An Unexpected trip away

I've been mia as we got a phone call from Hutt Hospital asking me to bring Alex up for his next operation and we had to leave almost straight away. There was no-one to look after the other three kiddos so we ended up having an unexpected holiday in Wellington. It's not fun really to sit in a hospital ward all day looking after one sick child and three other active kids. But they did extremely well. After Alex's operation we had some fun time together; exploring Te Papa (Wellington's museum), a day trip to Palmerston North, paddling in the sea at Eastbourne, and the favourite with everyone, jumping on the giant pillow at the holiday campground.

I took the kids back to school on Thursday only to have the youngest kiddo not wanting to go (very strong-willed child), and in the failed battle to get her inside a boy came running past me and straight into Alex which meant a trip to the drs and an emergency x-ray. It wasn't a good day really.

While we were gone my Mum watered our garden for us. The no dig garden is looking pretty good. I've weeded it about twice since I made it up nearly two months ago. The lawns however were horribly overgrown. It only took 2 hours and three times filling the lawnmower up with petrol to get the job done! I'm saving the lawn clippings for when I extend the no dig garden in a week or two.

We also had fun visiting the op shops . My kiddos know they can't expect new toys other than at birthdays and Christmas, but if they find toys they like in the op shops at bargain prices they will usually make a deal to do some extra work to be able to buy the stuff they want. Youngest boy got a cool spiderman car for only $2.50, oldest girl got some pony books, and youngest girl brought a bag of toys for only a $1 that had some neat girly stuff she liked. I manged to find some books to read and some pairs of knitting needles, and also brought the girls a couple of toys. While the kiddos generally don't like me visiting bookshops and craftshops with them in tow, they will tolerate op shops as they never know what they can get. Cheap entertainment. lol.