A driving lesson and a fun wig

Monday 8th: We moved our car insurance to AA last year and I got an AA membership at the same time (benefiting from a discount on both for getting both). On great bonus (which out pays the cost of the membership) is 3 free driving lessons to a new learner driver in your family. So Rachel had her first free lesson today. We dropped Asher at preschool and came straight to Rangiora for the lesson.
As soon as it was done we headed back to pick her up. A bit of a rush, but we managed.
Ruth decided to do her reading on top of the wood pile this afternoon. Enjoying the sun.
When I dropped Hezekiah at karate this evening (he starts 1/2 hour later) I quickly popped in to see what colour belts they were wearing. Well done to both of them for skipping a tab and going straight to green belt.

Tuesday 9th: Champion Centre this morning and I just could not resist trying to get a photo of the excited face that I kept getting every time she got a page right on the ipad game Hilary had for her. When she matches the words up correctly it shakes them and has hands clapping. So she would clap her hands too and would look at me with such happiness - EVERY time. :-) So cute.

She spent a bit more time playing the xylophone today. She enjoyed watching herself in the mirror.

Wednesday 10th: Hannah off to camp today. Such excitement for her two nights at Arthur's Pass - especially after hearing about all the fun the other classes have had.
Thursday 11th: Hezekiah enjoying a cuddle with Anakin.

Friday 12th: Hezekiah's class sang and "played" Twinkle Twinkle at assembly today using Boom Whackers.
And then Hezekiah was thrilled to get another certificate. This one for "brilliant reading and learning his fast words". Well done Hezekiah.

Hezekiah was excited to see Dave was here when he got home. So he headed out to see if he could "help". Dave is always really good about finding a "job" for him. :-) The bottom sections of the walls got put on today. The top part can't be done yet as we have to get the electrical stuff done before that. One step closer though.
Hannah back from camp this afternoon with loads of fun stories to tell.

Ruth got creative with dinner and made some omelettes for Hezekiah and Hannah which they really enjoyed.

It looks like she opted for scrambled eggs for herself instead.

We found this fun wig in one of the bags of clothes we were given. Asher loved getting everyone to have a go with it on. I was surprised at how comfortable she was with it on her own head. Super cute.

Karate, catch, hair and prayer

Monday 27th: Hezekiah wanted to go to Karate today, so I walked up with him at 6. The yellow belts start at 5:30 and the rest at 6. Ruth has decided to not continue with karate, so she rode her bike with Hezekiah while I pushed Asher.
I stayed to take a couple of photos (just on my phone - so I apologise for the poor quality). He had so much fun he wanted to go again on Wednesday. He had a fall on his bike on the way up though.
At first he said he just wants to go home, but I encouraged him and he was so brave and stayed. Well done Hezekiah.

Ruth took this photo of the cats playing.



Ruth playing solitaire with real cards. :-)


Tuesday 28th: Asher having fun at Champion Centre. She was really concentrating on her tower that was getting rather tall. She noticed me with the camera though, and it was so cute to see her looking at me, but keeping so still so that the tower would not fall.
Unfortunately in the last session (before group music) she had a seizure while on the play equipment outside. I noticed as soon as it started as I saw the way her arms were moving up, so I ran up the stairs quickly and got to her before the other ladies around even realised what was going on.
Thankfully it was just a 1 minute Tonic Clonic and she had a good sleep afterwards. I sat with her on my lap through group music.

Note: The next week she sat quietly for the first time with the 2 new songs during group music. Normally she just wants to get up and run away. I wonder if perhaps this time of sleeping and having the music going, allowed her to hear them subconsciously, without any stress, and therefore helped her to accept them. They don't seem as "new" to her anymore.

Playing with Rachel this afternoon.
Ruth was home this afternoon as she had gotten sick at school this morning. Brendon brought her home and thankfully she didn't get sick again. Protocol though is that she stay home for another day, so will spend Wednesday at home to make sure she is over it.

It was nice listenieng to them singing and playing together this afternoon.
Wednesday 1 March: Unfortunately Asher had 2 seizures at preschool this morning. A little after 9am she went to Lynda for a cuddle and when Lynda checked her eyes, she saw they were up. The vacant seizure only lasted for about a minute and a half and then she "woke up" and just wanted to go outside. She was really wobbly on her feet though and so Lynda gave me a call. I quickly got there and as I arrived Asher had a 1 1/2 minute Tonic seizure. It was again really strange as she didn't want to sleep when it stopped, but trying to walk wasn't wonderfully successful as she was rather wobbly.

