Whirl wind weeks

The last couple of weeks have been really busy. Hubby and I decided we needed t0 make the trip to our friends son's memorial service. Within 5 hours of the decision being made, we were heading off to the airport.

We are eternally grateful to all the friends and extended family who made this possible by taking good care of our 3 children, organising complimentary hotel accommodation and lifting us to and from the airport.We felt so blessed to know that there were so many of you out there who rose to the occasion and did what needed to be done.

We spent 3 nights away and it was good for the two of us as hubby had been working plenty of overtime and weekends recently. We had a chance to relax and catch up with one another again.

The memorial service was special and really honoured our friends son. His parents wanted the service to be a celebration of his life, and it was. He lived life large and it was said that he packed 40 years of life into his 19. This was a talented young man with many friends.He will be sorely missed by many.

We spent time with our friends and their two boys. It was amazing to see how their church family took care of them at this sad time. We enjoyed reminiscing about he old days and the fun we had as friends. It was good.

This week has slipped by just as fast as I have had a client from Kenya for a few days. She leaves tomorrow morning and I look forward to returning to a sense of normality again. The children have diligently done their work that has been set out for them but I have missed the usual interaction with them and our reading time.

Birthday

All piled into mom and dads bed as is family tradition!

I realised I hadn't posted anything on K's actual birthday. It was such a special day. Z had a "sleep over" in her room the night before as he was just as excited about her birthday because he had a special gift to give her. They woke early and made tea for Eric and I and came to wake us and pile onto our bed so she could open her gifts.

She was amazed at the sacrificial gift of money that Z had given her. (He had wanted to give her some of his birthday money and I had tried to dissuade him. He had burst into tears and said that is what he really wanted to give her as he wanted her to have a special birthday. I realised I was robbing him of the joy of giving and so said it was OK. He almost could not contain his pleasure at giving her this special gift.)

She opened her other gifts , many of them items I knew she really liked and had bought months ago! Another special gift was the mosaic mirror I made for her. She had asked when I would make her one as she had seen the others I had made as gifts for my sister and niece. Little did she know, hers was the one I started on first!



We went on to visit her Oma who had more gifts for her and then I took her and Z out for breakfast. We dropped Z back at Oma and we went to do some girls retail therapy! She spent some of her birthday money on a large green bean bag for her bedroom, a t shirt that she had been admiring for a while and some new Cd's. I bought her some much needed new jeans and another t shirt.

Good friends came for tea that afternoon and that evening we enjoyed take out fish and chips as a family. She had a wonderful day!

Hooray! Mom's night off!

K started with a cooking course for kids at Pick 'n Pay School of Cooking today. It will run for the next 3 Mondays and so I get the night off! Today they made spaghetti bolonaise and the most delicious hot cheese bites. We gobbled a few in the car on the way home and the boys had some for lunch too. She had a great time and now I can look forward to her making meals on her own for the family.

Mad Hatters Tea Party

Today we celebrated K's recent birthday with a mad hatters teas party. It was loads of fun! The family spent the morning in preparation for the party. The lawn was mowed, balloons blown up, streamers hung and yummy eats made.

We stuck signs all over saying, "this way", "that way", "up" and "down". Playing cards and paper lanterns and butterflies and flowers decorated the tables and we had "Alice" peeping out of a small castle.

The guests arrived and all wore hats. I loved seeing the creativity that was put into their hats! I wish I had a photo of each and every guest in their hat!

The tiniest hat!

The children played the chocolate game and had relays where they had to hop saying, "I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!" , run with a teacup and saucer filled with water and colour roses red. Amongst other games they played musical bumps and a game where they had to find a miniature teapot inside an upside down cup. Each person had a turn to pick up a cup and then could shuffle the cups to confuse the next player....

One of my precious God daughters.


Another precious God daughter (she made this gorgeous hat!)

Another of the guests with a great hat!

The guests ate ham and egg mayo sandwiches, scones with jam and cream and strawberries dipped in chocolate.

"Tea" was served in tea cups and it was fun to watch the faces as the children saw the red soda coming out of the teapots!

My dear friend T had offered to make the birthday cake and cupcakes. She did a sterling job and K was thrilled! She is a talented lady and she spent many hours making these beautiful creations that made the day!

Saving the best for last.........have you ever seen such an amazing Cheshire cat cake!!!! It was delicious too!

A Heavy Heart

I heard the very sad news that an old friends son had passed away tragically on Monday 5th October. All though we have not spoken for years, my heart is heavy. I have fond memories of this young man as a toddler. I used to read him bedtime stories and play with him. He was a cute little guy. Our families spent many hours together.

My heart goes out to his mom and dad and brothers. I cannot imagine heartache worse than this. I pray that they will be surrounded by love at this time and in the days ahead.

Last day of holidays

Sadly, today was the last day of our Spring holidays. It is back to school tomorrow. I feel like I could do with a lot more holiday as they have been short and gone by too fast. I think the children agree but we need to get on as it will be a busy term with Lego League for J, a cookery course for K, keepers for K, upward soccer for Z and karate grading before year end.We also look forward to a visit from my mum and her husband and a visit to the Free State to see my dear sister and her family at year end.

Hubby has been working very late (and weekends too) so we have missed having him around . I decided the last day needed to be fun filled as we also missed out on going away for a long weekend this weekend and the last for various reasons. Sadly J was not with us today as he had slept over a friend that he had not seen all holiday.

T and I headed off with the kids to Imhoff's Farm. The drive over the mountain, being hard for both of us, as our family are not there for the mean time. We both miss them dearly and the kiddies miss their cousins.

Snake skins!
As we are continuing our animal studies in the upcoming week, we visited the Reptile Park. We saw many different kinds of snakes, iguanas, crocs, alligators, tortoises, and something I have not seen since I was a child: chameleons! The highlight was that the kiddies got to hold a corn snake. Z was cautious, K and little ZW were fearless!



We had a delicious lunch at one of the restaurants there and the little guys enjoyed the jungle gym. We strolled around the shops and the nursery and the second highlight of the day was that the children went for camel rides. Z was a little shaken as the camel stood up and I reminded him that he had ridden a camel before when he was only 3 , on the beach in Dar es Salaam. He seemed to feel a bit better once the camel was walking. The descent was not so bad as he knew what to expect...

The boys went on to play on an old tractor and we rounded the day off with ice creams for all. it was a great last day to the holidays. The children are all sleeping soundly and I am waiting patiently for Hubby to get to home.......oh I hear the car, its 10.43pm and he is fianlly home!

Me time

As a home school mom I often get asked ,"What about time for yourself ?"

For a start, I always wanted to be a mom and have three children who I wanted to raise and nurture myself. I remember the physical heartache I felt when leaving my precious first born at my mom in law when I "had to" go back to work. That did not last long and by the time he was 6 months old, I was home with him. I thank God that I have been blessed to be there with my children and have them close to me. I would not want it any other way.

As they are no longer very small, I am able to fit in some "me time" .This year I have found two things that I love doing and that refresh me.......

I have started Tae Bo and just love it! Besides the added bonus of getting fitter, I feel so good and have lost some unwanted kilos and centimetres that crept up on me over the years.

I have also learned how to mosaic. It has been great fun and I have enjoyed the get togethers with a few other moms as we chat, sip a glass of wine and get creative...

Here is the mirror I made for my nieces 14Th birthday. I was very grateful that mutual friends were going up to visit her in the Free State and that it got to her safely!