Sulky Sports!

Sports day at Niaves school started at 10:00 a.m. and up until 9:55 she was super excited, keen as ever but it didn't last.
For some reason at 9:59 she decided she didn't want to have sports day and insisted that the "big walk" (which was really a small walk) was making her dizzy!
They had to do 6 laps of a field which is not full size and there was loads of motivation along the way: sweets at 1 corner, orange slices at the next, juice at another and the stamping station at the end of the lap. She was having none of it! She did succumb to some juice (all that dizziness!) and she secretly enjoyed getting the stamps but most of the time the face we saw was this:She has perfected the pout! I don't think that lip could get any lower, I know she tried!

But after an egg and bacon roll and an ice bite she was ready for more!

Her class, the youngest group in the school, did 1 race. They had to stand in a hoop, each hoop a different colour and run with a beanbag to the hoop of the same colour at the other end.

She was finally happy when she got her "metal" (although it was very much cardboard!!).

Maybe next year we'll have Smiley Sports!!

Questions.

Abigail: Which animal did God make first?
Mom: I don't know.
Abigail: I think it was a sheep.
Mom: Why Sheep?
Abigail: Because there were lots of shepherds.

Another literary offering by Abigail.

Abigail came home from school the other day desperate to write a book! And so before her homework was even done she did write a book!
It's called "Violet the Vet" or rather "Viloet the Vet"!!!

(It's a bit hard to read the writing so I'll fill in the text - all spelling and grammatical mistakes included!)

In plumstd there s a very kind vet. And the vet's name is Viloet. Viloet help's animals get better. Today Viloet has one pashent. The pashent is a cat. Viloet can see that the cat has a very nasty rash. Viloet took the cat in the exmning room.
When Viloet was exmning on the cat Viloet relised that it wasent only a rash it was also pusing.

it looked hoirbill. Viloet went out of the exmning room and went into the sitting room. She told the cat's oner that the cat would have to stay here for a little while until she got better.

A little while past very quikly and soon the cat got better and the cat got to go home. Viloet was very glad she could help.

Your whole life long.

Now that I've sort of got the hang of the "movie" thing, I thought I'd do one for Abigail.

I realised with Niaves one that it's best to use pictures taken in a landscape format but I take mostly portrait shots - especially if they are of people!

So it was a hard task finding pictures but I've made a mental note to take more pictures on landscape.

Anyway, here is Abigail's "movie" - not many of us can get through these without shedding a tear! Hope you have a tissue!!

A Saturday morning outing.

On Saturday Abigail was very keen to visit the Barnyard - to hold the bunnies!
We didn't have any other plans and since the weather was good we decided to go.
It is often very windy there but it was actually really lovely. These kinds of outings are getting so much easier now that Niave is more independent and not so prone to running off to the farest flung space she can find.

Abigail spent most of the time in the bunny pen. They also have guinea pigs. She was very happy.

Niave did a bit of everything, climbing, playing, holding, feeding.

I was glad to see that she can now sit still long enough for the pigeons to come and eat out of her hand! A few months ago no bird would come within a 10m radius of her!!

And of course they both had a pony ride.

Once again, Niave has grown out of her "scream and run a mile" routine when there is a horse around. She sat very well and I didn't even have to jog alongside the horse, she did really well. Abigail is the seasoned pro!

Four and a half.

Recently a friend introduced me to the "movie maker" function on Picassa. I was keen to try it straight away but my Windows Media Player is not working and so it was hampering the process! But I was determined! So, with a little help I was able to get the song and pictures I wanted together. Seeing as today Niave is exactly 4 and a half, I decided to do the first one for her. So, here goes, my first attempt!

It was fun.

The birthday.

The birthday day started very early when a little face peered down at me at 3:40a.m.! I thought she was trying her luck at opening her presents before the sun had risen but in fact the words were "mom, I can't breathe very well". It's usually Niave who has us up in the night with attacks of "croup" but this time it was Abigail and it would be when I don't have any croup medicine in the house. So I gave her some other stuff which seemed to get her to at least 6:30 which was then "present call"!!

The moment she'd been waiting for for ages arrived!

We'd had some difficulty in deciding what to buy for her this year and eventually decided on a new hamster cage. Pickle, the hamster, has been residing in very mediocre accommodation (!) and Abigail has been eyeing a 5 star residence at the giant pet shop down the road, so Pickle now has a new home, I'm not sure she can afford the bond but she definitely likes the loft suite as the master bedroom!

She also received some new books - she LOVES to read, and 2 new DVD's - she LOVES to watch DVD's too!! And a new outfit which took about 4 hours to find... long story, don't get me started.

A little later my parents popped in on their way to work with a HUGE present:

Inside was a whole new bedroom! Duvet cover set and pretty pillow, curtains, a new rail and some great games.

After a visit to the doctor, it was a rush to get everything ready and packed for the party at the Clay Cafe in Hout Bay.

At first she had asked for a hamster cake, and while it was quite fitting, I wasn't too sure how to pull that off, so we went with a cat instead.

1,2,3,4 steps to a cat cake:
The children all enjoyed painting their item of bisque and then had time to play on the jumping castle and playground, and enjoy some party food! And of course, the blowing out of candles:

We were all exhausted by the time we came home but there were still more visitors to come.

She received lots of cards and calls (from near and far) and visitors and gifts and only got into bed at 9 o'clock.

A fun, busy day. Thank you to everybody who called or visited. And thank you for all the gifts! (She received money from quite a few people and now has nearly R400.00 burning a whole in her pocket!! "Can we go to the pet shop?" is a line I've heard many times today!)