Birthday fun for Ruth

Wednesday 18th: Anastasia is really good at her backwards crawling. She often gets herself backed up against the furniture. Such a cutie.

Ruth and her friend Rachael joined the HYP and other Year 7 and 8 students from the district for a trip to Hanmer Springs Hot pools. We only had to pay $5 for the transport. The children were told that if they wanted to go on the slide, they could pay for that themselves. Ruth had found a few extra jobs to earn the extra for the slide, so she was really pleased when they arrived and told them that they could all go on the slide for free. What an added bonus. Free entrance and free slide use.

And then the professional photographer took photos of loads of them too and gave digital copies to HYP. So special to have some photos to remember the fun day.
They even got 20 pizzas from the Kiosk at the Pools. What an added bonus. She ate her packed lunch for dinner when she got home. Pizza a much nicer lunch. :-)
I took the girls to the bus in the morning and then they got dropped off in Culverden on the way back, where Rachael's mum works. Ruth was treated to an ice cream while her mum finished off work. So a day full of treats.
Thursday 19th: Sitting so beautifully. She has even worked out how to reach forward and get toys and still keep her balance.
Ruth's birthday today. A big 12 year old already. She was very excited when she saw that we had bought her the Calligraphy book she had contemplated buying from the Scholastic Book Club. She has often been interested in learning Calligraphy, so she didn't take long to get started this morning. Even before she had breakfast.
I know she is really going to enjoy this. She says she hopes it will help her general handwriting improve too. :-)





BELOW: I wanted to get a video of Anastasia's backwards crawl. Not the best video, but at least some bit of record of the fun we have had watching her develop her skills.
Those little hands just keep moving backwards. So sweet.

Friday 20th: No photo record, but this afternoon Ruth headed off with her friend Rachael to another HYP event - ice skating and a mall visit. The mall visit actually happened first and I only heard when Ruth got picked up that they were only going to be finished ice skating at 9:30pm. So I picked them up from the bus at 11pm. They had a great time and I was so pleased Ruth got to have 2 special days around her birthday.

Left: Anastasia in such a lovely crawling position. I'm sure it won't be long before she figures out how to move forward from here.

Anastasia was very motivated to get to the DVD player this afternoon, and managed to wiggle her way forward.

Asher enjoyed all her wooden puzzles this afternoon. And she played with the abacus at the same time. Moving a little piece every time she put a puzzle piece in.

In her desire to work out how to move forward she even went up onto her toes a few times today. This was the best photo I could get of it. She would get her body really straight - a very good plank exercise - but just not achieving her desire result.

Rachel got back from a very successful CEF Camp this evening. She couldn't believe it when she saw Anastasia sitting so well. Before camp Anastasia had the ability to sit, but never bothered doing it for more than a few seconds and then would happily just roll back. So Rachel was so surprised when we just put her down in a sitting position and she happily played there for ages.

A 12 year old and dental success

Mon 2nd: Ruth and Hannah were both very pleased when they heard that Rachel had made bobotie for dinner. It's one traditional South African dish that we do make every now and again. It's a mince dish (with raisons in) served on yellow rice. Hezekiah wasn't thrilled, but at least there was still left over bbq meat for him.

