Mum, I want to sew....

5.30pm, dinner was in the oven and I had half an hour to get a bit of my sewing done when Eli came in and said that. Well what could I do but assist.

Although the photo is not too good, on the left is the initial drawing

So I asked him what he wanted. He was very specific.

• I want to have my own pillowcase
• I want my name and a drawing on it
• I only want it to be the stitching (darn - here I was thinking we could just do some iron on applique)

So he drew the picture, we cut a strip of white cotton, he traced the picture on and then.....I taught him how to use the freehand darning foot on my machine to do the black embroidery to create his design.

relaxing with his pillow after dinner.

Once that was done (yes I burnt the carrots to the bottom of the pan because I had forgotten about dinner - thank goodness for frozen veges!!) Eli sewed the structure of the pillowcase, zig zagged all the seams and then ironed it. Viola - One pillowcase.

I am so proud of him. Only 8 and using the freehand sewing feet. But more so that he knew exactly what he wanted and was able to execute it.

I link to these places.

I scooter-ed 10km!!

We were in Dunedin for the weekend staying with my sister. The Dunedin City Council have slowly been making a bike, walk, run path around the harbour from the city out towards Port Chalmers. This path is at the bottom of the hill where my sister lives.

Eli and I on scooters at St Leonards.

The boys exploring

Aaron was going to run it, the boys had scooters to scoot along and so Warren (my brother in law) found an old scooter in their garage for me to use.

To start with Aaron's first comment was "you are not wearing that scooting are you?" Sorry what is the problem, I had a merino jersey over the top of a cotton shirt and 3/4 length jeans with sneakers. "It's gingham" - what? Then I asked what did he think I should wear, a skirt? "Shorts". What! in public! is he nuts?!

So off we go. Oh my goodness. Each way turned out to be 4km not 5km (whew). I had to keep changing legs as my gluteous maximus were getting very sore!! Aaron then started pushing me up the hills (what a gorgeous macho man). Then the scooter dropped something through its main section and that acted as a very sudden brake! Used some tape from another bit of the scooter to hold that up.

Our lovely 90 year old 

Whew rest time. The boys looked at the water - climbed up banks into hidey holes. It was great. I went to stand and my legs quivered!!!!! They felt like you do when you get off a trampoline that you have been on too long.

It was gorgeous, it was certainly fun, but my scooter slowly started the braking thing again. The boys saw me getting pushes so Eli said he would give me his better MGP to use if Dad would push him on my old crappy thing. They had great fun whizzing past me.

At the end we came across a man and woman who talked about scootering. The man had thought of buying one, so I got him to try mine. It then turned out that they were out for a walk on the same path and she was 90!!! (She was so gorgeous but said "I am not going to try that, I am 90 you know). I had to get a photo of him on the scooter (he was VERY wobbly)

Aaron and I resting while the boys explored

The hero pushing Jakob on the old scooter

In the end I only did 4km as Aaron ran back to get the car because my scooter just was falling apart. Great intentions, great fun.

I link in to these places

Eli's Creativity

Eli has been plotting and planning his Father's Day present ever since Aunty Alison gave us two big stretched canvases for the boys. (thanks Alison they are awesome!). Eli said that he wanted to put pictures of Dad and him all over it to make a piece of artwork.

So we went through all our photos and picked out what he wanted. I got them printed. He then painted the canvas with a green, which he thought looked like DOC green (as Dad likes tramping so much).

Then he trimmed the pictures and stuck them on.

This morning Aaron was presented with his Father's Day presents. Last week on the actual day Aaron was away. So we decided we would celebrate it tomorrow. But as we are hopefully camping (weather dependant as the forecast is hideous) this was too big to take with us.

Well done Eli - I was very impressed.

Linked here to parties - go and check them out.

7 Pirates were in my house

Yes I kid you not, there were definitely 7 pirates on my back lawn this afternoon.
Eli had his birthday party for turning 7 (which happens next weekend) and there were 7 boys invited to a pirate party.

They all participated in two treasure hunts with secret messages to be revealed (ie the clues were written in white crayon on white paper, so they had to find the clue, bring it back and "paint" it with water that had food colouring. This reveals the message for the next clue). First hunt was a practise run all around our section. This achieved a pirate monocular. The second hunt was so extensive that some of the boys ran out of puff and walked for the last two clues. It was in the Kaiapoi Domain- which we are lucky to live by the edge of. The result was a cutlass so they became real pirates.

Big sword fights on the lawn and lots of food followed. With a treasure chest cake. All good fun and the only injury was Eli who poked himself in the eye!!!. I am now having a cup of tea - whew.

Where there is a Schulz there is smoke

You know the saying - "Where there is smoke there is fire". Well today disproved that. Smoke does not equal fire when Aaron is building it in spite of heavy rain. We were on our way back from a night in Hanmer Springs (breaking our journey home from Motueka). It rained in Hanmer but Aaron was sure it would not rain on his fire at lunch time.

When we were with my parents my Dad made me a really awesome tool. It is for cooking things over an open flame. Instead of bread or crumpets etc falling off your fork he made a square thingy that nothing falls out of. I have not taken a photo but it is very
ingenious. Anyway we were keen to try it. So at the Balmoral reserve just out of Culverden Aaron set a fire going.

I retreated as it starting pouring with rain (as I had very rightly pointed out to Aaron that it would). Smoke was everywhere. The boys were playing in a tyre swing in the trees oblivious to the rain, but they too came to my hidyhole. So we waited out the rain quite snugly whilst Aaron got soaked insisting his fire would be fine. Eventually it all cleared up and we had a great fire, wee walk and then hot toasted bread with butter and jam for lunch over the embers.

Breakfast in bed for the boys

I love being able to treat the boys when I can and this morning was meant to be a bit of a rush. Not the normal day to choose to give the boys breakfast in bed. But actually it worked. They ate breakfast and were quiet while I rushed around and sorted out our day.
So they had an Earl Grey Tea (always Dilmah) and toast. The lovely butlers tray that I got for $3 at the Op Shop has been constantly put to good use. We are a family that likes to breakfast in bed - I see it as a real treat.
So they relaxed while I did dishes, put on washing, folded washing, made diary free bread, got ready for a Health and Safety meeting with Fletchers EQR.
In spite of all this we got out the door at 8.30am with no screaming to hurry up, get on with it, or what are you doing????????

Pre Dinner Pirate Show

Last night, while waiting for the roast to rest, we were regaled with a pre dinner pirate show by the boys.

Introducing Elijah Schulz as Captain Burabaz and Jakob Schulz as Mumtan. (those were my lines and then I was instructed to sit in the audience)

We had a fine display of swordsmanship, lots of swashbuckling, a treasure ship commandeered and a great finale. Unfortunately they also killed the audience several times.

Breakfast time is very quiet

I never thought I would see the day when breakfast with two boys was quiet!! But it is the only meal at which they are allowed to read and so they make the most of it. But the concentration goes on the book and not on eating breakfast. I love it when kids suddenly "get" what the joy of reading is about, how to use it for quiet time, for escape, for expanding the imagination. Eli has just been getting confident to actually read and understand by himself and it is GREAT!!

Making Flags and Bunting for the Rugby World Cup

Well cup fever is here. We had lovely weather last week and the boys started painting checkered flags (black and white) and black ferns to hang up in their rooms for the world cup. We just used acrylic black paint. The boys had a great time and it has inspired a bit of painting over the week.