Satin Santa and Puff the Jazz Hat Dragon rock the crocodile

The fancy new playground

There's this great new playground that just went in behind the West Wave swimming facility.  Our neighbour told us about it, and we went to check it out.  Big wows.  Lots of climbing, clambering fun.

Amiri climbed up one big structure, across a rope bridge, and now he's creeping toward me on another.

Arram explored many of the smaller structures and was too much of a whirlwind of activity to snap a proper photo.  Here he is during a rare moment of repose.

There was an enormous slide and Amiri really loved it.


And here he is enjoying the biggest flying fox I've ever seen.

Happy 39th Anniversary

On the 390-meter summit of Te Rau o Te Huia, now named Mount Donald McLean after its purchaser.

 

Monkey tails!

Norfolk pines are very common here.  Below is a big one; immature trees are easy to spot because they seem to focus on growing very tall and spindly before putting the effort into growing branches.

And what are the little fellas collecting down there?

Monkey tails, of course!  The shed Norfolk pine 'leaves' can be up to two feet long and they're stiff and scaly the way you'd imagine a dried monkey tail to be.  The boys jam them into their waistbands and then screech around.  We have amassed a collection of at least two dozen monkey tails at home, which is good because what if the drifts of them under every tree do not provide enough amusement?

 

I'm so pleased with how adventurous he's becoming

Arram and I took a special walk recently to and through Henderson Park, just the two of us.

We walked across the dewy meadow, over the bridge, and through the glade of Lord of the Rings -style ancient trees that sighed and creaked in the light breeze.  We frolicked past the sports fields and then down the trail.  We saw some sculptures representing heaven and earth.

We took a quick turn through the flax garden, but decided to turn around and head back before we got too tired.  To make our walk back more fun, we played Pole Tag along our route.  (That's where you race each other to the light poles; if you can touch the pole before being tagged, you're safe.)

Then we passed a big inviting boulder and Arram decided that not only did he need to climb it, he did not need nor want Mama's help to do so.  He scaled it like a champ.  Then we went home and had a snack.

 

I found a waterfall!

I heard tell that there's a nice little waterfall right in central Auckland and I've been meaning for ages to go and search it out.  So when I was in the city not long ago I made a side-trip and took myself for a walk to find it.

Oakley Creek is a pleasant little brook, babbling in places and placid in others.  There's a lovely walking trail through the cool green valley and many wooden bridges on which to pause and reflect.

I passed a sign that described the cultural significance of the location.

And then just around a corner was the waterfall!  It isn't the biggest or most impressive I've ever seen, but it was just so friendly I could have sat there all day.   What a little gem, and hidden right there by the motorway.   

The sun burst through the clouds just so I could take this picture.

Here, take ten seconds out of your day to relax and enjoy it with me.

Better late than never

Here is my birthday cake from last month.  The boys put the candles in it themselves.

 

And since cake came after dinner, and dinner often makes him sleepy (and it WAS like 6:00, come on), here is what Arram looked like when that fire hazard came to the table.

We ended up making, like, eight cats

We had a package of bright multi-coloured modelling clay from the two-dollar shop, and so we spent most of a delightfully rainy afternoon making a tiny menagerie.

Here is a fishy and a piggie.

 

The world's best postcard

That sweet little guy made me something wonderful at school! 

Allison: You are the best mummy in the whole world.  I love you.  Did you know 100+100=200.

I really appreciate this little glimpse into the inner workings of his mind.  I dig how his thoughts go from 'gee, I love my mom' immediately over to 'let's bond over math'.

 

A little bonus post today

Mom and Dad were intrigued by these cute little flowers growing on the roadside.

They named them Rain Drop Flowers, and I'm sure you can see why.

Ain't nature grand? 

This, and the thing about hurricanes and nautilus shells, or snowflakes and honeycombs, or dendritic trees and actual trees, and how have I just spent forty minutes falling down a Wikipedia links hole...?
 

