School Holiday Week 2

Tuesday 4th: With Brendon on leave this week it was a good opportunity to finally get into town to buy the rest of the pavers we needed.
Ruth came with me and so we had a great time together. We stopped passed the camp on the way home to say hi to Rachel.
Ruth and I enjoyed listening to a story together as well as getting loads of time to chat.
The story that we started was one of The Cooper Kids Adventures called "Trapped at the Bottom of the Sea". We bought the whole set from Christian audio when they were on sale one month. If you haven't done so yet, check them out. They have a free audio book every month and regular specials.

I forgot my camera today, so all today's photos were taken on my phone. Not the best quality, but it's better than nothing.
When we got home Brendon quickly moved the original 8 and got them all put down nicely. It looks great.

Wednesday 5th: Another advantage of having Dad home this week was the opportunity to get Hezekiah to use his new BIG bike to ride to preschool. I had offered to carry his bag, but he wanted to keep it himself. So he did really well with that big bag on his back. Asher was pleased to get a short walk and a little play at the preschool. It was Hezekiah and Naomi's lat day today, so I took a photo of them (which I posted previously) and had a nice chat to her too. She will be missed.

Brooke came for a visit today and Ruth did her nails. I can see Ruth loving a job in a Salon. Doing massages and manicures. :-)
With it being his last day the preschool made him a birthday crown and sang for him again. The big 5 year old heading off to school next week. He was also thrilled that they made gluten free pizza today, and he brought some home to give to his sisters too.
The last of the preschool art for him. :-)

Ruth and Hannah headed up to the library. They played a bit of Wii and Ruth did an hour of community service. She needs to do 2 hours for her latest St John badge. What a lovely note he wrote for her.

Brendon and I have found a new favourite dinner. Those new burger patties I created are delicious with avocado and home made mayo. The mayo is so simple too - 1 egg, 2 egg yolks and 1 cup of coconut oil. Absolutely no need for a roll - which makes this a wonderfully healthy option too. (A nice fatty S meal in the Trim Healthy Mama way of heating.)

Thursday 6th: This was our 2nd Thursday visit actually from Dana, Annica and Catrina. Dana's husband, Frans, just recently started work on the farm that Brendon works on. So it's been lovely to get to know her and the girls. I didn't get any photos last week, so made an effort to get one today. It's lovely to remember when these friendships started.
Frans is a South African but had been living in Scotland for 14 years. Dana is Scottish, so their family feels familiar to me (with being South African with a Scottish mother myself.)

Ruth has been working on her Guide badges through the holidays. That's the one nice advantage of doing it "correspondence". She has lovely ideas of activities to do on the weekends and during holidays. I loved the "word cloud" that she created.
Friday 7th: This morning we headed to Megan to have follow ups for all of us (except Rachel who was still at camp). I was pleased to see improvement for all of us and improvement for Hannah and I on the food side of things. I knew we would all still need to stay off wheat as we all had reactions to the wheat cake on Monday. I had hoped that a "once off" would be ok, but it wasn't. At least Hezekiah could feel and therefore understand why we say he can't have gluten. We still have half his cake in the freezer to take to school on Monday, but he has already planned to just eat some of the icing.
We picked Rachel up on our way home from the CEF camp. She then had just less than 4 hours at home before heading off for the St John National Selections Camp this weekend.

We dropped Ruth and Hannah at the library on our way home and Ruth did another hour community serivce. We had planned for them to meet up with Annica and Catrina, so Hannah had a great time playing with them while Ruth got her work done. Again such a nice detailed note on what Ruth did during that time. Another future possible career for her. :-)

Once they were back from the library I could finally get this month's children's photo. I was away when the month started and forgot to ask Brendon to get a photo. Such a busy month this is.
Saturday 8th: This morning Brendon, Ruth and Hannah headed off early for a fitness session for Karate.
I decided to not bother keeping this scooter for Asher for Christmas, and got it out for her now. She keeps trying to use Hezekiah's old scooter which is now broken. She is learning how to use this one as it's a bit different to his. His had 2 wheels in the front where hers has the 2 at the back. I had to smile when she was almost finished putting her own boots on and then spotted Ruth's big purple ones. She obviously just loves Ruth's boots.


Sunday 9th: I decided to try make "healthy" marshmallow yesterday using honey instead of sugar. (The only ingredients being water, gelatin and honey.) Hezekiah was really excited about roasting them today. Unfortunately he didn't like them all that much.

The rest of us enjoyed them though and Ruth has ended up taking some to school every day too.

Ruth and I then headed down to fetch Rachel once she was back from her camp. She had a great time but is exhausted.

And just like that the holidays are over. Back to school and a very busy week starting tomorrow.