A Little bit of TIME OUT for this WOMEN!

So, I have just returned from one of the most uplifting days ever!!! Today I got to attend the first ever Time Out For Women event to be held here in Auckland. I am buzzing so much that I don't even know where to start in writing about it.

What an amazing opportunity to be able to attend an event with 1500 other LDS women, including the women that are so special to me in my life. To listen to people who are all there to help me to BECOME a better sister, wife, friend, person! And I came out the other end of the day feeling like I could do all of that and more!!!

I would love to write down everything that each and every one of them said, but I would be here all and right now I'm actually quite emotionally drained and feel a migrane coming on! ha ha. I'm not really a cryer... and I cried (with happy tears!) I'm not a hugger... and I volunteered hugs to all the girls I went with (much to their surprise). Just because I was so grateful for everything that they are to me as women and how they support me and make me better! They are so much a part of my journey and I just had to thank them in a way that they knew how much I ment it! I think they got the point! ha ha.

A few quotes that really stood out to me were:

* From Laurel Christensen "Don't be the one person standing in your way!" I have written this on the front of my fridge so that I read it every day!"

* Another was quoted by Hillary Weeks, but I think she was quoting some one else? "We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become."

* Then from Virgina Pearse "Don't underestimate the simple, essential 'to dos'."

* From Brad Wilcox, "We get so obsessed with ticking off our lists, that we forget why Heavenly Father gave us the list in the first place!" (Oh I am so that person!)

* And finally from Sheri Dew, "Its easier to motivate someone to do something difficult than it is to something easy." (So true!)

So, I'm home now (and what a perfect home coming it was too...) As I walked up to the house, I could hear Ashton and Kris running to the door with great excitement in their voices "Mummy's home!" What more could I ask for!

Thank you soooo much to the Time Out for Women team for coming to Auckland to share your wonderful presentation with us. It has inspired me to BECOME all that I dream for myself! But you want to know what I'm working on 'Becoming' in the short term... TONED! I'm going to become one toned, hot mumma! YEAH! ;o)

Catching up with Sheri Dew.

Hillary Weeks in action. Singing one of her many inspiring songs!

At the beginning of the day Laurel set us the challenge to take our tote bags with us where ever we went and to see where and how we could take the best photos of us with them. . . So, if you give me a challenge, I will take it! Especially when it involves being crazy and taking photos! Its, like combining my two best talents! ha ha. . . you will see what I mean in the photos to come!

I don't even know what to say to explain this first photo... it was Dionne's idea!

A bit more of a serious photo... a bit boring really! ;o)

There are many uses for tote bags... bibs!

We made sure everyone in Auckland City knew TOFW was in town by taking a photo in the middle of the downtown pedestrian crossing! Awesome!

We surprisingly got recognised as The Polkadots while we were there and were asked if we could take a photo to give to the ladies little girl. She had no idea we were all members of the church and totally surprised to see us all there!

Catching up with Hillary Weeks.

All my gals! I couldn't have asked to spend the day with a better group of ladies! I love you all sooo much and being with you for the day just topped everything off!

Surely part of taking time out means taking a nap!!! With our tote bags for pillows!

A bunch of the ladies from Harbour stake... moving forward in our journey to become... together!

We decided to make a Tote Bag chain!

Yet another use for the tote bags! A baby sling. Laural and Chrislyn get cuddles with Lily-Quinn

I tried to get the whole group to shout "We Love having TIME OUT FOR WOMEN!" But after counting to 3... only I shouted!

Brad Wilcox was jumping for joy that he was back in Auckland!!!

(I just have to add... I'm really good at jumping photos! lol)

Tata Town

Because our life revolves around cars... here is another activity using CARS! I actually really enjoyed creating this Car mat with Ashton! It was like being able to create your own little township.

Using the back of our washing machine box Ashton and I drew out some roads with come crayons. Once we had our road structure in place we filled in the gaps with our local shops etc. We got to put in all of the places we would love to visit, and places we felt were a necessity to every town! We ended up with a Fire Station, Police Station, Supermarket, hospital, Subway! a pet shop, a zoo, and the beach! While a was drawing Ashton was either colouring in the rest of the town, or he was busy cruising the streets of Tata Town!... or visiting the animals in the zoo! Its been lots of fun creating our town together, and we still have room for development!!!

