The Queen's Birthday

Monday

Ro spent Saturday morning building couch-cushion forts and this Tower of Babel-like structure

The inevitable result

After a quiet weekend at home (our big outing was to go see Night at the Museum 2), Mark headed back to work for the late shift on Monday, the Queen's Birthday holiday, and Ro was out of school.



See link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen%27s_Birthday#Other_countries_and_territories

Karla and Sherry ran errands with the kids, including a stop at Bunning's Warehouse (like Home Depot in the US) to get some potting supplies and let the kids play on the Playplace there. The boys were less than captivated by the Bunning's jungle gym, though, and found hiding in and among the huge three-story shelving units a lot more entertaining, much to Sherry and Karla's frustration. It's harder than you might think to extract a small kid from behind pallets of building materials when an adult can't fit back there. On the way home, as they boys were getting into the car, it became clear that a few random objects had "found" their way into their pockets as they were climbing around the store. You know how a 5 year-old's logic goes...if it's on the ground, it must not belong to anybody, right? Sherry and Karla made the boys sheepishly go back to return the items and apologize to the burly Santa Claus-like greeter at the front of the store. He gave them each a big inflatable Bunning's toy hammer in exchange for their honesty. Ironically, the hammers were much cooler than the small paint brush and scrap of PVC pipe the boys had found originally.

Sherry bought an Indonesian Orchid at the Farmer's Market yesterday for only NZ$8, which is a huge deal. She named her Priscilla, and needed orchid food from Bunning's, while Karla was picking up some starts to go into a new planter. They both bought a daffodil bulb pot, and Sherry planted them and put them on the deck to await their September bloom.

Priscilla the Indonesian Orchid

After the shopping trip, Sherry and Ronan went to Drury Park, which is currently undergoing a massive renovation. The new jungle gym has some wonderful climbing stations, and since climbing is Ro's favorite pastime, he is thrilled with the new set-up. They've also added a wheelchair swing, like the one we saw in the park at Lake Taupo.

Ro testing out the new equipment

The landscaping's not finished, but the neighborhood kids don't care

Ro's favorite, "the big metal slide," is still there

Back at home for the evening, Sherry helped Ro make suncatchers from a craft kit she found at our corner store Sunny's, her favorite beach store that carries a little bit of everything.

Fresh from the oven suncatchers

They finished the night by making an impromptu Jack-O'-Lantern at Ro's request from a cooking pumpkin Sherry had purchased for a dinner recipe. Cooperation was key, so Ro drew the face and let Mum cut it out. They used a leftover birthday candle from Ro's cake to illuminate it, and enjoyed the pumpkin's "glow" from the outside deck table while they did Ro's reading homework.

It's Halloween weather, so Ro wants the appropriate decor