Oh, I've been absent!

Eeek, it's been about 6-7wks since I last blogged here.

Life has just been ticking along for the most part.

Nathan was interested in looking at another of the badges he can earn for his Keas. So we looked at the Healthy Kea one and he was required to make a poster with healthy foods.

The kids wanted to learn a bit Australia before we headed off for our holiday. So I traced out a map for them to colour in and mark up where we'd be going.

We did a bit of Spring crafting back at the equinox.

We did have a wonderful holiday on the Sunshine Coast in Australia for a week. That was the kids first overseas trip, and they did fantastically (even though Danielle didn't actually get given a seat next to a parent (WTH!?) and I had her sitting on my lap for the entire flight after a bit of musical chairs with fellow passengers so she could at least sit next to Simon for the take off and landing as no one would give up their seat for a permanent swap).

Anyway, so after a family wedding the next day, the holiday really felt like it began for the kids. My brother and family stayed in the apartment above us so the cousins got to hang out as they wanted which was really neat for them. We had a little backyard with our apartment so they all got to play hide and seek, climb trees and fences etc too rather than being cooped up in a hotel room.

The highlight for the kids was visiting Australia Zoo. We got to see Bindi singing and dancing in one of the shows, and Danielle and her cousin had a ball up with all the kids singing and dancing along.

We did plenty of swimming and boogy boarding at the beach, jumping around rock pools and bush walks (phew! weather was in the mid-20s and just gorgeous)


So in the weeks since we've been back the kids have joined up with a gymnastics class, Nathan's started swimming lessons, we've had library visits and making our way through the entire Magic Tree House series again since I last read them to Nathan when he was 4 and 5 and Danielle's now really getting into them.

We've caught up with the friends, had family visit, and general hanging out in the garden collecting flowers, planting out our spring garden, watching the chickens scratch and dust-bath, learning to ride bigger bikes (Danielle's upsized and is becoming quite confident now), chopping up branches for firewood, making big nests from straw piles...

Nathan got interested in tying knots again.

 Danielle making her chicken a cake.

 An awesome big rope swing.

 A tea-party with a friend.

 I bought them some plasticine yesterday and they've spent ever since playing with it.