Boat, bag, friends and a phone

Monday 30th: When I went to the preschool to pick Asher up just before lunch time, I spotted Hezekiah in the new "toy" at preschool. I am sure they are going to have so much fun with it. What a great addition.

Hezekiah was very excited about showing us the "postbox" that he coloured in today. He knew our street name and number, but not the area. So he learnt that this afternoon. :-) He did a great job of colouring that in too. The red, green and yellow done very solidly.
He was especially excited today as Dad got to pick him up from preschool. I had left with Rachel for her orthodontist checkup. We got much needed time to do some shopping afterwards - for backpacks. Ruth needed one for school as she had been borrowing one that Rachel got when we left South Africa almost 9 years ago. Asher also needed a new bag as we have to have a good supply of toys when we head out. The bag I have been using for her I got when Rachel was a baby. So it has been very well used over the last 15 years.
Tuesday 31st: Rachel had her first injury from her point shoes today. She didn't snatch her foot underneath her properly, and so didn't get up properly and twisted her ankle as she came down. Hopefully it was not a bad twist and after a bit of rest it will be ok again.
Wednesday 1st: Mariana comes up with great ideas for Asher to keep her little hands busy. Some of these are quite tight, so they are a good challenge for her.
I remembered to take a photo of Hezekiah with his new school bag today. He will need a decent bag for when he starts school in October. He was thrilled with it.
Ruth then had Guides in the afternoon and Brendon only had Hannah join him for the first hour of Karate. Rachel had to rest her ankle and Ruth only goes on a Monday as it's too busy with Guides as well on a Wednesday. So once Hannah was back I remembered to get the monthly children's photo.

Thursday 2nd: Rachel missed ballet today with resting her ankle but came with to help a new girl in her own class while Ruth had her ballet lesson. We have decided that Ruth will rather not do jazz for the next few weeks and just focus on her ballet. This will make the afternoons less busy and also help her focus on getting her ballet work ready for the exam in August. She is able to do the jazz work, so will possibly join in after the exams so be a part of that for the concert.

Friday 3rd: Rachel headed off on a St John camp at around lunch time today. The camp was up in Nelson, so she was able to be picked up by the bus on the way. With Monday being a public holiday, it gives then a nice long weekend camp.
Asher enjoys her "dance" dvd and always gets these "alphabet sticks" out when the children use them on the dvd. She has started enjoying playing with someone else now with a song further on in the dvd and it was lovely to see her and Hezekiah playing together tonight.
Saturday 4th: Ruth and Hannah attended a Sibling Day in Christchurch today, run by Parent 2 Parent and Altogether Autism. It's a day specifically for children who have siblings with special needs. It's good for them to know they are not alone. They made some friends and got to talk about how it affects them. They both enjoyed the day and are excited about the next one.
My new cell phone arrived just in time this morning, so I got to look for a cover for it while the girls were busy. Brendon has been suggesting for months that I get myself a decent phone and the same package that Rachel has ($16 a month). I couldn't justify the expense though and just kept on with my old pre-paid cheap phone. It was becoming more and more unreliable with signal though. Added to that, every time I needed to make a toll call, I ended up using Rachel's cell phone as she had free minutes. Last week I started thinking about the home phone and if it was really worth having.
With the line rental being almost $60 a month I realised I could actually save over $40 a month by getting rid of the land line and getting a new phone with the calling package. So from the middle of June we won't have our land line anymore (after almost 9 years of the same number). I will however have WhatsApp and free minutes, so I don't mind calling people back if they need to speak to me.
I got some other shopping done and then spent the rest of the day at friends. It was nice to get time to catch up and I also got some work done.
Sunday 5th: Almost 9am and still just 0 outside. I'm so thankful for our warm home.
We had church lunch after church this morning. We finished up earlier than expected and so had a change of plan and managed to visit a park on our way home.
Hannah decided to climb up the fireman's pole. Not as easy as it looks.
I forgot my camera today, so I got to try out my phone's camera.

Hannah bravely went down this big slide. It was really fast though and she ended up hurting herself as she flew off the end. So Brendon made sure he caught Asher who bravely followed Hannah down. Hezekiah and Ruth decided it was too fast and climbed back down the steps.
We got a little excited this afternoon when we got home and saw an e-mail from a lady on HelpX looking for a family to stay with for a week, from today. We tried to call her back but her phone went to voice mail. We quickly got the room ready for her and moved Hannah's clothes next door. Eventually Brendon suggested we pop over to where she was staying (at a campsite nearby) but we were too late. She had just organised with another family (she had written to at least 3 families). Ruth and I were sad about it, but it was an opportunity to learn to trust that the Lord has a good plan, even if we don't understand why.