FIREWORKS, FLAGS & FUN AT MOTAT!

Daniel has a new motivational interest...the iPAD!
Lezanny was lucky enough to get one for her birthday and so on Daniel's weekend visit there, he took over!

Luckily for Dan, we have planned a visit to Homai Library to try one of these out in the school holidays so here's hoping we can secure one...he certainly has fun interacting with Lezanne's one, especially when he can read a story, then tap on the pig and it farts.Nothing like a bit of toilet humour.
 Now I don't know where Daniel learned this, but on the way home from the Bobath physio course, quite randomly, as we were pulling into the McDonald's drivethru, Daniel very matter of fact said:
"Mum, you a pain in da bum!"
Ahhhh, I probably shouldn't have encouraged him, but I laughed , and that set Daniel off, and we laughed and laughed all the way back to school! It's those little sayings that come out of nowhere that need to be remembered and looked back on with fondness.

With the start of the rugby World Cup here in little ole' NZ, there has been a big buildup and opening ceremony in Auckland with fireworks on the Sky Tower. Daniel had spied the Sky Tower three times in the week leading up to the RWC opening, on his way to the Bobath physio course, so he knew where it was, and what it was, but was unsure about "fireworks" coming off it! As I jollied the clan along so we could have a view of the 8 minute pyrotechnics, Daniel produced a fake yawn, telling me he was tired and wanted to go to bed. Those that know my kids, know that they never want to go to bed...this was just a little way of Daniel telling me "I'm not sure what I am going to come up against at these so-called fireworks Mum!"
With a little bit of encouragement I managed to get all the boys in the car (that was also including Todd who was also dragging his feet, Nicola was at Paige's house for a RWC event), and off we went, 10 minutes up the road to view the fireworks...and they were spectacular!

I was having a wee bit of trouble with my camera and the night setting, so not the best shots by any means,  but I can state that the troops were highly impressed with the real event.

At the finale, we could hear the crowd cheer at the Viaduct all the way from where we parked in Sunnynook!
It has been awesome seeing all the flags flying everywhere welcoming the nations to the Rugby World Cup.

There are many cars with flags attached to them, representing many countries, but the majority being for the ALL BLACKS! Funnily enough, most flags are in the form of their country flag, but the NZ flag mostly flying is a black flag with a silver fern on it (like the AB's jerseys) rather than the national flag of our country!

Earlier this week I signed up for helping out Nicola's class at AJHS to go to Motat, museum of transport & technology. This is the second school trip I have done with her class this year, after the Howick Historical Visit - a very intriguing delve into history, so the latest one promised to be also much fun.
There was a wide range of modes of transport on show...from trams

with a real tram ride thrown in,

This tram was commissioned on loan from Melbourne.

to fire engines and everything in between (there was some random Kiwi stuff there too like the car from the Goodbye Pork Pie iconic kiwi movie).

For the technology part, the class had fun rearranging their body shapes!

Pagie and Nicola at the wave mirror

I started to feel old when, in the telecommunications part of the museum, I had to teach my group of 10 kids how to dial the old fashioned telephones with the dial up numbers (no push buttons here!) They really had no idea how to use them!

In the middle of the day, I fell behind the group a little to take time to 'stop and smell the roses' (except they were poppies, another reminder that spring is here!)

We had a lesson on simple machinery that helps in everyday life...Nicola was the only one in the class that remembered the pivot was called a fulcrum and then got to lift the teacher, literally!
One minute she was wayyyy too light to lift the teacher...

The next minute, with the fulcrum positioned correctly, there was lift-off!

What can I say, it was a really uplifting day all round!