Adam's Apple.

Yesterday we were having tea at my parents house - again. More scones, more jam, more cream!
During tea my Dad was talking, after listening for a while Abigail whispered to my mom "Oupa's voice is hanging out"!

The first day of the holidays.

I had great plans to dash off to Cavendish this morning to spend some birthday vouchers that are burning a hole in my pocket, but I didn't!

Instead I spent the morning baking cupcakes (that were supposed to be baked on Friday)

and started some de-cluttering (my task for the holidays - more on that in another post) and basically picked up toys and sorted out squabbles all morning! Oh and I made a pot of soup!

But we did get out into the sunshine which is here for the first part of the week at least.

After lunch we headed out to "Squirrel Park" with friends Joel and Hanna and their Mom, my friend Mandy. I don't know if that's the real name of the park but it's in "Squirrel lane" so I call it Squirrel Park!

It was lovely and warm, lots of climbing and swinging and sliding equipment,

plenty of place to run and ride - and then there is the stream. It didn't take Niave long to spot it. She can sniff water out I am convinced! Anyway, she followed 2 little boys down to the waters edge and when I went to see what she was up to she was carefully holding a rather long stick into the water angler style! I asked her "are you fishing Niavie?" the reply was "yes, I'm catching tadpoles"!

She sat there for ages and was most upset when we left without having caught some!

I guess we'll be heading back there with a bucket at some point...

A mad hat tea party!

This story needs a bit of history, so here we go:

Two years ago when my mom went overseas to spend her birthday with my sister they did lots of sightseeing and interesting things and being England everywhere they went had a tearoom. So every time we spoke to my mom or received an sms they had been to some place or other ... and had a cream tea! Without fail, they must have consumed enough scones and clotted cream to feed an army! SO on Friday Bev emailed and said she was going to visit a show garden on Saturday with a friend and, of course there will be - you guessed it: a cream tea! So my mom said we would "join" her and have scones for tea here. We had ordinary cream - South African style!

So the scones were made and the table was set and we all got dressed up in hats, scarves and jewellery for the occasion!

And then the serious business of tea drinking began:

When we'd all had our fill of scones and tea (Niave had about 4 cups!) the dressing up really began!

and not even the dogs escaped!

Some pets have to endure such humiliation!

Chalk drawings.

This afternoon while at my parents, Abigail decided to decorate the driveway! Actually it is quite fun and therapeutic. I remember a children's T.V. programme called "Simon in the land of chalk drawings" and the song went "Now you know my name is Simon and the things I draw come true...." or something like that. Anyway, we had fun:

After a while Abigail and I got into a noughts and crosses marathon and the whole driveway was covered in these:

And Niave drew rainbows!

It was lovely to be outside in the sunshine after a week of very wet and windy weather.

Holidays - YAY!

Yesterday was the start of the winter holidays. We went out to celebrate with the Carter's at Canal Walk.

We had Pizza/Pasta at Col Cacchio for supper

and ice cream/frozen yoghurt from Marcel's for dessert.

And there was a crazy lady at our table!!!

Dear Edwina:Pictures

Tonight was the last night of The Dear Edwina Show, I was on duty to "supervise" the class in between appearances - which was quite a task: turns out 28 8 year olds is a little different to 8 3 year olds! You'd think the older ones would be easier, but I'll stick to the little ones, thank you!

Anyway, it also meant I could get some pictures. Some of the cast had other costumes but they all had a jeans and t-shirt outfit that they wore for some/all of the show and everybody in the finale. Each class had a different colour so it was a beautiful rainbow effect at the end with the whole cast on stage.

Grade 2 had orange. Their song was "A Spoon Full of Sugar", they all looked very sweet in their flower headbands.

More of Table Mountain

As I said Lisa's photographs are wa-a-ay superior to mine (her camera weighs about 3 times what mine does!) so here are some of her shots:

The trip

The friends/families

The view

Window to the world?

The Dear Edwina Show

This week Abigail's school is running The Dear Edwina Show.

We went to see it this evening and I have to say it was brilliant!

The girls did really well, considering they range in age from 6 to 13.

Also the teachers have put in so much, there is a big emphasis on drama and music at the school and it shows!

