Last night...

...bed time just didn't come soon enough for some!

(Niave fast asleep, upside-down on a chair in the lounge where she was watching the Bee Movie!!)

Saturday.

September, October, November and December is definitely party season for us. Today we had 2 parties to attend, first it was Kaira's flower party at Tokai forest. It was a beautiful venue and the kids had a ball!

Then it was Anna's party which was held at Barkly house. They had a puppet show, done by the Waldorf puppet theatre people, - the story of the Frog Prince. It was very sweetly done and the puppets were beautiful. And how's this castle cake? "Made by a professional cake maker?" I hear you ask. No - made by Anna's clever aunty!!Barkly house is the school that Niave is going to next year, this was the first time she has been in there and she had such fun. There are so many climbing options - she loved it, being quite a climber!! She tried the fireman's pole a couple of times before eventually getting it right at which she declared with absolute amazement "I did it, now I can go to Barkly House"!!! As if she had passed the entrance exam!!

We are going for her orientation on November the 4th where she will meet her teacher etc. so more on that in another post...

Eyes in the back of your .... back!

Niaves explanation as to why she had, for the 3rd time, broken the ramp of her toy garage:

"It was a mistape (mistake), I wasn't looking where I was going, my eyes were looking at my bookshelf and my back was looking where I was going"!!

Priceless!! A very roundabout way of saying "I was walking backwards"!
I had to hide my smile - I was trying to be "cross" but her face was so funny, you could just see her brain ticking over double time!! In the end I just burst out laughing!

Farmyard fun.

This weekend there is a farming/agriculture expo on at the CTICC called "Country 2 Town", it sounded like fun so we went through this afternoon and had a look around.


The exhibitors included anything to do with farming so there was a wide range - my children were most interested in the animals! There were a lot of them:

Many different kinds of sheep and goats,

as well as alpaca's.

Cows and bulls.

A horse and her 7 week old foal.

The 3 little pigs!!

Birds of many kinds.

(the ones in the top left hand corner are emu's - they lay black eggs)

And even bees and honey.

There was sheep shearing every hour! And we got to learn a bit about wool and see some spinning too.

The children were allowed to milk a cow - but not a real one! They had these wooden cows with a "bucket udder" attached underneath filled with milk. They loved this - and they were rewarded with a box of fresh milk for all their hard work!

And this cheerful cow didn't seem to mind all the tugging!!

After some browsing they got to do what they'd been wanting to do since we arrived - hold baby animals!

Can you just see Abigail's delight? She is just like my sister when it comes to animals!

They also had wonderful fresh produce displays: The "Table Mountain" below (bottom right) is made out of lettuce!!

And tractors too!

Niave was in her element!

Besides the animal-orientated stalls there were many food stalls and we discovered that we really like goats milk Gouda - really creamy and delicious.

As you can see there was a lot to see and do, so what do you think the highlight of the afternoon was for my children? Well it had to do with these 2 cows. They are being milked with a portable milking machine, this held great fascination for them but not so much as the moment the black and white cow lifted her tail and did an enormous poo!

You'd never have thought a cow-pat could be so exciting!!!

Who let the cat out of the bag?!

Or should I say in the bag?!!!

Our Bonny is known for finding the strangest of places to curl up and have a snooze, being born in sock drawer must have made it's mark because she loves cupboards and drawers. This evening there was a bit of commotion and Abigail came running saying "come quick! Bonny's stuck in my Lego box"!! Of course she wasn't stuck and due to all the fuss had wriggled out before I could get there. A little while later I found her in Abigail's tog bag!!

It reminded me of this poem that I read at school, I'm sure you've read it before too, but it's just so true!

CATS - by Eleanor Farjean

Cats sleep

Anywhere,

Any table,

Any chair,

Top of piano,

Window ledge,

In the middle,

On the edge,

Open drawer,

Empty shoe,

Anybody's lap will do.

Fitted in a cardboard box,

In the cupboard with your frocks -

Anywhere!

They don't care!

Cats sleep

Anywhere.

A morning at church.

This week has been Missions week at church. The church focuses on the various missionaries around the world and many of them do talks, interviews or presentations and there are interesting tables set up all around with lots of info and pictures about where they are and what they do.

At Kids Club on Friday they also had a missions theme with tables set up about different countries.

Leading up to today's service the Children's Choir have been practising a song that they sang today called "All Around the World".

We had to be at church an hour earlier than normal for the sound check so Niave got to indulge in her usual Sunday morning ritual called "Milk tart"! And it is a ritual - believe me!

Then she got to "wait patiently" (not!) for the choir to come on. She did better than I expected - with the waiting - not her best activity, although I did have a worrisome moment when Bishop Frank came to sit next to us!! I just thought "Niave, this is NOT the time to start your antics"!! At one point he asked me if she was mine and I felt like saying "can I answer later?"!!! But she was fine!!

While she was waiting she got stuck into some photography!

Well, the choir finally arrived: they sang very well, as always it was a goose bump occasion!

