Eat, count, drive and swim

The first of many picnic lunches on the tramp. So nice to
have such lovely shade on a very hot day.

Ruth has started learning about
Decimal Street and the place value
of units and tens - and loving it.

It was so hot today and Ruth was so uncomfortable. She was going to go upstairs but she turned to me and said "please can you get me some shade?" I told her that she was in shade because we were inside and the sun was not shining on us. She said "but I'm still hot". Poor thing. We managed to get a bit of a breeze going through the house and that helped - as well as getting down for a swim later.

On our way to the pool. Rural New Zealand traffic jam. :-)

It's always a treat to see a sheep dog in action.

We were happy to just follow the sheep along but the farmer indicated for us to go past. His dog made a path for us.

And then we had a lovely time at the pool. The water was only 22 but we all got in and had a great time. Ruth is doing so well with her swimming. She borrowed a life jacket from a friend for a bit and was more than happy to just put her head down and go for it. I remember my parents had a costume for my little sister which had Styrofoam tubes in it. As the child got more confident you started removing the tubes. I think if we had something like that for Ruth she would be swimming by the end of the season.

Lamb and lake field

On our way home from town we stopped in at Brian and Julia for a quick cuppa and the girls were thrilled to get to see this new born lamb.








It is one of triplets that was born last night. The mother is feeding the other two so this little one is getting a bottle.

I was pleased the girls got to help give the lamb it's bottle. Such special memories.

Finally we got a photo of what our family call "Lake Field". It is an area just outside of Amberly which just does not cope with the amount of rain we have been having lately. The same thing happened last year - where the fields turn into what looks like a small lake.

As soon as Hannah saw Brendon lie down on the couch with me she climbed up too. Here she is "looking for lice". So she still remembers her episode with them. I am thankful that got sorted out so quickly.

Just fooling around. Such a funny little girl. She brings much joy to the family.

Rachel got a nice clear photo here. With Hannah making a "tower".

Little lambs

We had a short visit planned with Julia today and she phoned this morning to let me know that two little lambs had been born that morning - so we would want to have our gumboots with.

It was lovely to watch the little lamb figure out where to find the milk.

The twin was really off though and had wandered way up on this field. So Julia and Rachel headed up to fetch it and bring it down to it's mum.

All enjoying a little pat.

Julia then locked them up in this smaller area so that the mother had longer grass to eat and the lambs would stay close.

Rachel had so much contact with sheep and lambs when we lived next door to Bob and Lynn. It is the one thing we really miss about the other house. So it was lovely for the younger two to get a little bit of contact with such lovely little lambs.

Ruth was thrilled to get a box full of creams today. I entered a competition through face book with our movie rental company and won this. I had entered with her in mind and was so thrilled to have won them for her.

Last day of Swim week

The girls have been enjoying eating their Ricies with yogurt this week. It does help them stick together. :-)
Last day of swim week today. Ruth wearing her new costume from the Phillipses. Ruth has done really well this week. To check out all her photos have a look at her new blog.

Pool temperature this morning was up to 24C which was great for the girls.
Rachel has done so incredibly well. There she is in the deep end having just swum the whole length doing backstroke. She swam back using freestyle. Well done Rachel. To check out her amazing progress through the week (and all her photos) have a look at her blog.
I saw that Olivia was out her pram so I asked if I could put Hannah in for as long as she would sit. She thought it was fun so sat eating chips there for a little while which allowed me to take photos easily. She has been really good this week in watching and not getting to swim herself which I am very thankful for.

Hannah and Olivia. Only 6 weeks apart. In two years time they will probably be doing swim week together.

We got down to the pool again as a family this afternoon. The temperature was up to 28C.

Ruth showing Dad how she puts her head under. My apologies for the loud YAY!!!! at the end from Mum. It just popped out naturally. She has done so well.

And Hannah is doing well watching her sisters too. Just before this they all sang together and Hannah got her face in even more than on this video. So I am glad she is already getting used to the idea.

There have been ewe sales in Hawarden today and it was nice to finally see this area being used. We have never seen so many trucks and sheep in one spot before.

This is the photo I took after swimming lessons this morning. There were so many people.

Playing around outside before bed. Ruth said I must get the camera and take a photo of Dad swinging her upside down.

Ruth loves jumping and now jumps off the 3rd step.

Dad also spent a lot of time playing Netball with Rachel. My arm is still too sore to play.

Rachel's day out

Ruth's sorting skills have developed wonderfully with all her puzzle building. She had over 60 pieces out at one time to get all these puzzles made.
Rachel did such an excellent job on her entry for the Spring Flower Festival colouring in competition. Well done Rachel. I think it is excellent. The Festival is tomorrow but all entries had to be in by 12 today.
Rachel spent the day with Bob and Lynn. As a reward for her hard work through August she earned this special treat. We planned it for this day so that she could use some of Lynn's wonderful flowers for her flower saucer entry for the Festival.