I don't have any pictures (no photography allowed) but will post some as soon as I do:)

The story line was really clever, just good old fashioned manners and good habits brought across in a fun way: be polite, brush your teeth, table etiquette, saving for a rainy day, making new friends, and be yourself - don't "follow the crowd" - just a few of the "lessons" learnt.

You could tell that the girls really enjoyed being on stage and the excitement in our house this afternoon was exhausting!

And still another 2 nights to go...!

Well done to everyone involved, it was a great evening.

Ode to a dishwasher.

Dishwasher, dishwasher oh what a delight,

You've cleaned my dishes morning and night.

Swirling silently without a moan,

Doing the job all on your own.

The glasses and cutlery came out gleaming,

The plates and bowls were practically beaming.

The pots and pans - what can I say?

The grease and grime all taken away.

But now my sink is full of water,

Patiently waiting for me and my daughter

To wash and scrub and slosh around,

So the top of the counter can once again be found!

Dishwasher, one day you will be working again,

Oh, I cannot wait until then!

Happy Birthday to:

me!

Today was my birthday. The 34th.

Grant spoiled me with some authentic Crocs -

Real Crocs! Yay! I do tend to live in them and my old R39.99 pair were beyond sad:

Old on the left, new on the right! So sad.

During the week, I discovered that you can go up Table Mountain in the Cable car for free on your birthday.

There was a bit of a misunderstanding about the price of the other tickets so, to cut a loooooong story short, we (Lisa, Bryce, Mitchell, Abigail, Niave and myself) went up for much more money than we expected to pay!! (I'm still going to query it, you know me, never miss a letter writing opportunity!)
But it was a beautiful day and it wasn't windy at all up there, only towards the end it got a bit breezy.

We had a little picnic and walkabout.

The last time I went up was when Abigail was 6 months old (I seem to remember another time but the details are so vague I'm sticking with that 1 time!) and I have to say that a 6 month old in a pram in her sweet frilly bonnet is a whole lot more enjoyable than a 3 year old with a death wish. It was a hard task keeping track of Niave (and that on top of the bad temper and cheekiness was quite a lot to take)! I'd much rather have been herding a lot of cows up there!

But we did also have some sweet moments:

The middle section i.e. away from the edge, was where she was the happiest: free to roam undeterred. But as soon as I wanted her to hold my hand it was a screaming, tugging match.

Needless to say, I am rather exhausted from the excursion and so this post is being cut short to hop into bed.

Also, my pictures are far inferior to Lisa's and so I will post some more Table Mountain pics tomorrow.

Oh and Bev, just when exactly did you give Niave climbing lessons? She scaled this rather large rock like a seasoned pro!

Octopus people.

Niave has started drawing "recognisable objects" as opposed to the frenzied scribble!

She specifically likes to draw these guys:

I love these spidery people that children draw at the start, lots of legs, legs on legs and legs on arms!

So sweet.

Cinnamon Buns.

For a while I have been wanting to try baking cinnamon buns. I've seen them on my friend, Taryn's blog and also sampled them at some of her parties/teas and they are very yummy!

So today I decided I would do some baking with the girls and give the buns a try.

Well, they didn't work out quite right but they were edible and everyone asked for more! So they couldn't have been too bad.

You have to start with bread dough which I have never made before (I lie, I think I had to make it once for Home Ec. at school but that was yonks ago). It was a bit of a procedure but it did end up in dough!

First you have to soak the yeast in water and melt butter and sugar in warm milk.

Then combine the 2 with the bread flour and knead and knead and knead.

And knead and knead and knead!

Then the idea is to let it rise for an hour.

Well, here it is "rising" except that it didn't!
At that point I needed to ask Taryn a question and she gave me a tip to put the dough in a warmed oven - well, then it rose! Yay.

Lots of sticky dough!

By then I had mixed the butter, sugar and cinnamon together to make the filling.

By that time one baker had gone to play at a friend so Niave helped me to roll,

spread, sprinkle and cut. (The spreading was quite a delight - as you can see!)


Once you've placed the "wheels" in a baking tray they have to rise again! Then you pop them in the oven and let them bake.

By the time they were ready it was 5 o'clock and time for supper! They were left in a bit long (although I took them out 5 minutes before the recipe said to) so they were a bit crispy and brown but doused in warm custard they went down a treat - almost like a cinnamonny bread pudding.

