Aaron's new pet ...

Tuesday night I caught a rather large cockroach ... usually I deal them the death sentence, but last weekend Aaron caught a smaller one and put it in an empty jar and said it was his "pet"!!  (gahhhh)

I decided I would surprise him heheheee :-)  So I put it in the same container (wondering to myself if the big one would eat the small one! - it hasn't yet!) and gave it to him on Wednesday after school.  

You should have seen the look on his face!  PURE EXCITEMENT!  Seriously it was!  My helper was standing well back and she couldn't believe someone could be that excited over a cockroach!  

At first he thought the one he had caught had grown lots!  I didn't say anything I just watched.  Then he saw there were two in there.  

And before you ask ... I am being very cruel ... there are no air holes in the lid and I am not feeding them!  Hopefully Aaron will forget about them soon so I can throw them in the rubbish!!

Honestly ... who on earth would want a cockroach as a pet!  (Apart from Aaron I mean!)

Thankful for ...

Super Stars ... :-)  

Aaron's class all have a turn at being Super Star for a week.  They get to bring in photos and things about themselves and create a little display.  They have some things to write on paper stars as well, like "what they are proud of about themselves" and "what they want to do when they grow up".  Can't remember all what they were, but I do know that he wrote he wants to be a Lego Designer when he grows up :-)  That's a change from his usual "I am going to drive a Ferrari!"  :-)

So here he is with his display.

Yesterday he got to bring in a "sharing sack".  They could bring in a collection of things that had meaning to them, not necessarily a bunch of toys!  So Aaron wanted to bring in two sacks ... one with all his Ferrari cars.

And the other with the stuff toy Penguin collection!  He's mad about Penguins, Emperor Penguins in particular.  You ask him why and he says "because they are fast"!!  Riiiiiggggght ... I suppose that's a good enough reason!  hehehe

He asked me to make his favourite chocolate cupcakes to share with the class.  So I made those (late) last night and took them in this morning.

 I also went in after lunch today and read his favourite picture book to the class.  He had a tough decision to choose which book, as we have a rather large library!  Anyway he settled on "The Dog Who Could Dig" by Jonathon Long.  It was quite neat that none of the other kids had seen the book, so they were excited to hear it too.  (It's an awesome book by the way - the pictures are amazing as well.)  I got a hug from him after reading the book :-)

Tomorrow the teacher reads out to the class a letter that Lyndon and I have written about how special Aaron is to us!  I can tell you that it was hard letter to write!  I don't mean that he's not special (we are all special in one way or another), but I found it hard to write a letter that was kinda personal and know that someone else was going to read it out and I wasn't even going to be there!! I don't mind telling him how special he is to us to his face, and we do, but it's a whole different ball game writing it down in a letter!!  :-)  (I will save it for his scrapbook!)  hehehee

And Friday he gets presented with a friendship poster that his class mates have created.

I must say I have quite enjoyed being able to say to Aaron this week when he's not behaving or not doing as he's been asked "Superstars don't do that, Superstars are awesome ... they jump and run to help, especially their Mummy!"  heheheee

Maddison's class celebrated Thanksgiving today with a thanksgiving lunch and a couple of craft activities.

When I arrived the kids were all sitting at the table (desks had been pushed together to create a dining table) and they were wearing "pilgrim hats and bibs"  They looked so cute :-)

One of the Mum's had done an awesome job of making turkey juice cups and she'd also made chocolate marshmallow pilgrim hat cookies :-)

 Was funny watching the kids drink with the turkey feathers hehehe ;-)

Their craft activities were making a turkey pine cone.  (One of the Mums had bought the pinecones in from the USA!)  (The two kiwi mums had a giggle about that!)  :-)

 And another turkey using hand cutouts.

So a busy day all round!  And now I am off to bed!

Thanks for visiting.

Eating out again!

On Sunday we had a change from Tony Roma's for lunch and tried a sushi place instead :-)  We asked for a table by the conveyor, which may not have been a great idea with Samuel seated where he was!!!  Scrambler (from Bob the Builder) had several short trips amongst the plates!!!  Once we moved him to a baby chair lunch was a little bit more relaxing!!

In the afternoon I went to see what Aaron and Maddison were up too as they were very quiet and was totally stoked to see them like this.  Aaron was reading Maddison one of his chapter books (a Geronimo Stilton one).  :-)  (high fives all around I tell you!!)

Yesterday Samuel's teacher had a birthday, so this morning I took in some chocolate cupcakes for her.  Samuel was in fine form showing off his delightful table manners!!!  

Little piglet.

Thanks for visiting. :-)

D is for Dance ...

Whether you have dancing shoes on or a mop!  My helper was cleaning the balconies a couple of days ago and the kids decided they would "help"!!  My helper and I stood back and had a good giggle at their shenanigans!!

D is also for distraught!!  Not sure why he was so upset here ... I don't think it was the clothes, because he had stopped crying by the time we got to the car!  Just being cranky I think!!!

