Almost 6

Our wee man is 6 tomorrow - can you believe it? Tonight we are having a birthday tea with local family. Fish 'n' chips followed by icecream cake, Tyler's choice. Tomorrow is the kid's party. Loot bags have been filled. Knick knacks ready to be wrapped for 'pass the parcel'. Photos galore tomorrow :) 

We're on the countdown to Tyler's 6th birthday on the 15th. The night before, we are having a family birthday tea for which his food choices are fish 'n' chips with an icecream cake. The next day is the party with his friends and he doesn't know it, but I've arranged for a magic show complete with live rabbit :)  Can't wait to see his face, especially as being the birthday boy, he gets to help the magician.

Tomorrow I start singing lessons again - hooray!! I have really missed them while Rebecca has been overseas. There's a lot to rehearse, what with an A Capella concert at the beginning of September and then Competitions at the end of September.

The days are starting to get longer and it is so nice to be travelling to and from work in daylight now.

Third Time Lucky

By now most of you will know that the owners of the Wallacetown house with whom we had two separate lots of negotiations a while back, suddenly popped back up again and we were able to negotiate a price which was $15K lower than our pervious offer! Which is good because with size of the place we will need a bit of extra furniture. Settlement is on 20 August and because we are renting this place, we can move in over the following week, meaning we can do it ourselves again.

Tyler has settled in very well for the third term of school, he is now one of the oldest in his class and some of the new entrants look really tiddly beside him. We are in the planning stages of his birthday party which we having at our place - how shall I keep 8 hyped-up children entertained for 3 hours, especially if it's wet, eep! There is no particular theme to the party - the invitations are 'Cars' and the cake has been requested to be 'Spongebob Squarepants' so maybe we will just call it a My Favourites Characters party.

Fabulous day here today in the South, quite mild with clear blue skies and sunshine, quite lovely. Spent a good part of the day tidying and cleaning the house and then taking photos so that it can be listed on Trade Me.

Car Rally

A couple of weekeneds ago, Tyler's school organised a car rally on the Sunday afternoon and the three of us, collectively known for the purposes of the rally as 'The Hurtling Hydrangeas' had a great time following clues, making up silly poems, collecting weird things and finally returning to the school hall for a fish and chip tea with everyone else. And we came 4th!

Along the way we had to take photos of various things and activities including:

Doing a haka outside the meeting house at Anderson's Park

Imitating the statue near the aviary in Queen's Park,

and making a tableau in front of the Sea Scout Hall.

Recently T-man and I did some baking. Tyler is getting very helpful and stirs as much as he eats.

He still loves drawing and writing at home .

Road Trip

The boys are off on their road trip to Christchurch. First stop, Leona and Dave's in Oamaru.

Tyler had a bit of a grumbly tummy this morning and I got a txt from Chris hen they got to Oamaru to say that the poor wee man had had a big chuck shortly before arrival. A bath and some food and he was feeling a lot better. Hopefully it was just something he ate as neither Chris or I are feeling any symptoms.

I am making the most of the 'me' time and had my singing girls round for the afternoon, then went to see 'Eclipse' this evening. (Team Edward in case anyone's wondering).

I had my first go at cycling round the Veldrome last Wednesday night. The bikes have no brakes as such and they are perpetual so you can't stop peddling or you will imitate a novice rider on a trotting horse. The tyres have no tread either. By the end I was riding the whole circuit between the black and red lines (the racing lines) and it was great! Don't think I am likely to be the next Sarah Ulmer though :)

I've been given the opportunity to sing 'Let the Bright Seraphim' again, this time at a concert being given by a visiting violin tutor from the Nelson School of music. Ruth and I are also going to sing 'Laudamus Te' from Vivaldi's Gloria.

Back soon to post some more photos.

SKY at last!

We have finally got SKY tv and I have spent the last half hour surfing channels (hooray for UK TV!). We got a deal for half price for 6 months and with the Tri-Nations about to start it was perfect timing.

Not a lot to report as it has been very cold and we have just been hunkering down by the fire and keeping warm. School holidays start today for T-man. He is very tired, so quite ready for a decent break. In the second week he and Chris are heading up Christchurch way to catch up with rellies. Which, while I will miss my boys dreadfully, will also give me an opportunity for some girlie time :)  On the agenda: drooling over vampires and werewolves (Eclipse movie), several uninterrupted baths and a visit to the velodrome for a WoW session (Women on Wheels).

Must get the camera out again - I had to laugh earlier this evening at Tyler pretending to be a Ninja and stopping every now and again to adjust his undies. Not such a good thing when fending of an assassin with a sharp sword!

Settling in

We are more or less settled into the new house and Chris spent today attacking the overgrown garden. The Howards came over for afternoon tea (pikelets with jam and cream, mmmm!) and we handed the little blue car over to Stephen for his use. So now I get to drive my beloved Holden again - woohoo!

Finally got the email sorted - campbell.mcleod@xtra.co.nz for anyone I missed advising- and we shouted ourselves a new, bigger monitor for the PC. We are also looking at a new TV - Chris has his heart set on a 55" LED, only problem is the latest model won't be here for another 7 weeks. We promised Tyler when we got a new TV we would also get a Wii so he is very excited about that.

In honour of the Soccer World Cup....

Tyler playing around with my scarf

Tyler took this photo - his shoes and some artwork