Guide Camp and walking

Saturday 3rd: A beautiful rainbow to enjoy today. It did make us wonder how Ruth's camp was going though.

I was able to get a few photos from different people from their camp. There were times it was very windy and wet. Here the girls are all out enjoying the wind.
Thankfully they did have enough space inside to get some activities done. Here they were doing a dance they had choreographed.

Wonderfully the weather didn't stop them from getting out to do some shooting practice. Such a beautiful area. This photo also gives you an idea of how far away the targets were (those small rectangles on that brown board). It was apparently around 25 yards away.
This was how well Ruth did!! I think it's amazing. I think just hitting the paper was a great achievement.
Sunday 4th: They had their final hose shoe with all the parents there before they left.
Ruth got a couple more badges.
The leader told me that Ruth did really well. She had a really difficult group with two of the girls just not wanting to do anything. Ruth was running her own camp for the first 24 hours, and they were a real challenge. The leader said she did really well though. They had a debrief afterwards and spoke about all the issues that came up. So at least Ruth comes away knowing she handled a hard situation very well. She didn't get as many activities done as she would have liked, but she learnt a lot.
I undid a large section of Ruth's hair this evening. She wanted me to take a photo of the contrast of the two sides.

Monday 5th: This little sausage loving eating her sausage.
She is finally getting some food down her throat. I think what makes these so nice for her is that they are firm enough for her to pick up pieces (holding the whole sausage was just for the photo). But once she has chewed it a couple of times, it's soft enough to swallow.

Tuesday 6th: A video below of Anastasia walking - before her 1st birthday. Clever little poppet. And a chatterbox already. :-)

Pool, doc, lights, camp and fireworks

Thursday 25th: It was the last day for someone on the farm that Rachel works with, so she decided to do another trial of the 2nd biggest cake for the wedding cake she is doing in Feb. It looks beautiful. I love the piping work on the top. Rachel had thought the last trial was a bit dry. Today she realized that we are always comparing to our lovely moist chocolate cakes - so it's not a fair comparison. This one is more light and airy - and its what the bride has requested. So at least Rachel feel more confident about it now.
BELOW: On our way home from town on Thursday. I had to take this photo of Anastasia. She is so funny and often holds her car seat (often with both hands). Her latest trick is getting her leg up above the seat belt. So I thought this was a good photo record of her antics. :-)

Friday 26th: Athletics during the day (separate post) and then we were split for the evening. Hannah, Hezekiah and Anastasia headed to the church movie night with Brendon and I, while Rachel stayed home with Asher, and Ruth went to Youth Group. It was a Marvel movie this month and Ruth doesn't like Marvel movies. Rachel's reason for not wanting to watch was that there are other movies she needs to watch first to watch this next one in order. I love how unique we all are.
BELOW: Saturday 27th: Ruth, Hannah and Hezekiah headed up to help clean the pool today. Hannah wasn't keen on getting her feet in the dirty water when they started, so she headed home early. Well done team.

I got these photos later from Ruth. Hezekiah was obviously NOT worried about the dirty water. It looks like that was what made it fun. He was pleased about having walked along the deep end of the pool. :-)
Great work kids.

The only time Anastasia is actually in the Excer saucer anymore is when Dad's doing the BBQ. It keeps her in one spot and she enjoys being outside. They had some fun hitting sticks together today (she sees that often with Asher and her music sticks).

Anastasia decided she wanted them both though. Such a cutie.

Monday 29th: Hezekiah has had stomach ache for over a week now (with no other symptoms), so we headed down to the doctor this afternoon. In the past he has gotten cramps from eating wheat, but over the last months it's been much better and so he has had a few extra wheat items every now and again (like biscuits at church or a piece of bread at a sausage sizzle).
I did some research though and in order to know if he is coeliac, he would need to be eating a good amount of wheat every day for 4 weeks. The doctor agreed that this was a good step in the process of finding out what is going on.
She did acknowledge that it could just be a wheat intolerance - giving all the same symptoms as coeliac disease. But if he is indeed coeliac, it would be good to know so that we can handle it correctly.
So we have a blood form to do blood tests in 4 weeks time, once he has had enough wheat in his system for long enough. My hope is that the pain does not become too much for him. It's going to be a very hard month.
I love the blue potato man he made while we waited for the appointment.

