Garden work and sports begin

Thursday 25th April: Hannah was pleased to be able to join St John Youth for the Anzac parade in Amberley this year. Looking so smart in her uniform.

Anastasia looking very cute with her red shiny shoes and her hair tied up.
Ruth in her Guide Uniform for Anzac today. And then enjoyed helping us with some gardening. She enjoyed using Dad's tools to form a wall around this bed (so we can get the grass growing up nicely to the side).




And then she loved using Dad's pick to dig out this area. 

It was finished up a couple of days later, but I thought I'd pop the photo in so you can see the end result. It looks really good.

Asher enjoying playing with Anakin and his cat tree (right inside the cat tree).

We have learnt about proprioception and seen how much Asher likes deep pressure on her arms. She also likes big hugs (and squeezes) at times. The lady who has been educating me on these things told me about weighted teddies for children. So I took a dog teddy we had, removed all his stuffing, and replaced it with wheat. She loves him. He is really heavy and gives her lovely pressure when she wants it.

Friday 26th: What stunning colours.



Hezekiah asked me to take a photo of his creation.

Saturday 27th: The children helped in the garden today. It's starting to look a lot more controlled - which Brendon and I both really thankful for.
Anastasia wanted Dad's pizza and was happy to just try get a bite off it. She is happy to try any food that someone else is eating.

Monday 29th: I must get a photo of this area before it's totally changed. I managed to get a free lean too / carport that Brendon got help fetching. So we have most of what we need to create a car port for Rachel on the side of the garage. So the first step is Brendon has to dig big holes for the new posts. And I want to remove all the beautiful bulbs from that bed (as the whole area will be stone).

Wednesday 1st May: Children photo.
And Asher enjoying using all 4 iPads in the house.

Saturday 4th May: Hannah's first day at netball.



She has a number of short games through the morning. I was pleased to be able to get to watch most of them.









And Hezekiah's first day at soccer. Thankfully they were both in Culverden.
So Brendon was with Hezekiah for his games but still had enough time to come over and watch Hannah play too.

Thankfully I was able to pop over and watch a bit of the soccer too. Brendon was asked to get on the field and coach them a bit - which he enjoyed. The team is mostly beginners but they had great fun.

Once sports was done and the children were home, Brendon and I managed to get away for a night for our 22nd anniversary. We are so thankful for the help with watching the other children (including Anastasia) so that we could have some time totally on our own.
We had a lovely dinner out (a real treat).

We stayed at the same bed and breakfast we had previously. They are such a beautiful Christian couple that we always enjoy the big of time fellowshipping with them too.

They had plans in the evening though, and so we got to enjoy special time alone in their amazing spa. It was so good to have the time to chat and just relax.

Music, dancing and scooters

Wed 13th March: Anastasia does love these drums.

Friday 15th: She loves being outside too. She wanted to sweep the tramp today.

She was pleased to be allowed to let the chooks out.

They let her get really close.

Ruth decorated a cake with fondant for the Hawarden Show tomorrow. All those photos will have to go on their own post.

Thursday 21st: Netball trials today. Unfortunately Ruth did not make the A team. Apparently the other girl who had hoped to make the A team and didn't, has decided to not even play in the B team. Well done Ruth for your positive attitude. Hopefully your hard work will pay off.

Friday 22nd: Dad helping Anastasia enjoy a ride on a scooter.

Sunday 24th: Anastasia loves dancing in the kitchen. We call her "Happy Feet".

Tuesday 26th: Ruth just loves getting cuddles from Anastasia.

Thursday 28th: Anastasia loves helping me pack Asher's Pediasure onto the shelf. She started by pulling the straws off, but eventually learnt to take the lids off too.

Ruth has been creative and making some decorations for her room.

Sunday 31st: I spotted this plant and watned to show the girls (especially Ruth). It is so unique. It just has the one flower and if you touch the leaves they die. You water it by pouring water  into the middle of the plant.

BELOW:  Monday 1st April: Children's photo.

Wednesday 3rd: These two had so much fun dancing on the quilt on the floor today. Something different made such a fun game for them.
Asher enjoys wearing Hezekiah's old cowboy hat. Very cute.

Good jumping Asher. You jumped right out of the shot.
Thursday 4th: More scooter fun with Dad.

