Tobogganing with the boys!

On the weekend when it was Abigail's party all our boy friends were away, so none of them could make it to the party - it was an all girl affair!

But by Monday night they were all back home. I had decided to take Abigail tobogganing on her birthday and so Bryce, Christopher and Joel decided to join us.

The tobogganing park - Cool Runnings is in Durbanville just behind Tygervalley shopping center.

First we had some lunch and lit candles and sang to Abigail.

And then it was time to have the first ride.
The toboggan is just a flat cart with wheels underneath and a single control - a brake on top. The rest is up to gravity!!

First you get hauled up on a cable pulley system:

Up

and up

and up.

And then - you go down!

It was a lot of fun but I'm no speed freak so I was one of the slow riders! But most of the rest of our party were adrenaline junkies!!

Some of the adults enjoyed it more than the kids!!

Allan had it down to a fine art, even sussed out the "fast car" - apparently there's always one!!

Some can even take photo's while hurtling down the track!!

Then it was time for me to ride with Abigail - her request - which was fine...except that she was controlling the brake!!

A little faster than I would have liked!!!

Sometimes it's tough being the youngest sibling (boy can I relate to that emotion!!), these little guys did a lot of waiting while their older brothers and sister went on ride after ride after ride!!

I can see that this won't be the last time we go tobogganing!

8 Years old!

Today Abigail is 8!

Birth - 8 years.

September 2008 - September 2009

Abigail: the animal lover, swimmer, biker-rider, rollerblader, artist, knitter, baker and joker!!

An Arts and Crafts party.

Abigail is turning 8 next week, so today we had her party. Why today? Well because it rained - of course!!

But despite the rain it all went well, I must say it seems to get easier as they get older and also we had a manageable amount - 10 plus my 2.

When they arrived they went into the kitchen to make their own cupcake ( I have a step-by-step for each child recipe book) they could choose to add cocoa, raisins or coconut to their cake and EVERYBODY chose cocoa!!!

Then they went into the school and started on the other crafts:

Beading (bracelets).

Fabric painting (pillowcases).

Collage (they could make either a place mat or a sign for their door)

My mom helped them make Matchbox Houses (there is a little pipe cleaner person inside - so sweet and it has a string attached so they can wear it as a necklace).

And also these little Babushka pencil toppers!!

Then it was time to sing Happy Birthday ... x3!! It was one of Abigail's friends birthdays' today and also a mom of another friend so we sang 3 times!!!

In case you're wondering: it's a paintbox cake!

We've never had a pinata at any of our parties before so Abigail really wanted one this year. But it was raining! No problem we had a volunteer "tree" and did it inside!

He could have done with some body armour!! 12 girls and a cricket bat!! Could be dangerous!

Thank you to everyone who helped in so many ways, the girls all seemed to have a good time.

(There was 1 boy - he slept through most of it and had his first taste of a lollipop!! Oh the things you can get away with when your parents are on the other side of the Atlantic!!)

Another week goes by.

I had an email earlier that said "not much happening on the blog this week, things must be slowing down"!!! Not likely!! In fact "things" have been so busy that there's been no time to blog! Not even time too to take too many photo's. But even though it's been busy, it's been with mundane tasks and errands that wouldn't interest anybody anyway.

But, on Friday it was a little quieter.

Abigail has been wanting to try and Rollerblade on the road for a while (she got them in December but hasn't ventured outside much for fear of falling and another black eye!) so on Friday afternoon she carefully made her way into the road. And she did it!! No falling even though the tar in our road is rather bumpy. So now all she wants to do is Rollerblade outside. Unfortunately she still needs adult supervision so it's not always possible for me to stand outside for an hour. But she would be there all day if she could!

Niave has decided that EVERYTHING must be done in three's! You see she is 3, so therefore it makes perfect sense that she should have 3 biscuits, 3 banana's, 3 turns of everything, 3 sweets... you get the picture. I'm hoping that the novelty will have worn off before she turns 4!

"Because I'm 3!"

She has a song that she sings (from Barney) that goes: "Look at me, me, me, I'm 3, 3, 3, I'm as happy as can be, be, be. Can you tell? Can you see? I'm a very, very, very happy 3"! And it goes on, but I'll spare you! Then they made this one up for Abigail: "Look at me, me, me, I'm 8, 8, 8, I'm so happy I can skate, skate, skate!"

What a face!

After the fire station on Friday some of us went down to Muizenberg for an ice cream. There is a lovely little ice cream parlour there called "Sinnfull" and the flavours are many and delicious!
I haven't been to Muizenberg beach for about 8 years and I was pleasantly surprised. Apart from the freezing cold wind, it was fine and they have a new paved walkway along quite a nice stretch of the beach which would be great for bikes/Rollerblades.
As you can see Niave really enjoyed her ice cream!!

Fire Station

This morning we went on a school outing to the fire station. Unfortunately it was cut short as they had a call out but we had half an hour of fun before that happened.

Niave was not at all keen about putting on a helmet so no cute picture of her in an over-sized battered yellow helmet. But the others got to try on the helmets and jackets and we all had a ride in the fire engine.

Then they did a mock drill where they came down the fireman pole and got into their gear, onto the truck and whizzing around the yard with sirens blaring and lights flashing! Then while they were busy spraying water all over the place they had a call about a car that was on fire. So then it was the real deal and we waved them goodbye as they raced out of the gates! They all had a good time even though some were not so keen on the noise factor.

Here are some pictures:

First week of September.

Haven't had much to blog about in the last week or so, but today Abigail came home with this:The Student of the week award for "Working hard, being very focused and for showing determination this week. Well done Abigail" (My scanner is obviously not very good!!)

She was very excited about it and it really is a reflection of the improvement in her work and perseverance lately.