Festival

We have had some rain, Yay!, so we have enough water and we can have visitors over Festival. So if you have a baby, aren't sure about camping with said baby and would like to pull up a piece of floor at Chez Johnson, you are welcome.

We have one guest room with double bed, one room with books in it, but plenty of floor space (and a door), and a large lounge dining room which doesn't have doors on it, so you might get visited by pussy cats. There is also a sofa bed in the family room. I have one portacot. I can supply a bit in the way of bedding, but depending on numbers it some might need to bring their own mattress. We are in NZ for the next couple of days so leave a comment rather than e-mail me.

If you prefer to try camping, you are also welcome to drop over to bath bubby, boil some water, use the fridge or microwave etc. We are about 10 mins from Festival site.

Also, if there is something that you really want to attend at Festival that isn't possible with babies, I will probably be here for most of Festival so some short term babysitting should be available most days. I'll probably pop over for Market Day, but that's about it.

Kids Artwork - handy hints

ok - so some of you might not quite be up to dealing with this yet, but I figured I would write about it while it was still in my brain...

Kids artwork - are you drowning in it? Here are some practical tips I've learnt/made up as we have gone along:

1. Fridge - nice & tradional - depending on strength of your magnets - buy lots of heavy duty ones - give them to rellies & friends who need their fridges livened up
2. blu tack to walls - depends on your taste in decor, but works well
3. frame a couple of particualrly nice ones for their room/ your room/ wherever
4. stick one example (we used to get a choice of 3 or 4 of each variety home from daycare) of other nice ones in A4 display folders - usually some folding required, get child to help pick their own faves (may have a different reason to you - if particularly cute reason or answer to "and what's this one" you can write it on the back...
5. Use larger examples as gift wrap - goes down particularly well with grandparents & other rellies
6. chop up & use as outer cards for birthday cards/party invites etc
7. take digital photos of child & artwork or just artwork before recycling/chucking in bin - works particularly well for the painted egg carton variety of artwork which is hard to fold... Also shows you care about it, but don't have space to keep it all. If you're particularly techy you could even make an album or website where the child can look at their own artwork...

Will gratefully accept any other ideas - the sheer volume has reduced somewhat now that we are into doing "activity sheets" at school - but there is still a vast amount tracking it's way into our house...

I swear I just turned around for an instant...

and he was four. I think he had a good birthday yesterday. He fell asleep on the floor in front of the tv at 6.00pm, stirred briefly when I put him in bed and then bounced in to get into bed with me at 6.30am and seemed quite happy. Daddy is home today (as soon as he gets through Customs and on a plane for Canberra) so we will have more celebrations today.

Happy Birthday little one.

Oh and by the way...

We didn't go for a look.

For a rainy day?

Ok, so there we were, merrily pootling around the gorgeous NZ countryside when this sign leaped (I tell you!) over the hedge at us. Naturally, we spent the rest of our holiday wondering "From what, exactly?" We have come up with a few answers, but we feel the mystery is far from solved...

The first and most obvious being:
Maoris?

Hell, save me from them!

Llary the Llama and his girlfriend Llu-Llu?


They have a mean streak.

Hitch-hikers?

Bludgers, the lot of 'em.

The nine-footed-gumboot-wearing-bumkicker

Last spotted somewhere near Waikikamucau (bootless.)

This mo-fo bunny?

Killer rabbits are a menace over there. Shoot Bunnies.

The nine-footed-gumboot-wearing-bumkicker's distant cousin, "Ca-pilla"?

Yeah, I wouldn't be so sure about him either, Pers!

Wolves?

We all need saving from wolves.

Tilda Swinton?

It's the red mascara, isn't it?

Brussel Sprouts?

And these are the worst offenders, I think.


Moldovian Grandmothers?

Or bad denistry, you decide...

Themselves?

They look sweet and innocent on the outside.

So in conclusion, we're really not sure what they should be saved from, or even for, for that matter. But it made for a rather amusing diversion from "Mordorrrr" everytime we saw some mountains. Which was frequent.

I've got a new trick

Yes, I'm reading!

This one's a harrowing tale of a small white mouse who has trouble identifying his pet dragon. It all ends happily, I'm pleased to report where mouse and dragon are reunited. The text is a little repetative I must say.

No. Actually the new trick is head control. No more face plants for me!

I'm too old for homework - wahhh

Warning - venting contained, once I get it off my chest I'll be fine but....

Yes the above is from me and not my daughter... I was warned (thanks Mim!) but it's hit with a vengeance. I don't mind the reading every night or the take home and do the cut/colour/paste on the letter of the week even - what I can't stand is the ****ing homework diary! In Kindy! You might be thinking - well that's what you get with a private school - but friend's kids in public schools have the same thing.

Not only do you need to add the date, the title of the reader and the running total of the days that reading has been done - you have to come up with a comment! Arrrrggghhhhh...

Now those who have more enthusiasm for this than me are probably wondering what's the fuss. Hmmm let's see. Threw a tanty cos she had to read instead of watch TV - probably not a good look, therefore into homework diary as "wants to go fast therefore looks at pictures not words...".

A kindred heart has written an ever so more elegant version of this rant in the Feb edition of Sydney's Child and I am so exactly there in terms of both the sentiment and the more profound changes noted by the author. Homework standover tactics do not need to start in Kindy - why aren't kids allowed to be kids anymore?