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- Watching movies – WE LOVE MOANA! Captain Underpants was fun too. Was nice to
- Supa Strikas cartoon – kids love the song too!
- Kids stay with grandparents on days I work
- Playing games – WK & Snakes and ladders
- Made cards with sticker pictures and words
- Both kids doing football sessions in the garden
- used hot glue gun and lolly sticks to make boats (copying a youtube video). Alex was scared to make a mistake so I did a lot of the shaping. Alex tried it out in the bath later – it moved for a while but eventually the glue came apart.
- Kids love making bases, but lose interest in playing in them quickly! Especially for nerf wars.
Alex
- read some of ‘mechanica’ – fascinated but not happy that the wildlife was extinct!
- Deciding on splitting fish into thirds. i told the kids I wasn’t have any so Alex said he’ll have 2/3. So i suggested 1/2 each for the boys. Alex argues that we’d cut into 1/4s, have 1 each and then see if Daniel wants more and give him half of 1/4 (he asked what that was and I told him 1/8).
- Watched a movie about dragons, it was like a documentary – Alex thought it was real! We talked about ‘walking with dinosaurs’ not being real, he said he’d wondered about that! He was disappointed that the dragons weren’t real, but thinks dragons existed once, before dinosaurs, or elsewhere in the universe. He later claimed that dragons are immune to lava (inferred from the HTTYD show/game which he’s started playign again).
- At home one day, Alex picked up a broom and balanced it on his finger. He told me that one side, even though it was longer, was the same (balanced) as the shorter side.
- in car, rolled up a paper to make a noise projector and started telling me about he sound bouncing around in it making it louder – like a guitar!\
- Big moment for me – Alex watched the 1st harry potter movie and LOVED it. Watched the 2nd, 3rd and 4th too!
- Playing Slugterra and Monster legends on iPad. Got a game called Bounzy, I watched as he worked out what angle he needed to use to achieve max points. Sometimes he was sure he’d do well, other times were discoveries.
- Playing Top Trumps with fighter plane set – he asked about the flags, read some large numbers and picked up some facts.
Daniel
- Built a tower out of mag tiles – he noted that it was taller than him!
- Daniel explaining his games to me – that some load because Alex had them first and others but some I bought him.
- making up dinosaurs, he remembered the names of a few from the museum trip the other day.
- Did puzzles with Vio
- Playing with his cooking things. Making playdough.
- Playing with his duplo and narrating stories around his play.
- Daniel wakes up from naps with sore legs so we give him baths with epsom salts. I don’t know if it does anything, but Daniel feels better afterwards.
- Played ‘seeds for the birds’ which he got for his birthday.
Out and About
- Watched ‘Three Monks’ at Arts Centre. Was long and Daniel became restless. The kids said they liked it but wished there was more action (the kung fu moves). Alex was fascinated that the actors didn’t speak english but mandarin and learned ‘hello’ (there was a Q&A)
- Vio took kids to Flip Out.
- Went out for a dumpling dinner with all Vio’s family. Vio got stressed out about the kids being a little loud.
- Went to museum – kids played with friends in children’s gallery for hours. They had lots of fun with the spitting frog statue and dodged the water as it came out. We went to look at the dinosaurs, then the animals. Alex investigated for ages and Daniel noticed there was no giraffe. We went to the aboriginal garden where Alex wanted to show everyone the eels. The rainforest gallery too where we spotted birds.The shop was a huge distraction with lots of ‘I wants’ but we got out relatively lightly.
- Stopped off at a new park in Brooklyn – it was really awesome!
- Watched MSO perform ‘Peter & the Wolf in Hollywood’. It was amazing! the kids loved it and were so engaged. the best parts were the narrator and foley. A great addition, very funny. Daniel surprised me with his observations, insights, inferences and opinions. Afterwards we had lunch at the park with friends. Then visited ACMI where we bumped into other friends and played his favourite game. daniel revisited the shadows, but generally doesn’t love ACMI.
- Headed to Green gully for Alex and Vio to play tennis as Alex has been asking.
- Went for a scoot at Brimbank park with cousins.
- Kids stayed at grandparents whilst I ran errands (they hate coming along, understandably!) Afterwards i took them to the Verona Drive playground. They had loads of fun routing the water through the sand.
- Took them swimming as they’d been home all day with vio and had LOADS of energy. Alex was adventuring underwater. Daniel swimming with his kickboard.
- I had organised a HS event at Funtopia. As soon as the kids woke up they were at me to go! It was a great day – Alex climbed so high! He told some friends about the Xbox and they tried together to win it. They worked out between them that they’d share it, each taking it home from Brimbank on Wednesdays! Amazing 🙂 Daniel didn’t climb but enjoyed the play area. Alex’s friend Eden shared his milkshake, it was so cute. We stopped at the skate park in Keilor East as it was such a beautiful day. There were some young adults already using it so the kids were cautious. They watched them on their skateboards and both want one for Christmas. they scooted up and down ramps and did little jumps.
