wordful wednesday - totally gross

the girls went on camp last week. it was only overnight, although you'd think they were trekking the himalayas the amount of stuff they took.

they were each allowed a SNACK SIZE zip lock bag of crap/candy/stuff to rot your teeth.

some ignored the guidelines and went a little overboard...

imagine dealing with the after-effects of THAT sugar rush

(yes, that's my child)

teachers just don't get paid enough...

schoooooooooooooolz out - 4EVA!!!

well, until february at least

it's the end of era too

when we arrived back from atlanta, miss 19 started as a year 2

then in 1996 miss 17 had her turn

and so on

and so forth

for 13 years, we've continuously had girls at ngaio school.

until today

it's the people i'll miss most. especially the teachers. i bet every parent thinks their school's teachers are the best, and i'm no exception. i mean, how many teachers would do an on-the-spot encore performance of their ABBA medley? (from the leavers' dinner the night before) volunteering, field trips, fund-raising, coaching, cheering, crafting. i'll miss all that too.

just being involved has been a privilege.

there are opportunities to be involved at intermediate (middle) and college (high school) level too, but they are few and far between. i know we're supposed to raise our children and give them wings, but for me - i also like to be waiting in them...

a very crafty christmas

i haven't been doing too much scrapbooking lately, but i did manage to sit down and make christmas cards the other day. it felt so good to sit for over an hour and just CREATE.

i really only intended to make enough cards for my scrapbooking blogging buddies that i met in KC (to go with the photos i'm sending them) - but i got all carried away; and that's a good thing!

i used MAMBI sticker border sheets i've had for over FIVE YEARS. it felt good to use some old supplies.

i made this card from a sketch. i'm sending it to blogger michelle (that we met in hong kong back in march), who's now back in st louis with her brand new baby girl!

elective week is coming up at miss 12's school. that's when i schlep my crafting supplies to school every day for a week and let the kids loose with them.

this time we're making christmas decorations (among other things). here's one i found online. i found it on youtube when i was surfing around the other day.
i was anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new scallop punch from stampin' up so i could make this. i had found a tute on several stampin' up blogs. those stampin' up girls sure know how to create stuff. here are the instructions on angie's blog. hers is a video, and here's a still on sharlene's blog.
her pictures are way better than mine, but then again - she didn't have a cat swatting her ornament as she was trying to photograph it!
check out my cat casually SITTING on my latest scrapbooking layout! does she think she owns the place or WHAT?

i also tried my hand at the scallop ball ornament

here's what it SHOULD look like. can ya see where i went wrong??? (don't answer that). it was all my left brain could handle trying to put that sucker together, especially with my maths genius daughter laughing beside me.

it was like chinese water torture i tell ya.

then i made this...

which i'm relatively happy with, especially since i don't yet have the scallop border punch, so i used some more of those old border stickers!
i AM the messy scrapper; or as hubs commented: "a lot of supplies had to die for that huh?"

neglecting my blog

but with good reason!

tara and i are organising all the food at miss 12's school 'galaroa' this friday.

ALL. THE. FOOD.

napkins, forks, sporks, plates, sauce, chips, tables, floats, gloves, pots, cans, barbeques, tongs, hot dogs, candy floss, sandwiches, sodas, you name it -we have to find it, buy it, borrow it or ask someone to give it to us for free.

hundreds of this, bulk quantities of that. it's like shopping for that dude in jack and the beanstalk.

we went to our local version of SAMS last week. it was like entering GIANTVILLE. i felt so small and my low self esteem due to my extreme lack of maths ability surfaced when we tried to calculate how many servings of nachos we could get out of a 1 kg bag of corn chips.

it was like the blond leading the blind. my head hurt.

my head STILL hurts, but that's because i drank too much wine yesterday.

our annual pilgrimage to TOAST MARTINBOROUGH rolled around and we enjoyed a wonderful day with friends in the sunny wairarapa listening to music, eating yummy food and drinking wine.

toast martinborough virgins should note the following:

