Happy Birthday Daddy.

Today Grant celebrated his 39th birthday. One more year to be "in his 30's"!!!

He had his presents opened for him by the very same people who had wrapped them!! Here is the bleary eyed boy looking at his new CD at 6:35 a.m.!!

Abigail wrote in the card.

Then it was off to a normal days work and school except that he spent the afternoon washing his car (and mine) with Herbert, Grant enjoys washing cars!! Not I! I should have taken a picture but I was very busy making a cake. Not just any cake, a vegan cake!!

It is actually really simple and was quite good. If you'd like to try it here is the recipe (specially for you Dottie!!):

VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE

1 & 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar ( I used brown)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

3 Tbsp cocoa

Combine all the above in a bowl, mix well with a fork. Make a well in the center and add

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/3 cup veg oil

1 Tbsp vinegar

1 cup cold water

mix well with a fork, pour into a baking tin and bake at 180 C (350 F) for 30 min.

This has got to be the easiest cake I have ever made, I used 1 bowl, 1 fork, 2 spoons and a measuring jug!! There is no mess! And it was a really nice cake.I sprinkled icing sugar on top and voila!!

Next I'm going to try Nut and Raisin Oat Cookies - vegan style, I'll let you know how they turn out.

So, he had some cake on his birthday - even if it did have sugar in it (and oil! shhh!).

The Picture:

The Explanation: "I want to look like Emma". (Emma is the cat!)

Abigail's picture of the gala.

Sweet!

Gala 2010!

This afternoon was the annual swimming gala at Greenfield. It is always great fun and the girls just LOVE it!

The grade 1's are always the mascots and they looked very cute, especially the lions from Barkly (yellow)!

In the stands:

Last year the grade 2's swam a width but this year they had to do a length! It was quite a looooong way!!

Ready,

steady,

GO!

And she came 2nd!! Woohoo!

At the first points announcement Arderne (blue) was coming 3rd i.e. last, but in the end they came back to win it!!! Yay, Arderne reigns again!!

2 Cars!

After a period of about 8 years we are once again the owners of 2 cars! Yay!

More to the point we have 2 drivers to drive those cars! There was a period of about 3 years when Grant couldn't drive but if he has a car that is higher he is able to so that was a huge relief when he could drive our old car, but now that he has his own car it is even better! I think (hope) that I will spend a lot less time in the car as I was often driving him to places or lifting him here and there so that I could have a car. Not that that is a problem it was just time away from other things that could be getting done and a lot of rushing around and juggling 4 schedules.

So today he finally took delivery of his "new" car. He was a happy chap!

(It is navy blue, looks black in these pictures.)

Fitting the all-important number plates!!

And off they go!

New wheels!

Today we said goodbye to our car:(
Our lovely Renault that we have had for nearly 4 years. We bought it when I was pregnant with Niave because we needed to be able to fit us all in with a pram and a wheelchair, it did the trick! And it was a car that Grant could drive after not driving for 3 years.

But, the time has come that having 1 car is just NOT working so we've had to downgrade a bit by trying to find 2 cars for the price of 1!! It was not an easy task and in the end it is costing a little more (but at least not double) than what we were paying.

So it is a sad and happy day! As we drove to the dealership to exchange the Renault for my car - a Toyota Corolla, the song playing on the radio was "Everybody hurts"!!! I think it fitted Grants mood very well!

Anyway, the deal is done and we have 1 new car (Grant gets his on Monday - an older Renault Scenic, he needs the height to be able to see).

Here is my car:

It's going to be difficult rememberring this number after having CA66111 for 12 years!! (Grant is keeping that number, we've had it since our first car but I'm getting a new one).

Out of the mouths of babes!

Well, it's the 8th of February and not a single post for the month!! Well, that's not all, since I haven't replaced the batteries in my camera I haven't taken a picture in February yet either!!
So nothing to offer you other than these "pearls of wisdom" from my two literary geniuses!!

On Saturday night when Abigail got out of the bath and into her pyjama's she must have been feeling a little hot and bothered because she exclaimed with a huge sigh: "I must be on heat"!!

Last night over her supper Niave contemplated the population of the world and said:
"Mom, I wish there were lots of people in the world"!
To which I replied: "There are, lots and lots and lots."
But looking at her fingers she explained: "No but I mean like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten people in the world."!!!

Enjoy your week:-)