Life of Late.

Haven't been doing much blogging lately, just haven't been in the mood, no reason really just because. I haven't taken that many pictures lately either but thought I'd post the 1 or 2 that I have taken and give a quick update.

Niave has taken up hockey after inheriting her sisters old hockey stick and shin guards and acquiring a new ball from dad. She is rather keen and is quite a good shot (for a 5 year old!), I fear for my glass panelled front door.

There are so many things that she is exposed to or knows about at her age that Abigail had never encountered at the same age. At 5 Abigail had never heard of hockey, nevermind learning how to "dribble" and "stop", second children (or 3rd or 4th!) have a huge advantage in many ways over their oldest sibling who is the pioneer on many fronts and in many situations. I just think how different Niaves first day of grade 1 will be in comparison to Abigail's, it was probably her second time ever at the school whereas Niave knows the place inside-out!

Abigail is enjoying grade 3 and doing well. It was the best decision to keep her back a year, the difference is remarkable. She was awarded Student of the Week last week for "good work in numeracy and literacy and asking questions when needed" (the latter part being a huge step for her).

They had a cakeless cake sale on Friday, the girls could purchase an empty cake box during the week, decorate it and return it on Friday morning for judging. Two girls per class would win a cake to go inside their box.

A closer look:

We made a plate of teatime treats out of plasticine and decorated it like a table set for tea. (I say "we" because plasticine is quite hard, especially in winter, so it took a lot of work on my part to get it to a mouldable consistency and to mix the colours needed. Therein the difference between the R9.99 plasticine and the R59.99 Crazy Clay!)

That's it for now, I'll try not to be so scarce this time:-)

The Easter Break.

This year Easter fell right at the end of April and right in the middle of a whole string of public holidays that we have in South Africa so we ended up having an 11 day "holiday" that wasn't actually a holiday with only 3 official school days off - all the others were weekends or holidays of one kind or another.

We didn't get up to anything too exciting, the weather wasn't great and I had 2 sickish kids and I was still working on the 3 "official" days so in between we spent time at home, took in a movie, watched a wedding and just "hung out"!!

The first long weekend was the Easter weekend and I'd decided that I wanted to do something different this year now that they can both understand and not just let it be about chocolate eggs and bunnies. We don't emphasise the bunny part much anyway but there is a fair amount of chocolate consumption that is associated with Easter.

I spent quite a few nights trawling the Internet for ideas/activities from a Biblical perspective about Easter, it was a near impossible task until a school mom put me onto a site that had a whole heap of links to great blogs and sites with wonderful ideas.

I'd left it a bit late but I managed to find some activities for school as well as some for home.

The first activity was for Good Friday - a Resurrection garden, I made 2 crosses out of tongue-depressors (big sucker sticks) and we got 2 containers and filled them with soil, then they searched for things to put in their gardens along with the cross and a potato with a piece cut out to be like a tomb with a stone in front. The idea was actually to fill it with beautiful flowers on Easter Sunday but we forgot! But the enjoyed making them (although Abigail totally unhappy in this picture for some reason!), Niave made about 5!!!

Easter Sunday was a cold, wet day so the activity that I'd planned to do outside had to be done inside, it was my adaptation of the Jellybean Poem which is a poem about the crucifixion/resurrection that is simple and easy for children, it is based on 8 colours. I tied 2 of each colour in various places around my parents house and then sent them off to find just 1 colour at a time. If they found a different colour they had to leave it there and look for the right one. When they found it they had to bring it to be exchanged for a jellybean or sweet of the same colour. When we'd found all the colours we read through the poem together.

The last activity (of which I have no pictures!) was also colour related, based on the Wordless Book it uses colour to symbolise 5 things about the death and resurrection of Jesus. I "copied" a friends idea to use beads and we made "key-ring's" that they could hang on their bags, however the threading proved a little tricky as the twine was too thick for the beads so my mom and I ended up doing those!

It was good to move the focus away from the commercial/secular view of Easter and bring in fun ways for them to remember and understand the real reason for Easter. Next year I'll start planning sooner and hopefully get some more activities organised.

Tuesday was back to school and tomorrow is the start of the first full 5 day week in I don't know how long, but another 4 day week is ahead and not long after that a 3 day week - chaos I tell you!!

Presents.

Last week Niave had a birthday and although I had bought her a few things over the last few months - books, a game a DVD and some new clothes, all she wanted in the whole world was Jessie and Bullseye (her 2 favourite characters from her favourite movie, Toy Story) the only problem was there were NO Jessie's or Bullseye's anywhere to be found in Cape Town - believe me I tried everywhere.

Most people would have given up and moved on to the next thing but no, not me, in desperation we looked online and found some at Argos (actually there were quite a few at a number of U.K. toy shops but the one we chose was from Argos). I made an urgent Skype call to my sister 4 days before the birthday day to try to arrange the quickest route to get it here.

There is an Argos close to where Bev lives so she very kindly went and bought it for us and made numerous trips to the post office to get it sent off (seems post office mentality is universal!).

