Teeth week and some snow

Monday 8 July: Dental nurse day today. Ruth asked to go first and Hannah and Hezekiah watched. Hannah and Rachel were next and then Hezekiah who was NOT interested in sitting on the special chair. So he got to sit on my lap and the dental nurse had a quick look in his mouth and counted his teeth. Hopefully next year will be a lot better for him.
Unfortunately I got rather bad news about both Hannah and Ruth's teeth. The x-rays showed deterioration between some of their teeth - were fillings are required. So we made bookings for Wednesday (the only two openings they had left this week) and I did some research to see what I can do to help sort out the problem - long term. The dental nurse had spoken to me a couple of years back about making sure the children did not eat through the whole day (something she says can easily happen when they are at home).

Thankfully we do not have an "open kitchen" and the children know that food is available only at meal times and morning and afternoon tea. As I thought through it all on Monday evening through - I realized that breakfast had become a very drawn out event for both Hannah and Ruth. They would often take well over an hour to finish their food and I would often see them both with a mouth full of food ages after it went into the mouth. So at least now we have very real motivation for them to get their breakfast finished quickly. I know it's been enough motivation for Ruth as she is old enough to work it all out and determined enough to not have to have fillings again. We will have to see how much Hannah understands in the days and weeks ahead.
Although Rachel needs to improve her brushing in places - I was very pleased that all her teeth (which are all permanent teeth now) are fine.

Tuesday 9 July. Sunrise now just a minute before 8am. I am so looking forward to the days getting longer.
Unfortunately the ballet teacher was sick and cancelled ballet today. In some ways I was rather thankful though for the afternoon at home with our busy day ahead tomorrow.
Wednesday 10 July. Filling day. Hannah was at 9:15 and so I dropped the others (except Asher) at a friend on our way up to the school. It is such a blessing that Hezekiah is so happy to go visit there now. Hannah was so very brave and we only had some tears right at the end.
Noortje then popped in after lunch to help watch the children while I took Ruth for her appointment at 1:30. Thankfully Ruth had a lot less to do and she was able to get it all done today. Hannah still has to go back on the 31st to get the other side done.
Thursday 11 July. The photo on the left was taken today. When Asher wears this top the girls call her Ratatouille. :-) Ruth has had a little bit of a runny nose the last two days and Hezekiah started last night. There are so many people feeling rather sick at the moment so we cancelled bible study for tonight.

Friday 12 July. I quickly popped up to the shops once Brendon was home and these two were so pleased to see the celery I bought. ;-)
The box that the groceries came in was also enjoyed so much. First in the kitchen as soon as it was empty...
and then it got moved to the lounge where it became a boat. It was sweet to see Hezekiah pushing Hannah around after he had had his turn. I was amazed that he was strong enough to do it. They really did have hours of fun with this box.

Saturday 13 July. This morning Rachel, Ruth and I got a production line going and made 14 pizzas. Rachel is expert at the base, I would fry it up and then Ruth would do all the toppings. I have put the recipe here. 6 of them got eaten for lunch but that meant 8 went into the freezer for Brendon's work lunches. The girls are keen to do this every two weeks so that we can stock Dad up on yummy lunches and they then also get to enjoy it on the day of making. We are running low on my first small bottle of coconut oil but I have ordered a 10 litre now.
We also have to wait until next month when I order more almond and flaxseed flour with my monthly bulk food order and then perhaps we can get even more made and they will get to enjoy pizza more often too.
Brendon decided to give the wood box a good clean out as there was a lot of bark building up on the bottom. Hezekiah decided he would be able to help really well by climbing in. He then threw all the pieces out for Dad. What a great little helper already.
Kerry popped in with her children on her way back from town. Always a treat for all the children to get some time to play together. Hezekiah had been playing on the iPad and we were really impressed with him as he allowed Joshua to have a "turn". Normally he cries every time the iPad is taken away and it's become a bit of a problem lately. So I was extra pleased that he happily watched Kerry helping Joshua.
As always it was lovely getting some time to chat with Kerry.
We discussed getting our Saturday get-togethers going again and are planning the first one for August once the school holidays are over. The focus will be really for the older girls - doing a bit of a bible study with them. I know Rachel will be excited about it and invite all her neighbourhood friends. It will be great if we can get a nice group of girls together regularly.
Sunday 14 July: Rachel was packed and ready early this morning. Holly offered to take her into town to church with her today. Rachel has also been invited to a birthday party tomorrow - so Holly will drop her there on their way home this evening and Rachel will get to have a sleepover too. What an exciting start to the holidays.
The theme of the party is red and Rachel was so pleased to find I had not given away this red jacket. It had been given to me at some stage (2nd hand) but although I liked it - I never got around to wearing it. I am glad it had not been given away though and that it fitted. She is getting so tall now.

There was a lot of excitement this morning when the sleet turned to snow.
I suggested they get outside to play in it but by the time they were all warmly dressed it had stopped.
Thankfully there was more snow in the afternoon and they got out there again.
Fun in the puddles.
There really was snow. Here is a video for proof. :-)

I know we really should have gotten to it yesterday and we didn't. Brendon agreed to head out there today after lunch when the youngest two were sleeping. It was great to get the first step done of fixing up the tramp. We got the canopy from on and then got all the poles for the net up. Although a couple of them were slightly bent Brendon was able to straighten them and I don't think we will need to buy any replacements. Now we need to wait for some dry weather to dry off the canopy and then get some tall guys to help lift the canopy up again.
It sure was cold out there though. Even with good gloves on my hands were freezing. We were both grateful to get back inside and have a nice cuppa to warm up.