Family Activities/Hobbies

Me and Daniel were talking last night and we decided we need to come up with a hobby that we can all do. He is always off doing car stuff and I am getting majorly peeved at sitting home by myself all weekend - yesterday he said he was going to drop the trailer off at his parents (5 min drive) and he got home three hours later after helping his dad get some old car going, and today he's away all day racing, and next Sunday...

Oops, wasn't meant to moan! So what do you all do as a family together on the weekends?

Hannah is prob old enough to go to the park, we do that, and take the girls on the little train at the esplanade. theres a heap more in summer to do - but i mean even going to the library, finding a few neat books that you can take home and read, and simple puzzles (you might have to come to palmy for that)
we had a rule for a while there that since mike was alwyas off doing speedway stuff on saturdays that sunday was family day, and he had to stay and we'd all do stuff together... can't remember for thel ife of me what it was - but i think i made it that way cos i was feeling the exact same way you do. (and beleive me, while i have forgotten a little at the mo, in about 4 or 5 weeks speedway preparation will start, even though mikes dad sold his car, he now has a little pocket rocket civic that he is doing up with big plans that little mike is gonna race this season in the boy racer class!!!argh! )

gggr men and their cars. lol

yep i was gonna say cooking too - the edmonds cook book has a good choc chip bickie recipe with condensed milk - turns out great each time and i found it was good to make with the kids when i was a nanny - but even at this age - stick her in the highchair next to you, talk to her about what you're doing, give her a sneaky choc chip (paris loves that, sneaky sneaky) hold her hand and help her stir - she will get sick of it pretty quick but its a start.

Liz i used to love going out in autumn and getting all the different colours of leaves with my nanny charges, and we would get ones that were different shapes and also ones that were soft, and others that were crunchy and others that were still green..

OOh and about 6 months old we started painting with Paris - put old clothes on her, stuck her in highchair, celotaped big piece of paper to the tray and stuck a couple of small globs of non-toxic paint on the paper and let her go to it. the results were so kewl.. i remember her first painting stayed on our fridge for soooo long. - again will prob be pretty short lived at this age cos she'll get sick of it pretty quick and you gotta draw the line between fun experimenting and just putting paint on every piece of her body and the higchair and anything else within reach. Just make sure before you begin that you have all the clothes etc ready and a bath run so you pick her up and stick her straight in.

Geez, you guys are so good! I leave all this stuff to creche

We do cooking and painting too, the cutest of Quinns paintings are on canvas (cheapies from the Warehouse) and are on our wall - very abstract! Choc chip muffins are good to make to, I have a fantastic recipe and Quinn thinks it is the most fun in the world. We do a lot of reading (good for mum cause it means she doesn't have to move!)

Taine finger paints but jake prefers to use makeup sponges and the paint.    family stuff is hard though. Going for a drive and stopping at the rest stops. Sounds bopring, but you can see quite a bit of stuff. I grew up near Tongiriro National Park and we did a lot of bushwalking. Strap Hannah in a backpack and go for some bushwalks....maybe in summer!

Ooh, that sound nice Frantic... That is one of my plans for summer Liz, to do some tramping in the ranges, just a bit cold and wet now.