This Blog is to correct the record where my children have written things that I think have an untold side! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:05:00 -0600 Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:05:00 -0600 Shalom We have had so many things go on since I last posted.... Moana our seventh girl (eighth child) deserves a mention- such a cute baby now is seven months- by far the best age full of smiles and trying to talk but not yet crawling or walking or getting into mischief. Maybe I should just post a photo rather than the thousand words... We host Israeli tourists travelling New Zealand over the summer. It's fun to show hospitality to these young people and they enjoy a bit of family experience - most of them come from small families and are not used to babies and toddlers.We complete their education!     Speaking of education we have decided to put Ben in the Christian school next year. We think he will do a lot better with more structure. It will be a bit of a culture shock for him. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/751748/ Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:05:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/751748/ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/671285/ Sun, 22 Mar 2009 06:39:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/671285/ Just a photo that has Esther in it for those who asked particularly Celestial Seraphim! The Castle is a little plywood playfort in our front yard- I made it a few years ago as a float in the Christmas Parade and won best commercial float that year.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/619123/ Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:44:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/619123/ Scaryman and I went to the Gold Coast (Brisbane) Australia for 5 days.  We arrived at 5pm on a Wednesday and got through the airport quickly as we had only hand baggage so were ahead of those who had to wait at the baggage claim. We got an airport shuttle direct to the hotel so that we could leave our bags and explore. The Sheraton Mirage hotel was very nice and had a well stocked fridge. We knew the bottles in the fridge would be expensive so we left them alone but the bottle of water on the dresser we thought was complimentary- wrong.... when we checked out we found it cost $AU7.50- what a scam that water cost about four times the supermarket cost! So back to what we were doing. It was a nice mild evening so we went for a walk to explore. We were surprised by how early it got dark in Brisbane as we have lived our whole lives with daylight saving and Brisbane doesn't do it. Actually it was nice that it felt late because we were tired from the 6 hour drive in New Zealand (to Auckland) and the 4 hour plane trip so we got some food from a dairy and went back to the Hotel about 10pm (that would be an early night by our standards!).  The next day we took a bus to Australia Fair (the second largest shopping mall) and bought two large wheeled scooters and a bag to carry them back to New Zealand in. We really don't do shopping like girls do. We just walked briskly through to find what we wanted, got some printing done and then went back to the Hotel. Then we went exploring on the scooters. That really beat walking. We zoomed along the footpaths at running speed with minimal effort. The footpaths went alongside the beach for miles so we scooted to Surfer's paradise and went into some shops but mostly just looked around. The kite surfers were cool to watch. The temperature was a mild 22 degrees C(70 degrees F) so we were comfortable in shorts and t-shirts but needed sweatshirts in the evening. We took a bus to Pacific Fair the largest Mall complex on the Gold Coast. We thought American malls were huge but this was colossal. The locals never wore sweatshirts. In the evening some wore jeans with their t-shirt but we were definitely foreigners wearing sweatshirts! Ben looked even more out of place as his choice of sweatshirt was padded checked shirt. We looked for a sweatshirt for him but none of the clothing shops had any. Not even One! There were T-shirts by the thousand, Jeans, shorts  but no long sleeve garments of any description anywhere. It is semi tropical in Brisbane but not really hot like it was in California. So we needed something else to hunt for then providentially my watch strap broke. So now we had a goal to hunt down a watch strap. We discovered that the strap was too unique to the watch to be replaced neatly we decided to get a new watch for me and shorten the broken strap on my old watch and give it to Ben. So we walked around on a watch hunt! (Witch hunts are out of vogue). Actually we hunted out some small presents for the girls back home too but they were small game- mostly we were just exploring. Most of the people in the mall were teenagers and most headed for the cinema complex so we had a look but none of the films interested us. So we came we saw we didn't get excited about the mall so when the shops closed at 9pm we headed back to the hotel by bus.  Buying stuff is a popular pass time but we really couldn't see the attraction of a huge mall it was kind of just more of the same- it had no theme or distinguishing feature- we have malls in New Zealand- they look the same everywhere. I was expecting to be wowed by the architecture like people who go to Las Vegas with no intention of gambling they just go to admire the glamorous buildings or like people do when visiting a gold covered temple in Asia- they don't believe in the God of the Temple but they  travel half way around the world to see it. So we went shopping- it's just the holiday thing not that we believe in it or anything!!!   