C's Video Game Project

MoMo Poodles--the beginning

Several years after the death of my beloved poodle, Stella, we decided to get another dog.  We knew we wanted another standard poodle---as no other dog even comes close.  But finding a big poodle in NZ was a big of a challenge.  We finally found standard poodles but they were parti poodles--meaning they were multi colored.  I wanted a black one--and the blackest one they had was Moses--who just had a bit of white on his chest.  And he is not black but blue--meaning he will turn silver as he matures. 

We found Moses on TradeMe--where else?  He was born in Auckland on 2 October, the same as my great grandmother.--it had to be a sign.  Both of Moses parents were American dogs, imported by a Kiwi. His mother came from Alabama and his father from Arizona.  I say Moses is a triple-A grade dog (Alabama, Arizona, Auckland).  We are all Kiwi-Americans in this house. 

First pictures we saw of Moses 

First pictures of Moses 

Moses' father, Sherman 

Moses' father--very similar markings as MoMo

Moses' mother is an obedience/agility champion 

Moses with his brothers and sisters---can you find Moses in this pic? 

Moses' mother being a water retrieval dog 

Reading

We were on our way to do something and were stuck in Big Daddy's orange pumpkin van waiting. Both C. and G. were reading quietly. C. is reading classics on the Kindle and G. is reading teenage pop culture magazines. 

Quiet children 

G reading a magazine, C reading the Kindle 

Cute little lefty 

Lost in a good book

Disco Party!!

Once each term, the school has a disco for the children. It is a chance for the kids to socialize outside school and it raises money for the Home and School (PTA). Tickets are $2 each and then they sell candy and flashing light toys inside. The music is loud, most kids don't dance and it usually costs us about $20 for a one hour outing but considering we rarely go "out," it is fun for the whole family.

Kids with their Disco Tickets!! 

They love to spend money! 

Have to get a flashing light necklace each time 

Boys need a flashing light necklace, too---but in blue

Kids love the disco!! 

Next comes candy---and Big Daddy wants his share of that candy 

G. loves to eat candy while she dances 

C. isn't into dancing---preferring to rough house with the other boys  

C. being a goof 

G. dancing with Big Daddy 

G. dancing with Big Daddy 

Big Daddy being a goof 

Oh, goody! A pic of Mum before the disco---and of course, MoMo Poodles 

Tiger and Piggles

We have two fat guinea pigs. One is named Tiger and his brother is named Piggles. They look almost exactly alike except Piggles has curly hair.  Both of them look like rodent Yorkshire Terriers.  Tiger is more outgoing and personable. Piggles is shy and prefers to hide most of the time.

Tiger with the straight hair 

Tiger 

 Shy Piggles has curly hair 

The guinea pigs live indoors in a cage that I designed and Big Daddy built.  It is a coffee table with a removable lid.  Guinea pigs are prey animals and quite nervous so the lid gives them quite a bit of comfort. But they still like to be inside of their little houses-- inside the cage. Very nervous!!
A lot of thought went into the building of this cage. And it is the most awesome guinea pig cage ever!!!The bottom of the cage is a shower pan liner made of metal. It just sits inside the wooden structure. The whole metal liner pan can be removed and washed with a hose outside. I put newspaper on the bottom and then hay and the piggies love it. When it is time to clean the cage, I just roll up the newspaper on the bottom.
Our guinea pigs always have access to a guinea pig/rabbit pellet but their diet mainly consists of vegetable scraps and grass from outside. We do not spray for weeds or bugs--so our grass is delicious for the piggies. One of the children's daily chores is to pick grass for the guinea pigs. It takes about 1 minute but they still complain!