Of course being only a couple of days till Niaves birthday it was never going to get here in time but we did at least have some other things for her to open on the day - not to mention all the other gifts she got from friends and family including this gorgeous Playmobil Nativity set from Ouma and Oupa, Niave had been eyeing it since January!!

So there was more than enough gift opening to make it feel like a birthday. The fact that her "real present" wasn't here wasn't too much of an issue, she took it very well and was excited that they were coming on an aeroplane.

Bev had also posted her a Jessie dress-up suit which was also due to arrive after the actual day.

But, never fear, my mom had made an outfit for her to wear to her party seeing as she was supposed to be Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl! We bought an ordinary white school shirt and my mom sewed/stuck the yellow and red trim on to look like Jessie's shirt, she was also able to find some cow print fabric to make the leg thingy's (I'm sure they have a name) which she just tied over her normal jeans and I found a hat at Yu-Tom, the local Chinese shop.She didn't know about the other suit until it arrived.

So, there have been many trips to the post office, many phone calls, many attempts to track and trace online and finally the waiting is over!!

On Tuesday parcel number 1 arrived! A Jessie suit!! She was thrilled!

And today we were able to collect the 2nd parcel - there was much excitement, a frenzy of paper ripping and a happy little girl:

It was worth the wait, they are very sweet. Thanks to Bev, Argos, The Royal Mail, the South African Post Office and the 1 and only helpful Capetonian toyshop assistant from Toyzone in Sable Square - I have never been inside your shop but I will make a point of going based purely on the service you gave over the phone which way outdid most of the in store service I got from other toy shops. And that brings to an end an extended fifth birthday!!

April Holidays.

The April Holidays have come and gone. Usually they're the Easter Holidays but this year Easter falls right at the end of April so they were just the April holidays!

It was a short and busy week, with Niave's birthday slap, bang in the middle.

Much of the time was taken up in preparation for her birthday and party but we did have some outings in between.

On the last day of last term we visited a little farmyardy place just down the road. I'd often driven past it but we'd never visited before. It is a sweet little place, quite rustic but has quite a few animals and they all look loved and cared for.

Abigail playing hide and seek with an Alpaca! She was hilarious, she would run straight into that bush and then "hide away" from whoever was following her! This waist-high-to-a-9-year old Shetland pony was the one that sent Niave into a complete foot stamping, eardrum-piercing scream of a tantrum!

She managed to hold the bunny and Guinea pigs without suffocating them - it was close, but she managed!! Abigail loved every minute, she could have stayed all day.

Later in the week we finally took a picnic and had an outing to the Greenpoint park which was established around the time of the World Cup last year.

It is a beautiful park with lots of wide open spaces to run and play, have a picnic or read a book. There is also a lot of water around to add to the atmosphere!

Some pictures:

We had our picnic in the shadow of the lighthouse, the girls took their Rollerblades and scooter along to use on the pathways.

We spent quite a while at the mini gym, a great alternative to the usual park apparatus as it can be used by both children and adults, most had a lower and higher version to accommodate different sizes.

This human clock was interesting, there is a diagram in the middle with the months of the year on it, you have to stand on the date that you are on and hold your arms up like Abigail is doing in this picture and the sun shows the time - like an enormous sundial really! Quite clever.

I didn't see many real fish but there were these pretty fake ones!And seeing as we were in Greenpoint and the Putt-Putt was just across the road we had a game. There were some interesting styles to say the least!!!

The first Saturday of every month is when you can head out to Parow for rides on mini trains at the Western Province Live Steamers Club. We've been a couple of times before.

The kids enjoyed it this time too despite a really loooong wait - it's definitely grown in popularity and the queues are longer than when we first started going but it quietened down as the afternoon drew on.

There is another Easter holiday coming up and hopefully time for some more fun in amongst the celebrations.

A "Jessie The Yodeling Cowgirl" Party!

"A what kind of party?" I hear you say, and if you've never watched the Toy Story trilogy you will definitely be wondering! (Are there really people out there who haven't seen Toy Story?)Well, we are rather obsessed over here, and one small girl particularly. SO when it came to deciding on a theme for her party it was a no brainer. Jessie is a cowgirl character in Toy Story alongside the main characters, Woody and Buzz, there is also a horse called Bullseye (or if you're Abigail, Boolsai!) and Niave just loves them! She can recite lines!

So after searching and searching for invites that had Jessie on them and not Woody and Buzz I decided I had to make my own. But I had some trouble finding a decent image as well! I was scanning fruit stick boxes people: it was sad!

Anyway, I eventually found a sweet picture and an invitation was prepared.

I had ummed and aaaahed about what sort of entertainment to provide, the obvious choice being horses. It is, however, an expensive thing to hire so in the end I went for the ride on horses that you find outside of shops and usually require coins to make them go (usually the exact coin that I don't have in my purse!!) but these do not require coins they have a button that just makes them go and go and go.

