Great Uncle Pat's Visit

The rain did come...but not enough to dent the hopes of the intrepid trio.

Katie is obviously getting the most out of the early morning rises. She ‘checked' with me three times before 6am if it was after 6. {When I did get up at 6.15 I took her by the hand and showed her the clock..."Do you know what a 6 looks like?....'Yes'...Well...when there is a 6 on this clock it is after 6 and then you can wake me up."}

Benny had been up in the middle of the night... My side of the bed at 2.30am. He seemed a bit cold so I got up and helped him ‘activate' the instant heat pack in his bed. He has moved his Christmas ‘Electric brain' lamp {one of those zappy electricity globes that you can touch and the beams of light go where your fingers touch the glass globe}...Benny uses this to see by in the middle of the night. I think we are going to have to take it back. Every time he uses it the touch lamps in our room next door go on and off. Clare seems to find this annoying at 2.30am.

Tim wasn't going to be disturbed (His Mum thought the little guy could use a longer sleep in) but he heard the herd thundering along downstairs and got himself up and presented himself dressed and ready to go!

While waiting for ‘The Boys', Katie found her two dollar coin under the tooth fairy cup. {Right hand side bottom eye tooth came out yesterday. I don't know how she can keep from taking it out herself. The thing was barely hanging by a hope let alone a thread! It was just about wobbling in and out with each breath. I put it out of her misery with a gentle tug and we put it in a glass of water for the fairy.} Katie was very pleased to find the $ and took the coin out into the light to ‘read how much it was worth'. She also found an envelope (envelote in Katie speak) with the $3.50 for her field trip. I suspect she was counting on the Tooth fairy money to make up the balance of the field trip requirement...because when she found and counted the money for her trip she came and offered me the $2 coin. "I have enough money Daddy." I told her to put her coin upstairs where she could find it when she wanted it.

We were at the top of the driveway by 6.35 or so... I had to go back and get the rubbish ‘wheelie' bin pulled up for the collection today...the kids rambled in circles at the top of the drive waiting for me.

Benny had a ‘new plan' this morning. We would go the route in reverse from yesterday: The ‘Red Baron' path to the beach...down the beach to the park and back along the street. I couldn't think of any strong objections so we followed the new plan.

Tim, who is our ultra-conservative, thought all this Liberal thinking this early in the morning was a bit rough...but in the spirit of bi-partisan unity he kept his mouth shut after the group came to a consensus. He walked alongside Benny (on his bike) while Katie held my coffee mug. The hill down the Red Baron road is slightly longer but less steep. Benny was convinced that ‘no cars are coming Dad (he calls back to me) for maybe...oh five minutes!' I say, "wait for me anyway." And we cross the street together.

Katie recognises the beach access and reminds Tim that "This is the Red Baron way." I asked Benny why they called it the Red Baron way...he reminded me that at one point in history he and Katie had walked down that street pretending to be tri-planes shooting at each other...Benny the Red Baron and Katie on Snoopy's Sopwith camel I suppose (mystery solved).

Benny is anxious to race ahead...Tim and Katie are anxious that he stays with the group. So we play leapfrog down the beach where, Benny racing ahead, and Tim and Katie catching him up and making him wait for me to arrive.

We found our treasures in reverse...The dinosaur skull, then the search for where the mutton bone was hidden...(I tried to get a picture of it but it was still too dark in the beach access path where Katie had secured it from roving ‘mutton bone Pirates'.

Just as we cleared the path out of the dunes to the beach a sprinkle of rain started in on us, a choice had to be made...run for home or gut it out. Tim said, "Wait a minute Dad...I donna talk wiff God. .... My asked him to stop da wain in 2 minutes!" {Tim still has some consonant issues but evidently a very good relationship with the Lord... because the rain stopped in 2 minutes and we weren't bothered by it until we were back on our way home.)

The tide is way out. It is an unpainted canvas. Benny races ahead and probably tries to put ‘world record skid marks' on the beach...it is his passion. He put a skid on the blacktop road at the top of the drive on one of the first days he learned to ride...I think he associates skid marks with graffiti because he told me..."I hope the police don't find out I did that... I think I will tell them you did it!"...and he scurried his bike away to the back of the house. I encourage skids in the sand and discourage the skids on the pavement that only serve to wear out his back tyres.

The rain quit on cue, and we made it over the little bridge over the little stream with no fuss. The ducks were in the pond waiting for the drive-by razzing from the kids.

I noticed that each individual pursued their own favourite ‘event' at the skate-board park. Then in short order they found themselves all together comparing what fun they were having. Tim was showing his independence when he refused to join Katie and Benny at the top of the ‘up and down'.

We caught up with Keisha the Alsatian...a quick lick and she was gone. The walk under the tree lined foot path suited us all as a fine mist started in again. Clare called and warned me that the hot porridge was now hot...so to get the herd back to the corral.

Clare gave the kids a lift to school since the rain looked to catch us if we walked. The day ‘fined up' and I walked to school to pick them up in the afternoon.

Tim came out with his lunch order forms in hand...and the rest of his back pack in disarray. {If the kids can finish ALL of their lunches all week...they are in for having a bought lunch on Friday...Tim is a keen player for this treat!}

Katie shows me her latest art work...a (don't look Honey...) Mother's day card. It is typical good Katie art work and I store it safe in her book bag (on protest...as she wanted to hand carry it all the way home).

Benny finally arrives, this time without a ‘bonk' in the head from any miscreant chairs. Tim and Katie are chasing one of Tim's classmates around the quad... to determine if the boy is truly ticklish. He denied it...but ran anyway.

The trip back was loooong as the kids were in an adventurous mood. Down along the footpath there is a 6 foot cyclone fence that borders the local golf course. It is sometimes UP and it is sometimes DOWN. On the Hills the boys stand tall (almost every trip) but today the valleys were what were interesting and Benny and Katie went over the bank to see what could be seen at the bottom. Predictably...beer bottles, cigarette lighters, rubbish and grass over their ears. The third time they tripped and disappeared into a hole I put the keebosh on the whole adventure and hauled them back up to the path.

We stopped to watch the builders at the house up the street from us. A pneumatic jack hammer proved fascinating... I had to pull Benny off the builder who was being subjected to a game of ‘twenty questions'.

The evening was taken up by a visit from Grandma and her brother Pat. Great-Uncle Pat was a great favourite of Katie's. A story was authored on the spot. Katie wrote, "Uncle Pat is a Super Hero! He rescues girls from Poison Ivy! I love Uncle Pat!....Katie" and made an appropriate picture to go with the story. Uncle Pat took it with him when he went home.

Uncle Pat is turning 80 this year... and if attention from kids can keep you young...he should be good for another 20! Katie had him read her two ‘fairy tales'...and then she read him her favourite, "The Gruffallo". Grandma seemed pleased...as she gave Katie the book and had been helping Katie to read it as well. An hour of telling stories after tea and Great Uncle Pat looked relieved when the kids got shooed off to bedtime preparations.

Benny ran a good run with spelling his words. He gave Uncle Pat a thorough run of all the hard words. (Pat was Headmaster at a boys school in the South Island...so it was pretty hard to stump the ole' fella.)

Benny was certain that I had agreed to read Asterix and Obelix with him (ha! He had agreed in his head that it was a good idea and a good deal if I did...but I told him it would have to wait until Uncle Pat left.) Tim and Katie joined me on the bed as we went through the first third of the book...and then they all got tucked into bed.

It is 8.30...but I still hear nefarious thumping noises from upstairs...so I think the start in the morning might be a bit late!