Wednesday 31st: There were two light parties on today run by different churches. A lovely "non-scary" alternative to a Halloween party. So much fun for the children.
The first one was in Waikari and so I took Ruth, Hannah and Hezekiah down at 4:30. I didn't get a photo of Hannah unfortunately as she was very quickly off with friends. She was dressed as a very bright pink and black coloured fairy (her Jazz concert outfit). Hezekiah had a batman mask, but decided not to wear it. They had a great time with all the friends and activities that were on.
Rachel had offered to take them down to the Amberley light party too. Only Hannah and Hezekiah wanted to go to that one, so they headed off to that (as it only ended at 8:30). And I collected Ruth from Waikari when that one finished at 6:30.

Rachel forgot to get a photo of Hannah's outfit, but did get one of them in the floating bumper cars. :-)

So nice having a bit sister with a full licence to be able to take you to special events. :-)

Thursday 1st November: Asher having a little chat to Anakin. So sweet.

I couldn't get a children's photo this afternoon because by the time Anastasia was up from her nap, Ruth had headed out to a meeting at the Hurunui Council. She is applying to be a representative from her school with the Hurunui Youth Council. Again handy for us that Rachel could take her down.

Brendon and I had such a laugh this evening as Anastasia decided to examine how the toys on the Excer-saucer worked. She spend ages looking underneath the rim.
And she had a go at seeing if she could undo them too. Such concentration with that little tongue out.

Friday 2nd: I made sure I got the children photo this afternoon before Ruth headed off on a Guide Camp. The first 24 hours of the camp is a camp run by her for 3 other girls. She had done all the planning, paperwork and budgeting ect. 2 other girls had their "mini camps" at the same time and then they joined up on Saturday afternoon.
If you click on the photo to see it larger, you will notice the snow capped mountains in the background. Typical NZ spring weather. Thankfully it stayed dry for them.
I heard on Sunday that they just didn't manage to get this tent up as it was too windy. So they put it up inside the wool shed. It was a good call, as the one tent that did get up, ended up almost blowing over in the night and they had to move into the woolshed in the middle of the night.
When I got back from dropping Ruth off I had to smile at these two playing next to each other. They had the same app open. And they both kept looking at what the other one was doing. :-)

Anastasia has been enjoying taking a few steps this week. Falling down is a part of the process. Normally it's straight onto her bottom, but at least she was on the soft carpet when she chose to face plant. Tough girl though, so she can just get up and go again.
As Rachel is at a formal tomorrow night when the Waiau fireworks are on, she suggested taking Hannah and Hezekiah to the Waipara ones tonight. There is always a big bonfire at this one - so that was fun.

Rachel forgot to take some photos before it got dark, but I think this is still a special one.

The display is not as big as the Waiau one, but it was still a great evening out.
Hannah got a clip with fibre optic strands.




And Hezekiah got some flashing glasses.

Thanks for taking them Rachel. Special memories made.

Assessment, Sangam and shopping

Thursday 23rd: My drop off photo this week. Asher spotted the two girls on the teachers chair. The children often swing each other around on it. So it was heart warming for me to see Asher go over and start pushing the girls around. I had to make sure she changed direction after a while and then stopped after a while going the other way. Asher will get very dizzy and not stop. I'm not convinced yet that too much head movement won't trigger seizures, so we have to just help her from overdoing things. It was really special though.








