Organic snail bait...

This afternoon we laid our organic snail bait. Louise saved the peels from our mandarins and eggs from our baking and Bex brought in some saw dust from home. I wonder if it will work?

Pesky Pests!!!

The last couple of mornings when we have gone down to the garden we have noticed that someone or something has been eating our new plants!
It must be those pesky snails....
Look at what they have done to our plants!




But look at our strawberry plants...untouched! Which means that snails don't like strawberries!

Bex did some research about organic ways to repel snails and found that they don't like citrus peels, egg shells or saw dust, so watch this space for our organic trials to rid us of our pesky pests!

The Grand Opening 20th May 2011

Greer turns 1!

Today it was Greer's turn to have a birthday!
Because Laura is such a spectacular baker, she made some little cakes - one for each child and we had a had a celebration at afternoon tea!
We all sang Happy Birthday to her and Bex helped Greer blow out the candle.
Yay - another celebration with our children - we love it!

Logan turns one!

It was Logan's first birthday on Monday and it was cool to celebrate it with him.
We love to celebrate these special moments with our children.

Its finished!

How exciting! Our new outdoor area is finished and the children love it!
Paul has done a fantastic job redesigning the area. It now incorporates a bark area and swing, a water feature, a secret garden for the children to walk through and seats to sit under the kowhai tree. We also have expanded storage space to house our outdoor play equipment, prams and gardening equipment.
When the area was finished, we thought about what we could do next and one of our Mum's suggested we apply for a grant through the Hawkes Bay Regional Council to purchase equipment and seeds for our new gardens. So off went Bex to get quotes for children's gardening equipment, seeds and a worm cafe.
We were so excited when the grant was approved and Bex was even more excited to go to Mitre 10 Mega in Hastings with Paul and purchase the stuff!!
Bex and the children spent the next few days planting and playing and planning! We can't wait for our 'Grand Opening' so everyone can see the new outdoor area!
Come and view the new garden and play area from 3pm on Friday 20th May and have some afternoon tea with us!

Cress heads - Day 4

Day 4 and look at them grow! Today, unfortunately though, it was a little overcast so we put the cress heads in the hot water cupboard so they would have the warmth they needed to grow!
I wonder how much they will grow by tomorrow? And tomorrow we are going to eat them with mayonnaise and fresh bread!

New children at Village Kids?

Today we created some new friends.
Louise saved all the egg shells for the last few weeks and brought some cress seeds in the shopping for Bex and today she made 'cress heads' with the children.
First Laura and Bex drew faces on the egg shells. Then we put wet cotton balls in the egg shells and sprinkled the seeds onto the wet cotton wool.
We placed them in the sun so they would grow! Hopefully they will grow quickly so check in each day to follow the progress.

Puff Painting - 03 May 2011

This morning Bex came to work rather excited about an art idea she had! "We could do puff painting with the children!"
What a fantastic idea! We looked on the internet for the recipe and then talked about the process and how the children could be part of the whole process.
Bex mixed up the paint and we got some paper. We also put the microwave on a small table so the children could be part of the whole process.
The children loved to dot the paint onto the paper then take it to Sandy to put in the microwave. Holly loved to open the door for the paintings to in the microwave.





When Sandy turned the microwave on, the children stood back and watched the paintings go round and round and puff up! It was so exciting!
The puffy creations were awesome - we have to do this activity again soon!