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The Last July 2016 Pictures

August 13, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

My sister made this dress and sent it with Esther and Mr. Handyman when they were in America last year. It finally fits her—but now I need to let the hem out! She’s growing fast.

Mr. Intellectual has been making kites lately. He’s frustrated, though, because either we have no wind, or we have too much wind to fly it.

Several of the children went together to buy the game Settlers of Catan recently. We’ve been enjoying playing with it.

Mr. Sweetie took this picture of Mr. Imagination.

Little Miss is a bookworm!

Mr. Intellectual was given a glass prism recently. He’s been having fun making rainbows on sunny days.

I was reading to Mr. Imagination and Mr. Sweetie, and Little Miss decided she needed to be right in the middle!

Little Miss playing at church, in the foyer.

I sorted all the extra clothes recently. Mr. Diligence found this old shirt, which was his for a few years. He was thrilled to find an old favorite, and managed somehow to get it on! It was difficult to get off again.

Last Pictures From June 2016

August 9, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We are really enjoying our kitten. He isn’t as playful as he used to be, but still gets himself into funny places. He also sleeps in very strange positions.

I got a book from the library about the Denniston Incline. One of my boys liked it so well he took pictures of most of the pages in it!

Mr. Inventor and Mr. Diligence go to the dump at the end of our road (a transfer station) every time they can. It’s only open for three hours, three days a week, one of which is Sunday and another of which is Tuesday, our day for going to Dead Boring! They go almost every Thursday, and the Tuesdays that we are home, to search for treasures. One week, they brought me this incubator! The thermostat didn’t work, so I bought one online last week, and plan to try hatching chicks. I’ve never done it before, but have wanted to.

The pot this kitten is sitting in is another dump treasure. Mr. Inventor found the skillet underneath it at the Kaikoura dump for less than a dollar. He has since cleaned it thoroughly with a wire brush and seasoned it, and I’m now using it in the kitchen. The pot is a little harder, and in worse shape, but he’s hoping to restore it as well.

Mr. Inventor made these two knives. He sold the bigger one.

The children playing at Dead Boring. There were a lot there that day!

Our Dead Boring group—even Esther was there that day!

June 2016 Pictures of Our Little People

August 7, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

My computer finally seems to be fixed. We had to send it back in to be worked on again in late June, and when we got it back and set up again, we ran into the same problem as before. I had to install updates one at a time, because it wasn’t handling more than that. Suddenly, the same problem appeared that we had before, with the computer demanding the product key for Windows 8. We uninstalled the update I had just installed, but nothing changed. I contacted the company—again. However, a day or so later, after a couple more restarts, the demand for that key disappeared! The computer is working perfectly again. What a relief. So, maybe I’ll get back to more regular posting…or maybe not. No promises. Anyway, here are pictures for Grandma of the two littlest during June.

Little Miss asked for some yogurt in her bowl. Then, she stepped in it! What a terrible catastrophe!

Little Miss and Mr. Imagination reading stories together.

Mr. Imagination was pretending to be a gorilla.

Little Miss took ashes out of the coal range, and then tried to clean up her mess!

She’s all girl! She likes pretty dresses.

Looking at pictures with big sister.

Playing at Dead Boring (homeschool group).

Esther’s boss gave the little ones a toy lawn mower. Little Miss claims it for her own.

Helping Esther make snickerdoodles.

June 2016 Pictures

June 23, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I happened to have my camera in my pocket the other day when I was in the garden and discovered this beauty!

Preparing lunch the night before for our trip to town. It takes a lot of sandwiches to feed this crew! Making them assembly-line fashion helps.

What do you do with a big pile of coasters from the dump? Build castles!

Sunday afternoon fun. The little boys were trying to play the organ.

Mr. Diligence was playing with a bean bag.

May 2016 Pictures

June 9, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

My computer is still acting up; we reset to factory setting two weeks ago because it had automatically updated to Windows 8.1 and this computer won’t work right on that operating system. Now, it’s demanding that we put in the product key for Windows 8! I’ve been talking to the technical support at Acer, and getting very frustrated. Most of them are difficult to understand, and don’t really want to listen to me. When they told me what to do, it didn’t work, so I called back and they said to reset to factory settings again! So, I’m going to write and schedule a bunch of blog posts with all the pictures I have ready, so I can delete those folders, and then back up my computer, and then reset it. Then, we get to set it up again for the third time in three weeks, and copy everything from the backup into the computer again, and spend a day installing updates again, because there are so many that they overload the system, and search for the particular update that enables the upgrade to Windows 8.1 and block it, and reinstall all the programs I use! What a bother. Esther is getting really good at setting up a computer. I tried, I really did, but messed things up so she had to fix them. I told Gayle today that Esther isn’t allowed to leave home—I can’t figure out my computer without her! I have a feeling I’m allowing myself to be lazy about it, though and could do it if I spent a lot more time with it.

