Wellington Botanic Gardens

The cable car museum is located adjacent to the Wellington Botanic Garden. A kind Romanian visitor helped us capture the photos from the hilltop. Then we went for a quick stroll to the Botanical garden. We only covered the Australian Native garden and some alpine type garden. Then it looked like it was going to rain or worse off, hail ! so we got into our cable car on time to avoid the hail.

Cable car museum

Not wasting any time, after we got back to the hotel and had a late lunch, we decided to head out this time to the cable car. At the very last stop there was the cable car museum where one gets to see and touch and sit on the original cable car from the early 20th century.
Noel here checking out the old cable car. The chair was slanting and has a belt that people held on to so they don't fall out of the vehicle.

Oops, it's hailing outside...

when we finished exploring Te Papa, we decided to leave but couldn't. The rain has turned into hail, the grounds outside were all white. Since Noel had his gumboots on, I let him checked out the hails. We eventually walked back to the hotel when it has stopped hailing. My whole shoes was just soaking wet from walking on the hail covered grounds.

Te Papa - the national musuem

On the 2nd day of our trip, we went to Te Papa musuem. It is prob 10-15mins walk from where we stayed. Noel looked at the giant collosal squid for quite some time. It was very interactive, and it also showed the video of how the squid was captured, then studied by all the experts of the sea creature. I can't help but marvel at this huge creature.

Then, the boys went into a kid's area. This time, they went into the heart of a Blue Whale. It was like a mini maze for them.

We could stayed here all day if we wish. Noel checked out the microsope, magnifying machine, the rafflesia flower (artificial,of course) while Abel checked out the puzzles. There were many mums with little kids in this room.

We then went to this new interactive area. We could take picture of ourselves and it can be collaged on a big screen. Picture would stay for a few days on the screen. We could also go through the archive or database of pictures that people have sent into the museum.

Wellington Waterfront

I find Wellington CBD very easy to explore and very nice to explore (minus the hilliness). It has nice shoppings, and also playgrounds are very accessible.
Just 2 minutes from where we were staying, there is the waterfront. The boys almost don't want to leave the playground. Noel kept going up to that white lighthouse slide which is really high and he was really enjoying himself.

B is for BeeHive

We walked down Lambton Quay to the BeeHive, the parliament complex. He asked for his Burger King before we got to the Beehive.It was quite hard explaining to Noel the purpose of parliament. He asked things like what's a beehive? What is parliament?

Here Noel showing his big brother's love :)

Parliament grounds

Noel sat on one of the big column of the parliament building. The boys found going up and down the steps real interesting.

So carefree where they could run all they want on the parliament grounds :)

Off we go..

In mid-Sept, me and the boys went to Wellington for a few days holidays. It was good fun, the weather was crisp and sunny most of the time when we were there :)

Reading time

Picture is taken on Father's day week. The boys love their daddy to read them when he gets home from work. Abel started to take real interest in books (identifying things, pointing etc as opposed to chomping off the side of all his books) when he's about 1.5 years old. Now he loves his Wiggles book and Thomas the train book.

Bird Hat

Here, the boys made hat with feathers at Playgroup. Noel made the hat mostly by himself. He chose his own feathers and position his feathers all over the hat and chose the colour of the eyes. I helped Abel made the hat mostly. He just wanted to hold the brush containing the craft glue.

p/s: The hat template was pre-made for us.

Father's Day celebration in kindy

Noel had a Daddy and Me event at kindy. I made those cupcakes (my first attempt) and also sausage and cheese finger food.
Jake took these photos of Noel in the kindy. He used scissor to make cuttings, he made some crafts and the rest of the time he was outdoor in the playground. I wonder if they will organise a Mummy and Me day.

Drawing process

When Noel was about 15.5 months, Jake got him the sketcher board from Melbourne. Noel would then ask us to draw for him animals, shapes all sorts. After he started kindy last year, he slowly developed his drawing skills. I found these photos that I took from my archive. On the left hand side photo, Noel drew a face. I think he was drawing himself. He started with a big circle, then he would draw two more smaller circles and dot them (eyes) then he would draw the nose and the mouth. Prior to this drawing, he would just make random circles. Then from the circle, it became face. On this particular drawing, I asked about the ears. so he drew two long lines to represent the ears. By Father's day, he was also drawing a bunch of hair on top of the head.

Fast forward, a year on, he drew his first fire engine. It was not very rectangle in shape but it had the wheels, the axe, the hose, the windows, the sirens and the ladder. He even drew the fireman. I was very proud of all the details in the drawing. About a week or so later, upon my request, he drew another one, this time, the shape was a lot more rectangle but had less detail.

Do you still remember when you first started drawing or when your kids first started drawing?

Peg boarding

Usually there're a bit of tears involved when it comes to the boys playing with the Peg Board. Either Noel is unwilling to share so Abel burst into tears or Noel got real frustrated because Abel had just destroyed his highest 'building'. Here they were playing nicely.

Look, Mum...

Look Mum, I've made an airplane. Shoo......While Abel was busy playing with the loader, Noel occupied himself with the Megabloks and made himself this aircraft.

Loader

I got this loader when Noel was about 15 and half months. The loader was pretty much brand new as it was not one of Noel's top pick. Here Abel plays with it all by himself without the hassle from his big brother.

Picnic in winter

We decided to have a picnic in winter on a weekend at our favourite spot, Cockle Bay Beach. We got some KFC and some drinks and off we go.

After the greasy chicken and flavoured drinks, the boys went to sweat it out at the park. Here, Noel's in the swing. He kept saying "Higher, daddy, higher".

Abel was exploring this spinning 'thingamajig'. He tried to climb on it afterwards. Very soon, he was joined by Big Bro Noel.

Cotton bud painting

I saw this method on one of Noel's kindy wall and decided to experiment at home. I found some cotton buds and an old unused ice cube trays and we set to work. I asked Noel to choose 3 colours. He picked Orange, Yellow and Blue.
For Noel, I could see he enjoyed painting with the cotton bud. The cotton bud was easy to hold and he was using the block colour first and then he started to experiment mixing the orange and the blue. Or yellow and the Blue. He made lines, he made dots and he did not make much mess at all.
For Abel, he was excited by the cause and effect of the cotton bud and the colour producing colour on his paper. Somehow, he found a highlighter and decided to dot his paper with the highlighter instead.

Benefits: Fine motor skills

Stamp stamp stamp...

I got these animal zodiac stamps from the Shanghai World Expo only to find out these stamps had been tampered by little hands. Anyhow, here Noel is practising stamping one morning.

Vroom vroom vroom..

I noticed Abel is really into his cars, and transport vehicles. I don't remember Noel playing with his cars that much when they are the same age. Photo is taken when Abel is 18 months plus. He went from making some grunting noise to saying 'car', 'truck' and now he would make the siren noise "nee naw", "nee naw" and attempt to say fire engine and ambulance..usually only saying the first and last syllable of the words.

Who's driving?

I secretly took this photo of Abel when he walked out one morning, wearing my hat that he's found from the dress up box, one hand carrying my bag and walked into his car and then he made sound as if he's driving somewhere. Maybe to the supermarket to fetch something?