- Attended Junior Rangers ‘spiders’. There were games, exploration, finding spiders, looking through microscope at them and making badges.
- I won tickets to the ‘Dinosaur Time Machine’. The kids enjoyed, I was not overly impressed and grateful I hadn’t spent money on it! Alex had his ‘noise’ chosen as the T Rex. The kids learned lots, most notably about the timeline. Alex kept telling people afterwards that a T rex is more closely related to a sparrow than to a stegosaurus. After the show we caught the tram to Flagstaff gardens and hung out. the kids had a good play, Alex made a friend.
- Went to Lollipops play centre for a Nintense session with a friend of Alex’s. Alex loved the gaming, especially pokemon tournament. Daniel enjoyed the rides and kept going on the pirate ship – big smiles! The big boys climbed – Alex practically raced up the wall.
- Visited la Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary where we did some evening bird watching. We looked with the rangers at some microscopic pond life then went for a night time prowl. We spotted Tawny frogmouths (well Alex did) and a couple of brush tailed possums. Daniel fell asleep on me!
- Went to movies to watch Ninjago. We were really impressed with the new recliners! Was a funny movie too.
Socialising
- Daniel plays with other siblings at football training
- Attended a party and played with friends. There’s a sticky toy now on the ceiling in the lounge. Alex asked Vio to get down but it’s too high so we threw other things at it to knock off to no avail. Daniel suggested we threw from the side instead!
- Played at park with friends
- Friends visited – kids played nerf wars, lego, going outside. Alex was talking about glider doing a barrel roll because of damaged wings. I reminded him that the weights were missing too which would have had an effect.
- Neighbours over – play outside mostly.
- Met a new local HS family that had recently moved in. A few other families joined in. Alex found the interactions and dynamics a little tricky. We didn’t stay too long – he said he was tired.
- Went to a house party as a family. Alex was concerned about the fire in the garden and also the language his friend was using. We didn’t stay that long in the end.
- Football presentation Night – fun night for the kids. Alex got his trophy and hung out with his team mates.
- Had other friends over (for Daniel’s benefit). The last playdate had not been a success but this time it was much better. Daniel plays mums and dads with the sisters, and Alex played games on his iPad and watched shows with his arm around his friend.
Activities
- Kids getting bored with gym and I think the kids are just going to see their friends! Alex is getting into lots of trouble for talking.The kids played well at the park afterwards though. On another occasion Alex left the class twice. Firstly to tell me about something that happened last night at Flip Out, then the next time as he got into trouble for what seemed to be to be an accident. I had words with the instructor at the end as she said we’d need a plan to deal with Alex. i responded that he was no longer he concern. So that’s it for gymnastics!
- Football training (at Avondale & VFS), stayed to play with the U12s
- Matches – Alex had a good game and scored the best goal! He was so happy as he scored with his right foot.
- Little ninjas – injuries!! Alex helping other kids.
- Alex in a football tournament with friends. He doesn’t seem too phased as he’s not running much! And getting distracted. He says he enjoys it, but doesn’t take it seriously, just fun. They got all the way to the finals and won! Alex scored a goal in the semis.
- Lego club – Alex said he doesn’t like going because the teacher talks too much and he doesn’t like packing up. So we came up with some ideas on how he can just do the bits he enjoys – we arrived late to avoid the lecture (careful not to disrupt others) and he called me when he was ready to pack up for me to help. He says he enjoys it, I think he asks for a lot of help? The little kids played outside so beautifully, running around making up games together.
Sovereign Hill Camp
We stayed in ballarat for a few days as part of the Sovereign Hill camp. Alex said it looked like the Wild West. We panned for gold – Alex sought out the guide for instruction. he tried the various machines as well. We found a few specks. We went on a mine tour which the kids really liked. Attended an education program about toys and school in the gold rush times, was ok. We bought lolies (the highlight) and headed back to the caravan park where we stayed with friends and the kids spent hours on the jumping pillow! In fact, we stayed there all the next day with some friends they made! We took some board games along which was useful as it was wet. there was also giant chess (Alex loves and he helped his friend play). We attended a pantomime, which we couldn’t see very well. They enjoyed oliver twist but we left halfway through red riding Hood. Aklex observed that the hunter walked like Donald Duck! On our final day we revisited Sovereign Hill – did more gold panning, watched sweets being made, saw a musket firing demo (Alex watched and interacted attentively), went on a walking tour of a mine (Alex super impressed with size of the gold nugget found!) It was good to get home to Vio though after 2 nights away – Alex sat with his arms around him all evening.
And here are the pics:
