Cousins

I can't express in words how happy it makes me that all of my sons' best friends are their cousins.  That they get to see them almost everyday, play with them, share birthdays and holidays with them.  I love that they're so close, that we can have movie nights and sleep overs.  It makes me sad that our little happy-families set up won't last much longer, but for now, I just love it.

(Note - 60 pictures were taken in order to get this one....they're not all smiling, but getting them to all look in the same direction? By golly that was a mission!!!!)

Oxo

Just because

Some random pictures of the boys.
Just because a picture can paint a thousand words.
So here's about a million.


Guess who he was copying?




The Daddy mobile. 


The best part about putting up the Christmas tree was of course playing with the box.


My kids are the weirdest sleepers.


Cheeky. He has so many more teeth then Malachi had, its insane.


You lick that plate babe.


Vili is obsessed with Malachi. He just will not leave that poor boy alone.


Meditating perhaps?


Harassment...


Vili started putting himself in time out when he does something he shouldn't. It's so cute, he just walks himself over there and sits down and after about 30 seconds stands up and comes to me and says sorry.


Little book worm.


Boys in the bath.


Malachi is really into "I can do that Mummy" - he wants to make all his own food now.


And he of course shares it with his brother, sweet kid.


Vili had this runny nose for I swear 2 months straight.  We were going through 3 boxes of tissues a week.



These two are just the best buds.  My Dad asked me last week if they're always so happy together, if they ever fight.  But they really are such good brothers to each other.  I can't wait for there to be a 3rd little musketer for them to play with.

Sunday "Do-Box" - Memory/Go Fish

This one came from this website, that has a ton of stuff, way too much to ever look through.  I think I printed 4 copies of the cards so we could use them for Go fish.  I worried that Malachi would struggle coz he couldn't read the names, but much to my surprise, he figured out who they were after a few times of me telling him (I shouldn't underestimate little sponge brains).







The more I add to the box, the more grateful I am for it.  Sunday is beginning to be such a fun day for us, without "fun" meaning bike riding or tennis.  Malachi loves all these games and activities, and even asks for them during the week (which I don't give to him, it builds the suspense up for Sundays).   We have church at 1pm, so we have the whole morning to fill.  And once we've gone through all the stuff in the box, it's pretty much time for church and the Sabbath is saved!!

I love our Sunday Do-Box.

The farma larm

We went with PORSE (the company that I babysit through) to an Alpaca farm.  I thought that Alpaca was just another name for llama, but apparently there are differences.  But I told Malachi that we were going to a llarma farm.  He called Tui at work to ask if he wanted to come, and this is the conversation I heard.

"Daddy, do you want to come to the farma larm?.....to the farma larm?.......to the farma larma?......to the larma farm??? its a farm with larms......like big larms.....larmas......"

He still can't get it right, and it still makes me laugh. :)

It was really weird, in a cool sort of way.  The alpacas are soooooooooo ugly.  Some of them look like those little bears that live in trees on star wars (ewoks?), others look like a cross between a sheep, a giraffe and a camel, and they have the skinniest little legs.  I never heard them make any noise, but they had super soft wool. Tala'i's mum came with us, which was awesome, she's really cool.

















The kids just enjoyed the whole farm experience (Malachi didn't enjoy the dog part so much, as usual.).

Guy Fawkes

So when I actually had to explain to Tui what Guy Fawkes day is for, its a little odd.  Most people don't even know what it's all about which is probably a good thing.  But let me just say it's the day we have our fireworks, what americans do on July 4th, we do November 5th.

This year we went to the Huntly speedway to "celebrate" it.  First was the stock cars, which I haven't been to since I was like 16. (It's basicly a bunch of different types of cars that race around, smash each other out of the way, and are just so freakin cool.)  It was AWESOME! Our boys had the best time, didn't mind the noise or the dirt or the smell.  It was like watching the Car movie in real life!!


Malachi refused to sit with us. He wanted to sit on the very front row. Throughout the night he moved closer and closer until he was finally sitting up by the fence.




Vili spent the whole time pointing at the cars and saying "ar! ar! ar!"




And once it got dark they did a fireworks display.  Probably the best we've ever seen. (Maybe one of the new years in Waikiki was better.....maybe...).  They had the biggest fireworks money can buy.  It was totally worth the money spent.  Of course pictures don't ever do this sort of thing justice, but let me just say, they were so big, the whole display line probably would have taken up 4 or 5 frames.  It was massive.







Seems like we've found ourselves another family tradition!!! (And if this baby is a girl she better learn quick smart to appreciate cars.)

Sunday "Do-Box" - Bingo

This has to be Malachi's favourite so far.  We've even used it for FHE.  It's so good. Although I quickly learnt that Malachi did not understand the concept of "3 in a row" - he would just call out Bingo all the time.  We used to have Church Bingo when I was little and I loved it then too.

I just picked random church related pictures, made 6 boards (you gotta make sure that every board has a different combination of pictures or else you'll always get 2 people finishing at the same time), cut up cardboard for the counters to cover the pictures, and away you go.







I realise that none of these games are particularly uplifting, or teach my kids anything about the gospel, but I feel like at least they're being surrounded by good things.  At least their Sabath seems to have a theme, and its not Mickey Mouse or Lightening Macqueen.  You can pretty much take any kids game and change it to be a church game.

Halloween 2011

Halloween in NZ is a totally different ball game to in the states.  In most areas they just dont do it. Period. There aren't any shops decorated, no haunted houses down the street. Nothing.  It's actually kinda refreshing.  I mean, I know the dressing up part is fun, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt like it was just a comerical excuse for kids to be greedy and eat alot of candy.  And all the demon, scarey stuff is not exactly kid friendly.  Of course when I lived in the states I was all for it, but now that I'm out of the motherland, I guess I feel differently.
Anyway.
My SIL and I were talking about it all and we decided that we never wanted our children to feel like they were missing out.  And so we started a new family tradition.  Of having a non-scary Halloween party.  The kids dress up, we play games, they get some lollies.  All the best parts of a 'traditional' Halloween without any of the spooky stuff.
And it was awesome.  It was exactly what we wanted it to be, and everyone had a blast.

Malachi was "...a builder man like uncle matt!", and Vili was a cowboy (not a boy cow, as i had to keep explaining to his cousins).





Then we had some princesses, fairies, a superhero, an elephant, an ewok, and spiderman.



We did bowling, apple bobbing, egg and spooon race, balloon race, digging in slime, wrap a granny, and a treasure hunt for the kids to find their treats. Vili of course participated in none of the games because he was crying the whole time, darn you blasted teeth!!!



















Last minute I decided to dress up too.



Happy Halloween everyone!