Tue 3rd: The postponed Hangi happened today and the weather was perfect for it. Apparently Asher really enjoyed it. The amazing thing though was that as they were watching them take things out of the ground, and all that could be seen was steam, Asher said "hot food". So although she didn't really understand what was happening, she understood enough of what had been spoken about that she knew that steam was from food. And as it's meat and vegetables, it's her kind of food. All the children enjoyed the food - even Hezekiah who was not really very positive about it when he left this morning. He does have a very simple palate. I'm please he at least tried it and he enjoyed the meat.
Goal setting for Hezekiah was after school today. He got to show me how he uses the numicon shapes to do more complicated sums. Like 19+9.
Rachel baked cakes for Ruth's birthday cake today. As she was in a cake mode she decided to practiced making fondant roses. She has been asked to do her friend's wedding cake in Feb and they want peach coloured roses. She bought a peach dust (that makes this wonderfully shiny - not visible on the photo but very effective). She also had to research how to create a peach colour. She did a great job. I think she is feeling a bit better about it now that she knows how to create the colour and a lovely looking rose.
Hannah joined them for a run this afternoon. They had all agreed that it would be a slower one today. That was the only reason Hezekiah even agreed to go with. And it was a really good thing too. Brendon hung back with Hezekiah to encourage him to keep going and that gave him the opportunity to watch Ruth more carefully. Her knees have still been hurting a bit, even with the corrective shoes, and so Brendon wanted to see more carefully what she was doing. Once they were all back he pointed out to Ruth that she is running on her toes (and this is why her knees are taking too much strain). He showed her how to focus on heel to toe, and so she gave it a try. She was amazed. At first I worried that it would feel too different for her, but she was so pleased. She said "I can go so fast". Brendon pointed out that her stride was already better too. It really is exciting to see what she can do now that she knows how to run. :-) What a blessing to have a Dad who can help you so clearly with your technique. I'm sure it's going to make a huge difference. We are all excited about seeing her speed on the next run.

Well done to Hannah and Hezekiah for joining them.












Anastasia is really getting the hang of the Jolly Jumper.


Asher was looking at me and enjoying the sounds I was making as Anastasia jumped. She enjoyed it so much that she decided she wanted in on the action too. She walked up to Anastasia and turned around, almost wanting to get in with her. She was quite persistent, not understanding why she couldn't have a turn. So Dad came to the rescue and was Asher's Jolly Jumper for a while. What a workout he got. She had so much fun though.
This evening we played Star Wars Family Feud for the first time. Ruth was a bit upset as she wanted to be the host but it was more complicated than she realized.
Wed 4th: Hannah enjoying a book she got out of the library today. It is such a blessing to see her enjoying reading. It was a hard start for her for a number of years, so this is very special to me.
Today was dedicated to Rachel decorating Ruth's cake. Other than taking a tiny bit of time off for lunch (forced by me) and then taking an hour off to help at the school with cheese roll making for Ruth's School Camp fundraiser, she worked solidly on it the whole day.
The only help I gave her was yesterday with cutting the top cake into the round head (she did an amazing job of her crumb coat though to get it nice and smooth). And then today I just helped make the hair. It was already 7:30pm and so Rachel was exhausted. I'm sure she would normally have been able to figure it out, but I was glad I could just quickly get them done for her.
They dried out overnight and then Ruth helped me place them on Thursday morning. Rachel did such an amazing job. It is just brilliant. Thanks for choosing such a fun cake Ruth, and well done Rachel for pulling it off so very successfully.

Thursday 5th: Enjoying the cake with her class. Rachel came straight from work so that she could join us for the cutting at lunch time. As Ruth expected, there were a few comments about her only turning 12. Most of the children in her class are turning 13 this yea. She was a bit worried about there being enough cake as she has almost 30 children in her class. It was more than big enough though and we managed to take some left over home for the family to all have a piece (or two).

Anastasia rolled herself over to this drum and was having so much fun with it. She would mostly scratch it, but was laughing with enjoyment.
Brendon and I had appointments this afternoon, so we brought pizza home. Anastasia enjoying a bit of crust again. We do need to get the highchair in for her soon so that she can start trying out some other finger foods.
This evening we played Family Feud again with Rachel (she was out on Tuesday). It was much more successful and good fun. Ruth was just disappointed that she was again on the loosing team.

