Bus / Life Learning Week Four

31st May 2014

Well we have been in our bus for 4 weeks now.
Still loving every minute of it.
Even though we have a few leaky spots when it rains, which require the careful placement of containers to collect the drips.
Even though we have to regulate when the tanks (toilet & grey water) need emptying or re filling.
There is still something so pure, comforting and tranquil about this way of life.
We have some people comment about the cold living in our bus, but I have lived in houses that are way worse than what we are living in now.
Our little heater, heats up the bus great.
Being at a motor camp means we can have the heater running all night if we like as we pay a set amount to be parked up and connected to their power source.

Our only dilema we had this week was our toilet waste tank got full.
We knew this because the toilet tank of fresh water ran out.
When we went to empty it, the pump was working but nothing was coming out.
With daylight savings here, hubby was trying to solve our toilet issue after work.
With daylight fastly fading, we decided to leave fixing it till the weekend.
Which meant that we now had to use the motor camp toilets.

As you can see by this photo, that building behind us is the toilets/ shower/ kitchen building.

So we don't have to go far.

But when the bladder demands to be emptied at some un godly hour and their is frost on the ground.

It can be a very un exciting, but desperately needed, walk to the toilet.

As for Miss Personality, she loves living here.

When she has had enough of the conversations with mum and dad, she goes off for a wander and chats with who ever she finds.

She has made a friends with the care takers son and his sister. She has made friends with Helen, one of the staff members of the motor camp.

This is her week:

Monday 26th May 2014

Got up early to take dad to work.

Stopped in to visit grandad.

Miss Personality made good use of the tv while we were there, as she has such a horrible life with out a tv, NOT!

Went to the local library

Miss Personality asked librarian for help to find where the reserved books are kept, so she knows where to find them in future.

Asked about reserving some books on minecraft, looms and dvd's on Horrible Histories.

Picked some books and dvd's and issued them using the self service computer and her library card.

We are just loving the library. Kids dvd's are free to get out and she can have them for 2 weeks.

The other dvd's are $2.50 each for 2 weeks.

So I got out: Scrapheap Challenge, Bear Gryills - New Zealand, The West Wing - Season 2, Dr Quinn Medicine Woman - Season 1, Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Rodrick Rules & Dog Days, Chronicles of Narnia - The Dawn Treader, Sooty and Sweep - The Big Surprise, Bindi The Jungle Girl.

We came home and Miss Personality made her lunch - yoghurt and apple.

Watched DVD - The Magic School Bus -  Exploring Space. 2 Episodes, Out of this world - space junk, comets, meteors and asteroids. Get lost in space - Solar system.

Watched DVD -  Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated -  Danger in the Deep - 6 episodes.

Miss Personality then finished off her maths work sheets from the other day, to earn a pebble.

She dried and put away dishes to earn another pebble, and did 2 other worksheets where she has to find objects in the picture, to earn 2 more pebbles.

Using 5 pebbles she chose to watch DVD Tom & Jerry and The Wizard of Oz.

I had forgotten that she needs to use 5 pebbles to watch a DVD, so she got away with the first 2 DVD's :)

We then had to drive back into town as she had a her musical theatre lesson.

She absolutely loves this and looks forward to each lesson. 

She gets to do singing, dancing and drama.

They are practicing for the production at the end of the year, that is based on the story of The Little Mermaid.

Tuesday 27th May 2014

Miss Personality read some books in bed.

They were DK readers. 

2 were based on the Indiana Jones movies, which she has seen a couple of.

The other one was called Finding the Titanic and then she read some jokes from the National Geographic book called Just Joking.

She watched Dr Quinn Medicine Woman with me.

I really liked this show when it use to be on tv.

We have also watched first season of Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables.

We did lots of talking about how they use to live back then.

Because it is based on the story of a woman doctor, Miss Personality asked about medicine and how it has changed and when did it change. I said that is a good question and we will have to look for a book on it, next time we are at the library.

I dug out a suitcase full of her toys that she had forgotten about. I set it up on our bed and she happily played with them for an hour or so.

She chose to use 5 pebbles to play minecraft  for 60min on the ipad.

Miss Personality then asked to paint her toes and fingernails with nail polish.

I find this activity is actually great for fine motor skills and hand/ eye co ordination.

She got given some countdown cards from grandma the other day. So she was putting them in order of their values on the back. They have different number values for strength, mischeif, bravery and memory.

She then put her montessori inspired beads in groups and add them up to see how much was in each group.

