Cool and cold

It was a cooler day today so all three girls wore their "new" winter dresses. These two are such beautiful dresses with lovely smocking work on the front. We are all very thankful for all there lovely new dresses - thanks Kerry.
Unfortunately today I felt like I was coming down with a head cold. I got to rest quite a bit this afternoon though and Brendon insisted I wake him if the girls need something during the night so that I can stay in bed and get a good nights sleep. So I hope that a solid sleep tonight will help my body fight this off. I had kept well for almost 3 weeks of being nurse to my sick girls and I just pray that this will clear quickly.

Ear Infection

Rachel woke this morning with such terrible ear ache. I gave her a pain killer but it did not help. Thankfully I got an appointment with the doctor this morning and she confirmed Rachel had an ear infection. She prescribed anti-biotics but was happy for me to wait 24 hours before starting them. She said that 60-70% of children will improve within 24 hours without the meds, so we decided to go this route. I started her on my homeopathic remedies for infection but also needed to give her more pain killers after lunch and dinner. Thankfully they did help but she still spent a lot of the day in bed.

At one point I heard Ruth reading her a story. She obviously felt Rachel needed some company. You are a very caring sister Ruth. Rachel was disappointed to miss Brownies today but is also hoping to get well soon as she has plans to sleep at friends on the weekend.

After all the cleaning yesterday Hannah decided to get some more done today. I found her ready to plug the vacuum in and get going. So I plugged it in for her and she did some vacuuming.

After lunch we spotted the duck with her ducklings making their way through our garden.

We had thrown bread out the other day to try and entice them to visit. So perhaps they came looking for some more. They quickly made there way across the lawn and through the side fence to the water (with very long grass to hide in) along the side of the property.

As soon as they were out the garden I went out and threw some bread for them.

After dinner they came for another visit. Again as soon as they were out the garden (I did not want to scare them) I went to where they had excited and as I got to the fence one little duckling jumped off the side and into the water. I threw some more bread for them and hope that they will realise we would like to be friends.

Done, dentist and ducks

DONE!!!

Ruth has been wanting to tackle Rachel's horse puzzle book for ages but the last time she tried they were still to hard. But she has been practicing on the others and so yesterday I said she could try again. She finished it off this morning and was so happy that she could do it. Now to tackle the others in the book. They give her a bit of a challenge which is great. But it's also amazing to see how much she is improving. If she keeps this up her puzzle building abilities will surpass Rachel in a few months time.

The girls spotted some more rabbits in the garden this morning. These are bigger than the other 2 - so we know they are new ones. So between rabbits and hares we are up to at least 7 that visit the garden. So talk of shooting them has started. And I know that is very hard for people not living in NZ to understand. They can become a huge problem though.
Earlier in the week I got a call from the dental nurse. We made an appointment for this morning for all the girls to see her. Here they are in the waiting room. The dental nurse has a small room on the local school premises. Children under 18 get free dental care which is great.

The last time Rachel was here she had to have a tooth pulled (it was loose but just not getting out the way of the big tooth that was coming out). So she was really nervous. The nurse chose to see her first and so I encouraged her to just relax and be a good example for her sisters. She did fine - but both the nurse and I could see the tension in her body.
Unfortunately she needs to have a filling (her first one). So we have been referred to a dentist in town. The nurse told Rachel about how they even have a DVD player on the ceiling. Fillings could be done here - but with Rachel's anxiety she felt it best to go to town and keep the experiences here as quiet and easy as possible.

I smile every time I see that photo. Ruth - you are such a cutie pie. She was also so good and the nurse says she has been brushing her teeth really well.

Next it was Hannah's turn. She also did really well. The glasses are a huge help. :D

The little two got new toothbrushes and they all got a few stickers.

And this one of Ruth makes me laugh every time. You can see how much fun she brings to our home. The little two are our resident clowns.
Brendon and I are off to The Rhythms of Ireland tonight. So I had to get ready this afternoon before taking the girls for their sleepover. The girls enjoyed watching me put makeup on (something that does not happen often at all) and I put some blush on their cheeks and suggested they put some of their red lip ice on. They are so looking forward to being old enough to wear makeup. :D

So we took our 30min drive up into the mountains to the Spenser home. What a beautiful day - the girls could just get right into having some outdoor fun. They were all happy to just give me a quick "bye" and a wave from their playing.

Just as I was getting to our house the duck with her ducklings crossed the road.

It was so nice to get so close to them. I drove really slowly past so that they would not get frightened.

As soon as I was passed them they turned and sped off in the other direction. At least I could get a nice photo of the ducklings. So cute.

It's been so nice to see them.

Rats and Ferrets

Ruth spotted the male duck in our garden today (on the left) and it looked like he was keeping guard. From where I was standing I could see the mother duck checking out her nest (she is in the gap on the right of the photo). I feel so sorry for them. We have seen them walking around this week and they look lost without their little ducklings.
I had a really productive morning. By 9am I had the sour dough bread baked, a chocolate cake done and buttermilk rusks in the oven. The washing was on, yesterday's washing was packed away and the kitchen was even clean (quite a job after all that baking). The girls had played really well after breakfast and I was thankful for all that I could get done so early. It had warmed up nicely by then and as the sun was probably not going to last the whole day I suggested we head outside.
The girls had a great time playing with the rain water that had collected in the tricycle basket and boot. Ruth had a great time making mud in the sandpit.