The next morning we spent at  the conference then headed off to Seaworld for the afternoon. The Dolphin show was the best. Their trainers rode in on the dolphins. Dolphins can swim really fast even when pushing a person along ahead of them, the ladies even stood on a dolphin and surfed along the pool. At one point the dolphin took a trainer deep into the water and then pushed him up so that he shot about ten foot into the air. It was very spectacular. The Dolphin's really enjoyed themselves and so did we! We spent about 4 Hours running from ride to ride to show and quite enjoyed it. We didn't have time to go swimming but saw a lot in the time we were there. It was fast moving around with no little children. It was expensive enough paying for two people I'm glad we didn't have the whole family! We enjoyed the rides but we decided that rides were not really exciting for us. We've done things like riding go carts down step hills and canoeing real rivers so the safe artificial version of roller coasters etc seemed a bit lame. Queueing isn't our thing either- fortunately there wasn't much of that as it was a week day. The sharks and the seals were great. On our way out a dolphin threw us a basketball. He played catch with us for quite a while until he threw a wild throw and then didn't realise the ball had landed back in his pool - he was evidently disappointed we didn't return the ball. Dolphins are so like dogs they love to please and love to play.    I'll stop there and refer you to Scaryman to tell the rest. For more about our trip see Scaryman's blog- hit the button link. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/609777/ Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:45:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/609777/ Click on Altariel (Gabrielle) from my friend's link or the picture of her car! Oh and I have a new blog under the blog title "paladin" And I have a link from my sidebar!- Also try the links to Gabrielle and Ben's blogs Getting pretty complex for a novice eh! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/602174/ Thu, 9 Oct 2008 08:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/602174/ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/596351/ Fri, 8 Aug 2008 12:12:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/596351/ Here's a rare Photo of Gabrielle at the Ball in her splendid ball dress! Now I could tell you all about her new car but that would steal the thunder she intends to eventually release upon the unsuspecting (but patiently waiting....) readers and friends.  So I thought I would instead tell you more about Heather's Ball. What I wrote was quite good and perfectly accurate but Gabrielle's version adds detail in many areas that I glossed over. She insists that what she has written is unfinished so she cannot post it however I think what she wrote is quite excellent and needs to be written and I cannot see her posting it now that the ball was two months ago so I want to post it  here in its unrefined beauty unfinished but effervescing the raw energy of her youth and creative talent...But she said she will post it and doesn't want me to... Of course you can read my version further down and get how the ball finished too. You could tell her to post it as is and not be such a perfectionist. She is sick of me nagging her and trying to bribe her and maybe I should just give in and never blog again... <Pouts throws a tantrum and is generally frustrated> maybe some of you experts in manipulation could offer some advice. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/592198/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:21:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/592198/ I think it is about time you all protested about Gabrielle not sharing the news about the car she has had now for 6 weeks on Wednesday. The news is getting old. I know she has a high standard of writing but you must all protest her tardiness. It is simply not fair for her to keep you all in suspence for so long! I won't spoil her thunder by posting a picture I'll tell you to pester her! Scaryman Ben may have a lower standard but at least his news is on time! He wrote about the slide the day we finished it. I think I'll take Ben to the gold coast and leave Gabrielle to baby sit her sisters as punishment! at least then you would hear about Seaworld before their dolphins die- too late for Napier's last dolphin..... I hope Ben will write some anticipatory blogs before we go... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/589389/ Sat, 13 Sep 2008 07:10:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/589389/ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/581968/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:47:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/581968/ We have as a family often had grand ideas of how to make our children's rooms interesting and unique. After all our children are interesting and unique so why should they live in something that is mediocre or boring. This week over several evenings and some other time which could have been spent in many ways I chose to bless Gabrielle with a modification to her room that is a little different!  I've made a high bar for her to do gymnastics on 2m high and 1.6m long and a trampoline 12foot by 6 foot mostly as a novelty place to lie down and read. She used to climb trees and perch in them to read and she likes climbing to strengthen  her arms and keep fit so now she can do these things in any weather. We have had plans to make over her room in the past that have never come to fruition but this one has so she cannot plead that we never do all the exciting things we plan.  I will admit that we have  thought out many ideas and not  all get  implemented because of practical things like time or money or the tyranny of the urgent. But here it is a testimony to our ability to do something a little different !! VIve La Difference! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/580324/ Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:43:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/therightreply/580324/