Wednesday 28th May 2014

Watched another episode of Dr Quinn Medicine Woman.

Talked about hypothermia.

Miss Personality read to me, a bit about it from a book, about to treat hypothermia. We had got from the library.

Bushcraft and Survival - In an emergency by Neil Champion.

We also talked about head injury and how it can affect you and cause you blindness.

Also about relationships of different people who lived back then, in that period of time.

Miss Personality helped me find the things we needed at the supermarket.

When we got back to the motor camp, Miss Personality decided to go off and see if she could find Helen, one of the staff members at the camp.

Then I spotted her later playing with the caretakers son and his big sister.

Thursday 29th May 2014

We had to go to Auckland from Tauranga as dad had to have a check up with a specialist and have a medical procedure done to scan / ultra sound his pancreas from the inside.

Miss Personality watched some DVD's on the drive down.

 - Tom & Jerry and The Wizard of Oz

- Shaun the Sheep

- Barbie and The Pearl Princess

When battery ran out on portable dvd player, she then turned to playing games on dad's iphone and ipod.

While we were waiting for dad to come out from having the medical procedure done.

We played some games of hangman.

Miss Personality was using signs and labels on the walls in the waiting room to chose her words, that mum had to guess.

She also did some games in the magazines in the waiting room.

Didn't get home till after 10pm, long drive home.

Friday 30th May 2014

Miss Personality is doing a monkey using the loom bands. She is trying to do it from memory as she has done it a few times. When she had finished it didn't come out quiet like it was suppose to, so she pulled it all apart and said she would have another go later.

Watched DVD - The Chronicles of Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

I asked her if she would like me to read her the next book in the series so that when the movie came out, we would know what it was about. She said ok. So I looked up on my phone what the next book was called and read to Miss Personality a bit of what it was about.

Watched DVD of Sooty & Sweep -  The Big Surprise. 

I remember watching this when I was a child.

I know my daughter loves slap stick comedy, so I knew she would enjoy it, and I was right.

She was giggling away a few times and we talked about how they were puppets and where the person who was operating them was hiding.

Miss Personality noticed on the cover of the dvd that it went for 100min. She calculated how many hours that was 100min = 1hr and 40min.

Watched DVD - Suzy's World.

This one was on Little Critters, like spiders, flies and how they stick to the wall/ ceiling, glow worms and what makes them glow and why. cicada's, sandfly and why they bite and how, weta. With each insect she also discussed their life cycle.

Miss Personality also got out her book Guinness World Records 2004. She wanted to find the rarest flower, it didn't have it in there.

She then asked me to read to her - the most poisonous fungi, most massive plant, largest prey consumed by a carnivorous plant, smelliest flower.

Watched DVD Scrapheap Challenge with the family.

The lovely Sue Elvis has started vlogging (I think that is what it is called). 

She does a blog called Stories of an Unschooling Family.

I love reading her blog because she is so down to earth and just natural and someone you can really relate to.

Any way she did this short (8min) video called Does Unschooling Work?

http://www.storiesofanunschoolingfamily.com/2014/05/twice-five-minutes-on-friday-does.html

I found it reassuring, as I am sure all home schooling parents need a little every now and again.

I really connected with what she said about how after they turn 18 years old, or what ever age they decide to venture off into the world. That they are pretty much unschooling, learning from their own interests and from any mistakes they make along the way.

Bus / Life Learning Week Three

23rd May 2014

Monday 19th May 2014
We used the car for the day as we had an appointment at Musical Theatre.
So we got up early to take dad to work.
Visited grandma at her work, as she had JP at her work to sign our declaration for homeschooling allowance.
We hung out at grandma's while we waited for time for appointment, then for dad to finish work.
Miss Personality got to catch up on her tv time, and mum got to catch up on her internet / You Tube tutorials.
Picked up dad from work, dropped off Miss Personality to her Musical Theatre lesson.
Heard a car go past with a squeak in the engine, which lead to us talking about the fan belt and what it does and why does it squeak.

Tuesday 20th May 2014
Miss Personality is still loving this pebbles/ stones reward system.
She chose to use 5 pebbles so she could have 30min on ipad.
She then read some pages of her Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Last Straw, while she was getting dressed.
Miss Personality then followed the instruction on a YouTube tutorial, to make a dolphin.
Wasn't quiet going the way she wanted it to, so she changed to the flower blossom bracelet.
She chose to use another 5 pebbles to use the ipad for another 30min.
Miss Personality then followed the YouTube tutorial for the triple link chain bracelet.
She made a mistake the first time she tried it, then pulled it apart and had another go.
Usually she would just get frustrated and not want to do it again.

