Famous Artist Study

On Friday morning, with mum having left on Thursday, I decided we needed a fun school morning. I began reading "Famous Artists, Monet, An Introduction To The Artists Life And Work" to the children. Monet is one of my favourite artists.

We learned that as a boy, he was bored at school, but popular because of his talent for drawing witty caricatures of his teachers and friends. Drawing was his great love. The children sat outside and did their own caricatures. We also used some great note booking pages from Nadine's blog, Practical Pages:http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/famous-artists-lapbook-loads-of-minibooks/

I enjoy Nadine's blog and often download her free pages. The children wrote a brief summary of Monet's early life and added a picture of him and a small gallery of his work to their note booking pages.

Double figures!

Lets face it, birthdays are fun! My little guy woke me at 4 am to ask if he could please open his gifts right then so he could go to sleep! That was not happening as I don't think the rest of the family would have been impressed with that idea. Instead I went to sleep in his room with him and eventually we had to wake him so his could open his gifts before his dad went to work!

He had an amazing 10th birthday and was so happy to have my mum here to share in his special day. He had many phone calls and visitors who came to wish him.

My sister had sent a parcel for him and with great excitement, we went to collect it at the Post Office.

It was such a great gift: a shoebox covered in soccer wrapping paper and filled with all kinds of fun things. There were sweets and other yummy treats, a book, stickers, pens with soccer balls on them, a bat and ball, model racing cars, pool water bombs, gloves and so many other fun things. We love the idea of this type of gift and I am sure that I will make this the tradition between the cousins now that they live so far away.

He is saving to buy himself a Wii and after his Oma had been to visit and wish him, I found his envelope on the kitchen table....

I loved the note he had written on it! He knows that when I don't have cash and the kiddies do, I borrow a couple of rand for milk or bread.( I am very careful to keep track and refund them).

At lunch time, despite the rain, we went to the forest with some friends and enjoyed a picnic. He had chosen kiddies bubbly (grape juice) especially for the picnic and had great fun popping the cork!

In the evening, we had a special dinner with my brother and his wife and my mum and her husband. My sweet, funny, cuddly boy is growing up!

Last day of being nine...

On Tuesday we had near perfect weather. It seemed as if Winter had disappeared and Spring was here to stay. With my mum still here, we took the opportunity to spend some time down at one of our favourite beaches.

My little guy played happily on the beach all afternoon, enjoying his last day of being nine. He loves the beach and will happily spend hours playing in the sand and "digging his way to China." The whales were playing in the bay and K and I took a walk along the catwalk to see if we could get a closer look at them.

On our way we found an area covered in white mussel shells. They were empty and must have been washed up by the tide into this corner between the rocks and the catwalk. She scrambled down to collect some.

On closer inspection, I was amazed to see how perfectly these shells have been created. On the right side, the shell has one little ridge, which fits perfectly into the grooves on the left side, sealing the shell.

K and I had a wonderful time chatting as we walked and I joined her in dipping our feet into the freezing cold water to cool off. Upon our return, Z was still busy playing in the sand under the watchful eye of my mum, J and Mums husband. It was a relaxed and pleasant afternoon, a perfect way to wait for a tenth birthday!

Bareback riding

My sweet boy had his second riding lesson this week. He so enjoyed it. The horse has a sore spot on her back and so he rode without the saddle. I am so enjoying seeing him have such a wonderful time at riding.

A picnic with the lions

On Sunday my brothers wife celebrated her birthday in a fun way. We headed out of the city to a Lion Park for a picnic. The lion park was established 12 years ago to provide lions in distress with a sanctuary. The park does not breed or trade their lions but rather offers them lifetime care in a safe environment. Some of these lions have been rescued from canned hunting farms or zoos.

This female lion was very interested in the children who came to visit her. I was very pleased that there were electric fences separating her from all the little ones! She left her perch in the sun and immediately came to investigate what was going on when the children walked past.

This sweet white lion cub really wanted to play with the visitors as her companion had injured his foot and was in no mood to play as lion cubs usually do. There is no petting of the cubs as the lion park feels that this is unfair to the lion cubs. I do understand their point of view but I would have loved the opportunity to cuddle this sweet cub.

Best of all , we had my mum with us and the children really enjoyed their granny's company.

We ended our picnic lunch with K's decadent choc fudge cupcakes that she had made for Aunty T's birthday party. They were simply delicious! Each flower had been hand made by K. I am so proud of her!

Enjoying nature...

'Charlotte Mason loved nature and felt that children should be outdoors among nature as much as possible each day, directly observing plants, animals, weather, and seasons."

It has been my goal to spend more time out in nature with the children. All though we may not get out every day, the children tend to make the most of the times that we do get out under the big blue sky. On Friday we took such an opportunity and it was a blessing to have my dear mum with us.

The Cape Fynbos is magnificent...

Our forest has been disappearing rapidly but has left us with magnificent views of our beloved Table Mountain.....

Have water....children will get wet.....

Z enjoyed leaping over the stream....

Tadpoles and frogs were caught.....

Boats were made and raced.....

Children fell into the stream.....on purpose I think.....

Memories were built with best friends.....

A glorious morning!

Nothing better than fresh spinach..

A friend blessed me with some fresh spinach and baby carrots from her garden. I just had to make one of my favourite salads with the young, tender spinach leaves. The recipe if from one of my Eating for Sustained Energy books:

1 pack sun dried tomatoes,chopped (I use the Ina Paarmans and only about a half a pack)

Baby spinach shredded

chopped fresh basil (I leave out if I don't have any)

1 can chickpeas

Toss above ingredients together.

Dressing:

15ml olive oil

30ml balsamic vinegar

30ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

10ml mustard powder

5ml sugar

freshly ground black pepper

1 round of feta crumbled over the salad.

We enjoyed it with cold roast chicken , sliced tomato and avocado pear!