Two Princesses

With all the cold weather we've been having here we've had to resort to all-inside activities.  This-afternoon it was dress up time for Brandi & Renee ...

My Birthday Cake

On the day before my birthday Courtney set to work.  She made the cake all by herself and then once it had cooled I wasn't allowed to venture near the kitchen while the master chef began the work of icing the cake.  This is Courtney's creation, along with the little white cat on top  - without help from anyone ... & it tasted great!!  Thanks Courtney!! 

 

 And the master chef herself .....

 I heard Josh saying to his friend on the phone on the day of my birthday how I was 20ish or 30ish or something ... I can live with that - lol

A Boy and a Magnifying Glass

Its amazing what one boy, a magnifying glass and a lot of perserverance can do!!  Josh has successfully managed to burn holes in plastic containers (sitting in the sandpit) & make lots of smoke from random bits of wood.  Well finally he managed to start a fire & he was soooo proud!!  Lets just think of it for training for if he ever has to go on Survivor ... anyway the children had lots of fun making toast, and toasting marshmellows on his fire.  Courtney, Renee & Josh all ended up wearing sunglasses because of the smoke from the fire.  Brandi had to look through the window as she likes to copy everything that all Courtney does, despite being told that she wasn't allowed to be near the fire ... so I decided it was safer to have a bit of glass between the fire & Brandi.  

 

A Morning at the Gardens

Before going to see friends in the city I made the children go to the gardens so I could get a few photos of them ... and despite wanting to go and see their friends asap I managed to get them to smile for a few photo ... Josh spent most of his time trying to catch birds and ducks - without success ... probably would have helped if he had some bread to entice the ducks. 

Trying to get all 4 children to smile at the same time (as I've found before) can be challenging ... as you can see here Brandi was striking the pose (I guess thats the result of watching her 2 older sisters - lol)!!

 

Another day at the zoo with the keas - Orana Park

Today we had another trip to the zoo.  Brandi braved going to see the calf and sheep (but was staying very close to Courtney!!).  The sheep decided to take a liking to my clothing and soon after this photo it was trying to see if I was edible!  They were very friendly :) 

 

We went to see the kea's again on this visit.  Kea's are the worlds only mountain parrot.  Brandi got tired of looking at the keas and after awhile she lay down and called out 'sleep now Mum?'.  Great that she is so adaptable and patient when she needs to be!!

 

Now this guy has one very cool mohawk

          

 THE  KEAS

Day at the Zoo

Last week we went to the zoo. One of the first stops we made was to see the cheetahs. We also noted the new fence they have put up after the cheetahs swam across a small pond (apparently cheetahs don't like water, so it was very unusual for them to actually go swimming) and started wandering around in the public area (don't worry, they were rounded up before before they found someone to eat for dinner). Thankfully we weren't there that day. I do have to say when we were there the cheetahs were eyeing us up - especially Courtney. We were the only ones in that area and the children kindly noted that had one of the cheetahs managed to get out, that even if we'd screamed then there was no-one to hear us ... Courtney offered to do the screaming for a worst case scenario & Josh said maybe if we made ourselves look really big then that would scare them away (he's been reading up on what to do if attacked by a mountain lion - not that we have lions in NZ - apart from the zoo). Thankfully the cheetah didn't get out and we didn't need to resort to either option and we carried on our way around the zoo.

You know those signs they have at zoos with a picture of a hand, with a bandage around the finger... well before the Kea's went to their new enclosure that was the sign they had outside their cage, ie don't put your finger near the beak of a kea! Now in their new enclosure people can actually walk through the enclosure with the keas at close range. Since we were the only ones around (the benefits of being homeschoolers and being able to go to the zoo at off-peak times) the children had a wonderful time in the enclosure spending over an hour with the keas. Courtney raided their food bowl - no, not because she was hungry!! but so she could hand feed them. Josh & Renee were close to follow with that idea. I told them that Kea's had sharp beaks ... but you can see by the photos as to how worried they were by that statement!! Josh did use his sweatshirt for the keas to eat from, so he was using his initiative. Brandi just preferred to watch from a distance.

Before you ask, the cat got in the pushchair by itself. Brandi added the blanket though & then took the cat for a walk. Surprisingly enough it stayed in the pushchair. Now, just to clarify, this isn't our cat ... it's our neighbours cat, but spends a lot of the day at our house (I guess they're out at work all day), and if its cold & we have the fire going, then it spends all day at our house - trying to sleep. It is deaf, which can work to its advantage sometimes - like not hearing the noise of everyone when its sleeping.