LIttle Day Out

The weather really packed in for the weekend.  I had thought that Saturday was going to be an overcast, but dry day and we could go to the local BMX park to ride bikes.  Unfortunately after playball it began to rain.  Simon had a soccer game and it was me with a 3yr old who wanted to desperately go to a playground.  It was way too wet and cold outside and as much as I am grateful there is a Chipmunks, by gosh i really couldn't handle going there again.

Instead, we went to Mcdonalds.  I am in no way promoting their food but seriously, Mcdonalds playland was an absolute lifesaver this weekend!  We were there for 2.5 hours, Bodie had migrating flocks of 'friends' to play with and me... well, i sat at a table with a coffee and read the newspaper.  I seriously don't remember the last time I was able to sit and read the ENTIRE saturday newspaper.  It was strangely one of the most relaxing afternoons i've ever had. So, readers, if you find yourself pulling your hair out on a rainy afternoon and don't want to spend a lot of money, head over to your local Mcdonalds with a playland!

The 'main' event of the weekend was the Little Day Out, which was held at the Edgar Center.  This was a fund raising event for all the local Kindergartens.  For all of you American readers, Kindergarten over on this side of the world is NOT the first year of school, but more like what you call Pre-School.  Kids go to Kindergarten from age 3-5 and is normally for 3-6 hours 2-4 days a week.  Bodie does not go to a Kindergarten as such b/c I work full time, instead he goes to daycare.  I am unsure what the difference is b/c I have never been to a Kindergarten.  But kindergartens have "room moms" or "committee moms' that volunteer to help in the classroom on a roster basis and help with organising all the fund raising events as well as field trip chaperones etc.  Kindergartens are also normally free or something like $5/day per kid... hence why they have to do fundraising (note: the govt gives each kid 20 free hours at a kindy/daycare once they turn 3, hence why most kids normally attend kindergarten around 20 hours a week).

Now, back to the Little Day Out.... This was very cool!  The Edgar Center is a HUGE gymnasium.  I didn't bring my coat in b/c i didn't want to keep up with it, but turns out, i'd of been happy wearing it.  So, if you go to something in the Edgar Center... dress warm!  The event had numerous stalls, obviously put on by each Kindergarten.  They were selling everything from baked goods, cotton candy, lollies/candy, used clothes, sausages.  Some had arts and crafts such as a mask making table, finger puppets and face painting, balloons.  There were two bouncy castles and a big blow up slide.  And they also had a really cool area full of numerous obstacles like jumping off a plank, balance beams, cones to run through, tunnels to crawl through.  The lady who runs the playgym was there with a few of her goodies.  One stall had a large selection of bikes and so kids could ride around on them.  It was a really neat and fun!  And even better, Bodie was able to go run to his hearts content for 3 hours and once again play with migrating flocks of 'friends'.  And to top it all off, it was indoors!!

So, my advice is to add the Edgar Center website to your search list for upcoming kid friendly things happening.

The blur is Bodie jumping off the plank.

Super Hero Disco!

Friday night was the much anticipated Super Hero Disco (party/dance party) at Bodie’s Daycare..Since it’d been anticipated since March (as it was originally scheduled for April, but postponed due to a chicken pox epidemic) it was very exciting to have the night finally arrive!  Bodie had a batman costume that his Aunty Tracey gave him one year for Christmas.  So we had to figure out what me and Si were going to be.  Since Bodie was batman, everyone knows what he needs, right?  A sidekick named ROBIN!  I decided I’d be superwoman because A) I had the jacket already so it was easy and B) Bodie’s batman outfit is reversible and can also be superman. 

Luckily I work next to a Save Mart (2^nd hand clothing store) so finding the needed items wasn’t too hard – the one pictured on the home page is a few buildings down from where I work) and yes this is dangerous b/c yes I do visit it at least once a week, but at least when I need some retail therapy I only spend $15 for 3 shirts instead of $120 for ONE!. Anyways,  I went in to savemart and managed to find a green short sleeve t-shirt, red boxer shorts, red tank top and some yellow fabric for Simon’s Robin outfit.  And I found a red skirt for me to wear.  All for like $10 or something.  Simon’s mom found some green tights at a Chinese dollar store type place.

