Autumn Leaves

We don't have that many trees over looking our garden. In fact only 1 really drops its leaves at this time of the year!
In desperation I told the boys to go and rake up the leaves and then jump in them.
Ben was a little shocked to begin with....'did she just say jump in them?'

So they did and then had a ball.

They actually played 'spot the child' at one stage.

Game Time

When we have a weekend at home you can guarantee there will be some arguments over who's turn it is on the Xbox or the Wii or even the computer!
Sometimes it is my husband that joins in the fun and I observe and cringe from the side-lines. I have even been known to be the mean mummy and simply press that ultimate button....you know the one I am talking about.....the ON/OFF switch on the side of the tv!

Occasionally I manage to distract the whole family with something simple like a board game and then suddenly the music goes on the stereo and we enjoy some peaceful family time playing a game.

This is what happened one Saturday evening and it was a great time.
Everyone had a drink and all was right in the world for a time.

So much so that it extended on into Sunday and we all sat round the table eating our sandwiches at lunchtime having another game of Rummikub.

The boys are slowly getting the hand on how to manipulate the tiles on the table and we are also trying to teach them strategy!
We have been known to help them with some moves to hopefully show them some ways to do things that will benefit them, sometimes it sinks in and sometimes not so much, but they have both managed to win a few games so sometimes we leave them to their own devices and they do just fine whipping mum and dad!

Games Online

Do you have a favorite website where you go to play games online?
Do you pay for it or is it free?

I have always used MSN games. Don't ask why, just seems to be one of those sites I came across early on, enjoyed what I played on there, liked the variety and have continued, when I remember, to use it.
It is a free site, with about 85% of the games being able to be played to a certain level online immediately. You then also have the option of downloading a free trial. this lasts for about 6-12 hours and from what I can remember the last time we did this, many years ago, you can only ever download a trial once per game.
You do also have the option to buy the game. Most games cost $19.95 but if you commit to buying 2 games in 2 months or 4 games in 4 months then the price per game starts to drop.
We have purchased a few of the games over the years, about 4 I think, and we have had enormous fun from having them immediately to hand on the computer. The boys have loved playing them and they are ones that it is easy to loose the time of day with.

The boys like the website Friv, which has some weird and wonderful little games. I don't know about what services are available on this site or whether it is just purely an online site for games.

My mother plays on a site from England I think and she pays a small fee for the year. Really must remember to get the address from her again one time, although once she reads this post it will probably be in the comments!

So where do you play, what great sites do you know about that you would be willing to share with us all?
And I mean sites specific to games, not those on Facebook that need friends to be able to play!

Cricket

During the summer months Ben playes cricket through school.
He is really enjoying it and has played for the last 2 years almost.

So a couple of weeks ago I heard on the radio about getting free tickets to a 20/20 match that was being played in Hamilton.
I went online and registered and was successful in getting a free family pass to the cricket game.

So we pack out picnic dinner and trotted off to show the boys what a game of cricket should be like.
They loved it, we had a wonderful free night out as a family and they would happily go again.

Wow, there are people out there!

And just to confuse them, our local team were supporting Breast Cancer for the season so were dress and playing in Pink!

Distraction

Sadly I have not been doing any posts due to a major distraction!

On Monday I won 'Mother of The Year', nothing official or anything like that, just in the eyes of the 2 people where it counts most......my 2 sons.
I won because we finally agreed to purchase a Nintendo Wii and yes you guessed right, Monday was the day I went and got it.

So I was the best mum in the world, because they had so desperately wanted one.
So all week we have all been finding out exactly what this wonderful family toy can do.
Who can beat who at what sports game.

On Monday night Steve and I played some great games. We were laughing and fighting all at the same time. I don't think anyone needs marriage counselling, you just need to put the couple in a room together and get them to attack each other at sword fighting on the Wii. They will have the world sorted in an hour!


The boys are actually very good at some of the games, their fine eye motor skills are definitely improving.

Anyway, got to go, it is my turn to crucify the family at 10 pin bowling....!

Tool Kit

It has taken a while, but here is the picture of my nice PINK Tool Kit I won at the Women's Evening at our local hardware store the other day.

Nice Pink Bag to keep it all in

Box listing all the lovely equipement I have gained

The Pink Kit itself!

And yes I have even used some of it since I got it. How cool is that. Steve and I were in the garden doing some measuring and planning and I suddenly asked him if he had a tape measure on him, which he said no too, but then I realised it didn't matter, as I had my own to use. So I reaced inside and grabbed it and happily measured the garden with my own tool.

Boys Toys

This evening, our local Placemakers had a Ladies Night.
Yep that is right, you could go along and play with tools and learn some basic things.
I registered for it, but wasn't sure if I was in the mood for it......turns out it was the best thing I did.
I made a christmas ornamant, a coaster, won a box of 20 pegs on the hanging washing game and even managed to bang a nail into a piece of wood in 4 bangs!

The nail banging game was another competition, where the person who banged the nail in in the least amount of hits won a prize. Well I got 5, which was the lead and then another lady got 4, so I then kept trying until I got 4 too.
Then we had to have a 'nail off"! The fastest one to hit in 5 nails won the prize.
It was a fast and furious game and I was the runner up...the other lady beat me fair and square.
She won the 9 piece pink tool kit.
The manager of the store had given me tips throughout the evening on how to use a hammer, thus the reason I got a 4.
I found him after the game and said that I had lost, but gained a bruised finger where I did actually hit my hand with the hammer, he laughed and said good try.

Although about 10 minutes later he came and found me and gave me a 9 Piece Pink Tool Kit, he said as a runner up prize, but hey I fought hard for that tool kit.
So now I have my own tool kit in a bag (comes with its own carry bag) and I will take a picture and post it later so you can see what I got.

Only thing is though, Steve was kinda hoping I would learn how to paint on this evening, because painting is not my strong point, but unfortunately I still don't know the correct techniques for painting and we have a lot to do around this house!!

How Many People??

Last weekend we had some friends over for morning tea on the Sunday. They came to go for a walk up to our new house to have a look.

Before we went they all got playing with this marble game.

Not sure how many it takes to sort this game out, as we had 3 grown adults, a 4yr old and 2 2yr olds and they still had some trouble!