Kelly Tarltons

 

Well the big day finally arrived and we set off for Auckland for our end of year trip to KT's and for a nights camping at Muriwai Beach. It was awesome!! The penguins were a hit with everyone but I was rapt with the turtle- so graceful and peaceful. I was really pleased that the kids remebered what it was they had learnt about the penguins and sharks too! They had a blast and I have a feeling the trip will be remebered in a loooooong time :)

 

 

Treasure Hunt

 

Last Monday the girls and I went 'tadpoling' Jacob wanted to go with Dad instead so I gave him a list of things to find:
A big leaf, 3 things that start with 'St' somthing that starts with G, N and P, something that will float, something that will sink, a seed or a seed-pod and something round....
the girls and I didn'y find tadpoles (we ende up buying them from the pet shop!) but we did catch waterborne insects for them to eat and we looked at what sort of things were living in the water way...we picked up bits of algae and took a look at what was living in it and tried to find clues ( other kids,bird life, cats, stagnant water etc) to the dissapearence of the tadpoles... 

Horse basket ball

 

Tui will do anything to stay on the horse so shooting a few hoops is just part of the fun.
Meanwhile Jacob and Pearl are resting up after running up and rolling, jumping, flying down a big pile of bark a few million times! The bark is for the horse arena and usually it is shifted by volunteers with wheelburrows only this time Jacob and Pearl found a more interesting way of spreading it.... 

Take two mschevious kids...

 

...and a very big, innocent looking pile of bark.... 

 

 

 

Yeeeeehah!!!! 

 

Jump,run or roll.... 

 

 

2 messy (but very happy!) kids!!

 

 

Tauranga, view towards the Mount

 

 

Summerland!

 

Thanks to my trade partner we also learnt that Okanagan Valley, Summerland, Canada has a lot of grapes, that is it near a lake, that summerland is a small town and that they have a white Christmas! 

Canada

 

 

All over the world

Today I recieved my first Artist Trading Card in the post. It came all the way from Sumemrland Canada so we decided to look at the world map to see how far Canada is from NZ...some of the things we learnt is that Canada is a very long way from here, Canada is a lot bigger than NZ and right now it is winter over there, Canada is 'on top' of America.
We also look at the map for other countries the kids had heared of such as America, Australia and China.
Then we started looking at things (Toys, clothing, containers etc) to see where they were made and then looked on the map for the country. Turns out most of our things are made in China but we also found a model made in Italy and one in France, a toy made in Taiwan, a toy that was made in China for a company in Canada, a book printed in America and several containers made in NZ.It was quite interesting for the kids to see how far away those places are...where friends of ours have lived or visited and ofcourse where my card came from! 

Tui, Dad and Mystic at RDA

 

 

Pooper scooper

 

Jacob is as great help volunteering at RDA, here he is with the giant poooper scooper cleaning up the arena for the kids to ride in. Good boy! 

Buttercup baby...

 

I remember doing the buttercup test when I was a little girl, though I had long forgotten about it...until i saw a big patch of buttercups at horse riding today. Pity the photo didn't dhow the lovely golden glow on her chin- must have been outshone by Pearl's lovley pearly whites! 

Buttercup

 

 

Tis the season...

 

 

Watermelon Angels

 

The good ol 're-use' draw is a lot emptier today! We made these Angels from egg cartons, old wrapping paper, beads and wool.
The girls decided to decorate their Angels with watermelon scented body glitter! Mmmmm.Jacob wanted green wings for his Angel to make it fly faster than the girls ones....and declined on using the cream on his ( eww that's girls stuff!) he also thought it HILLARIOUS calling it a fart fairy instead of an Angel so I had to explain the that christmas story wasn't going to be quite the same if it was a fart fairy who told Mary that she would be 'with child! instead of an Angel! BOYS!! :) 

 

 

Sleeping Jesus

 

We made these cool little christmas decorations today from a candy cane, wool, cardboard, wooden beads, felt and glue.
The hook on the candy cane made a perfect cradle and we made baby Jesus from a wooden bead ( remember those beaded carseat covers? we have a dismantled one!) The kids really loved it and when we put the tree up we will hang them on there. 

 

 

Don't glue yourself Tui!!