It was a good thing we couldn't afford the real kind because just a few days ago we went to a farmyardy sort of place and Niave had a complete meltdown over the teeny tiny Shetland ponies - she much preferred the fake kind!

We also did a few games:

Pin the Tail on Bullseye; Pass the (enormous) Parcel; Treasure Hunt (or mad Easter egg scramble as it turned out to be!)

and Lasso the Cactus!! (which is what they're doing in these pictures!)

In between there was lots of horse riding, tree climbing and all sorts of other fun.

This year she actually blew her candles out! Last year she was too terrified to go near them!

And we managed to get a half decent family picture too!

Some more views of the cake:

So, a good time was had by all and another 6 months till the next party which has already been sorted months ago - Pizza and DVD party for a 10 year old!! It seems to get easier as they get older.

Niave is 5.

Today Niave celebrates her fifth birthday. Wow. Five, I can't believe she is 5!

Niave has grown and changed so much in the last year.

We have seen her gain a lot more self-control, she is a meltdown kid and although she still has a fair amount of meltdown moments (like when a sweet little Shetland pony wants to say hello!) she is slowly learning how to control her emotions a little better.Niave is a climber, happiest when dangling from the highest branch or the tallest part of the jungle-gym. She loves to be outside. Water is her friend! From the smallest puddle to the biggest sea, she loves it all.She also loves puzzles and building blocks and has hundreds of soft toy friends that she plays with all the time, Beaky (a little duck) is still her firm favourite but she sleeps with about 20 soft toys every night - there's hardly room for her! And Memory Game! She is the undisputed queen, beats us all no contest!!She loves books and DVD's and can recite whole parts of some of her favourites (not sure I should be publicly advertising that!!), she and Abigail have a line from the Bee Movie that they just love to repeat over and over and also from Niaves all time favourite Toy Story (1, 2 and 3!!!)Her favourite books are the Ruby series about a little duck who looks just like Beaky and she loves the Little Bear series because it's about stuffed animals - her favourites!!She's not a very girlie girl and is at the moment obsessed with cowgirls (because of Jessie - the yodelling cowgirl - from Toy Story of course!) but loves to wear dresses too.She loves cars and dinosaurs, she seems to have past the fairy/princess phase already, 2nd children grow up much faster...

She is a strong willed child but has a great sense of humour. She really cracks us up with some of the things she comes out with.

Like most 5 year olds she likes to do things on her terms and digs her heels in when things don't go her way!

Anyway, today Niave is 5 and although it's a lot noisier since she arrived (like from the first second!!) we are very glad she is here.

Happy Birthday Niavie, may you have wonderful fifth year.

Bee's in the Belfry.

Well, not quite in the belfry because we don't have one but, but wait ... let's start at the beginning:

Turns out you should never ignore a big buzzing sound when you hear one.

On Saturday I heard a loud buzzing noise in the back garden but couldn't see where it was coming from, I didn't look very well but when it wasn't obvious I gave up and wrote it off to "something" but I didn't really know what. It was a busy weekend and I didn't think about it again.

On Monday morning while pushing children on the swing at school, I heard the buzzing again and noticed a big box on the wall of the house next door which was not there before. And it was covered in bee's.

I wasn't too sure what to make of it as it looked like a "professional" piece of equipment put there quite purposefully but the proximity didn't make sense - very close to a boundary (ours!) and about a metre away from their own bedroom windows, as well as the fact that they have a newborn baby so my initial fear of "oh my goodness there is an apiary 1 metre away from my swing!" didn't really seem to make sense! I was concerned about the school children as well as my own who have never been stung so their allergy status is unknown and also for Grant who is allergic to bee stings. It was all a bit worrying. And very confusing, I kept running different possibilities over and over in my head as to what it could be as well as trying to figure out how I was going to negotiate it's removal without causing trouble with the neighbours!

Fortunately, apart from a few strays they all seemed to stay pretty much in a group so we weren't being inundated with them but I wasn't sure if noise or food or small children running around the garden would cause them to disperse or attack!

Three attempts yesterday to find our neighbours home were fruitless so I started today still not knowing what the bee's were about but my confusion didn't last too long as my neighbour came over to explain what had happened.

Apparently, on Saturday (the day of the buzzing!) a swarm of bee's decided to make their hive in an air brick in the wall of their garage (which faces my swing!), they had discovered this and called in a beekeeper to help. He had covered up the entrance to the hive with a box which would "encourage" them to move!

I was SO relieved!

At 10 a.m. this morning there was a swarm the size of a small football hanging underneath the box (creepy) and by 11 a.m. they were gone! Apart from a few lingerers.

Bee's are really interesting and fascinating but I would prefer them to be interesting and fascinating somewhere else.

These pictures were taken with my cellphone so it's difficult to see but the brown and silver thing is "the box" and the black clump on the top right of it is "the bee's"! This clump being about half the size of today's clump!! We do like honey but we're glad they've gone to make it somewhere else!