Anastasia getting more time practicing standing. The cat is wonderful motivation to stand here. She loves playing with him. Just look at that happy face.
The book club order arrived today and Hannah had ordered a book that came with "putty". It's like slime, but specifically gave the idea of blowing bubbles in it with a straw. What a big bubble. Thankfully it's got hardly any colouring in it. The previous slime that she had been playing with this week had so much colouring her hands would be stained after playing with it. And unfortunately the colouring had a negative affect on Hannah emotionally. So I was very pleased to see the enjoyment she could get with this one - with out the negative colouring.
Ruth and I quickly headed off after school to get her to her camp assessment in town this afternoon. Anastasia obviously coming with. She had to put up a tent, a shelter and a clothes line. She had two girls with who helped. They will need to do their assessments soon too, so it helped them to know what would be involved.
She then had to talk to the assessor about running the camp kitchen, hygiene and food safety. She also had to show how she would set up her kitchen, so the leader had brought some lego for her to use to show her kitchen plan.
She also had to prepare some hot drinks, so the girls enjoyed some hot chocolate after the cold job of putting up the tents with the cold wind and drizzle about.
And the assessment was finished we headed over to visit another Guiding unit who were having a Sangam night. They did a whole range of activities relating to the Guiding centre in India. Including having some Indian food for dinner.

Dressing in Saris.
Getting some henna art on their hands.

Although Ruth wasn't mad about the colour of the sari she got, I thought it looked amazing on her.
Some wali art and rangoli as well as learning to count in Hindu and fitting 16 girls in a car. :-) It was a great evening. And Ruth and I got to also enjoy listening to an audiobook while we drove.

Friday 24th: I love how Anakin will come over to Anastasia for a rub.
She loves going into his box too. Such a cutie.
Rachel headed off early this morning for a St John camp this weekend. It was a special one that she had applied to attend and was very pleased to be accepted. She first stopped at Mrs Sampson who had said she would help her alter some fancy dresses she got. She is planning on attending the home school formal later this year, and got two dresses at a ridiculously low price. They just needed some alterations and Mrs. Sampson did such an amazing job. They had a lovely visit over lunch too. What a blessing.

Saturday 25th: It was lovely to see Asher go over and sit next to Anastasia this morning. She is trying to interact with her more, which is so special to see.

Hezekiah has enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with Anastasia around the rocking chair lately. It always makes me smile watching them and seeing her face light up ever time she sees him.

And Ruth giving Anastasia some time at the piano this morning too. What a busy morning she had with her siblings. So special.
Yesterday we had a delivery of new curtain rails (ones that help keep the rooms warmer) as well as new (curtain bank) curtains for the lounge. We so very spoilt. Our previous curtains had gotten damaged during the earth quake repairs, so it was so nice to get these. Ruth and I headed into town this morning as I had a sore tooth that I wanted to get checked. Thankfully it was only sensitivity and the tooth is fine. It gave us an opportunity to get some shopping done though. So we bought the curtain tie and we got that up this afternoon.
Rachel will have a lovely surprise when she gets home tomorrow. They look so nice. The lady had said she had some chocolate brown material and we said that would be fine. This was so much better than expected. At night they have so many different colours and are just lovely. I don't think I have ever seen curtains as nice. Both Brendon and Ruth made the comment that it made the room look so cosy.
And the extra trip also allowed Ruth and I to listen more to the audio book story. It's been nice to listen with her. We will have to continue listening on our own now though, as I don't think we will get enough time on our own to get it finished. And it's a detective story, so I am keen to find out what happens (and who did it).

Sunday 26th: Brendon preached this morning and we had the treat of fish and chips for lunch afterwards. Brendon is on new medication for his migraines and after 2 weeks without migraines we decided to give fish a try and see if he can manage some now without a headache. He has been avoiding fish for a number of weeks now as it did seem to be something he was not able to have without a headache afterwards. Thankfully no headache today (or on Monday morning). So that was a great blessing too.