Two trips to Muriwai

Muriwai is one of the west-coast beaches near home, on the other side of the Waitakere Ranges.  You park your car and then climb down a steep hill-- the easiest access through the cliffs-- to the beach.

At the top, looking down

At the bottom, looking back up 

The sand is strikingly black and has some curious qualities.  It doesn't 'pack' like regular sand and when you kick at it or let it fall through your fingers, it somehow moves in an unexpected way.  It's like individual grains are immediately subsumed into the whole without a trace.

'Yes, yes,' I can just hear the bored skeptics among you saying, 'I'm very happy that you're excited about the sand, Allie, that sounds sooo awesome.'  But wait!  It's really so cool!  I had my suspicions, so I brought some of the sand home in a bag and stuck a magnet to it.  Did you hear that?  I stuck a magnet to the sand.  The sand is made of teeny bits of iron.  No, that's its name: ironsand.  My Dad made a joke about using a magnet if we ever got any of it in our eyes.  But then it turns out that that's actually a Done Thing too.

And, AND, there are little streams that flow down from the cliffs and then kinda percolate their water under the sand on their way to the ocean.  So that's water underneath, and sand on top, right, sand which we've already established doesn't behave quite like you'd think?  Why, that's a recipe for quicksand, I reckon!  And yes, there are plenty of places on the beach where the sand kind of quivers under your feet when you step on it.  It reminded me of walking on a waterbed when I was a little kid... that droopy, semi-solid feeling. 

I did some Hazard Assessments prior to allowing the junior team members to check it out, and it turns out that sinking more than an inch or two into this quicksand actually requires active participation on the part of the victim.  So this stuff isn't going to swallow you up.  Which then led to much frolicking and melodramatic squealing as we dashed from rock to rock ('Safe!!') over and through the Quicksand Pits.

Before I get too involved in my story-telling, here are the boys sitting on a log and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

The beach is bounded by spectacular cliffs.  The pictures don't capture the sense you get there, that very small and humbling feeling of, 'What, I'm just walking here and seeing this??'  Nature has created a massive treasure at Muriwai, you guys.

OK, so finally we got tired of the beach.  So we clambered back up the big hill and went and checked out the viewing platforms on the edges of the cliffs.  But before we got there, the boys got sidetracked by leaping into the exuberant growth of what I'm terming 'pillow grass.'  It is so deep and soft it can swallow a boy whole.  THAT'S the danger at this beach, people, not that quicksand. 

To allay any fears of creepy-crawlies that we'd reasonably have as Americans, NZ is free of ticks, spiders, and snakes.  OK, there COULD be wetas in there and that is problematic*.  But at least wetas won't bite.

It turns out that Muriwai is famous not only for its surf and scenery but for being home to one of the largest NZ colonies of nesting gannets.   So here are the gannets.  (These photos are old, from back in February!)

So.  Right.  The gannets build themselves little dirt-cup nests at wing-length intervals on the flat ledges of the cliffs.  They are there for several months, the time it takes to lay and incubate the eggs and for the babies to fledge. 

The video gives you a good sense for the noise associated with a big gannet colony.  But what you can't appreciate here is the smell.  The white streaks on the rocks are their guano.  And no joke, these are some smelly birds.  There must be tons of bird poo on those rocks.  Which would by itself be bad enough, but gannets are sea birds, who eat only fish.  And oh gosh, we were there on a hot day.  And the breeze was coming in from the sea.

 Aaaaaaauuuuugh!  Fishy bird poo!!!

And then we were tired so we went home.  The boys slept the whole way back.

*I didn't tell you!  I saw a weta!  A real one, out in nature!  It ran out of some tall grass, looked at me, and ran back in.  It looked like a fat cricket and was not actually that terrifying.  I didn't scream or anything.

 

They often like toys' boxes better than the toys, too

So, we're at Lollipops, right?  With an enormous inflatable slide!  Cars to ride!  An enormous hamster-paradise full of climbing, hopping, jumping, sliding fun!  Dress up clothes!  A playhouse!  Foosball!