Now, I’m not the craftiest person, but luckily the Robin outfit only involved cutting out a circle, coloring in a R and sewing it on.  And then cutting the yellow cloth the right length and sewing it on in two places on the shirt.   I think the costume came together nicely!

I’m unsure how to find words for this Disco. The lights were out, the place was decorated with balloons, streamers, ‘Gotham’ city on the walls, strobe lights, lasers… it was really out of it! The music was your typical cheesy 70s stuff with a bit of wiggles and bob the builder mixed in.  The kids were very entertaining to watch dance… and dance and dance (and a bit like dogs chasing a flashlight b/c they just tried to jump on the lasers). 

I think what Batman and the rest of his Justice League loved the most was running through their playground at night and swinging on the ropes and going down the flying fox.  They chased their teachers (dressed up as The Incredible Hulk, Power Rangers and Wonder Woman, to name a few), screamed as people jumped out of shadows… it was such a cool event!

The disco went from 6 – 8 and by 7pm there were many kids having melt downs and parents shuffling them out.  Bodie himself had a meltdown b/c he got something in his eye (supposedly).  I was standing in the middle of the room with the lights blinking and the music blaring waiting on Si to finish a conversation so we could go with Bodie screaming in my ear “my eye my eye my eye” when Bodie went silent and limp… he just zonked out on me (note: I’d spent 5 minutes flushing his eye, I didn’t ignore him)!!  He woke up as we left and cried that he wanted to go back.  Mid-sentence he zonked out again.  Woke up again being put into the car, only to be zonked out 2 seconds later. 

Sorry, not really a ‘what to do in Dunedin’ blog this week.  Some pictures of the event are below!  As per last entry, sorry about the blur for photographs taken in the dark!

Rugby, Drive In and Penguins

Monday was a public holiday, Queens Birthday.  A bit odd seeing as how A) It's not really the Queen's Birthday and B) England, home of the Queen, doesn't even have a public holiday or celebrate the Queen's Birthday.  But hey, whatevs man, I'll take a day off work!

The weekend fun started with some Rugby!  Coming from North Carolina to New Zealand, I had no idea what rugby was.  Over the years I have not only begun to understand it but LOVE it!  There is just something about big burly (usually dang good lookin') men smashing into each other dripping with not only sweat, but blood!  Yes, a good game of rugby will have men dripping with blood!  Heck in the game this week a player was knocked stone cold out!  He didn't move for 5 minutes and had to be taken off on a stretcher.... and the game played on around him and the medics!

This week The Blues (Auckland Team) came down to play The Highlanders (Dunedin Team), so we (Simon, Jedi (Del, Si's stepdad) and I) had to go!  The game was in the Forsyth Stadium, the only covered stadium in NZ (http://www.forsythbarrstadium.co.nz/stadium)!  It is a great stadium!  Not a bad seat in the house and since Dunedin is pretty cold, having it covered is fantastic!  I think it gets a lot more people out to events than would normally go if it were outdoors!  We actually had seats on the very back row, but they were awesome seats!  And best of all, since Simon was cheering very loudly for The Blues, no one could throw stuff at him!

Since Dunedin has a very strong Scottish Heritage, the team have a band marching band that plays before the start of the game.  It was way cool, so we made a video!  And I should also note that the half time show did NOT include some awful "cheerleaders" (who are really just a crap dance team that do nothing but grind on the field to clubbing music) as they have in Auckland. There was however, an escapee from "The Zoo" (R18 cheap ticket section) who streaked naked and almost got to the half way mark, before being tackled by a chicken.  True Story!  Unfortunately he was tackled with his bottom up towards us... beans and franks and all... maybe the "cheerleaders" aren't so bad after all?

