April Activities

April has been a productive month.  We have enjoyed the settled autumn weather of cool nights and warm, sunny days.

I sometimes think, when I see other peoples photos of their nature walks, that we don't have anything as pretty.  But really the beauty is there if you choose to look hard enough.  It is more about perspective than it is about location.  

Life is just like that too.  Sometimes what we see around us seems boring or maybe ugly, but there is beauty there if we choose to see it.  The same goes for people.

This day I decided to take the youngest 3 on an adventure.  We headed down to the local river and went exploring.  It was great fun.

Life's simple pleasures - dandelion blowing.

The adventurer.

"This is my kingdom!" he cried aloud

Then we headed into the forest.

This is the only shot we seem to be able to get of these 2 lately.

Besties <3

 And sometimes I find lovely things on my camera...

Lego is a daily staple for the little boys.  One particular day Arrow saw Master Yoda from Star Wars on the computer and he wanted to make him.  This is where we found the instructions.  Yoda Lego Instructions

Our city clock tower was lit up red for Anzac Day.  We had made a family trip into town for dinner and we walked to the clock tower to see the Anzac displays.

Our silhouettes - can you guess who is who? 

 Autumn is my personal favourite season.  We found a decent pile of leaves in a park and had some fun with them.

We joined a community food harvesting group which gathers food to give to the organisations in our city who distribute free food to those in need.
The first harvesting we did was the University apple orchard.  We got to take some apples home with us too, which was a lovely bonus.

The second harvesting we went to was an enormous paddock of pumpkins...hundreds of thousands of them!  The estimate I heard was 500 tonnes!  Can you even imagine it!

The girls did a great job, and I am sure they now have a deeper appreciation of giving to others.
It is quite a humbling experience to work hard to collect food for others, and knowing that it was just going to rot and that it was impossible to gather all that was there so most of it will is a real life lesson.  There is so much waste in our world.

Look at those happy faces!  Good job girls.  

~Lorna

March Activities

Well, March was a pretty good month.  Summer made a hasty exit, and autumn has been preparing us for cooler weather to come.

Kite flying is a must-do activity for young ones.  The light breezes we have had, have been perfect for kites.

These kites are easy, fun and guarenteed to work even with little to no wind!
(Supermarket bags and string)

Run like the wind!

And a real kite too.  They loved it.

This boy LOVES his learning boxes.  He even asks to do them on the weekends.

My giant sunflowers were ready to harvest.  The boys had a great time getting all the seeds off the flower heads.  I have lots of seeds for next year and because you can only plant so many sunflowers the chickens and ducks enjoyed some seed treats.

Team work.

Cooking lunch.  Pretty girl.

For one of our Friday movie and pizza nights we were treated to wild goat meat and mozzarella pizza.  J951 recently went bow hunting and brought home a wild goat!  We have had roasted goat leg and this delicious pizza.  Not only was he the hunter, but also the cook!

My baby chickens are getting big now.  Titus Jnr on the left is the first to greet me at the gate.  Lily and Cuddles are very curious and love to eat from my hand.  Cuddles has no personal space and often tries to peck my teeth out!  So I have learnt not to smile at her too long!

I was given 3 new hens.  They are so, so cute.  They are Lavender Asian Langshan Bantams, tiny little ladies and so pretty.  I have named them Amethyst, Periwinkle, and Violet.  

March 17th is St. Patricks Day.  We are not particularly Irish, although I am sure we would both trace some family to Ireland if we tried.  However, we took the day to learn a little about St. Patrick and about Ireland.  As with all learning, food is a must if at all possible.  There is no better way to remember things than with food!

Our delicious Full Irish Breakfast.  I even found Irish sausages at the butcher!

The children filling up for the day ahead on breakfast.

Dinner

We even had serviettes with shamrock napkin rings and a candle table centrepiece.

Often I find these 2 snuggled up together when I check on them before heading to bed.

Arrow found a survival book in the learning box one morning.  He decided, after flicking through the pages, that he would build a shelter.  Here it is...

Big enough for two.

"Campfire" with some furry friends.

 I was given some organic apples.  Sounds fancy doesn't it.  Really they are just regular old fashioned apples from someones back yard who didn't spray them or anything!
So I am busy stewing the big ones, and finely chopping the smallest and not so good ones for Apple Cider Vinegar making.

And meanwhile the children are eating a lot of apples when they get hungry...which seems to be often!

~Lorna

August Activities

 This August we did a few winter-y activities.  

Crayon resist water colour art.

These are our crayon resist water colour winter scenes.

Mine - pine tree through window
Arrow - snowflakes falling on snowman
Cedar - rainbow snowflakes

Butterfly - Merida in the snowy woods
Blossom - sparkly white snow flakes on a hill
Crystal - snow covered pine tree with Anna and Olaf

Food is always fun.  

Snowman cup popcorn

Marshmallow snowmen

And a cute little chocolate banana penguin!

The girlies eating their penguins

We each made an igloo from mini marshmallows.  We set Eskimo babies by our igloos and  talked about how the people who live in the arctic north like to be called Inuit rather than Eskimo.

These are our paper snowflakes...well they proved quite hard to make as there was a distinct lack of instructions online on how to actually do them.  I eventually found a website...in Chinese!

The boys got into the puzzle groove this month.  

Cedar is really enjoying his lessons.  Yay.

It is true.  I found another dead bird.  If it is safe enough to stop I always try to remove them from the road as the hawks end up as roadkill too, trying to get a meal.  

A beautiful Pukeko

 My pretty butterfly!

~Lorna