Avalon Childcare

17/09/2026

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Dinsdale Library again with our preschoolers!
This is always such an exciting excursion, especially catching the bus!

The tamariki all practiced lining up like at the bus station before we left 😁

The Storytime session at the library was so cool! There was a REAL zookeeper from the Hamilton Zoo. He brought along some exciting items from the zoo to show to the tamariki. There was an ostrich egg, a porcupine spike, a rhino tooth, and a plastic lid that the tiger had chewed on!!
He read us a story about animals and showed us the items that matched the animals.

Then we caught the bus back to the Centre. Our lovely bus driver showed us how the horn on the bus worked. Did you know that there are two horns on a bus? When you press them both at the same time they are even louder!! 😆
We sang the wheels on the bus all the way back to the Centre.

Thank you to the staff at the Dinsdale Library, the Zoo keeper, and the amazing bus drivers for making it such a memorable experience!! ❤️

03/09/2026

🎉 Happy 5th Birthday, Imarni! 🎂💕

Today we celebrated our beautiful Imarni turning 5! 🥳 A big thank you to Mum for bringing in a delicious cake and pizza for everyone to enjoy at lunchtime. 🍕🎂

During mat time, led by Gina, we celebrated Imarni with lots of fun, dancing and kind words from her friends. 💕 Nikau shared that he loves playing with Imarni, while Kaizen said he loves being Imarni’s friend. It was so lovely to hear how much Imarni is loved by her friends. She is a kind and caring friend who loves playing and having fun with everyone. 🌸

We also had a fun dress-up party using our dress-up corner, followed by a little dance party! 💃✨ We danced along to Happy Birthday and Let It Go, two songs chosen by Imarni herself. 🎶

It was such a joyful day filled with laughter, friendship and lots of birthday fun! 🎈💗

Happy 5th Birthday, Imarni! We hope you had the most wonderful day! 🎂🥳💕

27/08/2026

💛🌼Today is Daffodil Day! 🌼💛

Here are some of the activities our amazing kaiako have set up for our tamariki over the past couple of weeks to promote Daffodil Day!

We are proud to support the Cancer Society again this year to fundraise for Daffodil Day.
All money raised will go towards cancer research and various avenues of support for New Zealanders facing cancer.

Thanks to our amazing whaanau members at Avalon, we have raised just over half our goal so far via our gold coin trail and online dashboard. Any and all donations are greatly appreciated. If you haven’t donated yet and would like to, please use the link below to donate online, or bring in a gold coin donation to add to our trail by the end of the day! 🌼💛🌟

https://www.daffodilday.org.nz/avalon-childcare-centre

25/08/2026

Last Monday we were so lucky to have two lovely members of the Dinsdale Library come to our Centre and perform a Wriggle and Rhyme session with our babies and toddlers!

The tamariki loved dancing to the music, playing the musical instruments, and being read the wheels on the bus!

We are so fortunate to have such a great relationship with our local library, and we are looking forward to visiting them again next week for a Story time session with our preschoolers 😁

The Hamilton City Libraries have such an amazing range of activities for all ages, so be sure to check out what’s on next month at your local one!

24/08/2026

Gina’s nana has been hard at work knitting our tamariki some woolly hats for over these cold winter months! The tamariki have been loving wearing them the past few weeks!

A huge thank you to Judy Forster for all your hard work, we are so grateful 🥰🙏

22/08/2026

Yesterday we celebrated our lovely Pikimai’s 4th Birthday!

Her amazing māmā brought in some cupcakes for the tamariki to celebrate and they all sung her happy birthday before she blew out her candle.

We wish you a very happy birthday Pikimai and we’re so grateful we still have another year with you at Avalon Childcare before you take on the next journey of primary school!

19/08/2026

We are very excited to let you all know that Thursday last week we had a very special mat time where we were presented with our Healthy Heart Award that we have been working so hard towards the past year and a half! Our lovely friend from the Heart Foundation presented us with the award and joined us for some morning tea afterwards.

The tamariki helped prepare some mini quiches for morning tea.
First we picked some chives from our garden for garnish.
Then we cut the crusts off the bread and put them in the oiled muffin trays.
After this was done, we got to work preparing the fillings.
The tomatoes and ham were cut, the eggs were cracked and whisked, and the cheese was grated.
These were all mixed together before they were poured into the bread in the muffin trays, which had been toasted in the oven for 3 minutes so they didn’t go soggy!
Then we popped them into the oven to cook for roughly 12-15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (or until they are cooked through).
Once they were taken out of the muffin trays, we sprinkled some cut up chives on top and they were ready to be eaten!

Paired with some tinned pineapple and mandarins, these made a lovely morning tea that all the tamariki enjoyed! These are a great lunchbox option as they hit four of the five food groups; protein, vegetables, dairy, and carbohydrates. We encourage you to try making these at home, your tamariki are pros and can give you a helping hand! A massive thank you to Misha’s whaanau for kindly donating the eggs we used for this cooking!

17/08/2026

🎉🕷️ Happy Birthday, Kaizen! 🕷️🎂

Today we celebrated Kaizen’s special birthday with a fun dress-up theme! Kaizen arrived dressed as Spider-Man, ready to enjoy a wonderful day with his friends. 🕷️❤️

Kaizen proudly shared his birthday cake and ice cream with his friends, making his special day even more memorable. 🎂🍦🥳

A big thank you to Kaizen’s family for providing the delicious cake and ice cream for everyone to enjoy. We truly appreciate your kindness and generosity. ❤️

Happy Birthday, Kaizen! We hope you had a fantastic day filled with lots of fun, laughter and special memories! 🎉🎈

14/08/2026

Daffodil Day is coming up in a couple of weeks, on Friday the 28th of August. Last year was our first year fundraising as a Centre and we were so impressed by how giving our small community of whaanau were!

Cancer will affect 1 in 3 New Zealanders in their lifetime and those numbers are only those that receive a diagnosis. Cancer also affects the loved ones of those 1 in 3.

Within our Avalon community we have many members whose lives have been affected by Cancer, this is why we would love to do our part in fundraising for Daffodil Day.

If you click on the link below you will be taken to our fundraising page where you can donate straight to the Cancer Society! Any amount, no matter how small, can make a huge difference!

We will also do another coin trail (like last year!) on Daffodil Day so feel free to bring in a gold coin donation on the 28th of August.

We will share the activities we get up to in the lead up to Daffodil Day.
Thank you to everyone that donates! 💛

1 in 3 could be me

11/08/2026

Our boy is 3!!!