marc.vic.max.elliot

Today our playgroup visited the local fire station. One of the dads that comes to playgroup is a volunteer fireman so he organised it all. It was fantastic – he showed the kids inside the station, put on all his gear (including mask and tanks – he honestly looked terrifying so I hope we never have a fire where they come in dressed like that),300-101 dumps let the kids climb inside the engine, turn on the siren, and best of all – they all got a turn squirting water from the hose.

300-075 dumps Back at home and the boys had had their lunch and were sitting at their table drawing pictures so I popped out of the room to put the washing machine on. I heard them laughing and thought “oh that’s good – they’re playing nicely together”, when really I should have thought “that’s strange – they’re laughing and not fighting with each other”. Max came through and said “Mummy – Elliot’s drawing”. Warning Sony Xperia SGP312U1/B AC Adapter lights went off in my head and I ran back through to the family room to discover Elliot standing with a whiteboard marker in his hand and black scribbles on the windows, floor, tv screen, Max’s new book, and on two of the three new rimu bar stools by the kitchen bench (the third luckily had a magazine on the top – but that was also covered with scribble). Elliot got put straight in the naughty corner while I tried to clean up – FYI whiteboard marker comes off glass and laminated flooring, but not books or bar stools (it’s just soaked right in). Max claimed he hadn’t seen Elliot do any of this – however I later found pen marks on the top of my laptop (kept on the breakfast bar) so knew Max had been involved too – there is no way Elliot could have reached that high. I’m guessing Max started it and then gave the pen to Elliot and told him where to draw. I hope we’re going to be able to sand the stools down, re-stain and oil them to get rid of the marks.
It’s going to be a long two weeks ….. at least it wasn’t a permanent marker pen!

300-115 Marc has gone to the States for two weeks for his new job induction and training. He used to travel a bit with his last job, so now I’m used to dealing with the boys by myself. It just means I have to be a bit more organised – sorting out bags, snacks or lunch boxes the night before for whatever we have planned the next day, and while Elliot sleeps in the afternoon and Max is at kindy I get dinner organised (instead of doing housework or surfing the net:)). We’ve even got our bedtime routine sorted out so Max tidies away the toys while I bath or shower Elliot. All in all for the most part it’s not too bad and I no longer dread the thought of Marc going away. In fact it means I have one less person to tidy up after (sorry honey!) although I do have all the dishes to do myself!

This morning started off bright and early – I picked up mum at 7.00am and we headed over the hill to Martinborough (about an hour away) to the Martinborough Fair which is held the first Saturday in February and March every year. Got there nice and early so didn’t have to pay for parking this year, and it also meant it wasn’t too hot. Managed to get a good selection of native plants (so hopefully fairly low maintenance) for planting on our bank, a couple of t-shirts for the boys, a lovely cd rack made of macrocarpa, and of course a bag of coconut ice for all my boys.

300-101 We headed back around lunchtime, so I got home in time to take Marc to the airport for his flight to Auckland and then onto San Fransisco. The boys love the airport and are so excited to see the planes taking off and landing, the little trucks with the bags on, the fire engines and this time they got to see the rescue helicopter flying off as well.

Now we’ll just see how the next two weeks go …..

Work’s crazy, home is crazy, the kids are crazy!

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Elliot hasn’t quite got the hang of ear protectors yet….

So It’s two weeks later and not a lot has happened.  My brother and his wife went back to the UK (boo!) and my Mum has just got back from 10 days in Thailand.  The highlight of her trip? Riding an elephant! I am so jealous….

As for us it’s just life as usual with no great stories to tell.  I eventually got around to updating my brother’s tattoo website after a year or so of promising. We have also been given a photo of Elliot that was taken at Freddy’s party mentioned in the last entry.

So cute!  Elliot the rocker

Today was a busy day!  The beginning of the afternoon was spent at an end-of-football-season team and family BBQ which was a rushed affair for us seeing that we had to head off to a birthday party.  Max has a way busier social life than Vic and I put together!

The morning was spent finishing off Max’s magician costume for his friends Freddy’s fourth birthday party which went from two until four this afternoon.  Vic and I made the whole thing from scratch, including the wand, and I reckon it would have been cheaper (and certainly easier) to just buy an outfit.  In saying that it was quite satisfying to see that Max was the only kid in an outfit that was hand made.  Elliot went as a rock star with a little sleeveless denim jacket that Jason and Selena bought him from the UK.  We didn’t get a picture of Elliot but hopefully someone at the party did ‘cos he looked so cute.

It was a nice day today and the boys made the most of it by playing in the sandpit and baring their legs for the first time in a few months!  Here they are taking a break and having a spot of morning tea