more legoland...

here is Jonah and Ben riding in the bionicals ride - this one was so much fun, and a little enough queue so we could get right back on for another go until we were well and truely dizzy ... the boys had it worked out which was the fastest one to go in too :-) ...



it was a great trip, and i'm so glad we managed to get Ben there for his birthday - 12 years old!!

surprise - LEGOLAND!

we snuck in a weekend trip down to Legoland ... we weren't sure until the day if we'd be able to go ... but, it all worked out, and so i told the kids on the Friday morning that we could drive down there that afternoon - luckily they believed me even though it was the 1st of April!

waiting at the first ride of the day - a mini roller coaster ... kids loved it, but, not enough to stand in line again - we only waited 20mins, but, the line was three times as long when we got off!
Bethany and Josh drove these cars in the 'driving school' ... it was heaps of fun, fun enough to do again a couple of times the next day ...
the giraffes are on the wall outside the duplo building area ... so many duplo blocks Josh was so excited he couldn't stop to build!!
Overlooking part of mini lego land ... right at the back you can see some rides up on the hill, and on the water is a boat which Bethany, Josh and I rode in for a look at other displays ...

does this mean i don't need to visit New York now?!

Finding things in the garden

it really does feel like Spring now ... the weather is warmer, there are new birds in the back yard, the weeds are growing :-) ... we also found some bugs while pulling weeds ... Bethany being brave enough to hold the worm for ages, and Josh managing to be gentle enough that these might have survived their examination ...

Playing electronic Uno

Easter Craft

Egg (and finger!) dying ...

Easter basket making and decorating ...

Bethany

Bethany has been doing lots of drawings and story making lately ... but, in the middle of all this she took the time to build with the pens ...

And this was just plain cute ... she wanted to get into the bath before it was finished running - but, it is so noisy when the water rushes in - off to find the ear muffs and in she gets ...

pies pies and more pies

A classic Kiwi bacon and egg pie ... Chris made this - it was so good!

Josh wanted to make his own pumpkin pie, and because we had cheated and started off with a bought pie shell that came with another shell we made an apple crumble pie too ...

unlocking ALL the colours

what a happy face after finishing all the activities and puzzles to unlock all the colouring crayons and colouring pages in this nintendo game!

Rocketry Class

today the rockets that we've been building over the last few weeks are ready to fly!

Clear the blast area!

Up on the bank waiting for countdown...

Blast off...

Oh oh ... this rocket went so very high, and at enough of an angle that it landed on the other side of the canal !!

orange everywhere

everything was orange for Josh today ... clothes, toys and food!!

we blended carrots, and an orange together with peanut butter (technically not orange in colour, but, tasty and filling!) adding a little olive oil and orange juice to round out this orange blend for lunch...

San Jose tech museum

this place was great! catered to all ages ... we spent the afternoon here after we'd had a look and lunch and managed to get lost trying to leave an Ikea shop :-) ...

here is an interactive art display ... touch screens to make patterns on, and then after a while you could spot your part of the pattern up on the big screens ...

here was another display that was fascinating ... to Bethany especially, she experimented with every type of ball and tube in the box - placing them over a hole with air shooting up, watching them go flying up into the air - some balls staying suspended there for ages ...

and what a cool rock to climb on while we chased up Ben and Dad ... we then went and watched an movie about the Hubble telescope and photos it has taken looking deep into space ...

on the way back we stopped off for dinner and then went grocery shopping on the way home ... a big day and two asleep littlies into bed when we finally got back at 9pm ...

photography class

this is the day i asked the kids to find an interesting shadow on one of the mini challenges... so they worked together to make their own ...

lego and duplo creations

Ben's work ... an underground power miners station, put together from various sets ... love the little beds and mini figs having a rest! It is an ongoing build, and this is it in its earlier stages...

toy story meets dinosaurs...

the tallest box hut

complete with soft toy inhabitants on every floor ...

oh no the dish washer broke...

never mind ... two ready helper outers ....

words words words

around the house...

Ben's been working on putting this radio together - it was a kit from Christmas, it took a couple of hours over the last couple of days ... it works really well - pity we don't speak spanish as thats the only channel we could find, but, the music was great!

here is one of Ben's block yards, he's put it together in the Lego Universe Game, it takes a fair bit of time and strategy and working with other players to complete missions, and collecting bricks adds to the free build component ...
it feels like our living room is a block yard some days ;-) ... here is one of the box huts that Ben has built for Bethany and Josh to play in ... the long white box in the foreground is the tunnel in...
unfortunately i pulled a muscle in my back ... luckily Ben is kind and offered to cook dinner for us all ... YUM ...
he makes a yummy chocolate cake too!