During our time at the rugby game, Bodie was at a Drive-In movie with his GiGi.  The Dunedin Roller Derby team hold a fundraiser once a month at the Dunedin Ice Stadium.  They play family friendly movies and a car load is $20!  The movie is played on the side of the ice stadium (I think) and the sound can be heard on a radio station.  Although I hear that it was loud enough to hear sitting in the car w/ out the radio on.  The roller derby girls skate along to your car to sell you goodies, but they are all candy and soft drinks.  There may of been a sausage sizzle too.  I think they will be doing this again, but check eventfinda. regularly to be sure.  http://events.stuff.co.nz/2013/drive-in-with-dunedin-derby/dunedin.  Be sure to pack jumper cables if you plan on listening to the movie on your radio or if you want to be a good Samaritan! 

Simon's mom saw a Facebook advertisement for watching the Blue Penguins come onto shore at Pilot Beach.  Since penguins come in to shore at nightfall, and it's winter so night fall is early, we decided to go on Sunday night!  It was a wet night, but not windy.  The tour leaves from the Royal Albatross Centre at the Otago Peninsula (approx. 45 minutes from Dunedin).  We go down a walkway stand on a platform over the beach.  You stand there and see nothing but crashing waves then all of a sudden a group of cute little blue penguins pop out onto the shore!  They are adorable!  They waddle and hop over some rocks, walk up the dunes then disappear into the night.  It was really really cool!  I think we saw about 30 penguins come in.  When they have chicks and they HAVE to come back to shore, there can be up to 70 that come in!  I think this is during the summer hours, which means they won't come to shore until around 10pm!  When walking back there are no lights just some glow in the dark stickers on the stairs and a few small red lights to mark the path.  As we were walking back we could hear the penguins calling out to each other.  It was very cool to just stop in complete darkness and listen to them and realise that at that moment I was surrounded by blue penguins!  Afterwards we ate fish and chips and drank hot chocolate.  Bodie proceeded to zonk out in the car on the way home!  Thanks GiGi and Jedi for a great night!

Since it was dark and we weren't allowed to use the flash the pictures didn't show up too well.  Plus my camera was on twilight and I really needed a tripod to hold the camera steady. 

Here's the link if you want to know more or book tickets: http://www.bluepenguins.co.nz/ and if you want to know more about the royal albatross centre, which I would also highly recommend at the right time of year, you can go to here: http://www.albatross.org.nz/.

 

Waiting on the Blue Penguins to come out of the water

 

Me and Si in the rain waiting for the Blue Penguins

 

 

Bodie and GiGi waiting for the Blue Penguins

 

 

There they are!!

 

Climbing over the rocks!

 

Walking up the path.

Fall snow!

Lastnight we went to bed with clear skies and twinkling stars, hearing all kinds of warnings about a winter storm that was on the way.  This storm was to cause snowfall down to sea level.  This news is pretty rare for Dunedin.  It is common for it to snow in the hills surrounding Dunedin, but very uncommon for the flat areas closer to the sea (where we live) to get snow.  Plus, growing up in North Carolina you learn that sometimes weather men just don't get it right!

This morning we were on a bad start.  We slept through the alarm, and all I hear is Simon say "Oh crap" as he jumps out of bed to head to the shower.  When it was my turn i completely forgot about the snow forecast until I heard something on the window that didn't sound like rain.  So, i opened the bathroom window and.... HOLY WOW!  EVERYTHING WAS COVERED IN THE WHITE STUFF!

I ran out the bathroom to our bedroom yelling Simon, Bodie, look!  Nearly breaking my neck getting to the window to rip open the curtains and Simon saying "Becca, what are you doing, I'm getting dressed!"  Look, it's snowing, I say!  And Bodie says "Wow, it's snowing!  That means it's Christmas and Santa is coming"! 

