School Holidays

Last week both Sarah and I took 4 days off to spend with the kids. We had originally planned to meet up with Ben and Di in Hamilton, but given Covid levels and that fact that Hamilton's currently in Level 3, that was a no go.  So instead we just hung out at home and did stuff with the kids.

We went up to the local craft store and bought some things for the kids to do.  Mostly things made with plaster they could paint etc.  Theo wanted to paint a pumpkin, so did Beth.  I also suggested to Theo to buy a little dinosaur scene and he could paint that, but he didn't seem very interested.  In the end I talked him into the Dinosaur thing.  Over the course of the next few days, he got great entertainment and enjoyment out of it!  It came with a 16 step instruction thing, so each day we'd do a few of the steps.  Paint the dinosuars and the grass.  Paint the tree.  Glue some bits.  Paint some more stuff.  Coat everything in glue to make it shiny.  Paint glue on the ground and sprinkle the bag of sand over it.  Anyway this is the end result - he's pretty happy with himself I think.

Beth also made a little mosasic and worked on her Llama sewing kit thing and her ocean dotty thing.  The dotty thing is cool but I am sick to death of finding tiny 1x1mm bits of coloured plastic about the house!

Other stuff we did:  We took them down to the pump track to ride their bikes, Beth mostly wanted to pick flowers etc.  Theo had a great time on the pump track though.  Then we walked up into town and had lunch at Rock my Belly, had a icecream at Lick This and then went back to the pump track for a little while.

We also walked up Dobel, went for some walks, Sarah baked cupcakes with them.  Theo helped cook dinner a few nights, an activity he seems to really love.  We went to Anderson Park one afternoon and Theo drove his crazy cart around.  Some older boy (I guess about 12) stopped him while he was driving and asked if he could ride it, Theo hopped off and offered the Cart to him.  I watched for a minute before I had to head over and ask the boy to give it back to Theo, the boy had taken it into the Skateboard area and looked like he was just about to try all sorts of silly cart-breaking tricks with it.  Theo had been watching on sort of wondering why they weren't giving it back, so I asked poltely but sterny to give it back to Theo.  And told Theo it's very kind of him to offer his cart to ride to other people. but maybe just say no if you don't know the person who's asking to borrow it.

I've been for a few runs with Biscuit, went for one again this morning and he's tired out now lying on his dog bed snoring. 

Theo's started reading Calvin and Hobbes and he loves it.  It's good to see his reading really taking off like it did with Beth.

One of the activities we did while on holidays was to take the kids into town and let them buy a toy from the toyshop.  We also tried to exchange the 20 pounds Auntie Maggie sent over, but it turns out no banks in Napier do it anymore.  Covid blah blah blah.  While we were in Farmers, Theo really wanted a BayBlade.  I tried to talk him into a little kit that was a Solar Powered Robot, but Sarah wisely suggested it probably wouldn't be great for a 6 year old seeing as it said 8+.  I thought I'll get it for myself, maybe have some fun making it with the kids.  Holy SHIT is it fiddly.  I mean it's hard going, it's millions of tiny little plastic pieces, all of which you have to cut out of a mould.  This is it.  Anyway I have made one thing (a walking puppy) and I showed it to the kids and they both went "Oh yea that's cool.... Can we go back to watching our iPads now?" so well done Daddy hehe.  It took me about 2 hours all up to build as well!  At least *I* got some fun from it!!!

Took Theo for a bike ride yesterday while I went running. Biscuit came too, it was good fun.  Damn hot though, it was stinking yesterday.  For dinner we invited over Holly and Isla (the boy were off hunting) and Peter & Mary.  Had a nice dinner, Holly bought over Venison burgers that were super tasty.  Sarah made an amazing Trifle.  Beth had a Disco party she went to for her friend Gemma.

We've made a bit of progress with the pool.  I found out that the Iwi Tribe thing is resource consent but to be allowed to dig the hole is building consent.  So I have started the building consent bit becuase that can happen independant of the resource consent.  We'll need both to actually go ahead and get it underway, but at least I don't have to wait to get the Iwi signoff before I can submit the plans, which is what I'd originally thought.  So I'm glad that bit's done, fingers crossed for the other bit.  I've already spoken to the council and asked them how we can get it progressed if they aren't helpful.

Finally I have built a little Kodi/Libreelec box to try and replace our aging set-top box.  It works well, it seems that everyone has their TV channels online streaming these days, so I don't even need an Antenna into it like I thought I would.  It can watch Sky, Spark Sport, Netflix, the free to air channel as well at Plex and all the movies I've downloaded etc.  Just need to get a decent remote control for it now and make sure it's easy to use.  We'll see how the easy-to-use bit goes.

That'll do.  Might be time for a snooze on the couch!

Tim