Crawling, teeth and netball season over

Wed 8th: Ruth was excited about getting her own Math's workbook. They don't need to own a copy, but it makes it much easier and also allows her to work ahead if she wants to. She is year 8 this year, and doing year 10 work already. And a young year 8 too. Well done Ruth. I'm so glad you can enjoy Math with me. :-)
Thursday 9th: It's a great help having Megan take the children to school on Monday and Wednesday morning. Rachel also helps with a lot of the other school trips. On Thursday morning though, Rachel is working, so I have to pack Anastasia up and head up with them all. What a stunning morning though. I quickly took this photo as I left her classroom. Spring seems a little early this year.









Anastasia enjoying some of Asher's favourite books.
BELOW: I wanted to get a video of Anastasia's new forward movement. A proper leopard crawl now. And I was so impressed when she got up on her knees for a bit too. It won't be long and she will be crawling around very quickly. As it is she can get all around the room very easily.

Ruth was a very happy girl today as her friend gave her these two slimes. Ruth does love slime. And these were such lovely colours and the purple one was also very unique with the bumps in it.
Ruth had a very fun audio for us to listen to. They are learning about recording in Music and so their teacher had let them listen to this. Have a listen here (but use earphones).
It's brilliant. She had me listen first and I was convinced the children had put something on really loud in the room next door. Then it was Brendon's turn, then Hannah and Hezekiah.

Hannah was so funny. She kept looking around.
Our ears and brain truly are amazing creations. Such fun too.

Such a lovely photo. Such pleasure on Anastasia's face.
We had a bit of a jolt this evening just before 8pm. Only a 4.3 but it rattled the house and Hannah. It's been ages since we last felt one.

Friday 10th: Ruth took a photo of the sunrise this morning but added a star filter on her phone. A very pretty picture, even if there is some artistic licence in it. :-)
Asher had a seizure around midday today. It was almost 2 minutes, so a little longer than most of the recent ones. It made me realize though how long it has been since a long seizure (over 3 minutes). It's been over 16 months. So we are very grateful for this. She also had a lot of violent arm movements after the seizure and it reminded me of how we used to get that every time but she hasn't had that in a while too. Hopefully it's just a once off and doesn't happen too much again.

Rachel headed off this morning to have lunch with a friend and then work at the Disney on Ice. She didn't get to see any of it as she was working as a cashier, but she was excited about just being a part of it. It's fun to see all the girls dressed up for their special outing.
She called me after her shift to share her excitement. There had been a mother come and ask if there was a first aider. Rachel said she had first aid training and offered to see if she could help.

She gave the exact advice that was needed and the mother came back after the show to thank her. She was so pleased to be able to use some of her training in a "real life" situation to help someone.
Anastasia sees Asher on an iPad so often, so she is very interested in it. She loves the Giggle Gang. This must be the youngest I have had a little one on a device. How things change.
Saturday 11th: Final netball day today and wonderfully it was in Hawarden today, so I managed to get up to watch.
Great jump Ruth.
I was great to be able to watch again as I could see how much Ruth has improved through the season. Well done Ruth.

And then at 5 they had the prize giving for the club. Ruth's certificate said "for your commitment and improved netball skills this season."
For not having ever played before, she did very well this year and we are very proud of her.

Great to be able to give their coach a couple of gifts to as a thanks for all her time and effort.

Sunday 12th: We sorted out this toy basket and Anastasia decided the basket was a great teething ring. :-)
She finally has a couple of teeth through. The top left and bottom right.

Some other sorting out that happened was in two of the kitchen cupboards. We had way too many mugs (some very old ones) so Ruth went through all the mugs and all the plastic things. She did a great job sorting it all out and repacking the cupboards. Nothing like some extra little jobs to earn some bonus pocket money.
Anastasia is getting really good at crawling forwards now. Rachel was surprised when she saw her crawling forward at church this morning. Rachel keeps feeling like she goes away for a bit and comes back with Anastasia having learnt something new. She has gotten really quick at getting around the lounge now and this evening decided a couple of times to head over to Anakin's box.
So although a couple of little jobs got done, it was still a nice relaxing day to end the week. Rachel stayed with friends after church and then went to a worship service with them in the evening. As they were after 10pm getting back, she just stayed over with them and came home in the morning.