Watched the DVD - Aliens In The Attic, and Short Circuit.

Wednesday 21st May 2014
Watched DVD of Mamma Mia.
Did her personal jobs.
Watched DVD of Barbie and the Magic Pegasus.
Miss Personality followed the YouTube tutorial to make a monkey on the loom band.

Miss Personality read me facts of interest that she had found in the Guinness World Records 2004 book.

She chose to have baked beans for lunch, so opened her can herself, and poured them into an appropriate bowl to heat them in the microwave at the motor camp kitchen.

She chose to do 3 maths worksheets, to earn another pebble.

She used the montessori inspired tools that I had made a while ago, to help her complete the worksheets.

Worksheets covered, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, algebra, decimals, money, calendar, time and roman numerals.

She also did some colour by numbers pages, but to find out the colour she had to answer maths sums.

Thursday 22nd May 2014

Watched DVD of A Night at a Museum and Eragon.

Made another flower blossom bracelet with loom band after following YouTube tutorial.

Saw Miss Personality writing in her diary.

She asked about how many days we have been living in our bus.

So I showed her how it was recorded on the calendar.

She put the word on our fridge into alphabetical order.

She text dad at work, on my iphone.

She played some games on my computer.

Australian Explorers - History of miners and explorers of Australia.

A game of chess with the computer.

Space Quest - Had to spell the word given to pass through special doors into new areas.

Miss Personality likes mashed potato and gravy for lunch. The only catch is she has to peel the potatoes. So she peeled some potatoes.

Played Zoo Tycon. Have to build a zoo, making sure to build the right habitats for each group of animals. Also make sure that the animals are well looked after and the customers, so they keep coming back and visiting your zoo.

Friday 23rd May 2014

Drew a picture of mum using the mini whiteboard and whiteboard pens.

Watched a movie - Gremlins.

Read some pages of her Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Cabin Fever while getting dressed.

We started having a few arguments, so mum decided a walk along the beach was needed.

On the way to beach Miss Personality found a birds nest that had been blown out of a tree. She went on to tell me that birds use spit to make their nests.

While we were at the beach, she collected shells and some sand.

When she got home she used the sand, shells and some water to make some thing with.

She chose to use 5 pebbles to watch a DVD - Cinderella 3

She dried the dishes to earn a pebble.

Miss Personality seems to be struggling a bit today with regulating her frustrations.

Feels annoyed that she needs to earn pebbles to do certain things she wants to do.

After expressing her frustration and having some time to calm down.

She ended up choosing to do some workbooks to earn some more pebbles.

She did 6 pages of her science workbook. Which covered teeth, teeth care, food groups, how our bodies use food, parts of a plant and the the parts do. Got her to read to me what she had learnt and helped her with the words she found that were hard.

She did 3 pages of her maths workbook to earn another pebble.

She did 3 pages of her Grammar and Punctuation work book to earn another pebble.

She did 3 maths worksheets and used her montessori inspired tools to help her.

They covered division, multiplication, addition, subtraction, fractions, money, calendar, time, decimals, measurements, weights and volume.

Finished off with finding objects in a picture. A bit like the Where's Wally? books.

Now she is happily using her pebbles/ stones she has earned to have a swim in the camping grounds hot pools :)

Bus / Life Learning Week Two

16th May 2014

Monday 12th May 2014
Watched DVD Bugsy Malone.
While getting dressed Miss Personality read some pages from two Captain Underpants books.

Miss Personality also flicked through a book called Marsh Brain's How Stuff Works. She put post it stickers on the pages she would like dad to read to her at a later time.

She used the contents page and the index page to help her find a particular page.

Also asked what CPR was.

Miss Personality wanted to do the washing and asked for mum to show her how. So mum explained how to separate the clothes from the towels and then asked her if she knew why. Then mum showed her how to load washing machine, let her put laundry liquid in and turn it on by putting the coins in. Who knew doing the washing could be so exciting :)

Miss Personality went to the dairy beside the motor camp, by herself, and bought some milk for mum.

Miss Personality did some baking, made chocolate cupcakes.

She then washed the dishes from breakfast and doing baking.

Minecraft for 60min.

Went hedgehog hunting with the caretaker's son.

Musical Theatre lesson.

Tuesday 13th May 2014

Watched DVD Happy Feet - talked about the effects of net fishing on the environment and sea animals habitat.