Lets Dig!

Ashton and I have found ourselves with a number of days where nothing was planned and we just got to stay at home! I KNOW! That doesn't happen very often. . . at all! So, with it still being rather wintery, but we were lucky to have a sunny day, I was trying to think of something we could do that would get us out of the house for a while. We decided to DIG!

One of Ashton's favourite Polkadots songs is "Lets Dig" so I thought I would see if he really knew what it meant 'to dig'. We got a big spade and just dug out a little square block in the back yard and turned it out to see what we could find.

Ashton wanted to try everything I was doing, so he had a go at digging with the big spade.

As soon as we opened up the hole Aston spotted heaps of worms wiggling around, he was extremely excited!

Car meet worm... worm meet car!

Doing a bit of mixing and stirring with our digging.

How many toys can I hold at once?

With Ashton's love of cars comes his obsession with holding every single car transport model in the room. It is really rather entertaining watching him place one car at a time into the crook of his arm and then one by one stack down his arm . . . using his chin to secure them in place. I think the most he has managed to hold at once is 8! He will then try to transport them all around while he continues playing. So funny, but very cute too!

Hair Cut 2

Kris finally took the plunge and decided to give Ashton a hair cut! He pre-warned me that it would just be a No.4 but that doesn't really mean that much to me! NOW IT DOES! Its really short! But the main reason I wanted to write about Ashton's hair cut was so I could share this photo... It just says so much about how they were both feeling about this moment.

"Oooh Mummy Olkabot Carly"

I thought my son would be A LOT older than 20 months old before he started calling me by my first name!!! But it has begun! The fact that he constantly hears and see's me being called Carly on our DVD's and in our shows and also by all his cousins has taught him that I respond to both of these titles!

The other day while I was getting ready for a show he walked into my room, picked up an orange head band, put it on his head and said with a cheeky grin on his face, "I Carly". He then proceeded to hold up my orange hair ties and say "Ooooh Carly!".

I have mixed feelings about Ashton calling me by my first name... mainly because he has started using it to tell me off, or to tell me he doesn't want to me to do something! "No, Carly!" I laugh, but at the same time I feel like saying "Its mummy to you thanks!" But, I just roll with it! Its just part of my life as a Polkadotty Mum!

Car Crazy!!!

The fact that Ashton is crazy over cars right now is providing me many learning and teaching moments!!! Because of cars Ashton is learning colours, and numbers, how to categorize, spacial awareness of size length, he is painting (which he intends to avoid like the plague), he is getting really good at doing sound effects and making the cars have conversations (all part of language development) and learning how to play by himself (independence and use of imagination). An interest can be a powerful tool for learning if channeled properly!

Just today, these were some of the things we did while playing with his cars... most of them he did on his own, I was just the big person who put words and concepts to his learning so he could in time learn and articulate what it actually is he has naturally discovered.

Exploring space... what cars can fit underneath this other car!

The beginning of the sorting... he always lines his cars up, but he's just started to do it in colours.

I showed him some different ways he could sort the cars out into colours. He also has his own ideas for sorting. . . he always has to have the three cars that look the same together, and the two animal cars together as well.

Once all of the cars are out of the basket and sorted, he likes to sit in the basket to play with the cars. Funny boy!

This is later on in the evening during dinner prep time... gives a whole new meaning to drive in movies!!! ha ha.

Each time Ashton comes back to playing with his cars he starts talking about the concepts he has learned more and more. This will in turn make his play more meaningful and will naturally progress it and encourage him to learn new things. I know this seems like I'm going on and on about something so insignificant, but I'm just so blown away by how much Ashton is learning through simply playing with his cars!

Novelty Painting

You may have read before on my blog that my son doesn't really have a strong desire to engage in arty activities! This is a big challenge for me to accept because I LOVE doing arty things and I think that being exposed to the arts helps develop a well rounded child. I don't expect Ashton to be an artist, nor do I want to force him to do things he doesn't enjoy. But I'm not going to give up providing opportunities for him to give it a go and bit by bit help him to feel more comfortable around these activities and materials.