Ruth finally got around to taking some pictures of some of her jewellery creations for me to list on a local facebook site. She is going to sell them as fundraising for a school camp in November. She sold 4 items and so was very motivated to get a lot more made. The advert also brought her attention to a market that is happening next Sunday, so she wants to get as much made this week to sell next weekend.
She is listening to music on her new blue tooth ear phones. These were part of her purchases yesterday with the voucher she won at the speech competition.

Run, braid, play and sing

Thursday 31st: Hurunui Zone cross country today. Once Anastasia had fed and had her nap I headed over as I new it was starting at 11am. I didn't however realize that they do the races one at a time, so I was very pleased to hear that Ruth's race was first. Year 8 girls. I always feel for Ruth when she runs in the year group as she is the youngest.
Thankfully it was dry, but it was very cold It was 3 degrees when I arrived and when I left at 11:30 it was only 4 degrees.

10 girls heading off.

What a beautiful spot to have the race. Ruth was thankful that it was not as hilly as her school race. I wouldn't describe it as flat, but perhaps in comparison it seemed flat.

And a sprinting finish. She came in 9 out of 10. Good effort Ruth. I'm sure if you start practicing through the summer you will do a lot better.

Friday 1 June. Rachel left early this morning for her introductory hair dressing course again (before 7am). They were assessed on their braids. She had never done a fish tail braid before, so it was good to get the extra practice. Her other braids were good enough on the first day.

Another "hair up" today. Rachel then spent the night in town as she was flying up to Auckland early on Saturday morning. She was one of just 3 St John Youth (out of the 30 that applied) to be chosen for a photo shoot of their new uniform. So they flew them up to Auckland and had a fun day of activities so that they could have photos in and out of uniform. We have gotten to look at the photos, but because of copyright we can't share any. It was a lovely experience and I'm so pleased she got to do it.
Full school assembly today and Hannah's group got to share their bits about camp to the whole school.
Ruth enjoying working out some songs on the guitar this evening. The children know so many of the songs from The Greatest Showman that we decided to buy a copy so that we could all watch the movie through. So they have been singing a lot of the songs lately. I really enjoy listening to them. Asher and Anastasia enjoyed it this evening too.
Two guys from work helped Brendon to pick up a piano that we were given this evening. Brendon bought fish and chips on the way home to at least feed them as thanks. Anastasia decided she wanted to try a chip too.
What a wonderful blessing to be given a piano. Although Hannah's bedroom has more space, we only just managed to get it through the kitchen into the hall. So it ended up having to just go straight down and into Hezekiah's room. My sewing cabinet was in this spot - so it's moved next door to Hannah now. Ruth didn't hesitate to give it a try and it sounds quite good. It has two keys that stick and would obviously improve with a good tune. But for now, I'm really impressed with the sound and very thankful.
Saturday 2nd: Ruth took Asher down to play today. I'm sure Asher will enjoy the piano a lot too.
Cuddles with Ruth after her netball.

Sunday 3rd: Perhaps not really appropriate to be taking photos in church, but I wanted to have record of this little routine that Asher has. No matter what she is busy with, when the singing starts, she goes to Dad and wants to be up in his arms. She must really love the vibration as he sings. I like his singing too - but she likes the feel of it too.


With Rachel away from early Friday morning till late on Saturday evening, today was the first time to get the monthly children photo. And nice to have it on a weekend and a change from school clothes.
This one was on my phone and so a bit fuzzy unfortunately. Sweet smiles though.

So I took a couple on my camera too. This one is a little clearer, but I didn't catch the smile on Anastasia. It's getting more and more tricky to get a photo with them all looking good. :-)
Monday 4th: A public holiday today, so no need to rush getting dressed. A lovely one of Hezekiah and Anastasia at 8am.
Ruth took the day off school to catch up on some of her Guiding things. This was one activity she needed to do.

Asher often watches one of her music dvds on the laptop while we watch things as a family. She has been breaking the keyboard though, so we got her a simple dvd player so that there are no buttons for her to fiddle with. It was sweet to see Anastasia roll over to have a watch with her. Anastasia likes her bible dvds.