I got some good pics of him at school in the little outfit that Aaron wore in 2008 (you can check that out here).  (By the way Aaron was so funny this morning.  He yelled at me that he "WASN'T getting dressed up in any ole Indian outfit".  So I explained that no he didn't have to.  But he keep yelling at me and then pointed to the outfit Samuel's wearing which I had hanging on a coat hanger on the door handle!  I said to him "do you really think you can still fit that?  Shall we try?"  hehee   He calmed right down when he realised it wasn't for him!  He doesn't like dressing up in Indian or Chinese costume much!)  ;-)

After I had dropped Samuel off at school, I rushed down to see Maddison.  The Kindy kids all dressed up in Indian costume today and performed a dance for us in the courtyard to some Indian music.  They were so cute, wiggling their fingers and shaking their 'booty'! hehee

I took this pic during their performance - it's less than half the kids.

Thanks for visiting.

More baking ...

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon (and late evening) baking and icing cupcakes for Maddison's Assistant Teacher's birthday today.  I had a little helper!!!  He kept dipping his fingers in the mixing bowl, licking them and telling me "It's GOOD!!!"  Messy little pup hehee

Then he discovered the empty cocoa tin in the sink, so had to trip the dregs into his mouth!

Oh the joys of puddling in water!  He would have spent all afternoon playing with the dirty dishes if I let him :-)

Look at his grubby little face!

I made chocolate ones.

And vanilla ones.

The plan was that the kids would go to school, I'd drop Samuel off at Montessori and head to Maddison's class around 9.45am in time for the birthday party snack.  Well ... things don't always go to plan do they! Maddison came into our room at 4.30am and said she was sick ... she felt really really hot, but her temp was only 37.6, so it wasn't that high.  Gave her a drink, sick bowl, ice pack and some panadol and popped her back in bed.  She slept until 7.45am.  Hasn't eaten very much and had another big sleep this morning.  So not sure what bug she's got.  

Thankfully another Mum from her class was able to call in and collect the birthday goodies and take them to class.  Kinda sad to miss out though ...

Aaron has had a low grade fever all week too.  He had Monday and Tuesday off and all the kids are home today.  Hot bodies, snotty noses and wanting to be sick!  Lovely ... hope it's over soon.

Thanks for visiting.

Lego Storage

I have been getting frustrated lately with the amount of Lego that has been spread ALL OVER the house.  I love that the kids play with it and build all sorts of creations, but I don't like the mess when it's spread in several rooms!

So I have been scoring the net and Pinterest for Lego storage ideas and these two were the ones that seemed to be the most popular and workable for me (oh sorry, I meant the kids! haha).

The first one is from iHeart Orgnaizing blog on this post.

I think this lady used the above post for inspiration and created this Lego station.  You can see her blog post here.

Both have different ideas for storing the manuals.  At the moment ours are just loose in a bin, but that may change, we'll see how it goes.

I also love this idea I found on flickr.  But 1, we didn't have that much room, and 2 we don't have that much Lego (yet!) heheee  But isn't it awesome!  Lego builders dream!

Anyway I decided to go with the Ikea option, but with 3 bays of shelves and bins.  I wanted them in the wood finish, but Lyndon said they only had the white, so white it was.  Lyndon and the kids spent Saturday evening putting the shelves together and Sunday afternoon we sorted the Lego by colour, wheels and mini figures.  It took a while!  Some colours we have put together, like various shades of pinks and purples, and orange and yellow are together.  (Rather tedious work!)

I tidied up the "train" room and we put down a mat, took off the shelf from the coffee table (so the kids can sit at the table without hurting their shins) and set it up in there so they have a creating station for either Lego or trains.

The room is really tiny, but hopefully it will contain the Legos!  haha  (that's the plan anyway!)

Long may the bins remain sorted so nicely!  ;-)

How do you store your Lego?  I'd love to see :-)
Thanks for visiting.

Halloween Carnival & Soccer

Last night the kids school put on their annual Halloween Carnival.  Maddison invited her friend from Montessori along and hey had a great time doing the games and collecting plenty of candy!  :-)

When we arrived I had to go straight to a game as I was to man that stand for 20 minutes, so the kids played (witches toss) and then were really good and sat and waited for me.

Then we did a quick tour of some of the hallways that had been decorated and the girls went off to dance :-)  Spot the werewolf behind them!!

 They also made lollypop ghosts.

Hunted for candy in the rice box (they use rice instead of sand).

 Did some more dancing ... here they are waiting for the dry ice fog to appear :-)

 Lyndon ... oh sorry ... the Werewolf was very popular with the Asians for photo shoots!  If he charged RM1 for each photo he was asked to pose for I reckon we could have eaten out tonight!  hehee  There was also a couple of clowns that made up balloon animals, swords etc. for the kids.

I decided to wear Aaron's skeleton suit that he wore last year ... this year he wanted to be a Storm Trooper.   Maddison was a pink witch and her friend was Cleopatra (she left the cape and head piece at home though).

Storm Trooper doing karate moves hehee

 Storm Trooper, pink witch and Cleopatra doing karate!

This morning Aaron had soccer, so we all went down to watch :-)  He was having quite a conversation with this friend!  haha

 They practiced throwing the ball the correct way.

And then using their forehead to hit the ball.  So funny to watch them (most shut their eyes and opened their mouth hehee).

 Samuel had a great time gathering up the spare soccer balls!

 Sliding down the grassy (and muddy) bank.

 Playing on the stairs.

 And of course the best bit ... getting donuts with Daddy :-)

 Goal Keeper hard at work!  ;-)

Hoping for a quieter week next week!  This week has been pretty full on.  :-)

Happy weekend to you all and thanks for visiting.