Once realising I was there, she just wanted to go home. Thankfully, by the time we got home she was 100% again. She had a nice quiet morning at home.
LEFT: I finally got the girls some bags for their guitars. So Hannah took hers in it's cover for the first time today.
RIGHT: I have been trying to work out a muffin recipe for Asher so that she can have an easy "all in one" meal that I can have already prepared and in the freezer or fridge. These ones worked ok. I'm not quite there yet. Interestingly, my biggest struggle is not getting the carbs down, but getting them up, and keeping the protein down. Thankfully a fellow keto mum gave me a great idea - using "normal flour". So by using some Gluten Free flour I have, I was able to get more of a natural "muffin" texture. Still needing to perfect it though.

After the Port Hills fires just weeks ago, we had another massive fire on the other side of us this time - up at Hanmer Springs. Just look at all that smoke (this is taken from our deck). Although we have gotten a bit more rain over the last few months, the drought still continues in our area and things are just so terribly dry. The fires are spreading so quickly.

Our March photo. :-)
With Ruth being at home today, I managed to do some work on her hair. We had been chatting about it as she was saying that is is getting just too heavy. It's been 6 years of doing these "braid locks", so it's 6 years of hair trapped in there too. When we brush our hair every day, we loose hair. The hair that is falling out for Ruth, is just trapped in the braid. So we discussed trying to "undo" each braid and then re-braid it. She was very excited about this plan, and we got 2 braids done today. She is holding up the three phases: Old braid in the middle, un-done on the right, and then a new braid on the left. You can see how much less hair there is.
Ruth has 260 braids on her head, so we are very aware of how very long this is going to take. Ruth is hoping that it will be done by Christmas, while I am hoping we can get it done within a year. If we get 5 done a week, we will make it in a year. I don't think one every day is practical as the weeks are so busy already. Ruth has already chosen to stop Karate and St John as she is just too busy. I think weekends will be our main time for doing hair. So we will try to keep up with at least 5 each weekend, and we will see how we go.

And for those wondering, no - we can't just leave the hair and not braid it. The curls are so tight that if it's left for just one day it will just knot up into itself and it is very painful to untangle.
She is so blessed to have her own hair this long, so we will put the effort in to keep it. :-)
Thursday 2nd March: Asher is just loving playing with her balls again. She has over 30 that she throws across the room (excluding the 30 odd table tennis balls). We made sure we had a nice range of sizes and textures for her. She does keep the carpet bowls (in the red bag) separate though, and they get rolled to a different section of the room.

If you ever come for a visit, be prepared to have Asher give you a cuddle and then tell you to "sit down" so that she can throw balls to you. :-)
Friday 3rd March: Lynda had invited us to join her at the World Day of Prayer this evening. Rachel, Ruth and I had parts in the service. Hannah decided to join us and was so glad she did as two of her best friends where there too.
We had a good evening learning about some of the struggles for people in the Philippines. We then enjoyed a nice time of chatting to different people after the service.

I asked Brendon to take a photo before we left, and when Asher heard that, she hopped on the lounge chair (for their monthly children's photo). It was so cute. She quickly realised it was something else though, and so came down and joined us standing for our photo.
I often think about the happiness she brings to our family. She was very well named. :-)

Cards, karate, cadets and kittens

Monday 5th: When I picked Asher up from preschool she showed me how she uses the balance bikes. They are a bit harder than the one at home with really fat tires. So it was great to see her giving it a go here too. Even though she hasn't had problems with her gross motor skills, it's been wonderful to see her learning so many new gross motor skills over her time at preschool. It helps having the lovely "road" track and all the different vehicles to try.

It's great having Rachel finished her Novel November as she has more time now to help with other things. This morning we worked together on the wording for the Christmas cards (from poems that we found on-line). After lunch she helped me get the cards ready. I cut and she made the holes for the ribbons.
We had a good little production line going.
It was nice to see ribbons and stars on some and to start seeing it coming together.

After school Hezekiah got stuck in. He was very good at getting ribbons through the hole in the star and then adding the card. I would then tie the ribbon and curl the ends. Ruth did a few on her own too.
I had my first experiment with Rachel's hair this afternoon for the concert. The curls were not as clear as I want. I want it to be more ringlets. So I"m glad we got the time to try today. She has dress rehearsals on Thursday and Friday.
Photos after karate. The only found out this evening that they had earned their yellow belts. Russel had a yellow belt for Hannah to use (our were at home) so because she was the only one with her yellow belt - she was on the right of their line (they line up in belt order). So that was fun for her too. :-) I had bought a couple of packs of belts, so it was great to have the two longer yellow belts for Brendon and Rachel on hand already.