Their cage is a coffee table 

Side view of their house---easy construction

The lid is completely removable 

Cage with the lid off 

The pigs have a half bucket and a plastic dishpan as little houses

Pigs in their houses 

Before they had the plastic houses, they lived in beer boxes 

We put the cage by the window so they could have a view 

My Beautiful Birthday Cards

There is nothing better in the whole world than homemade birthday cards--made by your kids. For my birthday this year, I got a card from each child that they made with no help from me. A complete surprise. And 100% their own creativity. 

C. made the one on the left and G. made the one on the right 

Inside of C's card 

Inside of G's card 

I love being a Mum! 

Rugsby the Lamb- 1 week old

Rugsby is one week old today. He is growing fast because he is a greedy little eater. I am feeding him every 3 hours, day and night. And he never refuses a meal--and sometimes, he demands 2 at a time.

Rugsby has a run in the paddock 

He looks like a proper sheep out in the paddock 

Rugsby really spends more time on the patio than the paddock 

C. takes a turn feeding Rugsby 

Rugsby went to school today for Show-n-Tell and he took a turn on the playground 

Our House III

Our house is mostly passive solar --meaning we get most of our heat from the sun. It works wonderfully---on sunny days. But on cloudy days, we are quite cold. See that white unit on the wall in the picture below? That is a heat pump. It is basically an A/C unit that will also blow heat--like in a cheap motel room. It is our only source of heat for the whole house. Since it doesn't really heat the whole house, we just use it to heat the lounge--and we have doors to close off the rest of the house and keep the heat in---like they used to do in the  US before they invented central heat. Welcome to the 1950s. 

the lounge (what americans would call the den)

Open living--lounge, kitchen and dining area 

the kitchen. all the cabinets in NZ are melamine, I have no idea why. and instead of a miniature refridgerator, we opted for a glass front chiller with a freezer in the garage. 

the dining area--and you can see the media room through the pocket doors
the blue towel is MoMo Poodles food dropping spot 

With the pocket doors closed off 

The media room, or, as the kids call it "the big TV room" --in the table/cage are 2 guinea pigs 

Maybe you noticed all the wild print curtains? It is a Kiwi thing.  The brighter and bolder, the better.

Our House II

Bedrooms are all along the hallway on the south side of the house. The south side of the house gets NO sunlight in the wintertime. These rooms are COLD all winter. 

C's bedroom now with bunkbed/futon

C's room full of Legos and kids stuff--much still in disarray thanks to all the earthquakes 

C's new guitar---starting to outgrow "kid stuff" 

C.'s room--old version

Now, G's room is always a struggle. But she is keeping it clean all by herself lately.  Even making her own bed.  

G.'s room. She made her bed all by herself!! 

Barbie's are her life! Dad built the Barbie house, Mum decorated it. 

Butterflies are our "theme" at the moment

The office--always a mess like this. Sad but true. Everyone just dumps everything on my desk. Sigh

Shelves I had before the first earthquake--these nearly tore the room down when they flew  apart 

My new bookshelf in the office AFTER the earthquakes --the piles are kids artwork that needs to be cataloged and other asst things that keep falling down in earthquakes 

Kid's bathroom has bath and shower 

The house's only bathtub is in the shared bathroom 

Toilet is in it's own room 

The ensuite (master) bathroom. Tiny with just a shower stall

Most Kiwi homes have just one bathroom. We are very lucky to have two.  And the normal set up for two bathrooms is a large, shared bathroom with a tiny ensuite like we have. And notice there is NO storage. Just the drawer for Big Daddy and I to share. I have a huge basket underneath the drawer with all my girlie products and appliances. I keep the towels elsewhere. The average Kiwi just doesn't have as much "stuff" as the average American.

The toilets flush differently here as well. See the circle on the top---it has two buttons. One flushes a little, the other flushes a lot. Even the "lite" flush uses about 10x the water of the US.  Water conservation is not an issue here and we don't even pay a water bill.

The master bedroom is also very small. In fact, it barely fits our large American furniture, including a king size bed.

MoMo Poodles trying to make sure the bed doesn't float away 

Master bathroom is about 6" away