Goldilocks and the 3 ponies

This photo did not fit in with yesterday's snow post - but this was the run that Ruth designed yesterday. She wanted to make 4 different coloured runs all ending together and she did a great job.
Monday 24th: Hezekiah regularly asks for a "tent" with one of his blankets. The girls have all (including Rachel) had so much fun with him in there.

Such fun times together.
Nana had bought a number of these soft blankets for Rachel and Ruth and Hezekiah's favourite two at the moment are Winnie the Pooh (which he calls Pooh bear) and Barney (which also has BJ and Baby Bop who he calls Bob.)
Asher has been chewing on anything she can get in her mouth lately and today she had a fun time chewing on Ruth.
It was so funny to hear Ruth talking to Asher and asking "Are you having chocolate pudding?"
Tuesday 25th: When I dropped Hezekiah this afternoon I gave him his little packet of grapes just as we pulled up to the friend's home. I unbuckled him and instead of giving him to her, I put him down to walk himself. He was happily getting his next grape out the packet and did not even look back at me but walked off to the house and up the back steps.
This was the first time with no tears and I was just so thankful. The friend had told me how much better it has been getting - that the crying would stop as soon as they were in the house (just tears when I was there to break his mothers heart). It was so nice for both of us though to have him so happy about waiting there for Dad.
Wednesday 26th: We have had a struggle with Hannah over the last few weeks as she has just decided she just does not like oats anymore. She would rather go the whole day without food than eat them. I have tried so many different things to try and get her to eat them. Today she got to pretend to be Goldilocks. The bears had different flavours in their porridge and she could see which one she liked. One had honey (that Oupa had suggested) and the other had chocolate spread (one of her favourites). She felt a bit more positive about it all - but it took just as long for her to get the tiny bowl of food down.
Friday 28th: Hannah has really enjoyed listening to stories on the iPod this week (perhaps because of locating the Golidlocks and the 3 bears story on there for her). She sat with Asher today and they listened together. So sweet.
And Hannah warmed my heart so today. The bread maker was going and it had beeped. When it beeps it needs to be checked as we make very big loaves and the flour is not always mixed in properly. Hannah came to me and told me that it had beeped. It may seem something so small but I was so thankful for her thoughtfulness. My little girl is growing up.

It was lovely to have Bob and Lynn come for a visit this afternoon. We had more pork arriving today but my freezer was full. I know how much they love pork and so asked if they were able to come over and pick some up. They have been very busy since their move in Feb and so it was great to catch up with them. Lynn brought all the birthday presents that she has had since then. Hannah's in March, Rachel's in April and Ruth's in a couple of weeks. She said she had forgotten what she had bought for Hannah and Rachel as it's been so long.
What a blessing we could give them something for a change.

It was the first time they got to see Asher and it was just so sweet to see how Hezekiah took to Bob. We had a lovely time catching up.
One of the things we chatted about was cattle beasts (for slaughter) as we are looking into buying one as well as a big chest freezer and getting ourselves nicely stocked up with beef. We knew Bob and Lynn were raising beef on their new property and so wanted to find out if we could perhaps buy one off them. Theirs are still too young though. It was great chatting to them about it all though as it's all rather new to us and the more information we can get the better.
A little while after they got home Bob called and asked if we wanted an old chest freezer of theirs. Wow - what a blessing. We had been planing on buying a 300 litre one on the weekend and so their big 500 litre one would be a huge blessing.
Saturday 29th: I came up with another idea for Hannah's oats yesterday - making them into pikelets (crumpets in South African terms).
I soaked the oats in milk overnight and after adding the egg, salt and baking powder just needed to add a little bit of flour to get it to a good consistency. Hannah is so happy with this new arrangement that instead of having oats every 3rd day - she now wants them every other day. :-) The breakfast routine was white porridge (semolina), oats and then ricies (or cornflakes and they often would have to fill up on wheetbix). So now it's white, oats, ricies, oats. I am more than happy with this because I see the ricies day as a "treat" and they always seem much more hungry through the day. Now ricies are only every 4th day. :-)

Brendon worked this morning but as soon as he got home at lunch time he ate and then headed off with the children to pick up the freezer. Bob was just hoping that it would keep working after being moved - and so we wanted to get it here as soon as we could so that it could have a good number of hours to sit before switching it on. We switched it on before we went to bed so that we could know if it was working in the morning. If not - Brendon would have to get into town to buy a new one (the special was ending on Sunday). We were so pleased on Sunday morning to see that it was working. Thank you so much Bob and Lynn. And thank You Lord for working it all out so perfectly.
The timing of this all has been so good. I had been speaking to a friend this week about buying a cattle beast and the timing was just perfect as her neighbour had a beast that she wanted to sell. Bob and Lynn helped us to realize how a great a price we were getting from her and so we are all very excited about having a freezer full of beef in a few weeks time.

I had to laugh as I walked past what I thought was just two boxes - but they moved. I could not believe Hannah had fitted inside of them. :-) She is still young enough to enjoy playing in a box. :-)
And just to clarify - I don't buy boxes of green onion chips. The local shop will often pack groceries in boxes rather than plastic packets and we collect them to use in the garden. So they get played with for a while and so get used a number of times.

Thanks again to Tina for the above photo. Rachel told us about the fun they had had dressing the ponies up. It's so nice that she can have friends to enjoy horsy things with.

Sunday 30th: And more horse fun this afternoon. The girls worked together in braiding Auto's tail.