T graduates...

T picked a big bunch of rhubarb, lavender and herbs to give to his teacher.

We celebrated 'faux' christmas with my family yesterday but since I haven't had time to sort through photos yet I thought we could flash back to last week for a look at T's last day of kinder (captions under photos). 

The kids put on a very sweet nativity play.  T was supposed to play an angel but he was nervous about having to sing so made a hasty costume change and played a cow instead.  Apparently mooing is a lot less threatening than performing an angelic chorus!  Sadly I can't share photos of the play as I didn't managed to snap a decent cow portrait!

T getting his 'graduation' certificate.

There was a party with lots of 'pinterest' worthy food made by parents who seemingly had much more energy than me!

Berries packaged up for more teacher gifts.

In which the children brawl over a magic mirror...

Life is fairly chaotic at the moment.  This morning we were running late for school and the kids were having an epic brawl in the back seat of the car.  I went to glance in the rear vision mirror to see what all the ruckus was about and then realised the mirror wasn't there.  So I glanced over my shoulder to find the two of them wrestling over the said mirror.  I don't even know how this is possible.

Turi (bless) doesn't know what to do with himself when his sister is at school.  When he isn't staging an epic tantrum to demand that his needs are immediately met, all he wants to do is veg out on the couch watching 'The Brave Little Toaster' until his sister returns.  I have to had to work very hard to divert his attention.  At one point he even watched half of 'Chicken Little' in Dutch because he was too scared to ask me to change the audio track to English in case I made him turn it of!!  Here he is, looking very innocent and playing with his 'box props'.  This brief contentment lasted all of ten minutes.  Thank god kinder goes back tomorrow.  I am exhausted.

In which santa fails to bring a pinacosaurus but no one really minds…

 

This photo was taken on Minty's last day of kinder.  It was such a special day for her.  She's loved this year of kinder so much and I think we were both a little sad to see it come to an end.  She was (somewhat ironically given her behaviour this week!!) an angel in the nativity play.

After the play there was a visit from the big man himself.  As santa handed out gifts for all the kinder kids and their younger siblings, a horrifying thought dawned on me.  I had forgotten to bring along a wrapped gift for santa to give to Turi.  At that moment Turi turned to me with a look of unbridled joy and excitement and said to me, 'does Santa have a present for me!?'  He was virtually shaking with anticipation.  This was surely my greatest parenting failure to date.  I murmured something to the effect of, 'we'll have to wait and see', and then gripped the Mr's arm while we exchanged one of those all important parenting conversations spoken only with furtive glances and meaningful eyebrow twitches.  My panicked gaze said something along the lines of, 'sweet baby Jesus I forgot to bring a gift!!!', and his eyebrow mexican wave signalled back, 'seriously? Since you're in the habit of forgetting vital things do I need to ask if there is also a lit candle next to a curtain somewhere at home?'   

And then, ever the practical problem solver, the Mr swung into action. He surreptitiously cut a square of wrapping paper from a roll on the kinder craft table and disappeared out the front door for a few moments.  He returned with a frond of kangaroo paw he had cut from the bush out the front, which he then wrapped in the said paper and handed to the kinder teacher to slip to santa.  As I watched the other siblings unwrapping dolls, books and brightly coloured markers I was sure we were sunk.  I was mortified and certain that somewhere in the future a therapist would be secretly thanking me for funding his or her trip to Tahiti.  Surely an entire chapter would be dedicated to this incident in Turi's future memoirs.  And then the moment of truth arrived, Santa called Turi's name and he ripped open the package.  Shockingly he wasn't even the slightest bit disappointed.  He adored his kangaroo paw and clutched it lovingly to his chest.  When it came time for Santa to leave Turi flung himself on the floor sobbing and wailing, 'but I'll miss him'.  Ever since Turi has been proudly telling whoever will listen, that Santa brought him a kangaroo plant.

Crisis averted.  Moral of the story… don't leave me in charge of remembering anything.  And maybe (or am I reaching too far here?) materialism in kids is more a product of our own expectations.

Taming the wild beasts...

 

Firstly, I just wanted to thank everyone for their messages of support after my last post.  After much reflection I've concluded that the behaviour was basically just an extreme form of attention seeking.  Lately I've been so busy packing, working and generally keeping the house running that I haven't been spending much quality 'face time' with the kids.  So rather than dwelling on the negative I'm trying to turn things around and channel their creativity and extreme energy into good rather than evil.  Both Minty and Turi have always had a wild adventurousness and a strong desire to explore and experiment.  Though it can be a bit trying at times it is one of my favourite things about them.  So although I'd like them to be a bit more compliant, I don't want to beat the spark out of them and crush their spirits!  So in the coming weeks I'm going to be turning off the TV and spending plenty of time running off their legs and working their brains with creative play so that they have no energy left for mischief!  I'll keep you updated on the success (or lack there of) of this strategy…

 

In other news, the kids hosted a little mother's day afternoon tea at kinder yesterday.  The class sang a few songs and did a little dancing and then served the mums cupcakes that they had baked.

Minty really loves kinder but I've made the difficult decision to pull her out so she can repeat again next year.  As you can see in these pictures she is tiny compared to the other kids (since her birthday is in february she is a full year younger than some of them) and until I can reign in her sleep and behaviour issues at home I don't think she'll be ready to start school next year.  Just to really confuse matters her kinder teacher pulled me aside yesterday to tell me how well she thought Minty was doing!

 

And finally a bit of a house update -  the stairs are in!  These lead from the kitchen up to the raised lounge room.  They make such nice, informal extra seating.  The door you can see leads to the kids bedrooms and bathroom.

Here is another look at our lovely pantry door and the cavity for the fridge.

Kinder!

Minty had her first day of kinder (preschool) today!  She was so excited and had a ball while she was there.  Her highlights from the day were that she played duplo lego and 'someone else' wet their pants and cried!  

The start of kinder of course meant that Minty needed a new bag.  I wasn't particularly keen on most of the ones I'd seen in the shops so I decided to sew her one as an early birthday present (she turns four next week).  The pattern was from Little Things to Sew.  I used Denyse Schmidt quilting cotton for the main fabric and lining (I used fusible interfacing to bulk up the main bag since the fabric was a bit light weight).  I think the red chunky zip and bright pink straps help to make the colours pop.  Minty loves it and Turi is very jealous.  He wants to have a kinder bag too.  I really think kinder is going to be a harder adjustment for Turi.  He couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to stay and play with all the toys.

These photos were taken while we were waiting to go inside and she was too hyped up to stay still, so apologies for all the cut off legs and strange running shots!

I realise I need to announce last week's giveaway winners - I'm hoping I'll get a chance tomorrow.  I've been really busy creating so I haven't had much energy left to spend time on the computer.