Twice the Fun

28th March

4 days after Lynne and Chris's wedding we celebrated Aaron's 9th and Ben's 5th Birthdays.

The best parts (according to the boys) were the respective Lighting McQueen and Harry Potty Birthday Cakes and the Egg spoon race that turned into egg throwing sessions.

Egg Throwing is a great family tradition from my side of the family. My Dad has all these theories about how you need to throw the egg (angle/speed etc) to get the fartherest distance.

Gotta watch those stray egg throws by some kids though;-)

Ben starts School

27th and 28th March

Finally it's happened, it's taken 5 (sometimes long) years, but my youngest child has entered the world of full day education.

Very Cool

I was probably more upset than him at leaving kindy. I have being very involved with the teachers and committee there since Oct 2000. Looonnng time, cool time, made friends forever and helped the centre grow and adapt to a Kindergarten from a playgroup.

Ben of course was only interested in what kind of cakes (FOOD) his Rannie and I made to give to the kindy kids on the last day, and what his favourite song would be to choose( NOISE). (the Snake dance song).

He was a bit apprehensive at first about school - lotsa rules, normal teacher away sick, no friends all made for a boy that didn't want to go for a week, but tough love and he has settled in. ..well sort of, whats a few time-outs a day anyway??

There is still that eerie feeling that I should be doing somethings around 11.30am - like remembering to pick up someone from kindy... weird, I've had to drive somewhere in the middle of the day for 6 1/2 years. It may take some time for that habit to break!

Cheers

Megs

Finally - an update

Firstly thanks for looking back at this blog in the never ending hope I will update someday..

and apologies for taking so bl***dy long to do so!

Things have been soo busy here, and that's not just lip service. Truely, ...very busy . There's lots of news to catch up on. Might take a couple of blog entries to bring you all up to date.

Here goes..

24th March (audio anouncers voice) When we left the Lamont Family they were busy helping prepare for Lynne and Chris's wedding. In this episode we find out if they finally managed to fix the computer in time for the slide show, and if Megan still fitted her bridesmaids dress...

Yep, the wedding was cool. Nope, not all parts of the speech slide/show thing worked because of a technicality (we didn't know the DVD from overseas was going to be in quicktime), and yes I still fitted the dress,

Even the weeks of hardout chocolate bar eating under stress didn't alter the figure too much (go figure - perhaps it could be a new diet).

A very cool part of the wedding was that it was held in Mum and Dad's Garden, which is the same as Pete and I but a very different garden is now there since the 12 years ago when we were married (Hi Hun).

Mum has planned this garden (and house) renovation for a long time, and as they say There is nothing like a wedding to get the job done. So here's what it looked like after the demolition stage and here's what it looked like on the day of the wedding. BIG Difference.

The speeches were the best part of the whole night. Lots of emotions, highs and lows, laughs and cries, and Lynne did the best speech I have ever heard a bride give.

We only had a couple of days to recover (and clean up) because 4 days later Ben started school!! Wohoo, so see the next post.

Stay tuned for our next episode, when you'll hear "Mum ..I don't want to go to school today.."

Lynnie's Hens Night

My sister Lynne celebrated her Hens night last Sat. Lotsa games and giggles, laughs and lovely gifts in the afternoon.

All her friends contributed a recipe and jem of relationship advice to a book I made for her (7 gyp journal kit thingy for all you scrappers).

It turned out very cool, and she loved it. The evening carried on to restaurants and pubs and was pretty tidy really.. er until the tray of tequila shots at some unnamed bar very late in the evening... :0) Go Lynnie!!!

Only 26 more sleeps to go!

School Books

I think I've figured it out... where my love of books, papers and pens originated.

This year as I spent some time (a whole day) covering the kids books for school, I remebered my mum and how she used to cover our books as kids.

They didn't have cover-seal in those days and so, to protect the books she used wallpaper. I can still clearly remember the patterns now, the same wallpaper on our walls as kids.

Then (and here's the special bit) we were allowed to choose a "swap" or a "scrap" to put on the cover of each book. If you don't remember - or had a life outside of 'swaps' or 'scraps' - these were pictures, often children, faires etc, embossed, often glittered and joined together in a sheet by tabs. There was definatly kudos and a rating system when it came to selecting which "swap" went on which book. Afterall there were four of us kids, and probably 5 books each. I just remember it being so special, and that she stayed up late at night doing it.

