Cooling off.

What do you do on the 3rd day of a heatwave, when it is so hot you can't even think?

You cool off in any way you can.

Desperate times call for desperate measures!

And you make mud cakes, because - according to Abigail "that's what children do"!!

Birthdays.

Today was Kelsey's birthday, Abigail's friend from across the road.
She invited 5 friends to go ice skating. Since they are all getting taller now we went to the big rink, for most of them it was the first time. Kelsey is an absolute natural, she just glided onto the ice without holding onto the rail at all.

The others were a bit more cautious but got the hang of it eventually. Thank goodness for Kelsey's dad, Quinton who was there to hold the hands of the more nervous ones (mostly Abigail!!). When it was time to hand the skates back they were treated to pizza, Coke and cupcakes.

Then it was back out into the heat (34 deg) and back home.

Abigail stayed to play with Kelsey while Niave and I packed up again and set off for Hout Bay to another birthday party. This time it was for 1 of my friends! Actually it was 2 friends combined birthday celebration at the Clay Cafe.

These 2 lovely ladies, Renette and Adele, invited a whole bunch of friends to paint pottery and have delicious cake.

Niave got to paint again (although she painted more of the table than her bowl!) and I also painted another plate.

Some of the ladies hard at work!

Some of the creations.

It was a hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, HOT day and Hout Bay seemed to be even hotter but we had a good time anyway.

We have just had a wonderful thunder storm and so it is, thankfully, a little cooler now.

February.

It's February, and while some members of the family had to spend 20 minutes digging their car out of the snow,

others felt the need to cool off!

Abigail had "Wacky Wear Day" at school today. She borrowed a hat from my Dad as her contribution.

Interesting conversation.

While driving in the car today, this conversation took place:

Niave: "Where are we going?"
Mom: "To fetch Daddy."
Niave: "Where is he?"
Mom: "He is at the hospital."
Niave: "What is he doing at the hospital?"
Mom: "He had to see the doctor."
Niave: "What is his doctors name?"
Mom: "Dr. Swart."
Niave: "Dr. Swart? Why is it Dr. Swart?"
Mom: "Because that's her name."
Niave: "Is it a lady?"
Mom: "Yes."
(a few moments of silence)
Niave: "Is the man going to help her?"

Even at the age of not quite 3 she is not quite sure if a lady is capable of being a doctor!!!

The Echo.

{Lisa (Carter), I thought you'd appreciate this story!}

In our house we have an echo!
Most things get said twice.
This is because Niave copies everything Abigail says.
It can be quite funny but also quite annoying at times - especially for Abigail.

This evening we had Chicken a la King for supper, while we were eating Abigail asked "how can you make rice yellow?"
After I'd explained the process Niave asked with a rather confused expression, "how can we paint Bryce yellow?"!!

"Yellow rice" is obviously not as easy for her to relate to as "yellow Bryce"!
Of course she does have a bit of experience with paint!!!

11 years ago...

...there was a wedding!

On the 31st of January 1998 Grant and I became husband and wife.

Yesterday was the eleventh anniversary of that day.

There were a couple of similarities:- 1) the heat and 2) the Met!

But there were also a few differences:-

1998 - waking up to hair and make-up appointments and walking down the aisle,

2009 - waking up to "Mom, I'm hungry" and hanging up the washing!

Well, we didn't get to celebrate really, Grant was working and I was rushing around but we did get to spend a lovely evening with friends. We had been invited to a combined husband and wife birthday party and so decided we would do our celebrating on Friday night and still be able to go to the party. As it turned out Grant wasn't up to going out on Friday having been flat on his back for 2 days, but we will still, hopefully get to go sometime:-)

My parents popped around on Saturday morning to wish us and gave us this wonderful Wok! I've never owned a Wok, and so I am going have to experiment a bit. But it's sure to become one of the most used pans in the drawer.

After they left Abigail disappeared into her bedroom and when she reappeared she handed me a sweet card she had made.

She hastened to add "it's you and Dad and look, you're holding hands"! So sweet.

Baking.

On Friday it was baking day at school and as I have recipe that makes enough dough for 25 children and I only have 7, we had quite a lot of dough left over. So, yesterday we did some baking at home to use up the dough.

Let me introduce you to the bakers:

First we have "Niave-grab-the-vermicelli-Hutton",

and then there's, "Abigail-I'll-never-ever-eat-a-cherry-Hutton".

Here they are rolling out their dough.

Now, let me tell you, 2 year old baking lacks the finesse of 7 year old baking, it is quite something to behold! Without intervention we would have had biscuits 6cm thick with chocolate chips gouged right through to the other side, piled high with colourful vermicelli!

But they had fun and despite the interesting shapes and decorations they were edible, in fact they were so edible they were almost all gone in under an hour!!

Yum, yum!