6 years ago today

 two little /big boys came into our lives What a ride! Although I think we may have underestimated the storm that descended on us, we certainly underestimated the joy we would receive in return. This morning they were totally surprised by their gifts - C has been wanting one for so long, but the Leappads hit the spot for both. I usually write a letter to the kids on or around their birthday but today I am overly emotional so it is better left for another day soon.

My little boys, I love you to no end. There is no way that I can describe how you fill my life with joy, every day. Love you to the moon and back.

A bit of a catch up.

Life on a trot. Yes, that's about what's happening in our part of the world. Work is keeping me extremely busy, life at home and the school has been hectic. Leaving blogging (and reading) just about the last item on my to do list.

But we are all doing fine - I am also extremely happy that this term is ending on Friday. Mock ballet exam is done, first Voortrekker camp is done, yearly Ophthalmologist appointment is done (new glasses being made as we speak), hockey season is something of the past and dress rehearsal for the revue done.

Of course, we have a BIG event next week - a certain awesome twosome are turning 6. Gosh 6! Wow. And as they have their birthday in the school holidays we are taking cupcakes for the kids to decorate themselves at school tomorrow and we will only have a party after the school re opens and when Ouma is visiting from PE. But the boys are ok with it - I think they are big enough to see the sense in it. No doubt we will have to repeat it a 100 times in the next 3/4 weeks until the party, but so be it.

It's been a good term academically for the kids. The Princess is continuing being a good student, Mr C surprised us by learning to read in grade 0 (it does sometimes happen that they just "grasp" it themselves without actively being taught - he is not the only one in the class) and Mr L has made great progress and is on his way to grade 0 at our school. I do not think I have mentioned it before but we got the formal ADHD diagnosis a while ago and although he is not on meds yet (to follow soon) our new OT has concentrated on this and he is growing in leaps. I am sure that the horse riding therapy has a big part to pay in it too. 

I am still keeping up with Project Life- 2 weeks ago I was behind but managed to catch up about 4 weeks in one weekend. I am way behind in posting the layouts though but if you are interested there may be some you have not seen yet.

Hope you are all doing well. I will pop in soon.

At the Princess' baby shower almost 9 years ago

my one cousin, whose two kids was almost grown up at the time gave me a wonderful bit of advice. She said that she believes that one of the most important things to teach children these days is self confidence - and by that she meant to tackle the world with no or little fear, with the confidence to proceed and achieve what we set out to do.

It is a difficult balance to keep kids humble but with self confidence. Often I wonder if we achieve this - the humble part is relatively easy - our competitive world sees to this . Often I wonder if we install enough confidence, but sometimes I know we are on the right track to achieve it. Our kids are relatively fearless on rides at the school fete for example.

Mr L on the top of the 3 story slide - they repeatedly did this. All 3.

A surprise us every time at the English schools speech festival on the left and at the Drama Eisteddfods where she competes with great confidence. 

And what really prompted this post - the 3 of them with friend D in a cave on Sunday. They were fearless little explorers - in fact, we had to keep them back from not going in too deep.

I truly love the sense of adventure. I hope we can keep it going in them all.

So in the next 2 weeks....

it's silly season. No really. Get this list:

• Two separate revue rehearsals for two separate kids on two seperate evenings (A & C). It's revue year at school - only once every 4 years, but still.
• 4 days of ballet course (A), one day followed by the school's  big yearly festive event, one by a hockey match or two and one by her drama Eisteddfod with only 30 minutes in between the two events.
• Said festive school event for the whole family where I am busy designing posters for the grade 2 stall.
• English speech festival (For A)
• A school outing (For C)
• Spring picnic (For C) 
• Early mornings at school on 3 occasions for team photos (all 3 kids) and one late afternoon (A)
• One Granny day at school as seeing that we only have one granny in Pretoria I have to help and attend to make sure both my boys have someone at their little event, followed by a picnic with granny where I will have to help out.

And..... what? That's it? Somehow I feel totally out of breath just thinking about it all.

But yes, work is busy, I am totally loving family time and I am reading whenever I can. I am also loving Masterchef SA. But life is busy and somehow blogging is taking a backseat. At the same time, I am still loving Project Life and although I am even behind on that at the moment, it is taking a lot of the urgency to blog out of my life. Recording such lovely details of day to day stuff is so enjoyable and in the Project Life format we can all enjoy it as it develops every week. I am still surprised at how much I love the format and that I am not far behind. Also sad I have not done this years ago

In the meantime - the biggest "event" in the last week was Mr C loosing his first baby tooth.

