Survival Fires

Tonight the Elder's Quorum were having an activity at the Christy's farm....how to light a fire in an emergency. Ella, Seth and I tagged along to learn some helpful hints, and very helpful it was. (Faith had scored an unexpected sleepover at Aunty Nae and Uncle Stanie's after being allowed to stay there for a swim this afternoon.)

Now I have to go to Hunting and Fishing to buy a modern day flint. We've recently hassled that shop wondering who on earth would actually go there....turns out, I will be shopping there in the next day or two!

I'm so thankful for the welfare programme of the church. I don't think you can every be too prepared for a disaster, so anything we can learn or stock up on is good in my book. I feel better going to bed tonight knowing that I now have some good pointers on how to build a fire should I ever be called upon to do so (heaven forbid!)

Ella was way too confident around the fire for my liking. She even walked straight over one when in her gumboots, when it was grey and powdery (but still burning hot!)

The life of a kid

The life of a kid is pretty sweet aye. No cares, no worries, no stresses......oh to be a kid again! 

The biggest worries in my kids life come when I say 'no you can't have a candy cane for breakfast' or when 'it's nearly bedtime'. Other than that, despite the incessant whinging that plays in the background of our home, they live a happy, carefree life. 

Seffy's at his happiest when sucking on his big toes at the moment, and by sucking I mean SUCKING.  He goes pretty hardout. How's that for carefree!

Faith makes up her own fun by cutting up banana leaves....

And fixing up Daddy Joe's rough job no the lawn.
She came in asking for scissors yesterday and didn't tell me what she wanted them for.
I saw her doing this a few minutes later, and she did it for ages. She'd cut a bit and then look for another standout tall bit

Learning the alphabet. I suppose that could be categorized as a 'stress' in the life of a 4 year old, but so far it's just fun for Faith

Building a helicopter

Making beds in the lounge

Stay in your PJs all day

Let's make fun in the garden, let's pull off those things Mum always looks at (the peas she's so lovingly and carefully growing) and pull them apart all over the concrete

 

Faith's really into making cards and cutting them up and wrapping them up as presents. They're usually for 'your grandma' (Grandma Ormsby)

And then after all that hardwork, just make a bed in the lounge and have a sleep amongst all the fun/mess

The Church Fairy

A few weeks ago Aunty Nae told me about the church fairy that they've invented to improve Mac's sacrament behaviour. After last weeks train wreck of a sacrament meeting, I decided we'd give it a go for Faith and Ella (particularly Ella as Faith is getting better and better every week). Ironically the concept is better suited for Faith cause she understands about how you can get a delayed reward for something (not too delayed mind you!). Ella doesn't. To say 'if you're good now, you can get something special when we get home' is pretty far out for her.

But we decided to give it a go.

Last week we talked about it for FHE. Our follow up activity was pretending to water the garden together, but we'd actually planned to drench Daddy Joe with the hose and watering can....Fun!!!! We got the idea from the waterfight on the movie 'On the way Home' where all the girls in the family clean the car and end up having a waterfight (while all dressed in varying tones of yellow!) Everyone ended up getting a little wet but Daddy Joe was absolutely soaked. He just stood and breathed deeply as we squirted the hose on him...jeans, shoes and all. Straight to a warm bath after that.

Anyways, back to the church Fairy. She had the special reward all set up. A packet of colouring crayon  twistable thingys for the girls to share for their church bags would be waiting in the letterbox if the fairy believed they were deserving. All through sacrament we kept reminding them. Ella would say 'ok' and then be good for about 30 seconds. Faith kept asking 'do you think the fairy will like my behaviour?' She even told the people behind us the church fairy was coming to drop something in our letterbox during church and asked if the fairy was going to their house too!

About 5 minutes before the end I looked at Daddy Joe and we both shook our heads.....NO.

No church fairy would be visiting our letterbox unfortunately.

Here's how things went when we got home......

 The whole lesson was a little lost cause as soon as we came in from the 'no treat' they got to open a present that Sister Heather had given them at church. Sister Heather is a lady that we love cause she's really sweet and she loves us!

Last week Aunty Natty brought over a gingerbread house kit. 

Line up the Lolly packets Ella...you do yo thang

!

Quick pic then pulled apart and eaten!

Cuzzie sleepover = movie time

Family Prayers = cute

Kyky's cute oreo face

 

This pot of baby food would be about $50 worth (in baby jar terms). I made it for $2...yeeyah!

