MOLA MOLA / Sunfish

Hi,
Yesterday we went for a walk to the hole in the rock to look at the rock pools. When we got there it smelt BAD. So we investigated and we found a washed up sunfish. It was really cool and really smelly.

I said to mum when we get home, I want to google sunfish to find out more about them. What I found out was that they are actually the heaviest known bony fish in the whole world. The average adult weighs 1000kgs! That's like 50 times bigger than me! Wow.

Sunfish also mainly eat jellyfish and don't have many natural predators except for sea lions, orcas and sharks who gobble them up.

My favourite part is their parrot mouth. Their teeth are fused into a beak like structure so it can break up harder food like crayfish. Cool aye.

You can find out more about sunfish here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_sunfish or watch the first filming of a rare species here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuA2vXSCsPc .

Now here are some photos of the dead one we found and a live one.

 

 A sunfish caught in 1910, with an estimated weight of 1600 kg (3500 lb)

A live sunfish in the water.

The dead one washed up on our beach.

How cool is its mouth!?

So you can see how big it is compared to me.

Thanks for reading my story.
Love Finn and Brodie.

I'm On Holiday!

Hello!

My mama is writing this for me because I am on holiday in Whakatane with my Nana & Grandad.

This is me with my Great Uncle Gordon on his mobility scooter, he's been taking me everywhere on this and I think it's awesome. I was very tired when this photo was taken because we had driven all day to get here.

This morning the weather was so lovely we were at the beach by 9am!

That's all for now!
I will be home tomorrow and my mama says she can't wait!

Bye,
love from Tyler
x



Jousting!

Ki Ora Squirrel Kids!
How are you? We are good. Last weekend we went camping again. We went to a medieval fair and there was lots of knights. They were jousting! And there were BATTLES!
Here are some photos we took of the jousting and battles. I really liked it. I want to be a pirate knight. We are going to make a pirate knight costume this week for me. Excited.

This is us roasting marshmallows on the campfire at where we are camping.

Daisy and Olive got some mail

This morning we saw a parcel in the letterbox and we went to get it.  We were so excited that is was a parcel for Daisy and Olive from two special boys who live on an Island! We really enjoyed opening all the exciting packages, here are some pictures of us doing that. 

We have read the book lots this morning as well!

Chicken Coop

These are pictures of Me, Olive, Dad and Grandad making a chicken coop in our backyard.  I helped with the hammer.  When we have finished it we will get some chickens to lay eggs for us to eat.  Sometimes Olive and I like playing in the chicken coop and pretending we are chickens. 

First day at girl guides!

Hi guys!

Last night was my first day of Girl Guides!


First, we had to sit in a circle and say our name, age, and favourite thing to do.

I said "My name is Antonia, i am 8 1/2, and my favourite thing to do is: listen to my one direction CD, and play Barbies."

Then we did a worksheet all about us.

After that, we sat in a circle again, and read our worksheet to the other girls.

Mine:

Name: Antonia

Nickname: Ant

Favourite colour: Yellow

Date of birth and/or age: 8, 16th of July 2004

Favourite food: Mum's macadamia + dark chocolate cookies

If you could go anywhere in the world for a holiday, where would that be?: France

What do you really not like?: Nuts, beans, and iron man.....
_________________________________________________________________________


There were 2 helpers called Bilby and Quoll (not real names).

Next we all sat at tables and made flowers to give to someone for valentines day. I made a flower for Vincent with a ladybug chocolate in the middle.

Then dad came to pick me up. We all stood in a circle and sang a song and did a routine.

Then the session was over.


I really loved my first day of Girl Guides!

Antonia Xxx

Vincent Lee (my brother)

Hi, I am Vincent Lee.

I am 5 3/4 years old.

I have a brother named Alex,
and a sister called Antonia.


I live with my Mum, my Dad, and my siblings. I am the 2nd youngest child in my family.

I like to go to athletics on friday nights. Last time I went, it was the first night of championships.
Which meant we get given ribbons if we win. I got a first place ribbon for long jump, vortex, and 2 races. I was really happy!

My best friends are Katie (girlfriend from little athletics) and Tom.

My favourite colour is Blue.

My favourite instrument is my guitar that I learn with my dad.

My favourite food is dad's curry, and homemade pizza.

My favourite thing to do is jumping on the trampoline, playing cars, playing with lego, playing mario brothers on the wii.

Bonorong Wildlife Park awesome experience

Hi, guys, today I am going to post about the day my Nan, my Dad, Vincent, and I went to Bonorong Wildlife Park, in Brighton. First we had to drive up a SUPER steep hill (Driveway).
Then we hopped out of the car. When we got out of the car, Dad found that a branch from the trees on the side of the road had scratched a big line down the side of the car! Dad was angry. We walked into the gates, and gave the lady our tickets, and walked in. First we spotted the kangaroos.