We got up and found out that daycare was on a delay, then it was shut.  The snow came in bursts all day.  It'd get sunny and then you'd see a big dark cloud roll in and snow would pour down!  It was so beautiful and so exciting!  I stayed home with Bodie (my work was shut) and Simon made his way into work around 10am once the buses started running on the flats.

Bodie and I went out to play in the snow.  Then GiGi and Jedi came around with their 4WD and we took off to the hills of Dunedin.  Wow!  Now, there was some snow!  We stopped in a field and tried to slide down the hill on a plastic bag.  We had snowball fights and made snow angels and a snowman!  It was loads of fun and really beautiful!  All roads were closed leaving Dunedin, so there was a line of stock trucks and what not along the main drag in Dunedin city (that was odd to see).

I love living with seasons again!

 

View this morning when we woke up!

 

 

Because we saw the 'dark storm clouds' we went out in our PJs thinking the storm clouds were going to bring rain!  I was wrong!  Snowed all day long!

 

 

 

Snowball fight with GiGi!

 

Bodie next to a snowman we made!

 

 

Rainy Chipmunk Shootin'

In typical New Zealand fashion, the rain sets in on a Friday evening and doesn't stop until.... well, I don't know, it's still coming down. I think it's fasinating how much colder 5C (41F) can feel on a rainy evening vs a clear evening. Anyways, So like all parents with an active child, when a rainy weekend is coming up you go into panic mode on Friday night trying to come up with fun indoor activities that will drain the batteries of the energizer bunny! Saturday we had playball (see previous blog) and poor Simon had a cold and wet game of soccer. Bodie and I got wet ourselves, but at the local indoor swimming pool. Maybe I should blog about that one week. For now i will just say that the Moana Pools have todder pool hours where them and an adult get in for $3.50! Very good value! After a morning of playball and an afternoon of swimming we ended up with a zonked out kid in the car when we were going to eat dinner (of course). Luckly dinner was coming to our house (thanks Gi Gi and Jedi) and so Bodie just slept on the couch. Woke up 45 min later to eat a crab stick, get a bath and he was back to sleep for bed! Phew, one day down.

Saturday evening was a repeat of Friday night, or maybe a bit worse. What the heck is left to do indoors? The sun rose on Sunday morning, somewhere behind clouds and pelting rain. And i woke up racking my brain. What on earth are we going to do with Bodie today?! Then, Simon came up with a great idea! Chipmunks! hoot! I got out of bed with some spring in my step, made some pancakes, skyped my parents and then got in the car to head to Chipmunks.

What is Chipmunks? Chipmunks is an huge indoor playground (www.chipmunks.co.nz). It's a chain that they have all over NZ. Back in Auckland my coffee group used to meet up at Chipmunks on rainy days. Even though it is a chain, they are all different. The one in Dunedin, i have to say, is pretty cool! We got in there and within 30 seconds (i'm not exaggerating) I lost my child. haha. I think it took me around 15 minutes to track him down to show him our table. This particular chipmunks has the staple big inflatable slide and big contraption to climb up with tunnels and slides and ball pits. But it also has one of the biggest and most elaborate bouncy castles i have ever seen. And the REALLY COOL thing was this air nerf ball shooting room. It is so cool! You run around collecting these little nerf balls in a bag, meanwhile balls are going everywhere! Then you run up the stairs and find a gun and put the ball in and push a button and PHOOOO it shoots out. If any of you remember American Gladiators, they had a person at an air gun shooting at people? Well, pretty much just like that! It won't let you aim down (therefore those on the ground collecting the balls cannot get shot at directly). It's designed to shoot at the guns on the opposite side. You are behind the plastic with a cut out shape. If you are good (which Bodie turned out to be) you can aim and get the ball through the gaps and actually hit the person. But normally it just bounces off the glass and scares the snot out of you! I am unsure how long I played in there but it was so much fun! Although since i was one of two adults in there I got ganged up on and all the kids were shooting at me. Loads and loads of fun though!