Peas and beans fresh from the garden for pork chow mein

Faith was supposed to be doing my hair but she got a little side-tracked

Sometimes Ella gets entrusted with my little bunny boy, and she loves it. I think he does too (until her cuddles get a little too much)

Bethell's Beach

Yesterday the girls were nagging and nagging to go to the beach (Brown's Bade as Faith calls it). She obviously really loved our new years picnic at the beach, playing with her cuzzies in the water. I could have easily said 'not today, maybe another day', but instead I said 'sure, which beach should we go to?' Westcoast beaches are ugly, black, dark, cold and windy in my opinion. So that's where we went! We chose between Bethell's, Piha and Muriwai and ended up going with the closest....Bethells.

It turned out to be hot, but windy so we didn't even get to the real beach. We stopped at the inlet of water that you go past to get to the real waves. It was ideal for the girls to play there and they mucked around in the shallow water for quite a while. Seth and I watched. I had sandy pesto and cheese sandwiches and he had sandy pureed pumpkin...yum!!!

Eventually we packed up and headed back home to have a delicious BBQ dinner with the Elders. Boy do I love having a BBQ. We didn't get back till half an hour before they arrived and I hadn't done any prep. But it all worked out fine cause I made 2 salads and Joe did the BBQ on the deck while the Elders sat and chatted to him. I wonder how many times we'll get that burning this summer?!?!?!?

Very pleased with the boogie boards, flipper feet and rash shirts for Christmas.  They've had them a week and used them twice so far....not bad

No photos in the water sorry. I took my phone but couldn't get it working for some reason

Back in the car about to head home. Daddy Joe took them under the shower to get all the dirty/sandy mess on them and then carried them back but my little critters both managed to get very sandy feet right before getting in the car. Sorry Grandie, we'll work on that! 

Whenever I tell Ella I'm taking a photo she covers her face. She might have a whole series of photos where you never see her beautiful face!

This is Ella's attempt at eating dinner.....Sausage fingers.

Onward and upward

Another year has begun and I'm excited for it. Not that I was happy for 2012 to end, but I'm just excited about what the new year will bring for us. Faith will start school, Ella will start at Summerland Kindy, Seth will start walking (I expect). Daddy Joe will keep on keeping on at work, and EQ, and I'll keep on being Mummy Mel extraordinaire. Just kidding, I'll keep on doing what I do, and trying to be better (in every way!) Oh, and I'll hit the big 3-0 milestone...WOW, how did that happen!


I did a little reflection last night (in the ads of Titanic) and it was crazy for me to actually stop and think about where my life is at.....in a good way. I'm a wife with an amazing husband, a Mum of 3 precious kiddies and a sister, daughter, aunty to lots of others. I love my life!!!!


I love my family, I love my home, I love my calling (relief society secretary), I love my neighbours, I love my friends at church, I love both the girl's kindys. As Renee expressed yesterday, I love knowing that families can be together forever. Having faith in the plan of salvation is priceless. All in all things are good for us. And I only anticipate things getting better as 2013 progresses. If today is any indication of what's ahead, it's sunny skies, happy family time, a bit of exercise and then relaxing in front of the TV (while blogging of course). And probably a few trips to Spotlight + Emporiums as well actually.


Also last night I put some goals to paper. My biggie for this year is Visiting Teaching. I'm determined to make it a part of my life that deserves my time and attention. Temple Service also features.
Greater patience (particularly with my girlies) is there. Enjoying more play time with my kiddies rather than always saying to them 'I can't' or 'hold on' or 'wait, I've just got to....' when they ask me to play with them. I need to actually relax and play, make memories with them. I want to have fun with them and not always be thinking about what else needs to be done around the house. Funnily enough that's probably one of the goals that will be the hardest for me. It even seems silly to me as I admit that, but it's true.

There's a few others but I won't bore you with the details.
Suffice to say that things are going well so far......

Here's a few pics of the last few days for us.
And go here to see pics of our cool picnic at Browns Bay today. The girls have gone to bed asking for lots more trips to the beach cause they loved it. I guess that's where we'll be heading over the coming summer weeks (if the weather obliges!)

Ella's afternoon sleep is now in the lounge on the couch. We have 'quiet time' when Seth has his afternoon nap and the girls muck around and close the curtains, and sometimes fall asleep watching a movie. Sweet!

Seth had his first marmite bread stick last week (a million times cheaper than rusks). I thought he might scrunch his face up with the strong taste of it, but he was loving it, licking away like crazy.....good boy my son!

And his first pizza...lovin' cheese lovers

Ella enjoying a christmas toy. We probably use it and pack it away about 5 times a day. I just can't bring myself to leave it out on the floor from morning till night. The house looks like a disaster zone with this and lots of other toys all over the lounge floor, plus blankets from 'bed making' and clothes from changing outfits!!!!! All that aside, it was money well spent on the train + tracks set.

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