Fri 6th: Going to the Dental nurse is a real challenge for Asher. Last year she screamed as soon as she was in the truck. So Rachiel (her Learning Assistant) and I have been discussing how to try and help Asher. We decided to split the appointments of the 4 children between two days. Today we had Ruth and 9:30 and then Hannah at 10. When I came to book the appointments, Asher had seen me and so been happy to follow me up into the truck. That was already a great first step. So our plan was to get her to follow Ruth and I this morning. If she was happy to just see Ruth going, that was our first step. We would then have Hannah's appointment to give her a 2nd opportunity to go in, getting her that little bit more comfortable with it. Well, she shocked us all and not only happily followed Ruth and I in, but when she saw the chair, she just went in and hopped on.

We were all giving her praise, taking a photo and showing it to her also helped. Then she allowed the chair to go back, with us talking excitedly about how much fun it was and how clever she was. She wasn't that keen to open her mouth, but I asked if I could brush her teeth. The dental nurse was onto it and quickly grabbed a toothbrush for her. So while I brushed her teeth, the dental nurse had a look around. She has even given me one of their mirrors so that we can use that regularly. It will help us check that there are no clear issues, and also help her get used to it for next year.
Rachiel is sure it has helped that the truck as been parked just outside her classroom for weeks now. So she is already more comfortable with it (compared to last year, just arriving and going in). She has also gotten used to the noises it makes and that children go in and out often. So we were just thrilled.
Ruth unfortunately needed a filling on one of her back adult molars. They are tricky to keep clean and it didn't have a seal. Amazingly she decided to try it without the anaesthetic and she managed. Well done Ruth.

The dental nurse had told her that if at any point it was too painful, she could just raise her hand and she would stop. She didn't need to stop though, and Ruth said it was only a bit sore when it was right down, getting the softer bits out. I was so pleased she managed so very well.
Hannah was super quick and so we managed to get Hezekiah in as well (who was also quick). So we don't even need the 2nd day of appointments. What a relief.
It was lovely having a visit from Dave and Jenny this afternoon. We did a beef / pork swap which we were very thankful for.
Brendon and I both managed to get to squash this evening. While Brendon was out I had to smile at Asher and Anastasia. Asher was allowing her to grab her socks. Sometimes they even ended up in Anastasia's mouth. They were both giggling and having fun. So special.
They had a full school assembly for the end of term today. There are so many photos though, that I will put all of those in a separate post.

Ruth's unicorn cake

We baked Ruth's cakes yesterday afternoon and this afternoon was allocated to the decorating.
I had invested in a bigger rolling mat (and rolling pin) and I am so pleased with it. This was my first every cake to get covered with fondant and have NO creases. It's not that easy to get the sides of a round cake to sit flat without folds. I think what really helped was that with the lines on the mat I could get the size almost exactly right. I was also able to pick the whole piece up (on the mat) and place it right in the centre (the mat is slightly see-through).

So I wasn't working with way too much on the sides, and it was possibly a bit thicker than with others (from not needing to make sure it was big enough). I always knew the principles on how to get it to work, so it was wonderful to finally managed to do it myself.
Ruth and I had made this unicorn earlier in the week, so it was dry enough to paint today. I had bought some gold edible powder paint. It worked really well.

Once the unicorn's face was on the time consuming work was the main. I had suggested just rolling out the colours and cutting the strips, bur Ruth specifically wanted round (not flat) hair. So we spent more time doing it this way. She struggled to make the long strands, so I did that for her and she placed them.

Using water to "stick" them on.

Once we had done the face she was able to add the horn.

It was the first time we have used edible "paint" so there is a lot of learning still needed with this. It did help add a lot of depth to the unicorn's face. It wasn't as great as I would have liked, but not bad for a first attempt. I am not an artist at all, so faces are not something I generally enjoy doing.
Ruth was pleased with the outcome.

The cake went to school on Monday for her to enjoy it with her class. I was sick in bed, so Brendon eventually came home and so he was able to take the cake to school.
Oops - eyes closed for the photo. :-)
Brendon then had the hard job of cutting it up to feed almost 30 people. Well done Brendon.