30 to 45min walk along the beach.

Played a game of giant chess with mum.

Miss Personality made some packet gravy, to go with some left over mashed potato for lunch.

Read some pages of Captain Underpants book.

Watched DVD, Battle in the Atlantic & Barbie Fairytopia.

Wednesday 14th May 2014

Read some pages from a book called Garfield Makes It Big by Jim Davis, while getting dressed.

Miss Personality typed up a list of rewards, using a pebble/ white stone system. She gets a pebble every time mum or dad notice that she is working hard at, no arguing, no yelling, and her personal jobs with no drama, and helping out around the bus. For every 5 pebbles she earns she can chose a reward of her list.

Walked to the shops and back with mum.

Miss Personality listened to some music from a CD she got from Musical Theatre lesson on The Little Mermaid. Practiced her song and routine.

Played a game of scrabble with mum.

Played a game of Uno with mum.

Chose to use 5 pebbles to play Minecraft for 60min.

Watched DVD, Cheaper By The Dozen.

Thursday 15th May 2014

Ipad - Virtual Villagers

        - Where's My Perry?

       - Doodle Maths

        - Hungry Fish

Watched DVD The Golden Compass.

Skip counting/ 3 times tables to figure out how many pages of a workbook she would need to do to earn 5 pebbles.

Miss Personalty did 3 pages of her word find workbook. Had to label a diagram of a insect, do a word find on bugs, do a word find on snakes.

Chose to use 5 pebbles on a reward of going to the dairy and buying a lollipop for 50 cents, by herself.

Watched DVD of disney classic, Peter Pan.

Went and played at motor camp playground.

Minecraft for 60min.

Played with the caretakers son.

Friday 16th May 2014

Did her personal jobs.

Went for a wonder around motor camp and got talking with a staff member called Helen. She ended up buying 6 more of Miss Personality's loom band bracelets.

Miss Personality was getting a bit confused with different prices for each bracelet, so mum suggested typing up a price list on the ipad.

Watched DVD Horton Hears a  Who.

Made a couple of bracelets on the loom band.

Miss Personality wanted mashed potato and gravy for lunch, so mum asked her to peel the potatoes.

Ipad -  Virtual Villagers

        - Where's My Perry?

        - Doodle Maths.

Miss Personality chose to use 5 pebbles on a reward of going to the diary to buy a lollipop, by herself.

She then chose to do the dishes so she could earn another pebble.

Miss Personality then chose to do 3 pages of her word find workbook, so she could earn another pebble. 

Then she spotted the caretaker's son and his sister, so went off to play with them, climbing trees and playing tag.

Bus / Life Learning Week One

16th May 2014

Monday 5th May 2014 - Start of Term Two 
Miss Personality drew up a plan of what her stall would look like, and then wrote a list of all the things she would need to set it up. We also talked about float/ till of extra money she would need, making a sign, presentation of her bracelets and rings.
Miss Personality also used the ipad to:
- Take care of her pet horse
- Played A Game Of Life
- Doodle Maths, did an assessment to see what level she should start at, then did some Maths. She likes this as she earns stars which she can then use later to buy accessories for her pet penguin.

- Played a game called Where is Perry? You have to do a series of level where you have to help Perry that platypus escape.
Miss Personality had her first class of Musical Theatre lessons.

Tuesday 6th May 2014
Did her personal jobs.
Watched DVD of A Gulliver's Travels.
Miss Personality learnt how to light gas elements on stove. So that she could make mum and dad a cup of tea, using the whistling kettle.
Played a game of gutter ball with dad.
Tara asked mum to show her how to make a rainbow ladder bracelet with the loom band, so she could make her own.
Ipad - Doodle Maths
        - Virtual Villagers
        - Minecraft for 60min
Mum and Miss Personality played Skipbo, Tri-dominoes and Uno.
Miss Personality had a swim in the motor camp hot pools.

Watched the DVD, The Game Plan & Highschool Musical 3.

Wednesday 7th May 2014
Mum taught Miss Personality how to play chess at the motor camp's giant chess set.

Played a game of Sequence with mum.

Played gutter ball with dad.

Chopped up banana for mum, so she could add it to the chocolate banana muffins.

Watched DVD Hairspray - it brought about the topic of racism, and how it was in the movie and how it is still today.

Went and played another game of chess.

Miss Personality made some more rings and bracelets with the loom band.

