Chaeli Campaign Art and Poetry Winners

On Saturday morning we dropped K off at the Chaeli Cottage. As an ambassador, she was asked to be a hostess for the prize giving for the art and poetry competition. J could not work as he was competing in a triangular competition for karate.

K was always wanted her art to be on exhibition, today she got her wish!

Z and I fetched hubby's parents and later came back to the Chaeli Cottage. We browsed at all the art works and enjoyed reading the poems that were entered. The standard was amazing. After enjoying some tea and scones, the prize giving began. Zelda welcomed everyone and then a differently abled girl, Cherne, sang for us.

Her voice was so powerful and moved many to tears with her message of hope. We heard that she had recently made it into the top thirty for Idols. This beautiful young lady is an inspiration to those who hear her amazing voice! It was fitting that we all stood around her in a circle as the theme of this competition was "circles of hope".

Z had entered a picture of a differently abled person being pushed in a wheelchair on the mountain. He called it "Even if I cant walk, I can explore". You can just imagine his surprise when his name was called out first! ( I had known he was a finalist for his age group in the competition and had kept it as a surprise for him). The timing was just incredible for him as he had had a very hard week. This was just the boost he needed!

After receiving his first place prize of R500, he turned and looked back to where we were standing with a look of absolute pleasure on his little face! It was so good to see him feel like a winner and be a winner.

Zelda and the little man with his certificate and prize.

It was a happy morning and there was much joy as the winners of each category stepped forward to claim their prizes. One young differently abled lady was so overcome with tears of joy at winning first place. She could not contain her joy as she had never won anything in her life before. She had entered a beautiful, colourful work of art.

Group photo of all the winners.

A young home school boy also entered a photo collage into the competition. It has been decided that from now on there will be a new category for photographic entries too. His photography was excellent.

Coaching

The boys had some fun this week when they were asked to coach a friends son so he could be ready for his Karate grading. This little fellow had missed his last grading as he was sick.

We were all happy to hear the little guy did well and got his next belt. The boys were really chuffed as they were rewarded for their efforts.

World Cup Fever

With the Soccer World Cup being just days away, World Cup Fever has hit our home! We don't have tickets to any matches but plan to enjoy the World Cup anyway. I want the children to have happy memories of it being a fun time in our home. We are after all a host city to this fun event! Everywhere we go, we see flags....on cars, in the shops and even our church has all the flags up. People are wearing their favourite team jerseys and there is an air of excitement out and about.

We found this South African vuvuzela and the kids have had great fun blowing it. I think the neighbours might be tiring of the sound by now! Z loves his top in the South African teams colours!

Yesterday the children cut out mini flags and stuck them on our world map. Each of the 32 teams playing in the World Cup was represented. It was a hands on geography lesson where they had to find the countries themselves. The bigger flags had a different purpose....

Tonight we had some family fun playing a game with the bigger flags of the 32 countries represented. I found these South African flag mint humbugs in a nearby store and whoever got 3 flags right could take a sweetie. Z did really well, scoring the highest. By the end of the evening , the entire family had memorised which flag belongs to which country! Hows that for fun learning!

We then learned some flag "etiquette". A flag is not to be hung upside down unless it is a genuine distress signal. The host countries flag is always positioned in a position of honour: it must be first and to the extreme left when looking at a row of flags. No other flag should be bigger than the host flag.

We stuck our flags along the mantelpiece. The South African Flag in first place of honour, and then as is correct, the rest of the flags in alphabetical order. We all learned so much!

I was very pleased to get some links to some sites regarding the world cup and we will have more fun as we complete some activities on the World Cup. The older two children will be coaching Upward Soccer during the World Cup and Z will be playing. It should be great fun!

Let's go bowling!

The Chaeli Campaign heard on Friday, that their new NPO, The Chaeli Sports and Recreation Club, has just been registered as an NPO. Today we shared in the adventure of seeing how differently abled people can have fun with Ten Pin Bowling with their able bodied friends. It was a fantastic afternoon of great fun for all! Some of the differently abled players were in wheel chairs and one was even blind. He manged to do very well, coming first in his team!

Between their turns, all the players took turns to work on a commemorative art piece. A mosaic bird birth that will go up in the garden at the Chaeli Cottage.

Z and his team.

K and her team.

J and his team.

Chaeli surveying the lanes.

Lisa watches her ball racing down the lane.

Z waiting his turn.

By the end of the afternoon the bird bath was looking fantastic!

Fun was had by all.

I feel so blessed that my children are able to be part of this amazing new family of wonderful people!