Anyway, here are the random pictures from May.

Little Miss loves to drape clothing around her neck as a scarf.

Socks and shoes are her favorite items of clothing. Socks over pajamas? Why not!

One afternoon on the way home from church the sea was so still we could see reflections. Barney’s Rock was so beautiful this way!

An apple in a cup—the perfect way to eat it!

Mr. Handyman holding our biggest pumpkin of the year. I can’t remember how much it weighed, though.

A new dress! This came from either her grandmother or an aunt, on Gayle’s side.

I thought this was funny—three boys using three computers.

We had quite the harvest of peppers. I planted four types, Bell Peppers, Anaheim Chilies, Jalapenos, and Cayenne. Such a pretty assortment. Today I need to be washing the last of them; I picked a bushel basket full (40 liter tub) a few days ago when the plant were mostly killed by frost.

Mr. Intellectual was given a margarine tub full of stamps from around the world. He had great fun sorting them and discovering what countries they were from. There were a lot of double-ups, so his brothers got some, too.

April Fun

May 23, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Otherwise known as random pictures! One Sunday in April, our nephew went to church with us, and we took him north of Kaikoura to see the baby seals. Little Miss loved them, too!

Everyone has been enjoying our new kittens. They love to sleep on people! Unfortunately, the black-and-white one was accidentally killed this week when she got in someone’s way. We miss her, but are glad to still have the other.

I liked this sight, as Mr. Inventor took a turkey to a neighbor who wanted to buy him to live with her turkey hens.

A favorite activity has been building towers with the base 10 blocks.

Just a funny picture of Mr. Imagination!

Mr. Imagination loves his “robot pajamas”, which were in a bag of clothes that was given to us.

Impromptu math lesson one evening! I can’t remember any more what we were discussing, but that white board sure comes in handy!

Mr. Inventor and Mr. Diligence got the idea to bob for apples one evening. They soon caught on to pushing the apples to the bottom of the dishpan to get hold of them!

Mr. Intellectual is my kitchen helper. He learned how to make tortillas recently.

The two little boys built this. We brought very few toys with us when we moved here from America, but this was a set we didn’t want to be without.

March 2016 Photos

May 7, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Time to share the rest of the pictures from March. I think they’ve aged long enough now. More to the point, life is starting to slow down just a bit for the winter. Not that it ever slows down much, but anyway…. I think all I have left to process is apples for apple butter, and tomatoes. I need to pick tomatoes tomorrow, and see what the chickens who won’t stay out of the garden have left for us.

Little Miss loved corn--at first. She got tired of it after awhile. — Little Miss loved corn–at first. She got tired of it after awhile.

Feeling like a big person, with a pear in front of her at the table!

Mr. Imagination using his "smart phone" to find the right motorbike to buy. — Mr. Imagination using his “smart phone” to find the right motorbike to buy. This “smart phone” was a piece of cardboard, but he was enthralled with it. It was hilarious to watch him swiping with his thumbs!

Puzzling over something on his "smart phone". — Puzzling over something on his “smart phone”.

Looking sideways at the rest of us, who were trying not to crack up about him using his "smart phone". — Looking sideways at the rest of us, who were trying not to crack up about him using his “smart phone”.

We saw four baby hedgehogs one afternoon in the yard. Unfortunately, they've been found stealing eggs from us. — We saw four baby hedgehogs one afternoon in the yard. Unfortunately, they’ve been found stealing eggs from us.

My three youngest, all diligently doing school together! Little Miss loves to write in books. I try to make sure there is a book handy during school that she can write in like everyone else.

This is one of the biggest bumblebees we've ever seen. — This is one of the biggest bumblebees we’ve ever seen.

Little Miss posing in front of someone's geometric design. — Little Miss posing in front of someone’s geometric design. That whiteboard gets a lot of use!

Playing a game on Esther's new smart phone. No, this doesn't happen very often at all. — Playing a game on Esther’s new smart phone. No, this doesn’t happen very often at all.

Mr. Imagination wants to dictate a story for Grandma.

“One time, me and J goed up in a tree. Then we goed up in another tree. Then I got stuck. Then I climbed up some more. Then I got stuck again. And then I climbed up some more and then I got up to the top. I climbed down. There were these strange marching sounds and here came Ja, marching, and here came S, and E, and M, walking. And everyone came and didn’t see N. And then, J came down and then all the people was gone. And then I climbed down the rest. And then I heard some more marching sounds. And then I climbed up to the top and then there was these bad marching sounds and here came a blackbird, marching. I came forward and caught it and I ate it for my supper. The end.” (I’ve changed the names to just initials.)

