Movie, chickens and swimming

I've been waking up earlyish again lately - between 6 and 7 usually - and I've been going outside and watering my plants, then going for my walk. I hadn't been walking much over the past couple of months and it's wonderful to be doing it again. Going that early too I often get to see the sunrise or close to it, and see the early morning clouds reflected in the dam. There are often kangaroos still up on the dam wall at that time, and the ducks are just waking up. It's a great start to the day and I think it's helping my energy levels and my anxiety overall. (I've had a few anxiety attacks this week and the walking definitely helps me keep things in perspective).

Millie woke up not long after I got back from my walk yesterday, and she sat on my lap while I checked email etc and she played on the iPad. Then we moved onto the couch together which was more comfortable. She was looking at something to do with the moon in one of her games and asked what it was called when it was a certain shape, so we looked up moon phases and chatted about how it changes, what it's called, why we can see what we can. The other two kids eventually wandered out, and we all curled up on the couch and watched 'The Princess and the Frog'. I was feeling very sleepy and dozed in the musical sequences, and managed to watch most of the rest of the movie. A very relaxing way to spend the morning.

Caitlin had commented that our little chick was getting 'so big' after she didn't see it for 3 days when she was away on horse camp. I thought she was imagining it - the chick still looked tiny. However when I went to check on the broody hens yesterday and discovered 2 more brand new chicks I could see what she means - the new chicks are TINY and the older one has grown quite a lot. I love how excited we all feel whenever new chicks are born, even though we've had it happen quite a number of times. They are so incredibly cute and tiny and we all love watching them. We really enjoy watching them grow up too, discovering what colouring they are going to have, and whether they are a hen or a rooster - Caitlin and I discovered yesterday that the 4 month old chick which we were sure was a hen is actually not - he was practising his crowing so looks like he was not the bird that laid the tiny egg we found the other day.

Being Friday, Tony was home around 2pm which is always lovely. He played Terraria with the kids for a while, then he and I played Donkey with Millie. Tony had a nap while I played Go Fish with Millie. I had a lie down myself (still feeling sleepy) and the kids played Test Match and did some drawing. Caitlin was very keen to go for a swim and it was quite a hot day so when I got up we rushed around and headed back down to Healesville outdoor pool. (At first I felt like it was too much effort, and felt that we'd planned to have a day at home so we should stick to that. Then I realised there was really no reason for us not to go, part of having a sparkly, joy filled life is to take opportunities when they come up, so it was ok to change our plans and do something that one of us really wanted to do. I'm so glad I chose the joyous option and not the default option.) Tony came with us too. Millie and I played around in the shallow end of the big pool, she practiced swimming out to me from the steps, and was also a dolphin who loved to eat catfish and I was the human supplying her with the catfish. The other 2 kids found some friends - two boys who had been in the Chicken Little play with Caitlin last October - and played with them and bit tyre tube up in the deep end. Tony and I each spent a bit of time with the big kids and a bit with Millie, then Millie put her backpack on and came up the deep end with all of us. We stayed until closing time (6pm) (we'd gone quite late), then bought pizza and went to the Train Park to eat it. It was a lot cooler by this stage and sitting outside felt lovely (apart from the wasp who wanted to share our dinner). After eating the kids and I walked the labyrinth, trying a few different techniques, then played Hide and Seek and then 40-40.

Back at home people played Terraria, I looked up some Terraria information for LiAM, Caitlin played minecraft and looked up dresses on the internet, Tony and I put away the camper trailer, we watched the cricket (quite exciting, Australia won in the last over) and the tennis then wound down and made our way to bed.