Abel's monkey

This is taken probably towards the 2nd week of December. We were at the nearby mall and there was a balloon artist around. Noel asked for a sword (nothing exciting) but Abel wanted a black monkey. His facial expression while waiting for it was priceless.

Roadside Rescue (Part 2)

Look what a lick of paint can do.  Remember this Roadside rescue ?In October, my dad used the remaining paint for a project around the house on this and now it looks next to new to me.
Kids absolutely love to eat their little meals there.

Advent Calendar - day 10 and 11

Day 10 was reading a Christmas story book. We picked the story of Jesus' birth from the boys' children bible.

We used the Berenstain Bears The Berenstain Bears Storybook Bible.  The boys never took on Berenstain Bears story book series but they really loved this children's bible. Each story is approximately 12-13 pages long. Some graphics took 2 pages to fill.  Abel especially loves it - the story are the right length and the graphics appealed to him too. Thanks Auntie C and Uncle W for this lovely present.

To sidetrack, Abel would ask for the stories from this bible every night. However, he can't quite pronounce Berenstain, it started with Frankenstein, then Aaronstein and finally Berenstain. 


Day 11 was learning a Christmas memory verse.  I picked Isaiah 9:6
"For unto us a child is born, for unto us a Son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace". This fits in very nicely with the song they are learning at Sunday school :) for Christmas service.

Tennis In the backyard

Noel received the tennis pole thingy for his birthday from Auntie R and Uncle J.

Abel used Noel's racquet and played by himself on Sunday afternoon.

Good job on putting on the sunnies, the hat before going out.

Harvest from garden

This year we attempted to plant carrots again. I bought the roly-poly variety and my dad helped me plant them just before he flew back to Sibu.

Here's the harvest.

Advent calendar - day 9

Making Christmas craft. I have seen these online and on pinterest quite a bit.
So on day 9 we attempted making these flower /star from toilet paper rolls.

First flatten then draw lines and cut into strips. I just stapled them together.

Day 8 Advent calendar

The boys were super looking forward for this, especially Abel. He has been bugging me about it every single day even before I set up the calendar.

We don't usually let the boys play with play doh at home because of the mess it generates.

Anyways this was done in a highly controlled and supervised environment. Ie I vacuumed the floor immediately after the activity.

Day 7 advent calendar

Picnic at the beach.
We bought our usual fish and chips and I also bought some homemade lemonades etc from farmers market.

The boys loved it.

Day 6 -Advent calendar

Today is day 6 on the advent calendar. Only 19 more sleeps to Christmas.
I wrote on the advent calendar to learn a Christmas song with the boys.
Guess what, Abel came home from kindy singing a familiar Christmas tune but with a very Maori influenced lyric.
So here's what he sings:

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave me to me,
A pukeko on a ponga tree.

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave me to me,
two kumera and a pukeko on  ponga tree.

How cute is that!?!?!!?!?!

Then he starts to make his own lyrics,

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave me to me,
Nine ninja turles and a pukeko on a ponga tree.

So coincidentally just now I went to return my library books at the mall also paid a visit to Whitcoulls(bookshop). And I just had to open this NZ Kiwi treasury story books and ta da..
Abel's song was actually a book called Pukeko on a Ponga Tree written by  Kingi Ihaka.

I put a request at the library for the book but I suspect we will only get to borrow after Christmas as there was a long queue. 

Thankfully, there is good ol' Google for me to find the lyrics.
Here goes, continuing from above..

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,
Four huhu grubs and a pukeko on a ponga tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,
Five - big- fat- pigs! and a pukeko on a ponga tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,
Six pois a twirling, and a pukeko on a ponga tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave me to me,
Seven eels a swimming and a pukeko on a ponga tree.

On the eight day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
Eight plants of puha and a pukeko on a ponga tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
Nine sacks of pipis and a pukeko on a ponga tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
Ten juice fish heads and a pukeko on a ponga tree.

On the eleventh day, my true love gave to me,
Eleven haka lesons and a pukeko on a ponga tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Twelve piupius swinging
Eleven haka lessons
Ten juicy fish heads
Nine sacks of pipis
Eight plants of puha
Seven eels a swimming
Six pois a twirling
Five - big - fat - pigs !
Four huhu grubs
Three flax kits
Two kumera
And a pukeko in a ponga tree!

