How do you tame a monkey??

We've always called Kingston, Monkey.  And now it's official he really is a monkey.  Since he started walking about 6 months ago, he's been a climber.  No surface was safe, he'd climb onto the coffee table to dance, or use the chair to climb onto the dining table, and then into his high chair.  

He'd be so proud of himself, clapping his hands and saying "yay".  Then he started taking it to new levels, using the kitchen stool to climb up onto the bench and get the phone, he LOVES to talk on the phone, then he wasn't content to just climb onto the coffee table, he realised he could push it around the lounge and use it to climb 

wherever he wanted.  I know what you're thinking, just take away the stool and the coffee table, oh if only it were that easy! When we took those away,  he then decided he can push the dining chairs all around the house, and climb with those too.

Today was quite a day, Im ready to put the table and chairs in the garage and put an end to this climbing once and for all.  

First of all, while I was making hunter's lunch for school, I hear "stuck, stuck" coming from the computer room.  

Oh yes, my monkey can climb up but he can't climb down again.

He often climbs on the chair and sits at the computer, but today he decided to climb up onto the table too.

So rescue number one over with, the computer room door is now shut.  Surely, it's safe for me to go and make the beds.  While I'm down in the bedroom, I hear "hello, hello".  Uh-oh I know what that means, yep sure enough there he is sitting up on the bench talking on the phone.  Luckily he hadn't dialed an actual number!  So the chair gets put back at the table, he gets put back in the lounge with the kids.

Do I dare go and get dressed?  Well he seems to be happily playing, and it'll only take a few minutes to get ready.  So I finish getting dressed and head back out to the kitchen,  and there he is again.  Only this time, he's at the stove, all elements turned on, and trying to cook the spray & wipe bottle!  Are you kidding me?  So I get him down again, turn off all the elements, put the spray & wipe back into the cupboard, move the bread basket, which now has a nice burn mark on the bottom, and put Kingston in the car and strap him  into his carseat - let's see him climb out of that!  Then I get the kids in the car so we can take Hunter to school.  I have the feeling it's going to be a long day.  Did I mention it wasn't even 8:30 yet.

August already??

Wow not only is it August, but we're already halfway through the month.  That means we now only have 31 days until we hit the states, it's so exciting.  Craig left for Sydney yesterday, to start his new job today.  It was a sad goodbye, but he will be back home in 2 weeks for a quick weekend visit, then he'll be here again just in time to leave for our trip.  

We had my brother Kellum over from Brisbane last week, he stayed for 5 days.  It was fun to have him here, and as usual he ate from the minute he arrived until the minute he left.  You just can't beat the food from home.  We were fortunate that the rain held out long enough, and he was able to go along to watch Hunter's game on the Saturday, I bet that brought back a lot of memories for him, of playing when he was Hunter's age.

I've really been enjoying watching the Olympics, it must be exciting for those athletes after training so hard to be rewarded with a medal.  The kids have been learning about the Olympics at school as well.

Kingston and Kenzie were both sick for all of last week, they both get asthma, and they had a bad week.  Kingston had a double ear infection too, just to change things up a bit.

It's still raining!  That's one good thing about the move to Sydney, at least it'll be drier there!

52 days to go......

We've been marking the days off the calendar as we count down to our trip to the States.  Just 52 days to go now, wow!!  So much has been going on around here, over the last few weeks, and yes, it's still raining!  Craig has taken a job in Sydney, he is super excited, and flies out on the 17th of August.  We won't join him until after our trip, it's going to be tough on all of us, but will let him get settled at the new job.  

Hunter and Mackenzie both started swimming lessons last week.  They did so great, Hunter goes Tuesdays after school, and Mackenzie goes on a Saturday morning.

And of course, an update on petrol prices, they've actually come down 3 times in the past week, for the first time in 5 months, so we're back to $2.06 a litre.

And the beat goes on.....

The Kids went back to school yesterday, and life is getting back to normal.  I'm trying to get back into the routine and as you can imagine, it is super quiet around here, luckily I still have Kingy Bing to keep me entertained.  The break from school went quickly. We had fun in the sun the first week, managed to visit the beach, and the park, even took a trip to the botanical gardens with my coffee group and the kids got to run around and feed the ducks.

The 2nd week of the holidays went well.  Hunter went to a Rugby camp for 3 mornings with his buddy William. Unfortunately the rain returned, so it limited our activities a little.

