March Madness!!

Pin the Beard on Sensei Wu and Rappe Family!

Jaxon and Jones had an awesome birthday day last week!  We were blessed to have Papa stay home from work and spend the whole thing with us.  The two birthday boys had such a hard time sleeping the night before their birthday...I am not sure they got more than a couple hours rest all night long!  

When we FINALLY let them get up, it was present time right away.  Christmas really sets a precedent for the waking up and running out to gifts first thing, you know.  Of course, they got lots of fun new items and creative ideas from rellies (relatives...Aussie slang) and they had a marvelous time opening each thing and ooohing and aaahing and laughing and opening everything right away!!

Well, after the gift-time fun, we headed over McDonald's for a birthday breakfast of hotcakes and o.j.  They even got to play on the little playground a bit after they ate.  Since it was a Wednesday and most kids are at school, we had the equipment mostly to ourselves!  

Jones and Jax wanted the party theme of Lego Ninjago, so lots of our decorations were a bit ninja specific.  

We found a lovely Pin the Beard on Sensei Wu game...

Jones and Jax with new wands

We pretty much tried to do our own decor, so anything red you see is due to the Ninjago character Kai, black is for the outfit Cole wears, blue for Jay, white for Zane and green is Lloyd's color.  We printed off ninjago eye stickers and put them on glasses and homemade paper lanterns.

There were festive Sensei Wu beards on a stick, a Ninjago bunting, hilarious Ninja name cards, cupcake toppers, and a matching game with Ninjago characters called "Stealthy Samurai."  Too fun!

One of our family friends gave the boys a slot car track to share for their birthday!  That thing is so huge!  They all had so much fun with it!  The cars go on little metal rails in the track, but you must make them go by turning a hand crank.  The car has to maintain enough speed to fly through the loops, but slow down enough on the corners that it doesn't fly off the track!  Course, they all loved that and it comes with some loud rowdy music to race to!

So, we did lots of setting up and playing with toys and Legos in the morning, and then it was lunchtime.  We decided to do cake right after lunch because after their special dinner in the evening, the plan was to head right over to the YMCA for Rock Climbing!!  But, I am getting ahead of myself...

Jones chose ice cream cake (which was actually pretty good and store-bought), and Jaxon wanted a cheesecake with raspberry sauce for topping.  We didn't even have to have ice cream on the side...it worked like a charm!  The boys each decorated with a variety of eight candles and Ninjago cupcake toppers.

Everything they chose was delicious and turned out great!  We were hardly hungry for their special dinner request:  mac'n'cheese with hotdogs!!  We had strawberries and corn-on-the-cob as well.  Then it was off to Rock Climbing!  The YMCA only has a few times when the rock wall is open, so Wednesday evenings ended up being one and the boys' were ecstatic to try it for their real birthday event!

We got all signed-in and harnessed up and Jones volunteered to head up first. It is really safe for the kids to climb this way, and they seemed to feel really secure because they stayed brave all the way up to the top of the wall!  It must be three stories high.  Trent and I both learned to belay them, so they got to climb until they could climb no more.  They wanted to try everything and Beaux was right there with them!  She's got those long legs and can span quite a distance from toehold to toehold.  To come down from the top, you must lean back and sit in your harness, while the person at the bottom lets out your slack and allows you to repel down the wall.  Trent and I did a few climbs as well...It was just a really fun birthday activity and wore us all out, for sure!!

Here go Jax and Beaux!

Once I started helping with the ropes, I didn't get to take as many photos, but hopefully these put you in the picture about the awesome rock wall!  We finished up around 8 pm and headed back home.  There were still a couple items to cross off the birthday list before bed. First came "Pin the Beard on Sensei Wu" which is hilarious and much harder than it looks, and then "Stealthy Samarai" (matching game).  Unfortunately, "Sensei Says" got bumped due to lack of time before drop-down exhaustion...but it has been rearing its head spontaneously ever since last Wednesday!  We view it more as a way of life than a simple party game...

Jax was pretty close...