It was lovely that these stayed close with us right next to the road. Ruth has learnt about the lamb drinking from the ewe but got to actually see it today which was great.

Lynn's dog is also such a sweety and so Ruth got to enjoy some time with her.

After a short visit Ruth, Hannah and myself headed home. Lynn offered to bring Rachel home later this afternoon. Rachel has been looking forward to this day and had a great time. For some more details from Rachel check out this link.

We got a load of deliveries this morning which was great fun.

And boxes are just so much fun.

One of the packages was Rachel's Math-U-See programme including these manipulatives. The younger two had played with them soon after they arrived this morning, but Rachel got a turn too. She was so excited that they had arrived.

I also had a nice relaxing day. The younger two had a really good afternoon nap and I used some of that time to get Rachel's Narration Station finished.

I will give Rachel a narration assignment (eg: write about your day visiting Lynn) which I put in the small "info" pocket. I put her narration book into the big pocket and move the "ready" sign to "in". Once Rachel has done the work she will put the book back in the pocket and move the "ready" sign to "out". Then I know to check it for her. I then re-write the narration into a different book, putting any incorrectly spelled words in pencil for her to write over. She may then add a picture to her narration if she wants to.

Rachel was so excited to see that it was already finished. She has already completed her first assignment. My goal is that she do at least one assignment a week. But it's pretty much left up to her.

My inspiration for this came from this site.

Rachel will miss you a LOT

Rachel will really miss our neighbours Bob and Lynn and they are also very sad about us moving.

This week Lynn has been away and so she asked that we just keep an eye out for Bob. She was concerned that he would be a bit lonely through the week so Rachel went to help him on the farm on Monday morning (from 9 till 11:30) and again today from 10 till 12. He said she was very helpful and I know she had a great time too. One of her favorite things is to drive the 4 wheeler (which he taught her to do ages ago). But this week she learnt about moving the electric fence on the fields (if you don't know what I am talking about have a look at this link).

Bob also came around for tea (dinner) on Monday and today and it was a highlight for Ruth who also enjoys "Uncle Bob".

A walk with Rachel

When we got back yesterday and Ruth told Rachel about feeding the horse some apples Rachel was so disappointed that she had not joined us. So today she definitely felt well enough to join us for a walk. And can you believe the apples on that tree. It's the only tree in the road that still has apples on. The horse as eaten all that he can reach so was very excited about us visiting again so that we could give him some more.

Hannah enjoyed being "up close"
As did Ruth. She insisted we should also bring him a carrot but let Mom actually give it to him. She did give him a pat though.

And Rachel gave him a wonderful long pat. She was talking softly to him all the time and I could see he was far more relaxed with her. She so enjoyed this.

Then we stopped by the cows on the way back. It's so fun to see them run over when they see you. Hoping you have some food.

Rachel found some grass to give them and although they were very excited about that - they were not willing to take it out of her hand.

And just look at how quickly they have eaten those oats down. Yesterday it was so high it was up to their tummies and now it's just a thin layer of green.

I was so thankful for these two days of lovely clear and warmer weather so that we could enjoy getting out to experience the joys of nature just down our road.

What a lovely walk

A friend had encouraged me to get out walking with the girls and so today I took Ruth and Hannah for a walk down the road. Rachel is still not completely well, so she stayed home. What a lovely walk we had. The sheep on the rolling hills was just beautiful. And it was not really that cold out either. It was a beautiful clear day and I think it was warmer outside than in our bedrooms.
The cows were also great as they came over to us as soon as we got close. We went a bit further and gave the horse a few apples too (photos taken on tomorrows walk with more details).
We also got to chat about so many things. This was the apple tree we got most of our hundreds of apples off a few months ago. Quite a change. So it was fun to talk to Ruth about the different seasons and all the fun things involved in that.

These trees where a lovely example of ever greens and those that are not. Ruth then asked if those where apples on the trees. I told her they were pine cones. I asked what we did with pine cones and she said "put them in the fire". We use pine cones to start the fire, so it was good to know she knew what I was talking about even though she could not see them clearly.
On our way back Bob had just moved the electric fence on this field. The farmers will only open up a few meters of the field at a time (otherwise the sheep will just eat it all). So you can see the far left was two days ago and the ground is just mud. Yesterdays there is a little bit of green left, but on the right is how it starts off. It is a very common site at this time of year to see the sheep all down one long line of a field, eating the grass (and in this case it's oats) that have been opened up for them.

A close up shot just to show you how high it is. Right up to their tummies.