After the wallpaper and swap, she also carefully cut a plastic bag so that it wrapped around the whole book, sellotaped it into the insides and voila, there you have it - school books covered 1970's style.

so cool remembering that.

Catching up

Seems to be what I am doing so much of already... and it's only a few weeks into the school term!

My mum had a nice birthday, we went out for lunch to a new restaurant on the Karioitahi beach coast Agave. Awesome location, gorgeous food and friendly people.

Have completed a layout for the next Dare over at No8 Wired, had fun doing this. The challenge was to use black and white and one other colour. I choose red (my fave scrapping colour) and I immediately thought of my mothers toes! She has had them painted red for years. To have a pedicure is her absolute dream, I love them too.

My scrapping stuff has recently been organised into 'colour drawers' thanks to Stacey Julian and her Big Picture Book, so my 'Red' draw finally came into it's own during this challenge.

Organising photos - printed and digital has been a mammoth task for the Library of Memories class I am taking, but finally we are starting to 'see the light' and I'm having some 'aahaaa' moments as I realise the different connections you can see in photos when they are NOT organised chronologically but rather in groups and relationships. Very Cool Stuff.

Happy Birthday Mum!

Happy Birthday to my Mum.

56 years young today an awesome mother to her children

and pretty darn cool grandmother as well

able to see the funny side of anything,

and she has taught me that a good hard days work solves most problems.

Happy Birthday Mum

I love ya.

Back to School

Yep, Back to school for the boys tomorrow. Did the baking biscuits /grocery shopping thing today as usual, stocking up on supplies.

As a child I loooved the first day, new books, new felt tips (if I was lucky) and a new teacher. I loved the chance to start things new, learn new things etc.

I'm definitely a new starter kinda person and not so great at the finishing completing project kinda thing. If I ever went to a UFO (Un-Finished Objects) weekend, I swear I would need a big truck to load up all the stuff. Think back to those hook loop rugs we made as kids....

BUT.. I have finished this weeks dare at No8 Wired. Yep actually started and finished this layout in one night. Loved the Hot/Cold and New/Old products ideas. I really need to use some of my old stuff so this was a good challenge for me... now I just need to do another fifty layouts and I would have used all the old stuff I have.

Holiday Tricks and Treats

Was still at the beach for most of the last week. Kids loved riding the bikes around the footpaths and tarsearled roads (we don't have those at home) and especially loved the bike park, Cam really shone at the jump.

Home now, still motorbike madness around here, one of our apprentices Brent came over tonight with his bike as well, and showed us all how it is done!

I can only imagine what motorbike tricks the kids must be dreaming of tonight!

I finally put my layout for the NZ Dares site up, The theme this fortnight was 'Going round in Circles'. Well for me it's about motorbikes, there just doesn't seem to be anything else around here lately! I am helping a few friends with their wedding invitations in the next few days. Weddings are always a cool time to gather family and friends, this year I have been specially asked to be a bridesmaid, in not one, but two weddings. You would have thought at 35 yrs old you would be past that sort of thing but apparently not. I am very honored to be asked in both cases and now I can't wait for the weddings, and all the fluffy stuff that goes with them. Catch you soon Megs

And then there was another one

Just when you thought it was safe to walk outside and not get bowled over by the boys on their motorbikes screaming around the house, Pete has gone and got a trail bike for himeself. The noise of all threee bikes together is 'one of a kind' and certainly impressing the cows ...not.

Have had some lovely lazy summery days at home, catching up on chores and nights visiting friends (Hi Sam and Sonya) and Family (Hi Craig's and Lamont's). Still some ironing to do, but when isn't it there.

I thought that could be my Ali Edwards word of the year

'washdryandputawaytheclothesinthesameday',

but I was pretty sure that any resolution around that wouldn't last diddly pip, so my word for the year is

Balance

Between our work and family time, play time and volunteer time, sleep time and awake time, giving and receiving, etc. It would be great to have a bit more balance this year, less extremes. I am also feeling quite reflective tonight. A friend of the family that was diagnosed with cancer in Nov last year passed away quickly this week. It has been quite a shock to our family and a reminder to me of what may happen with dad's health as he heads into a new treatment next week. (Hi Dad)

On the scrapping front I have been very lucky to be asked to join the NZ No8 Wired Dares Blog and the first dare for the year should be on the site this Friday, so go have a look. My layout should be added later this weekend depending on internet connections.

