Mother's Day

I was brought 6 beautiful cards in bed on Sunday morning, and a big bunch of bright flowers that made two bunches when I put them into vases after church.



In sacrament meeting, when some of our children helped to give out spring flowers to all of the ladies, Rebekah came running like a fairy up to me with the first bunch she had - for me - and a huge bright-eyed smile on her face. I had been feeling too hot etc. since getting to church, but I felt lovely after that. :o) There were lots of the flowers left over so the girls each came home with a bunch too, so we have glasses or vases of flowers all around the house, half of them cheery daffodils with scented foliage, which is what Primary gave out.



Peter took this one, with the help of Michael's steady supportive hand so he could hold the button down for long enough. :o)



Later when we called nanny and Granma to wish them a happy mother's day, Rebekah was very excited to call and speak to each grandmother. Peter came down when Granma was on the phone, and was so enjoying his conversation, his little face shining, that I had to take the picture. He saw the camera come out and didn't look so bright and shiny, but you can still see he is enjoying himself. He misses his grandparents.

Science Experiments

Peter and Sarah have been doing a couple of experiments lately. Michael said that he noticed Peter during tea one day a week or so ago doing something with his peas. He was taking them one by one and watching them carefully as they dropped to the floor. The same with his couscous. When he came to sweep the floor later on, Michael called me in to see, amused at quite how much experimenting with his free-falling food Peter had been doing. It's amazing he got anything inside him!




He got quite into our family home evening lesson this last Sunday - about people's buckets being emptied (self-esteem) through things we say, do, things that happen, etc., and how we can fill each other's buckets if they're running low or on empty. Everyone filled the empty bucket up a little at a time as they thought of things they/we could do to lift someone. Peter and Rebekah got very into it (a little too hyper after refreshments partly) and Peter didn't just like to pour the water from one bucket to the other, he liked to near-enough throw it it the end, hence the floor, and his clothes. It went away in the end, but only after he'd had a good play and got everything nicely soaked. :o) Good job I'd moved it onto the plain floor before we started. We had a towel in the end to help contain it a little.





Sarah loves speed. She has always loved running fast, and up to a couple of years she would often be trying to go so fast her legs couldn't always keep up and down she'd go. Today Michael took them all out to ride their bikes for an hour or so (Peter had a ride on the back of Michael's so they could go a bit faster). Not far from the house they had gone up a hill and stopped for a snack. Then as they set off down the road (not a public road) it sounds like Sarah was going quite fast starting off down the hill. There is quite a nasty speed bump near the top there (it's not at all smooth taking it slowly in the car) and while going over that, Sarah flew off her bike. She's lucky to just have bruises and grazes (head, nose, both knees, shoulder, leg and one hand), and a hole in her trousers. The hole and dents, and the cracks right through her helmet left us feeling grateful that we always use them. She'll have to have a new one of those as it's now useless, but rather that than a hole in her head. Without the kind we use (the ones that stick out a little to give more protection rather than the climbing-helmet style) she'd have had no protection to her face even if her head survived.



Hopefully that'll be all experiments over with for this week at least, although most of them clearly are a lot of fun.

Spring at Stanmer

We finally got back to Stanmer Park a couple of weeks ago. I've been on my own quite a few times, but it hasn't often worked through the winter to get back there with the children, and Michael's not been there at all yet. Maybe with Easter coming up he'll have a bit of time to go there with us.

We went first with our friend Kathryn (my age, not the childrens') and all that any of them wanted to do was be with the animals. So we watched the sorry looking cows for a while, all very much covered in mud. Then were delighted to find some horses. With a bit of patience 3 of them came up to the gate of the field we were next to, and the girls enjoyed spending some time with them, and observing all sorts of things about them. Kathryn mostly got to be there with them as Peter was not content to stay in the one place for long, and so was backwards and forwards, round the corner and right next to the road, and obviously needed a companion (me) right there with him. I did get to sit down for a while though as we found a broken wall (the top bricks were all chipping off in layers) and the different shaped pieces were immediately cars, tractors and houses to Peter, so sitting on the wall there for me and playing with the cars allocated to me while he stood by me playing with his was acceptable for various longer periods of time. I was tired and glad of that.

They watched the horses taken back from their fields come early evening and hosed down before going into their stables, and at that point Sarah started begging me to take them back the next day (Saturday). I did in the end, but as we hadn't gone for a walk at all the day before said that we'd be doing that first. We've found it a lot harder since being here to just get out a bit of every day (or most days), and certainly not for some decent exercise and fresh air. The weather is better now to be out in the garden a lot more, which we are more often. The hilliness of the area hasn't lent itself as well to riding bikes though, or for exploring from home on foot (especially with me being pregnant - I'm too easily wiped out before we're half way up any hill!)

Well with horses to spend time with my suggestion of a walk didn't go down too well, and for I'd say all of three minutes I had an especially grumpy Rachel. Literally three minutes later though they were off exploring, and loving every minute of everything they found. Not such a bad idea after all - just haven't done enough of it for a while I suppose!




Hannah was immediately trying to get up a tree (though she didn't choose the easiest one to start with).



Peter preferred a little 'house' they had found - just his size and complete with benches along one edge. He kept going back there. I wished I could get down to that level to play there with him, but I just can't bend so well now.



We have just loved seeing the spring flowers coming out everywhere. There is normally a sudden hush and a look of wonder by one or more of the girls when we come across a beautiful patch of flowers, which is just what happened here.






They did of course end up in a tree. It took Peter a while to spot them from where we still were, and he wasn't sure about being up there to start with, but he didn't complain about having an afternoon snack up in the tree - a perfect place away from the dogs who were also out enjoying the blue sky and slightly warmer afternoon.



From their spot in the tree they had a great view to watch a man and woman in a nearby much taller tree who had brought all their climbing gear with them. The man was up to the very top within minutes, securing a rope up there. The woman was having a good go, but showed just how hard it really must have been. The children thought it was all fascinating.






Stopping on the way back (to the horses!) to notice a very tall family of shadow people, ...




... then racing off following a trail of hoof prints they noticed on the lawn, which disappointingly ended with the road.




The church at Stanmer...





... and of course, the horses.
They were different horses in this field from the previous day. Some of the girls had hoped to have the horses come to recognise them a little if we could come back often enough. They were very patient waiting for the horses to come over, which two of them eventually did. They did enjoy getting to know those two horses for a while, but we decided that a Saturday is definately not the best day to go and visit them - too many children who had no idea how to treat a horse around made it a bit too frustrating for a while, while their parents sat nearby with no idea what was going on. So we'll go back in the week again in future when we can.








Peter was really hungry again before we left, and so I went off from the horses a little way to get him another snack out of my backpack. This horse was immediately at the gate and pawing at the floor though, and he wouldn't take his eyes off me ever after. Maybe he could smell the apple I still had left in the bag?! He kept on trying to nibble at my fingers too, so I guess he could smell some kind of food there.




Peter found another occupation for a little while too...



Back at the carpark, and not wanting to leave - just have to climb a few more places!