Jones was right on target...just low

Beaux (and I) were a bit more affected by the spinning before the pinning

In summary, we are incredibly blessed to have our boys, Jax and Jones, and hopefully they felt special, loved and like super important parts of our family on their big day.  Our little princess was sweet and thoughtful in the season leading up to their birthday and always wanted to help in decorating, wrapping presents, and helping her brothers have the greatest time ever.  As always, we thank our Lord and Savior for His goodness in our family.  May we ever seek His Kingdom first.

Love,

Hilary

Blooper!  Trent is getting tricky with the camera remote...

Ninja Names:

Papa -- Nokanoka

Mama -- Rinkarinka

Beaux -- Zukukadona

Jones -- Zumotokuari

Jaxon -- Zukanamoto

Trent -- Chishikutochi

Hilary -- Rikitakashifu

Uncle -- Dotomitaku

Aunt -- Kadotochi

Grandma -- Jishikatoterinka

Grandpa -- Jishikatotenoka

Bringing the Wild West to Australia

Costume Day at Horse Riding Lessons with Coach Leah

In preparation for realizing our farm dream, we enrolled the kids in riding lessons (on Tuesdays) at the local Riding for the Disabled organization, or RDA as they call it here.  This was something we looked into doing when we first came to Australia, but originally decided against it.  In hind sight, we should have done it way back when we first looked into it.  The kids absolutely love it!  The other great thing about the "riding lessons" is that it isn't just riding lessons - the kids learn how to care for horses; saddle them, brush them, bridle them, pick hooves, etc.  In doing all these things, they are taught safety around horses and they get a glimpse into a horse's behavior/personality when doing all of these various tasks.  It is very good for them and will go a long way toward getting them used to being around horses.

Hilary and I also volunteered to feed the horses once a week (on Sunday evenings), which the kids also help with.  We have to prepare the horses' food in the stalls while they are still out in the paddock.  After that is done, we have to "catch" the horses and bring them in for feeding and then scoop up all of the manure from their fields.  If the horses think we are catching them to put them to work, they put their ears down and try to get away from us.  If they think it is eating time, they are our best friends and line up at the gate and crowd us so much that it almost makes it difficult to keep them from sneaking out.  Last week, we tried to go in five-on-five (there are 5 horses, one for each of us if the kids are helping) and failed miserably and Jones ended up getting his foot stepped on when one of the bigger horses saw some nice grass near the fence and pinned Jones up against it while he ate the grass.  Jones originally left the paddock with one of the smaller, more ornery horses, but that horse started dragging Jones around everywhere.  Since my larger horse was doing fine, I switched with him, and that is when the horses also switched temperaments!  Now I had the smaller, well behaved horse and Jones had the larger, ornery horse!  The other kids had similar problems, and it was hard for either Hilary or I to help when we each had a horse of our own.  Needless to say, we will only be doing two at a time now, so that Hilary and I can help until the kids have a little more confidence in handling the horses by themselves - so far that has worked out great.  The horses behave much differently when they think they are going to eat than they do when they are saddled up!  Fortunately, Jones' foot is fine, as is his psyche! 

One of the instructors pointed out that part of the problem with these horses is that they see so many people, they don't get a chance to build bonds with only a few people, and so don't really build bonds with anyone.  You get the feeling that they just tolerate people until they can eat.  They recently just retired a horse named Steel that finally had enough of "people" and started having behavioral issues.  Since they do a lot of work with disabled kids, the horses must be very docile or they get sold.  The RDA said they were trying to sell Steel as a lawn mower and said he was now a one-owner horse.

After only three weeks, the kids are riding, turning, trotting - oh yes - and stopping, all on their own.  There is always an instructor walking along with them.  Beaux's horse is named Frodo, Jax's horse is named Jack-O and Jones's horse is named Harley.  All of the RDA's horses are boys.  The other two that the kids haven't ridden yet are named Spinner and Bundy - these are the two largest horses.  The kids may get the chance to ride them soon, as the main instructor isn't really happy with how long the stirrups are for the boys on the smaller horses.  Frodo is the biggest of the three horses that the kids ride.  The boys do look quite large on their little ponies. 

All in all, it is really quite fun.  We just got back from our Sunday feeding a few hours ago, and everyone again had a blast.  Thus far, it is as we always thought it would be.  God has made this amazing, large, majestic animal, and just being around them brings an awe and a settling of the soul!

Trent