks When He Was Little

How did I get to this old (14mo) and have missed the joys of knocking down towers? I knocked Mama's accidentally this afternoon and looked most surprised when it fell. Uh-oh.

It was pleasing to do a couple more times! But then I worked out I could actually put the blocks back. Well, to be honest, I've been stacking blocks up for ages (I just don't usually knock them down)

Then the whole block thing tired me - I really would rather sit in Mama's lap!

self-portrait of mother and child

Mobile Meatballs

we all worked together to produce

a MILLION meatballs.......

somehow we always seem to end up

making fun of our work!

CHOP CHOP

"Chop chop, hurry up, into the car" Mama called out to us.
We had to go out for the day, because we were bombing the house to try to get rid of the fleas L6 brought back from the hospital last week! We had one of those days Mama calls "productive"....revised memeory verses in the car, looked at a section, picked up some card for the games we are making, popped into Kathmandu and snapped up a bargain (they had made some gloves too small so were getting rid of them for $2 and our little girls need extra-extra-small!!!), did grocery shopping, visited some more sections, had lunch in the car, drove into town to pick up packs for the Big Trip (now it seems like it's really happening), played in Albert Park, watched the flower clock, listened to the university clock in the clock tower, zipped home, emptied the car, tidied the house, read some stories, watched some Gladys Aylward movie, cooked dinner...oops chop chop again. J11 chopped the end of one of his fingers. Not a little chop - a chop that required visiting the neighbour-nurse who advised getting it seen by Someone Who Knew What They Were Doing. Good ol' Grandpa dropped his going-out-dinner-plans and came over to watch the rest of us kiddos (coz of course today was the day Dadda was working til 7pm!)....we raced down to the doc and got it patched up nicely. His verdict wasn't the most encouraging: "I can't promise you won't lose the end of the finger, but we'll have a better idea in a few days. Come back tomorrow and we'll have a look and change the dressing." Hopefully it will be fine...and in the meantime, J11 is sporting an impressive-looking bandage!

Presenting.......

Sometimes our Dadda is a little bit crazy....and E-R(1) is a rhinoceros!





And K9 always likes to copy his Dadda.

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.

it's good to be a boy!

When we were gardening on Saturday we found a treasure in the bush. It didn't have a handle, but that didn't take long to fix!




We've also been making shanghais after reading "A Dangerous Book for Boys" (thanks Jonathan for telling us about it!). The postie has been giving us a pile of rubber bands if we're ever outside when she goes past. Mama thought shanghais were illegal in New Zealand - but she hasn't managed to find anything to prove this yet, so we are allowed to continue!

it's hard....

...to get a photo in which we're all looking at the camera and smiling.
It's even harder to get us all jumping at the same time






but it was a lot of fun!

boys will be boys

K9 you are usually ALL BOY! For such a long time you've not really been interested in anything much apart from bats-and-balls and making money!! But recently you've been awfully productive - I just love the boy-doll you made yourself - I can understand how important it is to have a boy-doll and not a girl-doll when you're a boy! He's very handsome - and I hope he doesn't make too much noise when you're spying out in the bush.

Love,
Mama

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.

Favourite Books Centre Stage

Coming up in three weeks is a church family camp...and on the Saturday night there's a concert. Last time we acted out the story of The Little Red Hen. This year it's Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar. We spent this afternoon making props with items we got at the recycling centre:



We'll see you on stage at 7:42....not giving away any more than that for now;-)

it's just not cricket, eh what!

We lost. The cricket. Lost dismally.

Never mind - in another ten years we'll be stepping up to the crease to lead our country to victory.

misunderstandings

Isn't language such a funny thing?

Yesterday on the way to church everyone was discussing some matter of significance and T3 added her opinion to the general consensus with an emphatic, "Me too"
M4 corrected her "No, you're three T, you're not two any more"

When we got to church we were given a little box with TOOLBOX written on it. T3 pointed out the T and said, "That's me".
Getting better;-)

And these kind of games must surely help:


....not the letter tiles....just the co-operation!

Today J12 was reading to the little ones after lunch. Picking up a book and reading its title L6 said, "Time For Bed"
T3 replied with a very quick "Oh no, one more, one more, please just one more"

Boys and Their Toys

The Child Boys make the lego airport.
The Adult Boy plays with the new camera from work.

a new ambulance....

.....with a new stretcher complete with attached oxygen machine


T3 got more hurt when she fell off the stretcher than before she was picked up by the medic team!!!! But she came outside after her nap for more rides.


ER loves rides in the ambulance too. Mama said she was a speed demon and then decided that wasn't a very pleasant thing to say!