Okay, here's a glossary to help with understanding the lyrics taken from Mamalisa's blog and my own comment

1 Pukeko: type of bird found in NZ, known as a NZ Swamp hen (seen in the photo below) - we can see pukeko at the reserve off our house wandering about
2 Ponga: giant fern tree that grows in NZ
3 Kumera: a yellow sweet potato with a purple inside core - this is equivalent to sweet potato
4 Piupiu: a skirt or kilt made from strips of flax. They look like hula skirts. They're worn by the Maori (indigenous people of NZ) during certain traditional dances and special celebrations
5 Haka: war songs traditionaly sung before charging -haka is the war chant made famous by AllBlacks at all the rugby matches
6 Pipi: clam, small shellfish
7 Puha: a type of sow thistle that is eaten as a vegetable in NZ - this is a type of watercress
8 Pois: Maori word for ball – they're two balls on the end of two ropes and they're twirled around making patterns during some Maori dances
9 Huhu grubs: a small edible grub or beetle found in NZ, it's a delicacy of the Maori

Note about the words "piupius", "pipis" and "pois": Normally you don't find the letter "s" in the Maori language. But this song being English uses it to indicate plurals. [Source: The Wondering Albatross.]

Phoro credit: http://www.tiritirimatangi.org.nz/pukeko

Abel the cyclist

We got this radio flyer when Noel was 9 months old. He's never taken much interest as they were made for very tall kids.

Anyhow Abel loves riding on this trike.

Making paper snowflakes

The first item on the advent calendar is making paper snowflakes

Here's our creation. Can you spot the ones that Noel made?

Learning with Lego

I saw on several websites about learning with Lego.
Today I tried to explain the concept of multiplication to Noel.
His question was in a 3 dimensional diagram and it was a little confusing for him. So I re-create the diagram using lego blocks. Definitely makes it easier for him to grasp the concept.

Above, calculating 3 sets of 13 using lego blocks.

Advent Calendar -DIY

Noel asked for an advent calendar this year. We agreed that I would make one for him.
I was not very keen on getting the ones with chocolate so I googled online for ideas.
Came across Sarah @ My Joy Filled Life and I loved the idea that she made one which emphasises spending time with her family.  The best part was she provided a free template to use. I modified it slightly as I did not have cardstock or laminator. I printed mine on printing paper and then stick them on my manila cards. The template also came with suggested ideas. However, given we are in the Southern Hemisphere, not all the activities apply, so I used the blank template and wrote my own activities at the back.

The cards took me about 1.5 hours to make (from printing to cutting and gluing on manila cards).
Brainstorming and writing the activites was another 45 minutes to 1 hour.

 

Noel's recent school work on Diwali celebration

Recently Noel celebrated Diwali at class. Some of Noel's Indian classmates mum came to class to tell them about Diwali. Mrs w wore a sparkly top brought in by one of the mums. The kids had Indian sweets they made rangoli and so on. It's pretty cool to be in a multicultural school. Here's one of Noel's artwork.

SPCA collections

My colleague is a volunteer at SPCA . She brought in her two gentle giant to meet us for the annual SPCA appeal.

C in her SPCA shirt and Takoda is a Newfoundland (still a puppy) while Lockey( not sure how to spell ) is a Leonberger ( lion dog)

Both dogs loved to be pat.

Quick pasta

I have seen lots of cooking posts on Fb. Earlier in the year somebody shared cooking spaghetti and sausages.

Today I tried it because Noel did not want to have 粽子 for lunch.

Night at the museum

Last school holiday we brought the boys and R our friend's son to Night at the museum. The kids were given a sheet and there were special booths set up relevant to the theme under the water and they get clues from the booth.

Here they saw the marine biologist. She showed them shark teeth and various other things. They also get to keep a souvenir of sea shells.

Then they met a fish scientist. They talk about fish bones with him and did you know a fish scientist is called an ichthyologist.

They also met this ladies who showed them fish hooks made from bones.

Disco night at BOS

There was disco night at school last Thursday. The year 0 to 2 got to groove from 5 30pm to 6 45pm.

There was a deejay and the hall was dark and flashing with disco lights and what not. There was glowsticks and flashing ring for sale and chips and chocolate.

Mum and I accompanied him and we hung around in the dark together with many other parents. Meanwhile he and his bestie Cj did their moves. N won a spot prize towards the end.

At 姑姑's shop

The boys made mask out of nori sheet. Seaweed man (superhero) in the making.

Tools: a piece of nori sheet

Noel folded and start eating and made eyes for the mask. Pretty cool?

Abel just managed to made some nose pad thingie

Amazing Grace

This is a pic of the recent Easter Cantata at church. Group photograph of the Sopranos and the Altos.