And, he has another story:”One time, J and Ja goed up the tall tree, which I could touch the top of. And then, I goed up the top of the tree and then I fell down and I broke my neckbone and I climbed up again and I tried not to break my neckbone and then I broke it again. And then I goed down to the creek and then I saw a frog jump up. It was big and I ate it for my supper. The end.”

And another: “One time, me and J goed up to the top of the big tree, which I could touch the top of. I climbed up and I hit my climber bone and then I fell down and I broke my knucklebone and then J came down and then I just went and touched the top of the tree. And then a snake came and then I killed it. And a squirrel came after the snake and the squirrel ate the snake all up. Then another snake came as I was going to the house and I killed it by stepping on it. I speared it. Then I chopped its head off and it wiggled and I chopped another piece of it off and then it wiggled again and I picked it up and I chopped it again and I set it down and ran off to the house. The end.”

By the way, all three stories are purely imaginary. This four-year-old has never broken a bone, or seen a snake or a squirrel, and he rarely climbs a tree. He’s awfully cute, though!

A Few More Pictures from January

March 17, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Esther let me look through her memory card before she deleted everything, a couple of weeks ago, and I found some lovely pictures she took of the boys and Little Miss. I thought Grandma might enjoy them, so here they are.

This is Mr. Imagination and Mr. Sweetie, studying a large bug they found.

Little Miss, wishing she would be allowed to help pick plums (at the edge of a busy road, with a bank going down steeply! Sorry, little girl, not this year.). The next three pictures are from that time, as well. We enjoyed the rare close-up look at a cicada. Little Miss is on my lap right now, and has been exclaiming over the picture of herself!

Mr. Handyman took Little Miss with him to town one day when I asked him to run an errand for me.

When we got some rain in January, the boys loved playing in the creekful of water. Mr. Inventor took Little Miss for a boat ride, and Mr. Diligence was dared to ride his bike across a 2×4 across the water—with predictably funny results!

Little Miss wanted a pea—but couldn’t figure out how to pick it, so she ate it still attached to the vine!

January 2016 Pictures

February 12, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One morning when Mr. Intellectual was making his breakfast, he cracked an egg into a cup and found three yolks! He was tickled at his good fortune, and took a picture of it. Then, he cracked two more eggs and they were both double yolkers! So, from three eggs, he had seven yolks, as shown in the second picture, which he took to document his good morning.

Mr. Inventor brought one of his goslings in to show me how big it is now. Compare that to when it was newly-hatched, in October!

The boys spent a rainy day playing with Lincoln logs. Mr. Sweetie was impressed with this house-inside-a-house that he built.

The big boys made towers!

We watched a movie one week, Sheffey, the story of a circuit-riding preacher in, I believe, Tennessee in the 1800s. Gayle was holding the two little boys, and Little Miss got jealous, so announced that she wanted to be on his lap, too—right in the middle! I say we watched it one week, because it took four or five evenings to get through it.

On our way home from church one Sunday afternoon, we stopped for a few minutes at Saint Anne’s Lagoon to look around just a bit.

Mr. Inventor’s ducks enjoyed the pool they had for a week or two after a recent rain!

When we went to Christchurch for a day recently, we ate lunch in a small park, and then used the playground for awhile. Little Miss loved the swing ride she got with her big brother!

December Fun

December 30, 2015 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

I was thrilled one evening when I came across this scene! This is only the first or second time ever that Mr. Diligence has voluntarily read a book! Mr. Imagination loved listening, of course.

We saw this impressive cold front on its way up from the south as we came home from church one Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, it blew over without dropping anything, although we did get a bit of rain later that night.

Is that a kiss—or a bite?

For our last homeschool gathering of the year, we went to a campground by the Waipara River. We were the first ones there, so the boys spent some time building dams while we waited for others to arrive.

Little Miss tasted rocks.

The boys discovered Little Miss with a jar of jam she had managed to get open. Instead of cleaning her up (we were supposed to be leaving in a few minutes for a barbeque!), Mr. Inventor started snapping pictures. It was cute, I’ll have to admit, to see her dipping in for yet another handful of jam! Thankfully, it was sugar-free, so not bad for her.

Mr. Sweetie was happy to get his cast off. The boys were all very interested in how it was done.

When Esther and Mr. Handyman came home, they brought gifts from the grandparents. This was Mr. Imagination’s favorite. He needed help putting it together a few times, but now he can do it himself.

Little Miss discovered an empty cupboard, and then Mr. Imagination joined her in it.