So next time I know to do a few things differently and definitely halve the amount of baking time!

Beads.

Abigail discovered an old box of beads that she was given for her birthday once upon a time and got busy threading the very tiny beads into 2 necklaces.

She gave one to her friend Kelsey who has been recovering from a bout of asthma and the other she kept for herself. Apparently she's not finished yet, everyone is supposed to get one - even Oupa!!

Niaves new thing is...

... cutting!

I love the fingers!

Fortunately her cutting expeditions have (so far) been limited to paper!

Swan Lake.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned in an email to my sister that Swan Lake was going to be showing at the Artscape and I was thinking of taking Abigail to see it.

Next thing I know she's on the phone asking if she can buy the tickets for me for my birthday which is in a few days time!
So we did a little Google-ing and discovered that it was 3 hours long and decided that maybe it would be too long for Abigail. I ran the idea by Grant and he was not all that keen on 3 hours of Swan Lake so I invited my friend Mandy who's birthday it was on Thursday.

Bev arranged the tickets and they were ready and waiting for us this afternoon.
Our seats were brilliant. Second row of the balcony in the centre! You can't beat that! We had a perfect view.
The performance was very good and we enjoyed it very much.
We were well stocked with peanut Chuckles (the worlds best chocolate peanuts!) and Brazil Nutties.

The sets and costumes were beautiful, I kept thinking that it looked very Russian, especially the costumes. Then halfway through I realised - duh, Tchaikovsky was Russian!!
It was lovely to go to a "non-child related" show as mostly I get to go to Peter Rabbit and Noddy - which are good too, but it was nice to have a grown-up outing for a change!
Actually it's my second afternoon in a row without my kids in tow so I can't really complain. Thanks to my parents for once again stepping up to babysit - not that I gave you much of a choice!!!
Abigail probably would have managed as the storyline was very clear, not vague as some ballet's can be and also she actually knows the story quite well from watching the Barbie in Swan Lake DVD! So, the next time I see a ballet is showing I'll take her along.

Thanks Bev, VERY much for the tickets it was a lovely, relaxing afternoon.

Sing a song Mommy?

Niave sometimes asks my mom to sing her a song at bedtime when she sleeps over there.
One time she said "sing the money Ouma" - my mom very cleverly realised that she was referring to "Sing a song of sixpence" ('the King was in his counting house counting out his money')!
Tonight she was battling to fall asleep and asked me to sing a song.
I was just thinking of what to sing when she said "sing the 'pince' mommy" - once again it was "sing a song of sixpence"!!

Afternoon tea.

My friend Caren turns 40 this year (I seem to be attending a lot of those lately!!), to celebrate she had a ladies tea this afternoon - no children allowed!

We arrived to a wonderful spread of cakes, quiche's, scones etc. and most importantly a lovely cup of tea!

The fire was crackling in the lounge and clusters of friends - old and new, gathered to chat and catch up.

My parents very kindly babysat for me and seeing as they had all four grandchildren this afternoon, I was very grateful.

When I arrived to fetch them, Abigail had constructed a robot out of boxes.

She called him Mr. Ming!

Mitchell's 2nd Birthday.

Yesterday was Mitchell's birthday.

Although it is the middle of winter he was blessed with a beautiful, bright and sunny day.

That all changed overnight and it was back to winter today: rain, cold and more rain.

This morning he had a little party: friends, food and fun!

Friends,

Food

and Fun!

Happy Birthday Mitchell.

Just for the record...

...Abigail lost yet another tooth yesterday. She now has 3 and half teeth missing in the top row - it's a rather gummy grin! How she is able to chew is a mystery! And certain sounds are proving rather difficult to make when speaking.

Dinosaurs.

Niave is going through a dinosaur phase.

She loves dinosaurs and plays with them all day. She even sleeps with 4 tiny dinosaurs at night.

Most dinosaurs have obscure, hard-to-pronounce names like Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Triceratops and Brachiosaurus - to name but a few of the more pronounceable ones.

This guy is called a Pterodactyl (pronounced 'Ter-o-dak-til').

Yesterday Niave informed me that she "likes all the dinosaurs, but not the Pterodaffodils"!