And so... We patted them.

After we patted them, we walked over to the baby wombat enclosure. But the baby wombat wasn't there :( So we walked over to the tour crowd, and started walking with them. Soon the tour stopped at the adult wombat. He was so cute!

He was eating carrot and raw pumpkin. Then the man talked about him. Then we started walking around again. Then all of a sudden he shouts "Who wants to see tassie devils?!" Of course, we said "YES!!!". So we walked over to the Tasmanian devils. Two of them were sisters. The sister tassie devils were fighting and chasing each other, it was funny to watch.

The man talked about them. Then we moved on. Next we went to the koalas, where we got to pat them. That was where the tour ended. But, we decided to keep walking around. So we went back to the kangaroos. And Since the lady at the beginning, gave us each a bag of kangaroo food, we decided to feed them.

 

I was, at first, scared of feeding a kangaroo. But once I tried it was fun!

After that, we had some food. Then we felt tired, and it was late, so we decided to go home. It was a GREAT experience.

Tom's Lego

Here's some creations of my Lego.

This is my Riverside Police Station with Police boat, two Police trucks and one of them is a prisoner transporter and there is a big helicopter to track the robbers down. There is a little one to take care of Lego city. The Police Station is on top of the Jail.  The Jail has two cells.

Here is a picture of the two helicopters with drivers.

Here is a picture of the Riverside Police station with no helicopters. Except you might see a helicopter in the background.

I made these creations the last week when my friend named Bodie came over to my house for a play.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did whilst we made them.

Tyler's Turn!

Hello everyone,
My name is Tyler!

I am nearly three and I like to make funny faces!
Other things I like are trains,

Playing dress ups

And riding my new bike that I got for christmas

I'm still learning how to pedal it but that's the fun part!

I live with my Mama in a town called New Plymouth. We live right by the beach and I love to go swimming and building sandcastles.
We have a cat called possum she lets me pat her.
We also had one caterpillar but it is a chrysalis now so I am very excited to see it become a butterfly.

On Waitangi day my mama took me to a place called Stoney Oaks and I got to hold a Guinea Pig and bottle feed a baby goat. It was so much fun because I love animals.

 

 

Thanks for reading,

Love from Tyler.

Sashie Sash

Hi! My name is Sasha. I am almost two! I can count to 17 all on my own (although it isn't always absolutely right) and I love to talk. all. day. long. (ask mum).  I live in Auckland with my mum and dad and two cats. One cat (Eri) leaves the room in terror every single time I come in - what's up with that? Our other cat Rikkah likes me slightly more, and sometimes she even rolls over in front me and shows me her belly. I like showing people my belly too so that is something we definitely have in common which is why we're friends I think. And we both like eating. A lot. Here is me trying to feed her by putting her tins right next to her. I'm so helpful!

So, let me tell you a bit about myself. This is my favourite place to blog:

And as you can see from the below picture, eating with my legs on the table is fun. Instead of telling me not to, my mum takes pictures! Phew.

Today mum and I went to the shopping centre. My doll April decided to have a sleep in the middle of the floor. So I lay down and slept with her. It was fun.

Last week I went to my friend Brodee's house (that's him in the background). My mum told his mum Rachel that she had heard of this cool stuff called Oooblek from reading this blog as my awesome friends in Kerikeri had a video with them playing with it, and then Rachel organised to have it at our group playdate at her house. This is me playing with it! Thanks Tom, Kate and Meg for the awesome idea!

Afterwards Lexie, Charlotte, Emma, Connor, Brodee and I played with some water. Both activities kept me entertained for approximately 64 seconds each (that's just over a minute mum says).

Does anyone else here like shoes? I am obsessed. I must ensure at all times that mum and dad are also wearing shoes because I get so much enjoyment from wearing mine that I don't want them to miss out on a single second. If I can't find my shoes though, I'm not fussy, I'll just try on the first pair I find. 

And I also like swimming on my tummy. Sometimes we go down to Whiritoa (which is between Waihi and Whangamata) where my nanny has a bach. They have an awesome lagoon where lots of kids hang out with their boogie boards and I love it there.

Love seeing all your pictures and reading your blogs and getting to know you all better. Thank you so much - this is such a cool idea.
x

Cael Makes Baking Soda Colours

Today I made baking soda art with baking soda, food colouring and vinegar. Mum set up some trays for me with baking soda sprinkled on it and mixed vinegar and food colouring to make it fizz. I had a lot of fun mixing the colours with an eye dropper. 

Baking soda and vinegar fizz when they are mixed because baking soda is a base and vinegar is an acid.

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem99/chem99116.htm
http://www.knowswhy.com/why-do-vinegar-and-baking-soda-react/
http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/bubblebomb.html

Mum says to pretend the kitchen is clean. Mum pretends a lot.