Sugar Monsters!!

Over our most recent break we found ourselves content to stay close to home.  Originally there were grandiose ideas of trekking to the North Island or at least to the top of the South Island (at least 10 hours drive), but once the break was upon us and we found ourselves without commitment, time schedules or deadlines, we enjoyed the quiet stillness of our home.  Grace, being the social butterfly, had many sleep overs with her BFF Tayla.  The first of many beginning one afternoon when Grace and I had walked down to the Botanical Gardens to enjoy the sunshine.  We asked if Tayla could be dropped off to play for a few hours.  It wasn't long before Grace remembered that John had promised to pay her if she picked up all the apples in our back garden.  In sharing this information with Tayla, they began discussing their price and announced that they were ready to go back home.  There are TONS of apples that have fallen from our tree and are beginning to rot laying on the ground.  The girls spent about an hour picking up apples till they were all gone, they filled our wheel barrel.  They were tough negotiators, John held his ground and paid them each   $3, they were lobbying for $10 each.  No sooner than this money was in their sticky little hands were they out the door and down the block to the Dairy.  This place has shelves lined with lollies, ice cream by the scoop, drawers of popsicles and coolers full of sugary drinks... A kids paradise.  They always choose to spend their pocket money in this way, coming home with little white bags full of sugary treats, stained tongues and lots of giggles.  On a sunny afternoon you can usually find them sitting outside the door to the dairy enjoying some frozen treat.  They come home sugared up and we send them back outside to expel their energy.  The school is a very short scooter ride from our house so typically they wheel down there and play on the monkey bars with other friends that have also been kicked from their houses, no doubt for the same offense.  After their most recent Dairy raid we discovered a lolly pop stuck to the mantle and a gummy alligator under our couch (the girls had the run of the living room that day) So as a result we have now imposed the Dairy Law, basically stating that if they wish to spend their hard earned money on lollies they MUST bring them home and set them out on the kitchen table.  The candy will then be rationed as we see fit, hoping to gain some control in this sticky situation.  It is amazing how quickly they go from sweet cuddle little girls to raging tornadoes of crazy, the sugar does something to their brains, sort of a Dr. Jekyll Mrs. Hyde effect, and it can get quite scary.