Abigail had been a little reluctant to go to some of the practices even though she had said she wanted to do it (I didn't force her - it was her choice but I did tell her that she needed to stick with her decision and see it through to the end) but this afternoon she said "I'm glad I did the singing"!
So am I!

My point exactly!

This afternoon we "visited" a shop called Osman's in Lansdowne.
It is the kind of shop where you can find all sorts of interesting things but where you could very easily lose a child! I really do prefer going there by myself but that is not always possible.
Abigail, who is much more aware of "stranger danger" is paranoid about Niave getting lost in this shop. Niave having NO concept of "stranger danger"!
So after a tense time scouring the aisles for my wares we headed for the cashier. Only to find that my bank was, and had been offline the entire day.
So there I was in this bedlam of a shop with R250,00 glaring at me from the screen on the computer and my card won't work!!! In the meantime Niave is straying a little too far for Abigail's liking and Abigail is freaking out!
In my attempt to sort out the problem I had to reign Niave in so that Abigail could calm down, Niave could not get kidnapped and I could pay for my shopping. So I sat her down and gave a very stern talking to about how she was not going to move from that spot until I was finished and it was time to go. All this time she is looking at my face intently. When I had finished my list of all the things she shall not do she pointed to my furrowed forehead and asked "What are those stripes on your head, Mommy?"
My answer revealed much of my state of mind at the time: I said "They're called wrinkles and they're caused by you"!
She didn't move after that!!

Gifts from Aunty Bev!

Two years ago, when Abigail turned 6, she was desperate for a Snow White dress. These are not so readily available here and so my sister found one overseas and posted it to Abigail for her birthday. She also included a small gift for Niave who was still little and about 6 pairs of socks for me (I have a sock thing!!).
The parcel arrived a few days before her birthday and I was surprised to discover that it had been opened and resealed. On further inspection I discovered that it had been opened and items stolen, then resealed and set on the shelf for delivery!!! I was so shocked by that, I felt as if my house had been broken into. The present (the dress) which had been wrapped nicely by Bev was still there but the wrapping was ripped to shreds, the card torn open. I took it up with the Post Office who looked into it but couldn't come with anything helpful.
Two subsequent parcels just never arrived.

So when Bev wanted to post a parcel for Abigail's birthday this year I was very reluctant. However, she decided to send it registered and insured and it arrived safely yesterday with all it's tape and contents intact!

It's very exciting receiving a parcel from overseas and we couldn't get the very-sticky tape off fast enough!!

Inside were the most beautiful clothes for Abigail as well as a bag-sewing activity, a top for Niave and a bracelet for me.They have such stunning clothes overseas, I wish the retailers here would do some market research there - but that is a whole other post...

Anyway, the sewing activity was a big hit and she managed it very well with very little assistance.

Thanks Bev for a lovely gift - I think if I ever get over there I will buy out the entire clothing range at Tesco's, they always seem to have such beautiful things!!

Ferndale, Little Streams and the Spur.

It has been a windy week in Cape Town. And I don't like wind. So even though it has been sunny it hasn't been very pleasant outside.

But being Ouma's birthday we spent the afternoon outdoors and although it was a lovely afternoon, I suffered with terrible sinus/hayfever all night as a result.

Anyway, we started off at Ferndale or "the ducks" as it is known by my children.

We had a lot of stale bread in the cupboard for some reason! This is an outing that they always enjoy.We found this pair of ducks on the river, the girls thought it was very funny when one of them kept sticking his head under the water and his bottom in the air!!

At about 4 o'clock we decided it was time for tea so we took a drive further into Constantia in search of Little Streams - a place we had heard about but never been to. It wasn't difficult to find and it is a lovely place for tea. The garden is beautiful and although quite large, is relatively safe for the children to roam around in.

First we had some tea,

and then we went for a walk.

The grounds are really beautiful.

For supper, we went to the Spur and had yummy steaks and burgers (and also Niave's chicken and chips which she had "ordered" at lunchtime already!!).

(Of course there is the inevitable Spur sparkler when it's your birthday!)

All in all a busy day, but a good one.

Ouma's birthday.

Today we celebrated my mom's birthday - it's been a week of birthdays, always is at this time of year. She was fortunate to have been able to take the day off work and it was just as well as with all that we did today, there was definitely no time for work!! (all that in another post)

Our Ouma is very loved in this family. She is the first person the girls want to call when something happens. Abigail loses a tooth - Ouma must be the first to know. Niave can't get her own way - she wants to phone Ouma! Even last week when Niave was suffering with a terrible earache on 2 separate occasions, she was crying for Ouma.

She is the kind of Ouma that goes the extra mile and rarely says that something can't be done. She will think of a way. Often one of the girls will ask me to do or make something and I'll say "oh no, that just can't be done" but just let them spend an afternoon at Ouma's house and voila - it's done and made!! I remember when I was little she made a whole Monopoly game for me because my brother and sister wouldn't let me play (it's that whole younger sibling thing that I was talking about!). She wrote out every card and made all the money etc. etc. etc. I'm sure it was the last thing she felt like doing that evening but she did it anyway.

So a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ouma from all of us.