Storylines 3

As we explored the boys wanted to enter the competitions by drawing pictures etc. Tom was more enthusiastic than Ollie! Tom has become our residential artist! He always drawing pictures and colouring. Tom was very keen to have his drawing put on the wall.

There was plenty of authors to visit and this lady wrote a great book called, 'Why dogs sniff bottoms?' Not what we expected but she read the book well and kept the boys entertained for half an hour. Alex has really gained in confidence and strolled up to her to ask if he could look at her books.

Storylines 2

Unknown to me but 'The Wotwots' are big news to Tom and Ollie! They are the new creations from 'Weta' and are similar to a lot of stuff, according to Fran, on CBeebies. They rushed to get a tattoo first and then had to watch an episode. To meet them for real was amazing and hilarious as they never took their eyes off the puppet. They believed. Brilliant.

Storylines

Today we headed to Auckland for an exhibition about stories which included lots of activities for the children as well as lots of shows and competitions. As you can see on the programme we were not able to do it all as there was so much but what we did do was great.

We started with the show 'Magicfish' and even though Alex ended up singing in the front with a water bottle he wanted to go elsewhere. It was perfect for Tom and Ollie but Alex was too old which fortunately meant we could disappear up to Level 5 and see the props from the Chronicles of Narnia series!

Incidentally, Alex dressed up as 'Tom' from the Beast Quest series which is hugely popular here. He built a shield, sword and belt from cardboard over the last few days and was rewarded with a brand new book on entry for dressing up! It didn't cost anything to go in either. Wonderful.

There was a spokesperson for 'Weta' the special effects team based in NZ and she told us a little about the props etc and mentioned their next project, 'The Hobbit'. She was great as she allowed Alex to wear some of the props and as Alex loved the Narnia series he was in heaven.

Wonderful Boys!

Alex has been playing in the hockey league for about ten games now and, after a whack in the

face, won the player of the day! What a hero although they lost three nil! He won a free meal with a dessert at Lone Star which is great as we have not been there yet, the perfect excuse to go out!

We have been doing 'Handipoints' which is a fantastic online rewards system where they get points for completing tasks and generally being proactive and self-managing. Ollie is a new man and has taken to it amazingly, so he has been collecting loads of points. Eventually he had so many he could buy a new toy! He went for a Transformer called Cliff jumper from the new animated series. You would be amazed on how independent he has become.

We decided that we needed to play more board games as a family and as NZ is pretty obsessed with them there is plenty to choose from! We went for 'Cadoo' as it seemed to be perfect for them as it involved acting, drawing, sculpting and lots of other stuff too! Ollie is the current champion!

It's funny how different countries are into different books and here Scooby-Doo is massive. They are tons of different levelled books on it and Tom has to have one read to him every night. Fortunately we have enough to keep him going for a long time.

The last photo is simply Ollie flying through the air. This is just before bed, Ollie has changed in some ways but not all!

Birkenhead Ferry Terminal 2

The boys were very keen for me to take pictures of the boats for Poppy. As I said earlier, the views were fantastic. Once the boys were finished we headed to the nearest mall in Highbury for a coffee and the boys wanted to draw/colour whilst I relaxed in the lovely sunshine. This is an unusual experience for me, I'm usually chasing them around the shops!

Birkenhead Ferry Terminal

As we have moved to a different area there are now places closeby we hadn't explored yet. Fran had recently driven through Birkenhead and so we decided to check it out. Firstly we went to the ferry terminal as there was a play area. The play area was great and the views even better!

Spiders Web

Whilst at Marlborough Park we nearly missed the Spiders Web as it was tucked away in a corner of the park. To be fair it was surrounded by mud which explains why nobody was there.

The boys have always loved the web at Saumarez so they had the skills to explore and enjoy. Their faces said it all.

Marlborough Park, Glenfield

1st September is official the beginning of spring. It felt like the end of spring with beautiful sunshine without too much heat, perfect to get out and check out some parks!

Marlborough park is right next to my football club, Glenfield Rovers and we noticed it a few times and were told it was great. Particularly pleasing for Alex was the basketball court as he is really into flippaball (mini basketball) at the moment. Behind Alex bouncing the ball is the mighty Glenfield Rovers, which incidentally we lost in the cup 2-1 yesterday so not so mighty anymore!

The one thing more than anything about NZ parks is the effort put into them to make sure they are clean and up-to-date. We are rarely disappointed.

One Tree Hill 2

After enjoying the apparatus for half an hour it was time for business. We decided we needed to walk to the top. All was happy for about 5 mins and then Ollie didn't want to walk any further, in fact he sat down and refused to move.

Alex did his Gandalf impression and inspired Ollie to soldier on, being carried by mummy helped a bit though, to the top. Once the boys could see the monument it seemed to spur them on and they started to appreciate the views, well... mummy and daddy did anyway.

One Tree Hill - Auckland

Daddy needed some new shoes so we went to the Dress Smart Outlet which is right by One Tree Hill. There is an amazing obelisk, which was erected to acknowledge all the hard work maori people have accomplished to make Auckland such a great city. The view is 360 degrees and totally awesome. It was well worth the walk up a very steep hill. Tom added his usual slant to the situation asking if there was a lift up! There is also a great play area which had a train that the boys loved. It had to be powered by pushing.... which our children are excellent at!