I am off to the beach this weekend to catch a few waves with the kids, I am taking some scrapping stuff with me to do at night-time. ;)

Catch you soon, Megs :)

Back to work

Well sort of.. loottts of washing and drying after the rain,work accounts, and still working on that Big Picture Library of Memories sorting. It's fun to watch the kids re-finding the Christmas presents they forgot about, and they are busting to play Jungle Buzz with Mum and Dad. Betta go and cook some of that fish we brought home.. Cheers Megs

It rained last night, rained and rained. Camp is a little wet around the edges but drying out fast in the heat of today.

Have had some more lovely days in the sunshine, refreshing day trip to Whangapoua Beach. Bee-ute-ti-full sand! Oh, how I could have dug my toes in it for days.. Boys had a great swim in the waves and we throughally enjoyed an impromtu BBQ with friends afterwards..Good Summer Times.

The boys 'rain induced' boredom was abated for a short time yesterday as we all cooked lunch together. Sweetcorn fritters and fruit Kebabs, all hands on deck and then a huge appetite for eating the 'fruits of our labour'. Wasjigs and the making of friendship bracelets helped fill up yesterday.

Have been diligently sorting photos for the Stacey Julian Big Picture Library of Memories class.. Nothing like looking at some older photos to remind yourself what you used to look like.. I can see some more time bike riding and walking around here before the holiday is over.

catch u soon

Megs.

Size does matter

so Pete says.. not many fish have been coming home lately, a few gurnard and snapper, but yesterday some big ones came home in the boat.. ..and now he is happy. Spent yesterday at the Cooks Beach Fair and then took the kids for a walk through a little bit of bushy / scrub to Lonely Bay, where they had a lovely afternoon. relaxed and sunburnt Megan

Happy on Holiday

Happy on Holiday, yes well now we are, but the holiday break started with a bit of a hiss, as the door of the utility was unlocked to a hor-rid-able smell. The power in the whole utility had been 'tripped' and so the freezer had been turned off since around labour weekend. Decomposing fish bait makes for a bad, bad smell. Still, we dealt with that calamity, had two others - caravan canopies ripping etc and finally made it to bed that night exhausted. Day two - much better, kids playing in the sand, friends and family visiting, Coromandel FM on the radio.. now it really feels like a holiday.

The Day After

The day after Boxing Day.. the recovery

• finding the kitchen bench after yesterdays cooking
• finding the lost parts of toys ..already
• finding the patience to listen to crazy frog 'We are the Champions' for the 20th time this morning
• finding the keys to the boat lock thingy, so we can take the boat on holiday
• finding the Mylanta to combat all that rich food I ate yesterday

Yep, 'spose it's a fairly typical Boxing Day here.

We had a great Christmas, you can't beat your four year old pulling you by the arms out of bed at 6am screaming 'come on Mum, you gotta come, you won't believe this, you won't believe what is in the lounge ..truly Mum, come on.'

It really felt like Christmas for me when I heard that.

Pete and I did the big splurge and got the boys a 50cc motorbike. Cam says 'This is the best present I ever got in all my seven years Dad'. Aaron has one comment 'Yea-ass' which I think means pretty great.

We had breakfast with Peters parents, then late lunch/dinner with mine. Lovely company, lovely food, great day.

Best present: DH and I got a Digital SLR ..pretty darn cool

Noisiest Present: Kids got these screaming monkey things that you fire like a catapult and they scream monkey screams as they fly through the air .. umm lovin' that present, we have three of them as well, one for each of the boys. Thank you Aunty Lynne.

Best cooking success: New recipe for Curried Mango and Chicken salad went down a treat.

We are off to the beach early tomorrow morning, setting up camp, awnings etc for most of the day tomorrow, then pure beachin, boatin bliss for 3 weeks. Yeeeha

Christmas is coming closer

and closer and closer. My lack of organisation is showing. I am feeling very overwhelmed.. so what is a girl to do.. scrapbook of course. I spent three whole hours on one card for a challange at Scrapbook Outlet. Three whole hours, cripes, this model isn't going on the production line!.

I used the beading dimensional magic idea from Nic's blog and had to use non-christmas colours to make a card. It was a good medative workout gluing those beads on, I chilled out heaps and went to bed at 2.00am in the morning - a happy little scrapper.

The card won the competition too!, and was sent to a very special lady who has made so much home baking for my dad and our family lately. A very special lady indeed.

