work in progress

I'm in the middle of making a knight's costume for #2. It's the sort of project that I would never have considered six months ago, but I'm becoming a lot more confident with my sewing. It also doesn't really matter if it's not perfect because it's for a three year old! I'm not quite yet ready to make clothes... maybe next year.

I also finished the Christmas stockings last week, they turned out really cute. They're from a book called Stitched In Time.

the big school visit

Last week we had our first school visit. We bought him a massive new backpack and a SpongeBob lunchbox.

It turned out that there were about twenty kids visiting that day! That means twenty kids starting in the new entrants classes in the next six weeks or so... that's a lot! Four of them are friends from kindy which is nice.

It all went well, they had a bit of time on the mat talking about the school day and a tour of the school with the (very sweet) teacher. An alphabet craft activity, a story and a play in the playground. We went out for morning tea afterwards with one friend and her mummy. It was an exciting morning all round. Look at that grin... he can't wait to be a schoolboy.

summer of change

Our youngest has been fascinated by insects for as long as I can remember. This summer we had a swan plant growing in our garden and the Monarch butterflies laid lots of eggs for us. It was lovely to see them hatch into tiny caterpillars and then into butterflies. We had one hatch out of it's chrysalis right in front of us at lunch one day. It was so exciting.

It's also exciting watching our boys change and grow. We were all sitting at dinner last night and I looked at these big boys sitting there with us. It really doesn't feel very long ago that they were a baby and a toddler. We have video of #1 feeding #2 dinner with a baby spoon. I think I'm reminiscing because we had the first school visit this week. It's such a change going from preschooler to school kid. It is for me anyway!

pukeko

He turns five next month. He loves to read, talk on the phone, play with his friends and his brother, ride his bike, climb trees, listen to audio books, play imaginary games, play on the computer, take photos, write letters, get mail (even better), cook, build lego, draw pictures, dress up, watch tv (SpongeBob is the current favourite) and play board games. He also seems to enjoy grizzling, sulking and crying at the moment. Not so much fun for the rest of us! Perhaps it's part of growing up, I imagine it might be a little stressful for him too. Fingers crossed it'll pass soon.

super hero

I am loving this photo of my youngest when we were out with the grandparents on the weekend. He was wearing his cape over his clothes and doing some kind of spin on the footpath. Very cute.

green eggs and ham

Yes I know it looks pretty disgusting but the green scrambled eggs taste just like regular ones... honest! We've been reading a lot of Dr Seuss lately and a friend suggested green eggs and ham pie, this was our weekend lunch instead, with baked beans. Yummy.

thanks Nana

Today's mail included a parcel with jelly snakes and a snuggly warm hoodie knitted by Nana. It's a great fit. We had a play in the autumn leaves and #2 found a praying mantis. Lovely to be able to be outside again. We had a heat pump installed into our super cold house last week and it has changed our lives! We're not constrained to the one room with the heater in it anymore. It's amazing.