So, each day we try and do something a little arty, even if its only for a couple of minutes. I do want Ashton to enjoy the activities so I try and think of the things he is interested in and then bring the art to the interest! So today we did ball rolling painting and car rolling painting!!! And we managed to stick with it for about 10 minutes each painting!!! Thats pretty good I think!

Ashton doesn't like getting dirty so he enjoyed this activity, as he was able to just hold the box and watch the balls roll around and do the painting for him! We talked about the colours mixing and changing. Then also talked about the pattern the golf ball left behind too!

Ashton particularly enjoyed the car painting and making the cars turn corners and watching the trail appear behind the car.

Although, it wasn't long before he realized his beloved cars were covered in paint and he promptly took them off to the kitchen to clean them off with the tea towel!!! haha!

A day at the movies: Cars 2

As you may have picked up from previous blogs, Ashton LOVES cars at the moment! In fact this morning he woke up at 5:45am (I say its because he was so excited about going to the movies today.) Anyway, he was lying in bed with me and because it was all dark still and I hadn't spoken he was being very quiet. I finally said at 6:00am "Do you want some breakfast?" and the first thing he said to me was, "No, cars! vrrrooom, beep beep!" he wanted to watch the Cars DVD. So, needless to say I was excited to see how he would react when he got to see the Cars 2 movie on the big screen.

Right from the minute we walked in the door to the theatre he spotted the Cars 2 set in the foyer. He ran up to them and just stared and said "Cars" over and over. He was also very excited to see Ellie, Anika and Darcy there to hang out with.

Once we got into the movie Ashton was taken with everything on the screen from the minute it started! He gave us a running commentary on everything "Animals!" "Oh Wow!" "oh oh!" "CARS!" he made all the sounds and was doing actions with his hands and his eyes were almost bugging out of his head! Mine were too, so excited to sit and watch him having such a good time! And I love that is was only $9 because of the Mum's and Bubs session at Hoyts! Great morning out!

Got our tickets and we're ready to go!

Ashton with all his friends Tilly, Zach, Darcy and Anika (Ellie was too shy to come in the photo)

They were just as excited to sit and watch the posters!

In our seats and ready for the action.

During the movie he just had to go and sit with Ellie! They're just soooo cute!

Funny Moment: Mummies Lollies!

Ok, since I know only women read my blog, I just have to share this very funny moment!

Ashton loves going into any cupboard or drawer that he can. The other day he went into the lounge where Kris was watching TV ( I was down in our room) and I could hear Ashton saying "Lollie!" over and over. Then I hear Kris crack up laughing and says, "That's not a lollie, that's mummies!" Ashton had found my monthly supplies and assumed they were lollies! Kris thought it was rather hilarious.

Well, a week later I hear Ashton going through the bathroom cupboard again! (Let me just say, everything that is in the bathroom cupboard is safe for him to be with.) Anyways, he again has found my monthly supplies and walks out to me and says, "Ook, Mummies lollies!"

Today, he found them again, but this time curiosity got the better of him and he just had to open one and see what "Mummies Lollies" tasted like! Oh my! He obviously didn't like them cause he then walks up to me in the kitchen and shaking his head says, "mmm, mummy uck lollies!"

Oh the joys of curious and exploring children! They are now moved permanently from that cupboard, although I think he's probably lost interest in them now! bahahahah!

What can you do with a SPONGE?

We were in Briscoes the other day and spotted a packet of 6 large sponges for $4 and I couldn't resist! Sponges provide so many endless possibilities of fun! Here are a few of the possibilities we came up with.

1 - Build towers with the sponges and boof them down!

2 - Sit on the sponge tower and feel them go flat under your weight... then have them pop out the back! (Ashton thought that was hilarious!)

3 - Cut the sponges into different shapes. Play "spot the shape".

4 - Do sponge painting.

5 - Sponge water play. See how much water you can squeeze into one container.

6 - Sponge war! Throw the sponges at each other and have a good laugh!

This piece of art is amazing to me... cause Ashton doesn't like doing art! But I don't give up... and although this painting was done in a matter of minutes, it was minutes more than doing nothing... which he normally prefers to do!

He does on the other hand LOVE water play, so putting the sponges into the water was right up his alley! And this activity is fantastic for fine motor development, as they squeeze the sponge to empty out the water.