Scavenger Hunt

On Friday morning the rains had stopped and our Nature Club was scheduled for the morning. It was a rush to get there on time as I had expected it to be cancelled. We donned warm jackets and gum boots (it snowed on the nearby mountains on Thursday night!) and headed off to the Alphen Trail. It is a trail I know well as we used to go there as children. It is a little piece of heaven on earth in the middle of the suburbs. I do love it. Sadly it is not a place I would go to alone with the children as it has recently become unsafe. We did however feel safe in our large group.

The children set off eagerly with clipboards and their Scavenger Hunt Lists. They had to listen for certain things , look for certain things and collect a bark rubbing for their nature journals. The air was crisp and cold but that did not deter anyone. It felt good to get the blood pumping and enjoy being outdoors among friends.

The walk is tree lined, with a stream on one side and the mountains ahead.

We think we saw a squirrels nest. I have never seen one before and this one was certainly far larger than any birds nest I have ever seen.

Z enjoyed wading through the puddles. I certainly was glad he had his gumboots on!

We saw splashes of colour along the river banks.

The children wondered if anything lived inside this log?

We had to find fungus for the Scavenger hunt list.

On the way back, Z had raced ahead and stopped by the stream to enjoy the sound of the rushing water.

We all got wet as the heavens opened for a while but that did not rob us of the enjoyment of being outdoors and ticking off our Scavenger Hunt Lists!

On Thursday we were invited for tea to celebrate a friends recent birthday. It was cold and windy but that did not deter us from having a great time at the Barnyard. We wrapped up in jackets, beanies and scarves to brave the cold and enjoy the outdoors!

The children were delighted by the tame pigeons and enjoyed feeding them. The goats were gathering around to see what all the fuss was about!

Z and Z enjoyed pony rides.

We enjoyed hot chocolate, cuppachinos, milk shakes, decadent cheesecake and carrot cake. Both T and I brought our crochet and knitting with us. We both grab the opportunity to keep our hands busy whenever we can. I was busy working on a little doggy jersey for Maggie.

The boys hardly sat down for a moment.

The girls had great fun running around and trying to catch a sheep. They cuddled the bunnys and tried to organise themselves a holiday job. They had fun posing for some photos.

The jungle gym provided some entertainment for the boys too.

One of the workers brought very tame lamb over for the children to pet .

After a couple of hours, the weather really turned and it began to rain and it was time to leave. I think we will be visiting there again soon. It was so much fun!

Another Fabulous Day...

Today was just so much fun. The morning started with the second piano lesson for the children from Miss P. She is so encouraging and the children have practiced much over the past week so she was happy with their progress.

There was also a flurry of activity here in the early part of the morning as we needed to have our hot water cylinder replaced. We have not had decent hot water since Saturday. It certainly was good to take a long hot shower after trying to wash in kettles of hot water in the bath or a cold shower! Thankfully our insurance covered the replacement and it cost us about a quarter of what it would have otherwise!

After some Zoology, Afrikaans and lunch we went to a fellow home school family's home for an amazing talk by a missionary to Cambodia. She is an ex teacher from a well known private school and she really captured the children's attention.

On entering the home, we had to remove our shoes, as is tradition in Cambodia. It reminded me of our time in Dar es Salaam where it also became a habit for us to do so on entering someones home. A good habit I think!

She taught the children about the Khmer language and showed them how to write in Khmer. The language sounded very beautiful to me. She sang for us and also taught the children a game that is played in Cambodia.

Believe it or not, that says Pauline!

We were told about the incredible poverty there and how children as young as four are sent off to work, collecting recycling items from the rubbish dumps. They then sell them and make a pittance for doing so. I could not imagine my sweet four year old God daughter having to do such a thing. We certainly do live in a very privileged society. We thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Cambodia.

On the way home, I happened to pass by a factory shop that never seems to be open when I pass it....



Today it was, and I had got a load of delicious Ina Paarmans products at fantastic prices! I got salad dressings, marinades, pasta sauces, sundried tomatoes, herbs and spices, curry powder, spur sauce .... I could not wait for dinner tonight so I could enjoy one of the new salad dressings. Some of the goods have damaged packaging and some are past their sell by date. The reductions in price are really good. I will be sure to stop by there again, once a month I think!

When we came home, we did some Konos. I have known for a long time that we need to focus on "Honour". We started yesterday and are loving being back on Konos. I felt particularly inspired after having been to a Konos meeting last night. We are learning the attributes of God.

The children started making an "attribute tree" today. On it they will hang symbols of the attributes of God. The first one was hung today: a circle representing that God is eternal....He has no beginning and no end.

We ended the day with a trip to the gym. Z had great fun at the kids club while the older two enjoyed the treadmill and stationary bikes. I enjoyed a Palates class. Now its time to join hubby for one of the programmes we enjoy on TV. A fabulous day!