Camp, cupboards, friends and a fall

Sunday 17th: On our way home from church we dropped Rachel off at the CEF Camp (now called Camp Goodnews).
I started with Ruth's hair the other day, so I'm trying to get a bit done every night. This evening I got some done while they played cards.
The children decided that we should all sit on the same chair this evening for prayer time. Vanille offered to take a photo as the kids thought this was so much fun. :-)

Monday 18th: Dominoes early this morning (before Ruth had even changed). Today is our "quiet" day for the week as it's going to be a rather full one.

Tuesday 19th: Happy real 10th Birthday Ruth. Two of her friends could not make it to her birthday, so they organised to visit today instead. It was really special to have hours of fun with them today as well as being blessed with more lovely presents. They had a great time and I was sorry I didn't get any photos.
David and Hezekiah played so nicely together and they were rather upset when he had to leave with his mum just before lunch. The older girls stayed a bit longer, joined us for lunch and then I dropped them off on our way to town in the afternoon.

Ruth joined me to help with Asher during the appointment. We had all the plans of getting a high chair so that she could sit and play with all her fine motor "church" toys. They ended up not being needed though. Although Ruth was still a great help.
Asher had a great time playing and then decided to run up and down the corridor again (she did this last time we were here too). She ran so many times that I lost count.
Eventually she was even tired and so she headed back to Thomas the Train. It's opened in the back and she would get in and out and have so much fun. At one point she was holding onto the frame and leaning in, when a seizure hit. It was thankfully only a 1 minute Tonic Clonic, but with it happening at that exact moment, she had a nasty fall onto the wooden frame. So she had a bleeding nose and mouth. Thankfully the recovery position that I had put her in allowed all the blood to flow out and so she didn't choke at all. I was so thankful that the bleeding stopped so quickly (as well as the seizure).

There were a few nurses who came running and they called a doctor too. There was nothing they could really do though, and the doc just confirmed that she was breathing well and that all the blood had obviously come out that it wasn't a choking hazard. Someone had a look at her mouth to make sure it wasn't a bad cut - but I knew it wasn't as the bleeding had stopped so quickly. Just at that point her doc was available and so we went into his room and I could put her on the bed to sleep while I got to wash the blood off my hands. Unfortunately she didn't sleep for a good hour and became quite restless. So the appointment was rather difficult again, trying to keep her calm as well as communicate with the doctor. Ruth did her best to help but it was a rather challenging situation as Asher just wanted to leave.
We left home just after 1:30 and we only left the hospital at 4:30. With the extra afternoon traffic and the fact that we had a couple of stops to make on the way home, it was nice to be able to treat Ruth to an ice cream and Asher and I had some hot chips. That ended up being Asher's dinner as we only got home after 7pm. It will be a very memorable birthday for sure. :-)

Wednesday 20th: It was lovely to have Kerry come and visit today with her youngest 3. Hannah and Hezekiah especially had a great time playing with them.

Ruth spent a bit of time helping Vanille with the kitchen cupboards. Kerry also helped watch Asher for little stretches when they needed my help in the kitchen. All the cupboards had to be unpacked, then all the paper (that Vanille had cut during the week) taken out (and marked so we didn't mix them up). The cupboards themselves then got one type of glue on which sat for 10 minutes. Then the paper got another type of glue on and they got put in. What a big job and one that I have been hoping to do for years. So good to finally have it done. Other than getting some basic breakables in from the kitchen counters so that we had space to make lunch, I took my time in the afternoon to pack things back. I had a bit of sorting to do and rearranging so that things were easier to get to. It's those nasty corner cupboards that make it so tricky. It all looks so good though and there seems to be so much more space now that I have cleared a few unused things out. :-)
Lunch on the deck for the kids (as the dinning room table was still loaded from stuff from the cupboards.) Joshua has just turned 6 but it sounds like he will stay in Whero class till the end of the year. I really do hope this is the case as Hezekiah is so looking forward to starting school in October so that he can be with Joshua. So it will be nice if they can at least have a couple of months together.