Thursday 8th May 2014

Ipad - Doodle Maths

        - Virtual Villagers

        - Checkers

Visited a friend of her dad's. He is an interior plasterer. While we were there, it got Miss Personality thinking and talking about all the different jobs/ trades that is takes to build a complete house.

Minecraft for an hour.

Watched National Geographic DVD on Secrets of the Titanic & Seconds from disaster: Titanic.

Making bracelets on loom band.

Went for a swim in motor camp hot pools.

Friday 9th May 2014

Ipad - Virtual Villagers

        - Checkers with mum

        - Puzzle

        - Flow Free

        - Where is Perry?

Had a visit from a friend.

Miss Personality took her for a tour of the motor camp and explained how everything worked.

Mum asked Miss Personality to show her how to make the Minecraft Creeper bracelet.

Watched DVD: Magic School Bus - Butterfly and the Bog Beast, Gets Ants in it's Pants.

Watched DVD Evan Almighty.

Minecraft for 60min.

Whose Are Those Footsteps?

13th May 2014

Well we may be snuggled up in our winter pajamas by night, but by day we have this lovely sunny weather.

This is Papamoa beach, and that is Mount Maunganui in the distance.

This is Motiti Island.

After spotting some interesting prints in the sand, Miss Personality and I talked about what animals they belonged too.

We also noticed other marks in the sand, like various tyre tracks.

Was a lovely way to spend another day in lovely Papamoa.

Meet Mr Prickles and Ninga.

13th May 2014

This is Mr Prickles.

It's not his real name, but for the sake of this, I think it suited him/ her.

On Sunday Miss Personality made friends with the caretakers son, who was walking around with what looked like a hedgehog in his hands.

This is the first child we had seen here at the motor camp.

It is winter, so there is not a lot of people around.

I mentioned to Miss Personality, "oh I wonder what that boy has?".

Off she went as quick as lightning to investigate.

She came back with a look of excitement on her face.

Come have a look, she said.

Miss Personality is still a bit creature shy, since our adventure in Australia.

Due to the fact that most things there bite or sting.

So it took her a while to have a go and touch the hedgehog.

After the caretakers son had a touch and mum, to show her that it was okay, Miss Personality had a touch too.

This is Ninja the motor camp cat, who decided to see what all the fuss was  about too.

The caretakers son picked up Mr Prickles and he instantly curled up into his protective ball.

The caretakers son had heaps of knowledge about hedgehogs and was happy to share it with Miss Personality as she fired questions at him about the ball of prickles.

She came away saying "Boy he knows a lot about nature" :)

7 Days And Counting :)

It has been one whole week, we made it!

Not that I didn't think we would :)

Every morning we get beautiful rays of sunshine streaming in.

So quiet and blissful.

No more major traffic streaming past our home.

Why didn't we think of this years ago :)

But I think, even if someone had of suggested it to us, we would never have been open minded enough to be inspired by it. So everything happens for a reason.

Miss Personality has been enjoying having a soak in the camping ground pools every night.

And dad has been enjoying recovering from his surgery in total relaxation.

His last few jobs he has had, has been working 6 days a week.

So having this time off has been a dream come true.

It is awesome too having the visitors we have been having, now we are back in our home town.

We are all enjoying being closer to Miss Blondini too, especially dad.

We even got to watch Miss Blondini do a fantastic job at her first gymnastics competition of the year.

But with dad starting a new job soon, we have to wait till the wages start rolling in again, before we can save for our first goal, which is him getting his truck licence.

Any one else been through this process in New Zealand lately?

How was it?

Which were the challenging parts?

How long did it take before you could drive on the road?

Once he has his truck licence, there will be no holding us back and we will be going for as many trips as we can to Gisborne, to catch up with Mr Affectionate, and Mr Confident and his little family.

The only negative we have found so far about living in our bus, is the internet.

New Zealand is so expensive when it comes to mobile internet.

So at the moment using our Iphones as a hotspot is all we have.

But then again, one of the reasons of living in the bus was down sizing our bills.

So I guess it is something we will just have to get use to :)

For now we are enjoying snuggling up in our pajamas at night, watching DVD's together as a family before bed. Having the moonlight shine down through our pop up window on the roof as we chat and gently drift off to sleeping listening to the waves at the beach, which is just across the road.

Little Miss Sales Lady :)

11th May 2014

Miss Personality had it suggested to her that maybe she should try and sell some of her wonderful loom band bracelets.

 If only that person knew what making a comment like that would inspire in her,lol.

