Circus

Freya's Nana gave her a little newspaper cutting.  The circus was coming and once Freya had that newspaper cutting in her hand it became a foregone conclusion that we were going to the circus.  I thought that the pirate would be Freya's favourite part of the show as she has had a long standing love of pirates.  But it seems that that is coming to an end and instead it was the hula hoops and clown that really captured the love of Freya... them and the fairy floss! 

Eli was interested but with the start of a cold coming on was more keen to just sit with mummy and breastfeed.

When Freya got to kindy the following week it was with much excitement that she shared the tale of her adventures at the circus and she did a wonderful drawing in her portfolio which I intend to scan and add to this post shortly.

Giddy Up!

Eli was having so much fun with this hobby horse.  I just love the smile!

Her very own picture plate

Tonight Freya was really excited to eat from her new picture plate for the very first time.  She drew the picture of Big Ted and Little Ted's birthday party and it got sent away to be made into a plate as a fundraising activity for the kindy.  I think it's really cool! 

A day at home with Mummy

What is a little boy to do all day when his sister is at kindy?  Well... you can hide from your Mummy behind the curtains, you can have a bikeride and best of all you can feed the chickens!

Photo Exhibit

Today we went to see a photo that Freya took which is currently being exhibited at our local library as part of a project she did at kindy. I love sign on the display which reads:

"The following pictures were taken by children who attend [Freya's local C&K kindergarten].

Giving young children a camera is a powerful way of enabling them to demonstrate their interest in a subject. By using a real camera they can imitate the significant adults in their life and take photos of interest to them.

The children were very proud of the photos they took and were very excited to show their work here at the library.

Each photo is unique and shows how individual children's perspectives are and how uniquely we must value and treat each one.

Young children are competent and capable and are such an asset to our community.

We hope you enjoy reading their stories..."

Freya chose a photo that she took of our cat Winifred.

Indoor chicken

It seems that Coco is a friendly chicken.  She certainly likes to be with people rather than down in the backyard!  When she came up to the kitchen for a visit Eli thought it was the best thing in the world and immediately grabbed his book of animals, opened it up to the picture of a chicken and excitedly told Coco that she was a 'buk, buk!'

A present, a gecko & cheese fondue

Today we celebrated Aunty Priya's birthday (Aunty Dee's too but we didn't see her).  Freya helped to pick out a 'little' present for her and was terribly impressed that it was a 'Frazzy sized' gift... fitting perfectly into the palm of her hand.  Freya likes it when things are 'Frazzy sized'.

We all went out to one of our favourite places for dinner - a Swiss restaurant called Des Alpes which does the most fantastic cheese fondue!   On the way there we had a little hitchhiker which sent Freya and Daddy into instant story telling mode imagining that the gecko had a hankering for Swiss food too.

A 'birthday adventure'

One of Freya's very good friends from kindy has a tradition of each year going on a 'birthday adventure'... a concept which I totally adore. 

This year her friend decided that she wanted to go on a bike ride and she invited a number of her friends along for the ride.  Little were we to know that the bike ride would end up being only the mere start of this grand adventure! 

After the ride Eli was very keen to get down onto the foreshore and it was only a matter of time before he picked up a handful of wet, muddy sand and threw it.  The other children quickly followed suit and the rest will go down in history as one of the most wonderfully fun and messy adventures of all time! 

A sad farewell and welcoming Coco

Today we had a great loss.  We discovered that our black chook Hillary and our white chooks Holly and Hetty had been killed.  Fortunately, Hazel had escaped the attack. 

We had bought the chickens as baby chicks when Freya was only a toddler and kept them in the bathtub until they were big enough to go outside.   They were such a special part of Freya and Eli's early childhood years.

But showing the strong and sometimes brutal resiliance of a child, Freya was quick to enquire if we could buy a new chicken.  At first my gut reaction was to say no, it was not 'right' ... however chickens are a flock bird and we still had the welfare of Hazel to consider so it was with that thought that we agreed and set upon a mission of finding Hazel a friend.

Freya was put in charge of picking and naming the new chook.  She new that it had to be a 'special' chicken to help Hazel after the loss of her friends.  So that is how Freya came to be standing in a large enclosure housing about twenty odd 'point of lay' chooks and pointing out who was to become 'Coco' to the man from our local produce store.

On the way home Freya struggled to come up with a name but was insistant that she did not want any suggestions from either myself or Kevin.  She was happy at the thought of asking for help from family and friends though so when we got home we asked for suggestions on Facebook and after much deliberation Freya chose 'Coco' as suggested by her Aunty Dee.  It was immediately evident that Eli approved of the name as he chanted Coco, Coco, Coco over and over again!

Hazel, Hillary, Holly & Hetty - 23rd October 2008