Scrapcamp

Scrapcamp was cool, the best part was getting away from home and all the jobs to do there and just 'Be girly, with the girls'. Shopping with Sonya and Jennifer at Tirau, all the little shops your husband would never stop at, gotta love that. In the theme of a girly weekend (vs life at home with 4 males) I even started a mini album on the topic. The suggestions on 'How to remember to be a girl' from all the other ladies at our table sure were good for a few laughs, and Nic thought of a good title for it too..Out of the Mud.. I like it. I really enjoyed the challenges etc and this is the page I completed in 1 hour from the Saturday night challenge using Sassafrass Lass papers. The photo is my sister Haley and her new fiance on their engagement announcement. I was pretty stoked with how the page turned out - was really buzzing completing it - literally, (go the V drink) and was also pretty chuffed when it was chosen as the winner. Cool prize too from Scrapbooking by Design, a cigar box from Cosmo Cricket and some other little things.

Biggest Laugh of the weekend, the walk that I went on at 6.30am to catch up with the others. I didn't find them and kept switching between paths trying to see where they were. In the end it seems they didn't go walking, but went scrapping instead, and they didn't let me in on the joke for ages too.. very funny, as I am not normally a morning walker either.

Mothers of Boys

Mothers of Boys may relate to this, I went to school today and checked the lost property box and there I found no less than SIX shoes belonging to my son Cameron. SIX SHOES!, two of them aren't even a pair! ( had the other unmatched ones at home). How does this happen? more like how OFTEN does this happen?

Days of threats about bringing home shoes, hats, lunchboxes etc fall on deaf ears. Often you hear in our house "Yes Mum, I did check the lost property, for sure, and I just couldn't find my shoes/lunchbox/hat/jearsey/etc.

As a last resort today Cam had to wear his big brothers shoes (he had none left himself) . As he was walking to the bus he tripped over in those big shoes and grazed both knees badley. We heard the cries from the house (our drive is 350m long) and went and helped Cam. We waveed bye to his brother on the bus and then took him home to clean up his knees. I drove him to school and sent him in with no shoes at all. ( I always said I would never send my kids to school with bare feet). Cam was so upset, scrapping his knees, missing the bus and having no shoes to wear to school. I explained in vain again that this is what happens when you forget your shoes, and that because HE forgot his shoes HE had to wear bare feet.

As I leave the classroom I have one last look in the lost propery box and there to my disbelief (as I have looked there many times already) I find his new sandals - on top - which makes my think another child must have taken them home on accident and then brought them back. Once I found the sandals I decided to look through the other stuff incase there are any jearseys etc, and that's when I found the total of SIX SHOES ( and a pair of soxs).

Oh, I can see this is as a never ending saga, boy and shoes just don't seem to gel, I am up for a heck of a lot more lost property visits before this saga is over!

Boating Days

Boating Days are good for the soul.

A couple of weekends ago, after the stress of our PTA Gala (we raised $15,000) we finally had a family day out. There was a noticeable lack of wind, and the Manukau Bar (pictured) was very flat. I had not been out to the bar before, so it was great to get out in the boat and just cruuzzz the water, without too much fishing on the agenda.

We went right to the harbour entrance, and I was very inspired by the rugged coastline on one side contrasted with the bushy hills of Huia and Cornwallis on the other side.

There is nothing like getting out on the water, and viewing natures splendor to restore the soul.

First Time

Yep every blogger has a first time,everyone has to do it, take the plunge and start their own blog instead of reading everyone elses, so now its my turn.

Today was pretty cool, I got compliented on the tasty dinner, and all three children (and dad) ate it without complaining or needing threats, (not what super nanny would do). The computer man came today and improved my home network heaps, and tomorrow is Friday - always a great day in my books.

This week the kids had a trikeathon at kindy, big laughs, Cameron on a Pony (we are so not a horsy family), Ben the red devil blitzing the other kids on the bike track, and showing great potential for awards in Road Rage for 2006, and Az on the Magic Carpet ride, which is not even a carpet, rather a 4wd motorbike pulling around a wheelbarrow tub, OSH would have loved that, but there is too much goody too shoes and OSH stuff these days and it was great to see flagrent abuse of regulations and good old fashioned fun had by all.

The boys are really improving in swimming lessons, which makes the often unappreciated taxi ride everyone gets worth it! I see if I can upload some photos.

Cheers for Now

Megs