League was rained out on Saturday, so we made a spur of the moment decision to go to snowplanet, an indoor snowdome.  You can check it out at  www.snowplanet.co.nz.  It's a really neat set up, with a restaurant at the bottom of the mountain with a huge window facing the snow, so I sat in there with Kenzie and Kingston, and some hot chocolate (mmm yummy) while Craig and Hunter took to the slope.  It was very cool to watch them, and Hunter was awesome for his first time on skis, way better than I was my first time!  I didn't get any pictures unfortunately, but he really enjoyed it.  William had a sleepover that night, and on Sunday we took the kids to the Museum, to see the new Secrets exhibit, it was pretty interesting, and all the kids, especially Kingston loved it. 

It's July already!

Wow, so it's july already, time to update what's going on in New Zealand.

We had our friends, Todd and Michelle,  visit from Detroit last week. It was really good having them here, and their little girl Maekirra is just a few months older than Kingston, and they were too cute together.

The rain has finally stopped.  I feel like it's been raining forever, and today the sky was bright and blue and the sun was shining. The kids are on holidays at the moment, it's their winter break.  Now you see why I want the good weather to stick around.  Hunter went on a trip today,  to the sky tower with the YMCA holiday Programme, he had a great time, he has been wanting to go since he was at preschool, when he was convinced he was going to marry his little girlfriend Dana up there.  

Craig is in Sydney at the moment, checking out some jobs and hopefully deciding if we'll make the move across the ditch.

Petrol prices went up again today! $2.18 a litre!!! It's madness I tell ya!

Our Seaworld Trip

On Wednesday the 18th of June, me, mum and the 3 kiddos drove down to the Gold Coast, I had gotten a great deal for the Seaworld resort, so we decided to stay the night there and spend Thursday at Seaworld.  After checking in we went to meet up with my brother Chris, who lives just 5 minutes away.  He came back to the resort with us and took the kids for a swim, while mum, Kingston and I hung out in the spa.  Then we checked Hunter and Mackenzie into the Kids Club, while we went to dinner.  They had a blast, playing games, painting and watching movies, they had dinner there too.  Meanwhile we enjoyed a peaceful dinner ourselves.  I picked them up around 8, and we were all tired and had an early night.

The next morning we had breakfast and waited downstairs in the lobby to meet Zoe from Sesame Street.  Hunter wasn't too interested but Mackenzie loved her, especially since she was dressed as a ballerina - and Kingston thought she was pretty great too.

We checked out of the hotel and I let the kids buy a souvenir from the giftshop.  Mackenzie of course chose a dolphin necklace, Kingston who was asleep by this stage had a plush dolphin toy chosen for him, and Hunter got a set which included various marine animals and a boat.  Then it was time to board the monorail and head to Seaworld.

First off we headed to Sesame Street Beach to ride some rides.  King was still asleep, but Hunter and Mackenzie had fun.  Hunter wasn't too keen on the Big Bird bounce (pictured) he got quite pale and felt sick, so didnt ride that again. 

While Nana and Mackenzie watched the Sesame Street show, Chris and Hunter rode some more rides, and Kingston woke up in time to catch the end of the show.  He really enjoyed seeing the characters singing and dancing.  Next up was the dolphin show.  We all really enjoyed it.  By this stage Hunter was dying to see Shark Bay.  We spent alot of time in here, and it was definitely Kingston's favourite.  He loved seeing all the "fish."

We split up to do a few different things, Mackenzie was dying to do the Bermuda triangle or as she calls it "volcano ride" and she picked Chris to ride with her.  Hunter remembered it from last time and no way was he going to ride, needless to say Mackenzie was terrified, and probably won't ride again.

Hunter and Nana enjoyed the 4d movie though, and so did Chris and I when we took Mackenzie later, she was brave and said she liked it.  

Finally we were all getting tired and hungry and it was time to head home.  That was the quietist drive ever!  We all had a great day, the kids love Seaworld and can't wait to go back.

Home from Brisbane

Yep, we are home.  Our trip was wonderful.  The kids travelled well as usual.  They really made it easy on me. The weather was great, and we all had alot of fun, and ate lots of yummy food.

I got to check out the shops - LOVE those winter sales! 

Hunter learnt some new league tricks from Kellum, and Mackenzie got her ears pierced.

Kingston was Kingston, he kept everyone entertained with his crazy antics and learnt a few new words.