Too much afternoon!

When I pass out I do it in style!!!

This is what I found when it got too quiet this evening. After an afternoon of sand and water play and sliding down the slide into a mudbath at the bottom it was just too much to stay awake:-)

According to Niave...

...mashed potatoes are two separate dishes: "mash" and "tatoes"!

Abigail's new thing is...

making tea!
Pot after pot after pot! For anyone who will drink it - in fact for nobody at all!
Good thing is she can do the whole deal from beginning to end, even the hot bit without needing to visit the emergency room and the tea is even drinkable:-)

The weekend ad(d)-nauseum!!

This past weekend was not one of my best.

It started on Wednesday after the prize-giving, I felt really tired and by that night all my joints and lower back were sore. I went to bed really early as I couldn't keep my eyes open!

Thursday was really hot so that didn't help the tiredness and Thursdays are generally very busy so after all the rushing around by 2:30 I was feeling really grim:(

I just made it home and went straight to lie down as I was feeling really nauseous.

The funny part of the story was that on the way home we had been listening to the news of a devastating fire in Hout Bay that destroyed at least 50 shacks (that wasn't the funny part), when I stepped out of the car at home I thought "gee, we can smell the fire all the way over here" only to find my husband had lit a fire to braai the sausage I had taken out for supper! Now this may not seem like a big deal to you but believe me it is for us!

Grant used to be the "braai guy" (we have a friend who was the "potjie boytjie"!) but since being in a wheelchair braai's are a bit awkward and we really need to have one custom made, but he felt like having a braai so he put up with the pain and we ended up having sausage and pork chops! That was a huge relief to me because the last thing I felt like doing was cooking.

Friday was no better and I ended up getting sick at school. Not fun. The kids were so sweet, we spent most of the morning inside as I just couldn't bear the heat. They really love being outside but they didn't complain at all. I managed to make it to 12:00 and went straight inside to lie down.

This was not how I planned this weekend at all. Abigail had a dancing show on Friday night and a camp out on Saturday and the way I felt I didn't think I would make either.

Grant had managed to get Niave to sleep which is not usually an easy task and my parents fetched her for swimming shortly after she woke up so I didn't have to hop up every 5 minutes to check what sort of havoc she was causing!! (She can cause some havoc!!)

The next task was to get Abigail's hair and make-up done and get her and us to the school by 5:15. Well, we managed and I even managed to stay for the entire show which I wasn't counting on so that was really good as it is was a brilliant show. These kids are amazing.

Here is a picture of what Abs costume looked like. (We weren't allowed to take pic's of the actual show, there was a professional photographer.)

(you can see how off balance I must have been, it's a dreadful photo! Out of focus and all!!)

On Saturday morning I woke up feeling a little better but by lunch time I was flat on my back again. So the camp out was definitely off. Abigail was so disappointed that my Dad agreed to camp out in the back garden with her.

We only found out the next morning that the whole event was cancelled due to wind and rain predicted for overnight! So she had her camp out anyway!! Niave also spent the night (not in the tent!) so I had a slow morning on Sunday which helped a lot. I felt a bit more normal but not quite right.

This morning Abigail had to go to school dressed as a character from a book. No prizes for guessing what Abigail chose... Snow White of course and she was well kitted out thanks to Bev and Marks and Spencer's!!

They had visits from South African authors and did some related activities which I am still trying to get out of her!! She ended off the day with an end-of-year dancing party with swimming and lots to eat!!

I went off to the doctor this afternoon to get to the bottom of the nausea and it is, apparently, a virus affecting the vestibular area of the middle ear.

Some great anti-nausea tablets and I feel normal again!!

Ugh, there is nothing worse than nausea!

A big THANK YOU to Ouma and Oupa for saving the weekend! It would have been a disaster without you:)

Abigail's Awards Ceremony

Today was the Awards Ceremony at Greenfield for the grade 1-3's.

Each child receives a certificate for the areas in which they have achieved or shown progress. Some are awarded extra things like colours if they have done well in an extra mural e.g gymnastics, dancing etc.

This is a far cry from the prize givings of yester-year where a select few were awarded prizes and the rest of us had to sit through the l-o-o-o-o-n-g ceremony.

My experience of receiving prizes and certificates is very limited!! Let me tell you the story, it's both sad and humorous!

Throughout my primary school career I never received a cup or certificate or anything - I wasn't very good at anything except causing trouble!!

Then in std 5 (grade 7) we all had to take part in the Scholar Patrol to help our fellow pupils cross the road from Harfield rd station safely.

At the end of that year, at final assembly, every std 5 girl was awarded a certificate for their involvement in this duty.

Imagine my excitement when I realized I was FINALLY going to have a certificate to my name!

Each girl was called up to receive theirs - but my name wasn't called. At the end I was left standing at the back of the hall -the only std 5 girl, all alone.

My certificate was stuck inside the envelope and nobody realized!

I did get it in the end but not up on the stage like everybody else!!

Anyway, I'm very glad that these days teachers realize they need to acknowledge everybody -even if finding something positive is very hard!

Here is Abigail receiving her award.

Some of the grade 1's displaying their certificates.

The certificate!

That was the first event in a very busy week!

There were 2 in the bed and the little 1 said "move over"!

Earlier this evening Niave was hopping out of bed instead of sleeping.

I found her on the floor in the passage once, on the kitchen floor once and on route to somewhere a couple of times!

After the 4th or 5th time the wooden spoon came out and was carefully placed on the kitchen counter as a consequence for the next trip down the passage.

After that I got busy on the computer and as it was quiet - no little footsteps to be heard, I assumed she'd finally gone off to sleep.

So, while waiting for the "dog tricks" pictures to upload I wandered into her bedroom thinking I'd find her fast asleep and looking angelic as children tend to look in their sleep.

This is what I found:

No Niave!

At first I was a bit worried, where could she have disappeared to?

However, on further investigation into all the other rooms this is where I found her:

Oh well, at least she was asleep, even if it was in the wrong bed:-)

This weekend...

...started with Niave and a croup-like cough on Friday night.

She was up about 4 times between 6 and 10 with a barking cough and gasping for breaths which just didn't seem to get anything into her lungs. Poor little sausage, we had her in the bathroom with the steam from the shower but that didn't help too much. Once she calmed down it would get better until an hour later and then we'd start all over again.

Anyway, we went off to the doctor on Saturday morning for some Celestamine and that sorted out the croup/cough but hasn't done much for the trail of green slime coming out of her nose!

After Abigail's party in the morning we went to Ouma and Oupa for the afternoon.

My Mom suggested that we put up some obstacle-course-type things and try to teach the dogs to do "tricks"! (she'd been watching an animal programme on DSTV that inspired her!)

Abigail didn't need to be asked twice!! They set up a ramp and balance beam and a jump.

The dogs weren't too co-operative and just a little confused:-) Tessa eventually did a jump or 2 but Taffy wasn't having any of the silly antics, he just wanted the sausage bits we were using as rewards.

Niave was quite keen to do some tricks and the ramp turned into a slide which kept Abigail occupied well into the evening.

Not feeling too well, Niave would crash out on the couch every now and then to watch "Charlie and Lola" or "Biglittlecook" (Big cook, Little cook!) for a while before the next bout of energy.

Abigail and her best friend Tessa