Hangi postponed! and Baby past due!

Sorry I didnt get back here earlier to update on this but the Hangi was postponed due to alot of people going to be away, we still had a BBQ over the Bank Holiday weekend though and lots of friends around.

Other news is that im officially more than 40 wks pregnant again!, Estimated Due date was yesterday but it came and went with no signs of baby so still very much pregnant.

Oh and EJ has started nursery and we have started schooling NJ again and AJ is finally figuring out how to say Mumma and Dadda

Preparing for the Summer of Hangi !

Do you know what this is?

( Image from http://www.genuinemaoricuisine.com/Folders/Hangi.html )

It is a Hangi ! A Traditional Maori way of cooking food.

I as a Kiwi Expat in the UK am planning with the help of a Scots friend ( who spent some time in Aoteroa ) to " Put down a Hangi " August Bank Holiday weekend (most likely or the wkd after) of this year 2013 which is the 8th year of life in the UK. I plan to document this event for educational purposes for my children and my readers here. And I am planning to introduce a little bit of Maori culture to the life of my family, so if I use words in upcoming blog posts that you don't understand then I will try to remember to put their English counterparts in a section of the bottom of the post.

In the meanwhile I have to get my Whānau { family } fed and start gathering my Hangi Supplies ready for August.

Well its official baby number four on the way!

I can tell you all now that baby 4 is expected to join our family around September 10th 2013. We are very happy and feel very blessed to be given another child, we had our first scan and all is well they moved my due date forward a bit but i don't mind but i will be pushing to wait for induction till 2wks from my original date as i just have big babies anyway so expect my baby to measure ahead anyway. I get consultant care again thus time due to NJ's abohdn and EJ's size at birth but that just means a gtt test and maybe an extra scan.

Indoor Playtime

This last month I have been struggling with my health and that has resulted in the Little ones picking up several bugs themselves so we have had to be creative about keeping occupied to keep the tv veiwing levels down.

A Favorite game for my boys is building a hut/fort using the sofa cushions and blankets and duvets, they absolutely Love to just curl up inside a hut and have Mummy reading them stories. I cant say I blame them its  very fun and I used to spend many many hours in huts and forts created by myself and my sisters using a variety of Blankets /sheets and our Bunk beds ( I  think the bunks started to beat out the table and chairs for supporting walls when we got too big to all fit comfortably under the dining table with room for special toys or friends )

Another winner for the last month or more has been a big packing box we had laying around from the move up here in Novemeber. That box was a bus/ship/plane and all manner of other vehicles after they had tipped all the toys out of it, it got pushed and pulled soo much it eventually gave way in the corners and ripped beyond repair. Now I might have to unpack some more things for them to get another box lol.

As I hinted at earlier then my boys love having books and stories read to them and we have worked our way through a large portion of our book collection some of the favorites being read a few times of course in the last few weeks, I have a Long Long list of  my favorite childhood books saved on Amazon to buy for the boys in years to come, the stories I remember my Dad sitting and  reading to me on the beanbag in the corner of the living room with us all trying to pile in his lap.

We have been trying to study Space as well as do Handwriting, Phonics and Math with Nate and EJ has been watching along joining in with things, We are planned to be building space rockets tomorrow out of spare cardboard I have been putting aside for a few weeks from stuff that has come into the house in boxed up form.

Of course the Trainset has been well used in the last few weeks by all the boys even little AJ whos not so little anymore has been making himself heard in picking out his favourite train and pieces and annoying his brothers plenty with swiping sections of much needed track to wonder off with.
I thought with 200+ pieces of track and trains and trees that we had enough not to cause fights between the boys but I was obviously wrong and we seem to need more somehow. I do need a new storage solution for the trainset it overtook and eventually broke my large lidded bucket and currently is being stored in a Banana Box in the corner of the living room but all the other toys are getting piled there too so I need a better containment device for it.
Suggestions anyone...?

Winter has arrived

Winter has arrived properly in the UK we have had snow at last he attached picture is looking out my upstairs window on Monday morning between snow showers. All on the trees and roofs is now gone but there is a fair bit left on the ground the temp peaked at half a degree today its quite cold so the sunshine didn't have much impact on the snow. Lots happening meaning I've not been out much recently as AJ was ill last week with a nasty virus then i drove MIL to the airport on Friday and took C to the church social at Costa on Saturday but not been out since other than to play in the snow with the boys

new year new resolutions

2013 is here, Ive started a new diet/lifestyle called Primal which is cool its a challenge but its working so far for me and im getting on with it ok for the past 10 days. lots happening so i'll blog properly tomorrow when Mike isnt waiting for me upstairs