Homemade Lemonade

Kyla found some neglected lemons at the bottom of the fruit and vege bin today, and asked if we could make some lemonade.We peeled 6 lemons, and soaked the peel in 4 cups of hot tap water. Then cut and squeezed the lemons.

Then we added in two cups of sugar, and 4 cups of cold water. Mixed it, chilled it, DRANK it...mmmm. Now that's what I call summer.

Little Miss Kitty

Sienna loves cats and dogs. Her latest game involves her being either a cat or dog, and us having to feed her in bowls. She even licks the water up.

Meow!

Surprise

I hadn't seen Kyla for a while today, so I called out for her, and when she came to the kitchen, where I was cleaning out my snail tank, I asked her what she was doing.

'Making you a present.'

'Why?'

'Because I love you.'

Awww, sometimes I have the sweetest kids. First I got cards from Denver and Kyla.

(Kyla and I)

Then they both disappeared into the garage to organise a big surprise for me. They were in and out for most of the afternoon, eventually I was asked to cover my eyes and come in to see what the had made.

Ta Da!

A model mummy, and her very own sunshine!

As well as bathroom...

(Is the toilet adorable or what??!And yes, I always bathe with a zebra.)

And of course a bed...

Did I mention my kids are the greatest?

Shark Attack

The past couple of weeks have been spent mostly in preparation for Miss Denver's 7th birthday. Kyla LOVES to create and plan and celebrate, so she really sunk her teeth into this one, and we have both been toiling away into the wee hours creating a birthday bonanza. Indeed, the night before the big day we were up past midnight filling the bathtub full of waterbombs.
The theme of the party was based on Denver's current favourite flick, Sharkboy and Lavagirl (in 3D!).
First things first, the birthday girl started the morning with chocolate chip pancakes and a pile of presents.

She even got her own copy of Sharkboy and Lavagirl from Nana, complete with very awesome 3D glasses..

Then it was time to change into her party friendly outfit, and the rest of the girls to join in

We got these tees from Postie Plus, then designed the logo and transfered them on. Denver was so surprised!

The first game was 'Cold Feet' which had us all standing in a tub of ice, the one who could stand the cold the longest was the winner.

The results are still under debate, as Madi will contend that she is the winner because I made her get out, just in case her toes fell off. Officially the results were

Denver - 1 minute

Sienna - 18 seconds...lol

Kyla - 2 minutes

Madison - 4 minutes17 seconds (because of being asked to get out)

Hay - 5 minutes 17 seconds (and suffered stinging toes for ten minutes, yikes!)

From there, we moved onto shark fishing. Kyla and I had made little cardboard sharks up, attached a paper clip to each and stuck pairs of Denver's favourite stars on the reverse of them; Lavagirl, Shaggy off Scooby Doo, Taylor Lautner, Taylor Swift, Rob Pattinson and Alex Wolff. Denver and Sienna then used their fishing rods to fish up two fish at a time and see if they got a match.

Denver won, and got some submarines as a prize.

After fishing, it was time to whip outside and hunt for 'treasures' in the sandpit, aka some shark toys brought from Natures Own, and buried the previous night by Rog and Kyla.

Once all the sharks had been rescued from the depths of the sandpit, it was back inside to play Shark Attack! This game is easy peasy to set up, all you need is a balloon with a shark face drawn on and some music. Like musical chairs, they quickly pass the balloon between them, and when the music stops, whoever has the balloon is eaten by the shark, and thus, out.

Sienna won this one (carefully engineered so as to ease the green-eyed monster), and scored herself some playdough.

After all the action some nourishment was required, so it was cake time! A shark cake, of course, with a blood red middle to make it all the more authentic ;)

Washed down with our Sharkboy and Lavagirl cocktails.

After cake had settled in the tummy it was time for 'Splat the Shark'. Armed with water balloons, one person donned the special shark hat and became the target for everyone else. Much fun was had with this one.

After everyone had dried off, the 'bad guy' Mr Electric made an appearence, and Denver had to use some ice missles to defeat him, which she did, winning herself an Undersea Activity Book.

Then it was time for another hunt, this time to find the pages of Max's Dream Journal, something you will only understand if you have seen the movie. For a week or so beforehand, Kyla, Madi and I had been drawing the pages of the journal, and Kyla hid them around Denvers room. After she had found the pages, she was given the cover. She really loved this, especially as it had blank pages in it for her own creations. She spent some time later that afternoon drawing 'Lovegirl' and 'Lightning Boy'.

Next it was time to play 'Pin the Tail on the Shark'

And then, to finish up, a volcano challenge. We had painted some ping-pong balls up during the week to be lava rocks, and made a volcano from construction paper, which we'd hidden in Kyla's wardrobe.

After the games were all played the girls played, before cleaning up and heading out to Dinner at Denny's (because it sounds like Denver and she likes it), with the extended whanau. Miss Denver summed up the day, 'Mum, this was the best brithday ever!'

Happy Birthday beautiful! xxxx

Deception

They say that children start to lie around four years of age. Sienna is now 3 years and 9 months old, and to my knowledge, hasn't lied yet. But yesterday something happened that made me smile, and speculate that my little girl really is growing up, her thinking, reasoning and planning are growing more complex.

I got an email from the library about two overdue books. One was in Kyla's name, and we quickly located it. The other was under Sienna's name. We looked everywhere. High, low, under drawers, beds, behind bookshelves, in closets. No book to be found. I decided to look it up on the net, so that we could get a picture of the cover. It was a small green book with a dog on the cover, called, funnily enough, Dog.

I went to check in Sienna's room again, and she followed me in. Kyla then said to her, 'Sienna, have you seen a green book with a doggy on the cover?' Sienna looked at her and said,

'Is it a cute doggy?' We laughed and Kyla said yes. Then Sienna replied, 'It's hiding in those drawers there.' Sure enough she had put it in one of the drawers in the bedside cabinet that the kids have their little TV sitting on. Much relief all around to have found it. I then asked Sienna if she had put it in there, and she said,

'Yes! I hided it because I didn't want you to take it back!'

I wouldn't have thought she would even think of doing that, and it made me laugh. What a clever chicken!

Discovery Labs - Making a battery