Bikes Again

At last we got on our bikes again. We have to be thankful for the public holiday and the 'space' for it. We had to believe that we could still climb "Heartbreak Hill" and when we faced the challenge we found it manageable. Praise God.

Barbie Art

Barb is getting into art and hopes to do a fair bit during her long service leave. While she was with her mum, they worked on leaf prints together (below) and Barb made a really special drawing of a vase of flowers (above) for her mum as something extra for her birthday. Peter thinks that Barb has so much potential if this is the start of it.

Nan Seventy-Five

Barb took the opportunity to fly to Brisbane to share her mother's 75th birthday. It was a late decision and turned out to be a special gift for her mum. Hey, it looks like there is at least 75 candle power on that cake!

Barb was able to link up with her brother Peter and his family to make it a special party for Nan.

Rachael is showing just how tall she is these days beside her parents. Barb was pleased that she was there to share the occasion and take the snaps.

Barb stayed with her mum for those four days and one thing they did a lot of was finding a coffee joint for a cuppa to get their fix and soak in the relaxed atmosphere.

Chaplaincy in the Open

A local community newspaper wrote this article about Peter and his role as school chaplain. The school principal gave the interview. Because the Whittlesea Primary School does have children affected by the Black Saturday bush fires, the reporter chose such a heading. Peter thinks the word traumatised is a bit too extreme and does not reflect the majority of the school community which Peter also serves and he would have preferred a heading like: "Sharing the Journey".

Piper's Riding Lesson

We had an opportunity to attend a Piper riding lesson a number of days ago (actually also on her birthday) as we jumped at the chance of watching. It was a perfect day for it too.

Piper was given experience of each part of the prep work before actually mounting and the reasons for each task. This will ground her in the reality of owning a horse in later years.

In this lesson we watched Piper manage and direct the walk, giving little kicks with her heals, learning to pull back on the reigns and pulling one reign to indicate a new direction. The horse was very obliging but she had to be more forthright than she wanted to be or the horse would wait for a better signal.

Jasper patiently waited for a brief ride at the end of the lesson. He is not horse-mad like Piper but does expect a go before everything is packed away.

And Jethro happily walked about the place or sat with one of us. He is such an easy child to manage. We don't know if he will go horse-mad as he grows. At present he is happy to give those HUGE things on four legs a miss.

Piper Seven

Piper's Birthday was an epic weekend event. On Saturday there was the kids party with the highly popular obstacle course. We missed that part of it. We visited on Sunday and Piper was ready to do it all again.

The theme was mostly on horses. Piper seems to have everything on horses except actually owning one. She is patient enough because she is now beginning to appreciate the upkeep of a horse. The following is a series of present unwrappings that happened in the afternoon of this day.

On the same day Piper and Caleb came together for the traditional joint celebration of seven and eight years respectively. Caleb still had some makeup on his face because this happened just after the pantomime, "The Wizard of Oz" presented by the Gemco Players, and Caleb had a part.

Jethro's Second Birthday

Jethro is the sweetest little kid ever and just recently he was two. We don't think there will be any trouble during the "terrible twos" with Jethro.

He knew what was expected of him and that made it all the more cute when we came for the day to share the moment.

He had presents from Grandma and Opa in Canada, presents that travelled a long way to get there. Bec was an ever-ready support.

Jaz was beginning to feel that May was just way too far in the future for his own liking. But the cake was pretty nice.

The day involved lots of painting of pictures. All three grandkids had a great time. Jethro absolutely loved it and he wanted his Poppa to squeeze out more and more paint onto his tray.