And what do my kids spend all their time on?

They found an extra tube from the hamster-paradise set aside in an empty corner.  And they rolled around in that discarded bit of flotsam for hours.

Since I showed you the Mouse costume...

Here's Amiri dressed as Noni the Pony.  It was 'your favourite book character' day at school.  Looking around his classroom, apparently a lot of kids must loooove Spiderman books.

Noni the Pony is friendly and funny.  Her shimmering tail is the colour of honey.

Noni the Pony is shiny and fat.  Her best friends are Dave Dog and Coco the Cat.  (Bringing his cuddlies to school as props was part of the appeal of this costume.)

Black pants, brown shirt, brown hat.  White felt spots on the shirt.  Yarn tail.  Yarn mane and felt ears on the hat.  He got to wear the costume later to a birthday party too.
 

A 'Boys in Coin-Operated Rides' photo montage

An Aussie bush jeep at Countdown (the grocery store) in the mall...

A merry-go-round outside the shoe store at the mall...

A Richard Scarry apple ride complete with worm buddy, outside the book store at the mall...

 

Good ol' Bugs in a carrotmobile at the Lollipops indoor playland...

An Army helicopter at the Chipmunkz indoor playland...

Another merry-go-round at Chipmunkz.  He needed me to stay with him for this one and so I gamely trotted around and around.  Those merry-go-rounds can sometimes be intimidating, I guess...

And although it's not technically coin-operated, I did pay for this ride.  It's yet another merry-go-round at yet another indoor playland.


Like me, I'm sure you can see a number of themes here.  I was a little surprised to see how many of these photos I'd accumulated in my files over the last few months.  That's coins well-spent, though.  If you could just see how a ride on these things delights these little guys!
 

My little grey mouse

Summerland Primary put on an amazing musical production this past week.  All the children had a part to play, and they practiced for weeks.

Written by a couple of teachers, the production was entitled 'Cinderella Circus' and told the story of Cindy, a down-on-her luck girl who dreams of being a circus acrobat but faces devious obstruction at the hands of her evil step-sisters.  Cindy's chief allies in her bid for fame are mice.  There are several ringleader mice, and hordes of helpful others.  Here we meet some of the playful little scamps.  Pay particular attention to the grey one doing the excellent hippity-hopping, please.



After much family-friendly drama, Cindy at last prevailed and achieved her dreams.  All of the players returned to the stage for the finale.  Here are the mice in their reprise; they soon became obscured by bigger children in front of them (of course including lions, clowns, dancers, Men in Black, and zombies.  Of course.)



It really, truly, I'm-not-exaggerating-because-my-kid-was-in-it, was an excellent show.  The kids were all so clearly enthusiastic and having fun with it.  They had practiced a lot and knew what they were supposed to do.  And for grade-schoolers, they sure had some good moves!  A few of the older kids with lead roles even had some natural dramatic flair that sure looked good when given a chance to shine.

Arram was duly impressed as well.  Here is how he spent a good portion of the evening.



Back at home, our star autographs his playbill and enjoys some mouse-cheese.

It may as well have been Olympic gold, I was that proud

Today at Playball, Amiri was chosen as the weekly champion!  He was awarded a medal and all of his teammates gave him high fives and hugs.  His coach gave him this honour because he listened so well today and had such good accuracy* in throwing. 

Here he is with his medal.  Look at that smile.  He's proud of him too. 

Why the face paint, you might ask?  Why, that's from his school production and is a soon-to-be-released-to-the-blog topic of much excitement of late in our home.  Stay tuned to learn more!

*This accuracy?  Let me tell you!  I watched-- he threw the ball into the target every single time, and caught nearly every ball thrown to him.  (I think he's already a better ballhandler than I am!!)
 

Here is something I bet you've never seen before

It's a cluster of sea snails on the wet sand at low tide, alive and all squirming around each other.  As they move through the sand their shells drag little snail-trails behind them.