• don't drink too much wine
• drink as much water as you do wine
• eat plenty - even when you think you aren't hungry
• wear lots of sunblock
• wear flat shoes, but not open toed shoes, because at the end of the day, you KNOW some intoxicated winery goer will daggy dance their way over your toes
• wear a cute summer dress, but don't expose so much skin that if you don't apply enough sunblock, you end up looking like a tomato

NON-toast martinborough virgins (and those old enough to know better) should also note all of the above.

normal blogging service will be resumed after friday when i will be PSFfing (i miss my PSF friends!) and reading your blogs and writing something way more interesting about how hung over i am and how much stuff i have to organise this week, and how totally overwhelming it feels.

note to self: stop saying yes when people ask you to take on REALLY big jobs!!!

not the orange day parade you might think

orange day celebrates school patrols and the essential work they do. it's a council run even where 1200 children from 40 wellington schools march through the city, ending with a celebration to thank school patrols for their dedication and hard work.

i hadn't been to an orange day parade for 6 years and was very upset to miss last year's as i was laid up in bed with the worst stomach bug anyone in the world had suffered EVER!!!

field trips are so much fun, but they are entirely EXHAUSTING! while we marched through town, 1200 children chanted (loudly and with great monotony) BOTH of the following:

1-2-3-4! school patrols for evermore!

5-6-7-8! school patrols are really great!

aaaaaaaaaand

what do we call?
signs out!
what do we say?
check!
what do we do?
cross now!

oh - and that was just OUR school's chants. the schools in FRONT of us and BEHIND us had their own chants. stereo if you will.

the last orange day parade i was at. recognise these two?

i'm assuming kids the world over do this! there are 5 tunnels between our stop and the city, so we did get SOME peace on the trip! love the poor unsuspecting guy on the left who's wishing he got on a different carriage!

hundreds of college and intermediate kids use these trains every day, and some of them even think they are funny...

sir richard john seddon, new zealand's longest serving prime minister (1845-1906), outside our old parliament buildings.

that's the beehive on the left - our 'new' parliament buildings. it was designed by scottish architect sir basil spence on the back of a napkin in 1964 and completed in 1979.

much of its early history was controversial as no-one had ever really seen a design like it before and the traditionalists thought it quite ridiculous. some of the offices are wedge-shaped and not at all practical, but it's unique and very much part of the landscape of the capital now.

this is the sum total of security at our nation's seat of power
(which is why i love living here so much!)

huh. i guess he went on a break

me and my girl

getting ready for the parade. each school was asked to design a banner

i think this guy's meant to be a zebra (as in zebra crossing),
although when miss 16 saw this picture, she thought he was a racoon!!!

and we're off! i'm a sucker for a pipe band! (who isn't?)

snaking our way down the path onto the street.
i can say i stopped traffic!

that's the michael fowler centre on the left (our 'new' town hall) and the old town hall on the right. you can be forgiven for thinking we're big on our circular buildings here in wellington. michael fowler was mayor of wellington 1974-1983 and the 'new' town hall was his idea. it is built on reclaimed land (like much of wellington city).

when we arrived at the town hall, i volunteered to go 'do the coffee run' for the teacher and other parent helpers, and got back in time to see ngaio win the 'best banner design' competition.

this news was greeted with much joy

although not everyone shared our enthusiasm
(check out the sad sacks in the back row)

as we all filed out of the town hall, the kids were each given a complimentary brown bag lunch (which was mostly healthy!) ronald mcdonald used to be the mascot for this parade. his 'make it click' campaign for seat belt safety meant he was included in this event, but the powers that be finally realised that making a fast food restaurant icon a role model for these kids was a DUMB idea.

for once the kids are right

did you know june 5th was world environment day?

did you know 'my hometown' wellington was the host?

it's true!

'WED' is observed annually in more than 100 countries, and is an opportunity to raise awareness on environmental issues. The theme for World Environment Day 2008 was climate change with a focus on moving towards a low carbon economy and lifestyle. “Kick the Habit” (the ‘carbon’ habit) was the international slogan for the event.

at miss 10's school, they observed 'WED' and tied it in with "wacky hair day" - an annual school event. it's self-explanatory and a lot of fun. children bring a gold coin, with the proceeds going to the school's world vision sponsored child.

here are some pics from 'WED' at ngaio.

one of our substitute teachers with her '3 Rs' pipe cleaner headdress

very inventive don't you think?

this is miss 10's teacher. she's fabulous!
a little mosaic of some of the wonderfully wacky hair on display
as you can see, the kids tied their wacky hair in with the environmental theme

so lush and green!

how cute are those stuffed kiwis?

a poster for 'WED' in one of the corridors

and back to the title of this post. you know when the kids open the fridge, stare at it for a while, slump their shoulders, turn to you and complain...

"there's no food!"

for once they're right!

hungry kids: there's no food!

me: uhuh.

hungry kids: didn't you go to the supermarket?

me: i left the car at home for world environment day.

hungry kids: pfft. whatever.

keep the green people!

i was trolling through some of the mom bomb 's earlier posts when i happened upon her 7th grade school photo, that she was brave enough to share. she was looking at her daughter's most recent school photo (wherein she resembled a jaded 45 year old lawyer) and was lamenting the fact that there are REALLY no good school photos.

i think most of us would agree with that, although i fail to see how my daughter is ever going to look back at THIS photo and feel the same way.

with $4000 teeth, good quality hair straighteners that your big sister is happy to lend you, and an extra 45 minutes to get ready in the morning - this is the result you get.

to quote her 18 year old sister "you're the hottest person in your class!" now that's sisterly love.

up shit street without a plunger

as some of you know, we live on a bush-clad section in the rolling hills of a wellington suburb. what lurks beyond the fence (as we discovered today) should sometimes be left to lurk alone.

we've had a lot of rain lately, so the sound of running water coming from up the back of section wasn't cause for too much alarm. after all, there are creeks and waterways all over our suburb. it's quaint. when that running water started to smell a little crappy, i just figured it was our cats' poop being sluiced down through the bush.

when this morning i discovered DH's precious train tracks centimeters deep in GREY water, we figured it was time to call the council.

my expert PSE skills show the location of a hidden man-hole cover (1) lurking deep in the bush, that upon inspection by DH in his wellies, is broken; hence the running water pooling in (2) - on his custom-built train tracks.

i wasn't able to stick around for the fun and games that ensued once the council arrived, because i was helping out at the girls' school centenary. as serving wenches, we were required to wear black and white (see below). as a friend of colour, this is probably the last time you will probably see me looking like a minstrel.

but back to the poo...
see that manhole cover in the middle of the drive? the council dude opened that up and after lots of poking, dragged out a massive clump of tree roots. what he wanted to do after that, was poke around some more, so the excess of excrement could flow happily through the pipe that runs under our drive, away out of sight to wherever it goes after that. (don't know. don't care. that's why we pay rates).

what actually happened was far more spectacular. there WAS a small garden in figure (3) above, but yesterday it became a fountain of faeces which spewed forth down our drive. DH pxted me while i was a school, but even if i could figure out how to get the pic from my phone onto my computer, you just don't want to see.

that watermark you see is only water, after the council washed away the sea of sewerage that WAS our drive for a short time yesterday morning. all that remains now is a derelict garden that smells like a toilet.

i've never waitressed before in my life, so i thought i'd get in a little practice before i left the house

i snapped this as i was leaving the school centenary celebrations to come home. i really don't know why i took it. i guess i was just taken with the poignancy of it. this man was once an energetic 5 year old, running around the school playground, and he took the time to come back to reminisce and wish the school a happy 100.

that drive is quite steep and to see him shuffling up there with his zimmer frame - well, i was quite impressed.

there was a centenary birthday cake, cut by the youngest pupil and the oldest ex-pupil attending the weekend's celebrations. it was a woman who attended the school in 1916, so we figure even if she was 5 back then, she'd be close to 100 now. i missed the cutting of the cake as i was volunteering in another part of the school, but i wish i'd seen it.

i hope i can drag my 90-something year old butt out of the house like she did when i'm that age.