The next day she drew up a diagram of what she imagined her stall would look like.
Then she talked about what things she would need to make her stall.
Then she wrote a list of the things she would need.
We talked about where the best place would be for her to set up her stall.
I mentioned to her, about the local markets that are held every Sunday or every 2nd Sunday in some places.
The thing is, like most people who get inspired by an idea, is we want to do it now, and that is what Miss Personality wanted to do.
It took a little convincing for her to realize that we can't rush into these things and we had to work out a few things first.
Like making the bracelets and rings to sell.
Having a float, which brought about another discussion on what a float is.
Finding out how much it would cost to set up a stall at the local markets.
Resourcing the things we would need to set up the stall, like fold up table.

So for now we have just been in bracelet and ring making mode :)

The difficult part is with out endless amounts of internet, like what we use to have when we had a landline.

We have to try and remember how to make these bracelets from the one time we did them, while watching a tutorial on you tube.

So far, we have the minecraft creeper bracelet, the rainbow ladder bracelet, the starburst  bracelet and the fishtail down pat. (I think that is how you say it)

Miss Personality is the starburst rings, she can just about make them with her eyes closed.

She taught me how to make the minecraft creeper bracelet.

I was talking with Miss Personality about how much she wanted to charge for each bracelet in her stall.

She mentioned a couple of prices, but I said we should figure out how much they were worth to make before coming up with a price.

So after we figured out that, dad mentioned including in there the time it takes to make a bracelet. Still not sure how to put a price on that or how other people do for that matter.

Does any one know how business come up with a figure or amount to charge or add to the price of a product, when they are selling them?

Any way, Miss Personality's big sister, Miss Blondini, had a big gym competition yesturday.

Miss Personality said that she wanted to bring her loom band, so she would have something to do.

So I suggested that maybe she could bring her stash of made bracelets. Then if anyone commented on her loom band,she could offer it to them to buy one. Miss Personality got very excited with this idea and packed everything up in her bag.

When we got there, Miss Personality found Miss Blondini's other sister and they happily sat down chatting and excitedly doing their loom bands. Before you knew it, there was a group of young girls gathered, all drawn to the excitement and addiction that is loom banding :)

After a little while I heard Miss Personality say, "Would you like a bracelet, if you do they will cost ............".

She then came over to us with the hugest grin on her face, with utter excitement and amazement at the fact someone had actually bought a couple of her bracelets.

Then the word was getting out, and we noticed a few mum's scrummaging around in their hand bags for change so their daughter/ son could go by a bracelet.

By the end of the day she had made $8 and couldn't be any happier.

She was even honest enough to remind a mum, who came back with change, that her purchase had only been $3.50 and not $5.50. The mum congratulated her on her honesty.

Moving In Day!

6th May 2014

Two day ago we started our new life living in a house bus.

After some minor frustrations as we piled all our stuff into the bus and had to clean our old home.

We could finally be on our way, not only moving into a house bus, but also moving areas.

We arrived in Papamoa later that day and had free range of the motorcamp.

Since it is winter, there is practically no one else here, which is just awesome!

We chose a motorcamp as our first place to park up for a while, as we just needed a bit of time to get our heads around the running of our new bus. As well as being close to a dump station, electricity, and somewhere to wash our clothes.

When we first got here I had to empty out the bus of all our belongings and then re organise them into the workable places for everything to go.

Our bedroom is right up the back of the bus. It is super cost and very snugly.

There are four bunk beds. We created a cosy snug little space that resembles kind of like a hut for Miss Personality, to not only sleep in, but also her own space to do what she wants in. An identical snug spot has been created on the other bottom bunk for when Miss Blondini comes to stay. 

The top two bunks, will be used for extra storage.

Miss Personality loved it on our first night, as she was so close to our bedroom. That she could just lie in her bed and chat to us about all her worries, concerns and thoughts and then drift off to sleep as happy as can be :)

All our personal touches have been placed, and everything has been given a home, even Blousey & Elizabeth the mice :)

It rained the second night, and we found a few spots that leaked, but we think it may have been more from the top pop up windows, that had been opened and may have not been shut completely properly.

We still have a few things on our wish list to get at some point. Like an inverter, as there are no power points in the bus. We also need to get the bus certified so that we can legally and safely use the powered sites at motorcamps. We also need to get a truck licence so that we can move around our bus or go visiting Mr Affectionate and Mr Confident and his little family in Gisborne.

The best part about our first night in our new home, was going to sleep listening to the sounds of birds, the waves at the beach, such bliss.