Playing the year out

The girls were very excited when their violin teacher phoned this morning and asked if they wanted to come over for a lesson. I had called earlier in the week and she had been visiting family in town. She only got back this morning but was excited to see what the girls have been doing over the last month.

Hannah loved having time to play with Violet who is the same age as her and who she knows from Friday's Music and Movement.

Ruth got some practicing in first actually (and I did not get a photo) but eventually the teacher asked if she wanted to stop as it looked like she was getting tired. Ruth said "I just want to go and play with the play dough." So she was a very diligent little girl to play her violin for her teacher while her sisters where playing with play dough. What I want to remember though from the lesson was that the teacher tried to play a duet with her. It was so funny because after the first note Ruth just switched to playing along with the teacher. We tried a few times but she just could not do it. It's incredible that her ear just hears the other notes and she naturally just switches to play that. We will work on playing the duet though as I am sure Ruth will really enjoy it when she gets the hang of it.

Then they had some dress-up fun while Rachel had her lesson. Pretty ballerinas and Ruth just came around the corner wearing high heal shoes. :-)

It did not take long for the younger girls to move onto the next game - the trampoline.

By this time Violet's dad had returned with pizza for lunch - inviting us to join them. He also made a lovely fruit salad but only Rachel and I enjoyed the mango. I think it's the first mango I have had in over 3 years. That is one thing I miss about SA. Those lovely fruit (mango, melon, litchi and pawpaw).

I was excited about my iPod arriving in the post today. So I spent a bit of time this afternoon cleaning off the TV cabinet and moving our old hifi off. Now the big hole is even bigger as the new hifi (which is a iPod docking station, radio and cd player) is tiny. Brendon is planning on putting two draws in the top section for our DVDs - so watch this space.....

A quick update on Tiger and Jaz. He is improving every day. I have tried every day to hold him on my lap and get him used to being in the lounge with the dog outside. Up till now I have had to hold him tight the whole time. So it was really lovely this evening to have him totally relax in my arms (and even sleep before Brendon got up to fetch the camera).

As Brendon is working in the morning he went to bed at a normal hour and I started playing with my iPod. Playing being loading cds on. By midnight I had loaded 38 Albums and 650 songs. I have also learnt how to add my own artwork for each album but the pile on the right will have to have photos taken during daylight hours so I can put those on as artwork is not available on-line for them.

Again I can look back over the year and see how God has been so very faithful. I pray that He would draw us even closer to Himself through the year ahead.