Meet the Princess of the Bouncy Castle

Last term our kindergarten committee (along with the teachers) planned a "Wheel-a-thon" fundraiser. The children got sponsored by their friends and families to ride their bikes, trikes, or scooters around a track we set up, and then the mayor came and gave prizes and we had a sausage sizzle. It was my first Wheel-a-thon, although they are apparently common fundraisers in NZ. 

It was decided at the planning meeting that we should have a bouncy castle to help keep the children entertained while they weren't biking/scootering. There was an awkward moment when everyone realized that someone would have to stay by the bouncy castle the whole time to keep everyone safe, which is not a very fun job. 

Then in occurred to me... I could be the Princess of the Bouncy Castle! The children would love to have a fancy princess show up to the Wheel-a-thon, and it would add lots more imaginative fun to the bouncy castle set up. After everyone recovered from my unsuspected and rather loud proclamation of this decision, they were all thrilled to have the bouncy caste supervision problem sorted, and excited at how much the children would enjoy it.

That week, I took and edited this picture, then turned it into a poster advertising the Wheel-a-thon. I spent quite a bit of the week being amused watching the children pull their parents over to it, saying, "Emma's a princess!" Many of the parents gave a distracted, "Yes, a princess," before doing a huge double take and exclaiming, "Emma really is the princess!" 

I also edited myself into this picture of a bouncy castle, in case we wanted more realism, but then the bouncy castle we actually rented was different colours, so I didn't use this one. I realized, far too late to do anything about it, that I didn't get any pictures of me with the actual bouncy castle I ruled over. Oh well.

At the last moment, I decided to wear my princess dress to kindergarten during the day of the evening Wheel-a-thon, to get the children (and parents) excited about it, so that more people would come. The children were hilariously in awe of me for a while, many of them coming up, shyly taking my hand, saying softly, "You're a real princess," and then darting off to smile at me from a distance. Of course, many of them got over this quickly, which was good, and we had a lovely day.

We sang one of the songs I've taught them recently, in which the children are my horses (my royal horses in this case). In this picture they're giving me high-fives as we count how many royal horses I have.

By the time the Wheel-a-thon started, it was too hot for the velvet sleeves, so I was a bit less formal for the actual event, which turned out well, as I had to climb around a bit to maintain some semblance of safety in my bouncy domain. Keeping children safe and trying to rotate them through fairly while keeping the numbers inside below the maximum was a task that taxed even my royal capabilities, especially given that there were tiny 1-year-olds in there with hulking 12-year-olds.

Notice, please, that I am holding the hand of one of my kids, and that you can see the gold of her beautiful Princess Belle dress she wore in order to match me. There was also a Queen Elsa in attendance. I regret that I can't post the pictures I took with them, because they are the most precious little royal girls you've ever seen!

Last Pictures from Susan's Visit

This post has a little of this and a little of that, as it contains the pictures that didn't fit into any of my other "Susan's Trip" posts.

It will also be rather brief on explanations, as I caught my left pointer finger in the gears of a drill at work, so I have to choose between trying to reprogram my brain to type without it, or deal with a stab of pain every time I type 'f', 'r', 't', 'g', 'v', or 'b'. I have chosen the former, leaving my brain rather discombobulated, so I will aim to be succinct.

Susan wasn't sure she'd be able to make it to the top of Paritutu, but she did!

We almost never get pictures with both J and I in them, so that was a special treat for us!

After Hobbiton, we took Susan to the Hamilton Garden, which she loved, as anyone would.

The red leaves in the Italian balcony were even more stunning than the green from last time.

Susan looking beautiful on the bridge, not realizing that the troll has come out from under it and is sneaking up on her!

Since the last time I was in the Hamilton Gardens (with Patty), they have opened a new "House of Tudor" area, including this wonderful Alice in Wonderland/Harry Potter garden.

J was immediately in love with the unicorn, of course.

I liked the dragon, which reminded me of the movie "Flight of Dragons" that I loved as a kid.

Did you know that Kiwifruit grows on vines like grapes? This was a majorly shocking and confusing discovery for me, although I did have to admit, upon reflection, that I'd never had much of a concept of where they would grow. Arguably, they would look just as strange on a bush or a tree.

It was a funny circumstance that we found ripe Kiwifruit on this trip, as Susan had just discovered the previous day that she found them delicious!

Susan fell in love with fantails on her first day in NZ, and decided that the one souvenir she wanted was a coffee/tea mug with one on it. Although we searched and searched, we still hadn't found one when she came to visit my kindergarten. Upon hearing this, my incredibly sweet and thoughtful colleague bought her a cute stuffed animal, complete with fantail sounds. Then when we finally did find this beautiful mug, the fantail set was complete!

Susan and Holly quickly became best friends, and had many lovely cuddles. Susan missed her dogs a lot while she was here, but Holly made sure that she never lacked dog affection.

