Butterfly House

Today we went on a playcentre trip to the Butterfly House and Orchid Garden in Thames. Kaia had the day off kindy and was given "Adventure Bear" and the kindy camera to get some pics of their adventure. These are the shots from our camera (hopefully kindy will add the other pics onto their blog..).

 

Kaia enjoyed holding the butterfly - another of the adults passed it to her to hold, then we put it on Adventure Bear. It then started to fly away but turned and landed on Kaia's chest, which she was quite excited about (think Dale got some video footage of that...).

 

 

This butterfly had beautiful bright blue coloured wings but of course when it landed to drink the banana liquid it folded them up, and it was too fluttery to get a good shot when in mid air!

 

 

 

 It was a tropical garden, so very warm in there which initially fogged up the camera lenses, but we then found they had a little wall  mounted heater specifically designed to heat up camera lenses to prevent them from fogging - I thought that was pretty neat! Ché got a bit sweaty from the humidity and had to strip off his Superman top and cape (which he chose to wear that day) so was running around in his singlet and training pants (shorts had to come off too)! It was a lovely day :)

Busy day at Playcentre

The weather has been beautiful lately, just as well as the ute packed up so Dale has to take the van to work which means the cherubs and I are doing lots of walking to and from kindy and playcentre. Here they are on the way to kindy on 28th October.

After dropping Kaia off at kindy it was back across the bridge and field to playcentre.

Ché got to work in the sandpit making a volcano,

then some sandcastles...

have to level it off first.

Trying out the digger.

 

 Then it was inside to make and eat "chocolate mug cake".

 

After that he headed over to the dress up's and family play area for a bit of nursing.

 

 

 After all that playing it was time for a rest, so he climbed into the doll's cot (but by then he'd had enough of the photo taking!).

Party day

Kaia's fourth birthday started off at "Bounce" for an hour of fun with friends and family on the bouncy castles and slides.

Kaia and Bailey

Ché and Ashleigh (who looked after her little cousin very well, helping him up when he needed it)

 

 Ashleigh, Ethan and Ché

Then it was back home for party food

 

Then a simple but effective "fairy mound" cake

Which got the thumbs up from Kaia!

Danielle looking forward to that green icing

Ché showing off his sticky fingers

 The girls checking out the fairy.

 Kaia on her actual birthday with every four year old girls dream present!

Happy birthday gorgeous!

Our four year old

Kaia has had photos with her teddy (and on the same couch) since she was born, first monthly then annually on her birthday.

Here she is as a newborn

 

six months old

 

 one year old

  and now at four years old!

Snow on Mt Pirongia!

After an unusually cold night, the 6th October 2009 dawned to reveal it had snowed on Mt Pirongia! Dale called me excitedly on his way to work and I shot out and took some pictures - what a way to start off Kaia's birthday!

The artist

This drawing by Kaia entitled "Mummy with lipstick" was presumably inspired by seeing Mummy get all made up ( a very rare occurrence!)

My gorgeous and talented artist friend Michelle is studying to become a Beauty Therapist and needed someone to make over and take photos of for an assignment 

Thanks for making me feel very glamorous Michelle!

Whangamata

Off to the beach we headed again, this time during the first week of the school holidays. We stayed with Auntie Tiina and cousins Ashleigh and Danielle for three nights at a bach they had rented. It was another lovely break away and it's always great to be at the beach.

Yes Kaia is in togs..in Spring! Actually the weather was quite erratic but we  had some lovely sunny patches.

Aunty Tiina was impressed with Ché's hand eye co-ordination.

Dani's turn to bat.

Kaia, Ché and Dani picked some flowers on the way back to the bach and Ché sung La la laaaaa the whole way there. Was very cute!

Some bike riding on the veranda.

We had a Tsunami warning, due to the earthquake in Samoa, and were told it would be safer to go to higher ground.

What big wave? All we can see are cars and a hill!

 

 Back to the beach for some fun with the skipping ropes.

Giddy up pony.

Faster Ché

Thanks Auntie Tiina, we had a great time!

Minature Trains

Every Sunday in Hamilton the miniature train enthusiasts get together and the public can purchase tickets and enjoy a ride.

 

Waiting patiently for their turn (yes Kaia is in the delightful it's-fun-to-poke-my-tongue-out stage).

All aboard.

Having the tickets checked then off we go. The tracks are quite neat with tunnels and bridges.