Once the younger two were in bed, these 3 joined me in making cards. Eventually we had a nice little production line going and we got so many made. I was especially glad the children (including Hezekiah) got to make cards to give to their classmates and friends. People always ask "did you make them" and so it's nice for them to say yes. Even if Hezekiah adds "with Mum".

Tuesday 6th: Rachel and Ruth had an extra ballet practice this afternoon, and then we went straight to St John for their year end prize giving.
Both girls received the badges they have been working on over the last couple of months.

And they also received their "years of service" badges.

Wednesday 7th: Asher decided she would just get Dad's marble game down herself. I let her get the step, but did help her get it down.
Some of the children were having their IPs at Champion Centre today, so we had the day at home.
Asher has been on her new meds for a week now. She has not been eating that well at breakfast this week, but today it got really bad. She ate just a couple of pieces of her breakfast and then wasn't even hungry at lunch. Eventually at about 2pm she finally got a bit hungry and had a bit of food. I called the pharmacist to chat about the possibility of the medication being a problem. He said although not common, it is possible. He said it may improve over the next week, and then it may get bad again when her dose is increased. If it doesn't improve though, we will need to call her doctor.
(NOTE: Thankfully she did eat well on Thursday, so we are hoping it's just an adjustment with the medication and not a major side effect as it was with a previous med).

RIGHT: Ruth enjoying the kittens this afternoon.
Little Miss was so loud last night with licking them, that we had to move her and the kittens out of our room and into the dinning room.

Katas, cards and Carols

Saturday 3th: While Brendon, Rachel and Hannah were at their karate assesment Ruth kept herself busy with some creative games. First she had fun making patterns with these puzzles. She always enjoys having photos taken of her creations.
She was looking for some other creative games and we got out these two that Graham (my brother) gave us.


Hezekiah had fun trying to work out this game - where you set it up according to the card and then try and move the colours to their correct corner.

And then we walked up to the school to have a look (and for me to take some photos). And it's not like ballet - they don't need to all be in time. They need to focus on doing this correctly - at their own pace.

Some photos of the katas. This was what I specifically wanted to come and watch. It was a bit tricky as Asher was not really happy to be there. They said it wasn't a problem as part of the karate training is to stay focused, despite distractions. So they just used her bit of noise when we arrived as an opportunity to teach.

Hannah is especially passionate when she does her katas. She is always such a pleasure to watch.

The snesei that was taking notes for the assesment is in a wheelchair. I don't know all the details, but I know he achieved some of his black belt dans while in the chair. He is so strong but also such a down to earth guy. They always enjoy having his feedback. I just don't know how he manages to watch them all.

Rachel is really good with her katas too. She picks them up so quickly (the dancing background helps her). They all skipped white tap and went straight to blue. With this assessment they were all hoping to skip blue tab and go straight to yellow (which they all did). We heard afterwards though, that if it hadn't been for Rachel missing 2 months due to her ankle injury (as attendance is a part of the requirements), she would have possibly been able to jump right up to green belt. So she really is doing very well.

Below: Doing some 2 man katas. We couldn't quite figure out what was going on with Rachel and the other assesor, but then she explained that he had asked her what was next, and so she showed him before they actually did it.
Brendon pointed out that they should have swapped partners, as their heights would have been a better match then. :-)

I'm glad I got to watch some of it. So proud of them all for working so hard for this (and getting fit while they do it).

They only found out on Monday at training that they had all gotten their yellow belt (that's when this photo was taken) but I thought I would pop it in here. Well done you 3.
For those who are wondering, Ruth only attends once a week (rather than twice like these 3) so she can only do one assessment per year (which she has already done when she moved to blue belt).

After lunch we started on our Christmas card decorations. We decided to go for stars this year, and used a baked play dough.
Hezekiah had fun helping cut some stars too.

Ruth and I got loads done together though.

We got a nice little rhythm going with her cutting and then I put make the little holes for the ribbon.
Hannah did also get to help out at this stage too though. So fun to have them all being a part of the preparations.



In the evening we headed down to Amberley for Carols in the Park. Hezekiah had a great time running around with friends, climbing trees and enjoying the play ground.
Asher also spent most of her time at the play ground too.

Ruth split her time between the play ground and the carols.

Hannah and Rachel spent most of their time watching and singing though.