Just after 10 Dad arrived home from work. I made sure Hannah had her boots on again so she could play in the puddles. So while Rachel and Ruth ran off to meet Dad, Hannah had some splashing fun. Just before Dad pulled into his car port she looked up and said "back". So I signaled for Brendon to wait and she had a short ride on the back of the ute.
Unfortunately Brendon had had a headache since he woke this morning and it was still there when he got home. He still helped me set up the fencing between these two poles for my sweet peas (which are already 15 cm high and really needing to be planted outside).
And we also got the zucchini planted as well as my tomato plant. It still amazes me how quickly these plants have grown. It's been great having them in the kitchen to watch, but they were desperately needing to get into the ground. So hopefully they will do well.
After lunch Brendon headed to bed as the younger two also had their nap. At 3 Hannah woke up and I popped in to see how Brendon was doing. Hannah then wanted to lie with Dad a bit.
This photo is not great but her face just makes me smile.
Unfortunately the nap (and 2nd lot of medication) had not helped Brendon's headache much but he decided to get up.
We watched Ratatouille together which was a lot of fun. We had borrowed it from the family we had lunch with after church last week and I had not even realized it was set in Paris. So it was fun for Rachel to feel that it tied in so nicely with her current unit study of France.

While we were watching a ferret ran across our patio. When I spotted one the other day I had said to Brendon that it almost looked like a meerkat. But then it had been outside our property. So with this one running past so close I had a much better look at it. They are very long and thin and it still amazes me that people in America keep them as pets. Here they are a pest and we are concerned for our chooks.

Thankfully Dad was still up to some fun times with the girls. Once they were in bed though, he had a shower and hopped into bed himself. The 3rd lot of medication had not helped really and so hopefully being in bed from just after 8 will give him the rest he needs. I do hope he is feeling better in the morning.

Dog, ducks and a daring child

We all got to sleep in this morning till 7 when Hannah woke up. I brought her to our bed and soon Ruth and Rachel joined us in the room too. Hannah was wide away and playing the clown again, so the day started with a lovely family laughing session.

7:30 in the morning. What a sunning day. Snow capped mountains with such beautiful blue skies just don't loose their beauty - no matter how many times you see them.

We put winter dresses on the girls and it should have been summer. The day was lovely and warm.

Ruth enjoyed walking this dog after church. Or was that the dog taking her for a walk. :D
Unfortunately we think the ducklings did not make it through the snow. We have seen this male with his mate and we are sure she is the one that was sitting on the nest.
When Hannah woke from her nap this afternoon it was clear a uti was starting. The poor girl was in so much pain. So we got her onto Cranberry and some meds and were very thankful that it helped really quickly. We will keep on with the meds through tomorrow to make sure it does not develop into an infection. We are sure these eye teeth are the reason for it. We are still waiting for the bottom two to break through the skin.

It was great to have the nappies out on the line with all the sunshine today. Hannah was very keen on helping me unpack the basket when I brought it in. But as soon as it was empty I realized why she wanted to help so much. She wanted the basket to play with. :D

We were so thankful to have our happy little girl back. She was really unhappy earlier when she was in so much pain.

Just before bed time and our daring Hannah decides it would be great fun to climb off the chair head first. For the first few times Brendon had a hand close to make sure she did not get hurt....

but soon she insisted he leave her to do it on her own. And she did come flying off a few times. But up she gets, laughs and tries again.

Ducklings

As we arrived home from church we spotted the duck with 9 little ducklings. This is the "moat" that goes around 1/2 our property.Brendon got his window open and managed to get this photo as they headed into the grass for cover.
Egg shells in the nest. So they definitely are the ducklings from our garden.
Ruth felt very special in her new dress today. Kerry had given us a bag of clothes last week and the one advantage to the colder weather today was that Ruth got to wear the long sleeved one. It won't fit her next winter.

Then we had to get Ruth's hair finished off. 95 minutes later the last two rows were done. So it took 4 hours and 20 minutes and there are 40 braids.
Hannah giving us all a few laughs. Our little clown and acrobat.

We are all happy the hair do is done. And happy with the results too.

Math-U-See

It's been over a week of play dough ever day and I can see that it will continue for quite some time. The girls get really creative and make sure they don't miss a day of playing with it.
Rachel is really enjoying her "narration station". I will post all her entries on her blog.
We often see ducks walking along the drive but today I watched as they came just to the right (where the grass is longer) as there is a gap under the fence.

And they walked right across the lawn. My guess is that these are the parents of the eggs. It will be quite exciting if we have them walking along with their ducklings at some point.

Rachel was really excited about getting stuck into her new Math programme. Math-U-See. She did 3 lessons today. She has started with their first year as I want to work through this all and see where the gaps are in her foundation. I would rather take a little bit of extra time on these first years and make sure the base that she is working on is really solid.

So much fun.

A new puzzle book arrived but I asked Ruth to work through all the Fairy Tale puzzles in the book she had before starting the new one. So today she built all 6. Rachel also read her the stories from the new Fairy Tale book. It's great for her to get to know these well known stories too.