A bit steep of a price on the weekends ($7) and unlike the one in Auckland, entry didn't come with a free coffee. :-( Never the less, a good way burn energy and kill 3 hours of a rainy Sunday!

 

 

 

Look up at the very top! 

You can't really read it, but the rules on the purple sign cracked me up b/c the first rule was No Climbing!  Wonder how Bodie got up there?!

 

Playball!

I found out about a cool toddler sport and movement program called Playball (www.playball.co.nz).  Since it's coming up on winter, we decided to enroll Bodie for a term, as it'd be a good way to get us out of the house and let Bodie run around (without us freezing our tails off at a playground).  I don't think any of us knew what to expect.  We took Bodie to soccer4tots when he was younger, but this was interactive with the parents.  I had assumed that this is what playball would be like.  I was wrong!

We got there and Coach Liam somehow managed to wrangle eight 3-4 year olds to sit on some mats and switch on there ears (that was so freakin' adorable).  He then played games to the traffic light colors.  One time they would jump to green, hop on one foot to yellow.  The other they would run real fast to green and walk (hahahaha) to yellow.  They got out hocky sticks and had to navigate a tennis ball through 'landmines'.  It was so cool to see the concentration that some kids had!  There was one kid who did this 3 times and the concentration was unbelievable!  Bodie on the other hand did it once, put his stick up and asked 'what's next'.  They threw tennis balls and tried to knock down the tower.  They took food to a grasshopper, whilst jumping through hoops.  There were some times we laughed so hard! There were races (were everyone was NOT a winner) and only ONE trophy is given each week for those who particpate in every activity, try their hardest and listen.

It was really cool.  And it was entertaining.  And the cool thing was that we didn't have to participate, we got to spectate!  For me, I enjoyed watching my kid listen to direction, I loved watching him try so hard to walk (when all he wanted to do was run), and listening to him pipe up and answer questions and volunteer to do things.  I just really loved his confidence.  Considering i think he was the only new kid and the others seemed to of been doing this together for a while.  He did really well.  And he was definately the scariest ghost!

So, all you peops in New Zealand, lookup playball.  It's awesome!

PS, YES Bodie is wearing his moms vintage Whipporwhil soccer jersey!  One i wore when I was his age!

Soccer Saturday in Mornington

Simon grew up playing soccer.  His mom knew a guy his age from her University course who also plays soccer.  This guy was looking for more players.  So, Simon and him got in touch.  His first game was on Saturday.  It happened to be at a park with a playground and the weather was fantastic so we decided to all go.  Bodie and I could go to the playground, Simon could play soccer... win-win!

The game was at Mornington Park.  It's a pretty decent playground.  It has cool play equipment, a bike track, a soccer field, a tennis court, toilets and a really amazing view.  Like most places in Dunedin, when you have a view you also have wind.  This particular Saturday was a beautiful Fall day (the day before the wind was ROARING and it was SOOOO COLD)!

The soccer team turned out to be a whole lot of 18 - 23 year old 'men'.  When Bodie and I decided to watch the game, it made it interesting to be sitting with a 3 year old whilst hearing a cocaphony of swear words being shouted all over the field CONSTANTLY and seeing testosterone filled 'men' getting in faces and just acting like idiots (if you ask me - thankfully Simon was not involved with the baboon acts!). 

Anyways, after about 2 minutes of sitting still Bodie got bored.  We were sitting up on a hill so Bodie had a lot of fun climbing up and down the hill, using my feet as ropes and ladders.  I then got Bodie to roll down the hill, which turned into me having to roll down a hill.  Now, I don't know about you, but when is the last time you laid down on the ground at the top of the hill, tucked your arms in and rolled down?  I have no idea when the last time it was for me but DANG if it won't FUN!  The pair of us laughed and laughed!  We took turns and i can't tell you how many times i rolled down the hill!

When you watch the next video, keep in mind that Bodie was doing the recording.

 

Here's some pictures.

These bushes look like they belong in the Lorax!