Well, I'm sure everyone is shocked that I didn't manage to be very brief. Never was my best skill. Off to rest my busted finger now.

Hobbiton Part 2

The Hobbiton saga continues with some more lovely pictures.

This tree above some Hobbit holes was my favourite thing about Hobbiton. Apparently a huge, beautiful tree in an open area by a lake was what they were looking for when they searched for a spot to build Hobbiton, and they found it here. Bilbo Baggins' 111th (eleventy-first) birthday took place on the grass under this huge tree, which is actually a scene from the movie I remember, because it is so fun and pretty.

They had stilts and other Hobbity forms of amusement under the tree so that we could have our own little party. My dad makes stilts like this, so I have had practice, and was able to prance around in them a bit. Susan told me afterwards, with much amusement, that I will be featured in about 10 asian tourists' Hobbiton photos, as they were all taking pictures of me the whole time. Oops.

J tried the stilts as well, but the handles were actually not long enough for him, so it was hard for him to use them properly. But isn't that huge tree in the background fabulous?

Susan and I could totally be Hobbits, don't you think? I'd need a rounder face, but Susan's really got the whole package.

I loved this little water wheel and adorable house on the lake!

At the end of the tour, we got to have a complementary (as in included in the tour price) drink at the Green Dragon pub, which was quite fun. The pub had great ambiance and the drinks were actually delicious.

They had dress-up clothes there, so you could look like a Hobbit. I don't really remember what Hobbits dressed like in the movies, but I had fun dressing up anyway.

It was not a cold day, but I was still delighted with the roaring fire!

And finally... this is my favourite picture of Hobbiton. We have the adorable little Hobbit holes, the pretty little lake, the gorgeous party tree, and the vivid green grass, and it is just beautiful. 

In conclusion, Hobbiton was quite a lovely experience. Not my very favourite NZ attraction so far, but very enjoyable, beautiful, and definitely unique. J and I are pleased that we went with Susan, because her enthusiasm was infectious and helped us get into the Lord of the Rings spirit and enjoy it even more.

Hobbiton Part 1

We learned early on in Susan's visit that a big part of her inspiration for coming to NZ was watching the Lord of the Rings movies and being so impressed with the landscape. She so enjoyed going up into the mountains and seeing Mount Ngauruhoe, which is Mound Doom in the movies, and frequently commented on how the countryside reminded her of the movies. It occurred to me (rather belatedly) that she might like to go see Hobbiton, and when I suggested it, she was delighted. We planned a trip there for her last weekend in NZ, so we headed up to Matamata (north of us in the Waikato region) on Saturday morning.

This is the famous Bag End, where Bilbo and Frodo Baggins (along with many other Bagginses) lived. It is up on top of the hill with awesome views, and is a beautiful hobbit house.

Evidently, in the books, a big fuss was made about the oak tree above Bag End, so the director needed one there. For the Lord of the Rings movies, they moved a huge oak tree there from a neighbouring farm. But then, by the time they did the Hobbit movies, that tree had died, and anyway, they needed a tree that looked like the same tree, but 60 years younger. So they had this tree made exactly to their specifications and placed here. I know that it's fake, but even getting up close to it, it is the most realistic fake thing I've seen in a while.

Susan visiting Bag End. She was so very happy to be there, it was great!

I wasn't allowed in, given that I had no party business to attend to.

They explained when we got there that part of how they make things look bigger or smaller in the movies is by shooting from above or below. For example, Frodo is shot from above, while Gandalf is shot from below, making one seem tiny Hobbit-sized and the other seem tall wizard-sized. 

We tried this technique for this picture, and I think it worked well, although J is much more successfully huge looking! 

They had over 40 Hobbit holes, and many of them were specified to the occupation of the Hobbit who lives there. This one, as you can see, is the beekeeper's house, and while I don't think the hive is functional, there was real honey in the jars and some bees flying around. They try to keep things quite authentic.

J had a go at chopping some tiny wood for Hobbit-sized stoves.

 This was one of the bigger Hobbit holes. 

They had two sizes, so that they could shoot the Hobbits in front of the big ones to make them look small, and then shoot Gandalf in front of the small ones to make him look big. Very clever.

This is one of the smaller Hobbit holes. 

Also, notice the beautiful gardens in the front yard. The gardens throughout Hobbiton are all real and very well maintained.

Recognize this house? This is Samwise Gamgee's house, which delighted J because according to him, "Sam is the only good Hobbit anyway." I don't know about that, but I do remember that Sam comes home to two unbelievably adorable children in this house, so I appreciate it for that reason. And it is beautiful.

Also, thoughtful of J to dress to match his favourite Hobbit's house.

I ended up with too many pictures for one post, so look for Hobbiton Part 2 soon.