Sometimes a weekend is so awesome

That you simply can not believe its over and done with

A weekend where the bonds in the family just grew once again

A weekend where lots of laughter filled the air

Where the bush cleansed and fed your soul

Where the predicted cold front seemed to miss you

Where children were children as children should be

Where learning took place with fun and love

A weekend that leaves you craving for more.

Where most of all you discovered your children appreciate nature as much as you do. Where we all share a happy place

My 2 favorite weekend pictures

In my moms garden - it has 11 strings this year

The best R16,95 spent for giant pavement crayons

So life is the usual busy plus some more

The third time is rolling along at top speed and yes, all are well but busy. At the moment I am bravely converting to windows 8, duel screens and all at the same time. For two days my desk has been a bit odd looking but by this afternoon most is sorted, copied, transferred and re installed. I hope....

We had a good weekend with the hubby having to work quite a bit, the kids very nicely entertaining themselves with all sorts of things.Between Hunter and I we cooked 7 meals on Sunday - I have realized that making a lot of meals for the freezer makes all the difference in out home. The longer the time it takes to have the meal on the table is directly related to the bigger the fight around eating the dinner is going to be. If that makes sense at all.

But let me share some of the things the kids entertained themselves with:

flower arranging

Building and imaginaery space ship -  Lunch (toasted ham and cheese sarmies) was served on Mercurius, desert on Uranus (Lamingtons) and rest time on Mars (a DVD in the lounge)

Gosh I love these 3 little monsters! We also spend a good 2 hours in the park on Sunday, went to family church once again after the holidays and much more.

I have always wanted my kids to have a brother and or sister to share their life with - growing up, creating memories and building ties. I love that I am seeing this in action (well most days if we work through the fights)

So how are you?

Every girl's best friend

So who have been every girl's best friend for over 50 years? Barbie of course! So huge was the excitement when the Princess and I were invited to attend the launch of Mega Blok's Barbie range. If you are a regular reader you will also know that we love construction toys in the Jugglingact household - we do believe they are the very best toys ever combining imaginative play with creativity ,planning and  fine motor skills. So imagine combining Barbie and the wonderful creative and educational world of blocks! A total winner in my books.

The pet shop - first on the Princess' Christmas wish list.

The wonderful ladies from Prima toys had tables full of sets to play with and it is no wonder very little food or sweets got consumed in 2 hours as the girls were just playing and building all the time. A stood in awe in front of the display case that held the entire collection. I know now what will be the standard grade 2 girl gift for this year - some Mega Bloks Barbie of course! Although shown as from age 4 up I do think the 8 years olds enjoy being able to build it themselves and will still play with it for years. A particularly loved the fact that the tiny Barbie, Ken and the rest of the gang dolls had interchangeable hair and "clothes" with accessories - most of all the little pets Barbie has - we saw a kitten, a poodle and a chihuahua

The party was styled by Pretty things for you and my, were the girls spoiled with the prettiest pink and white Barbie sweetie buffet. Melinda can really style a party to the absolute detail.

Thanks to Prima Toys for inviting us to play along and for the wonderful party pack that each girl received - A played with her Barbies and their puppies for the rest of Sunday and once again last night. A firm favorite already.

Have a look in your local toy shop where the range is available right now - there is something for every little girl. 

The full collection includes compatible Build ‘n Style play sets, such as: Luxury Mansion, Fashion Boutique, Pet Shop, Convertible, Pool Party, and so much more. Unique to Mega Bloks, most play sets include removable “building plates” – platforms on which girls build each room – for easy building and styling play. And for the classic Barbie fashion and hair play, all Mega Bloks Barbie play sets include one or more mini-fashion figures of Barbie and her friends with interchangeable hair styles and outfits. For more info on Mega Bloks Barbie range visit www.primatoys.co.za

Of Cowboys and cowgirls that cry and much more

Nope, he was not crying here, he was teasing me when I wanted to take a photo. But sure looks like a down and out cowboy.

Yesterday morning started with lots of tears - Ouma left very early the morning and waking up both my Bear and Princess just could not stop crying. I felt a bit the same. Our Lion, on his part, refused flat out to eat breakfast, demanding granny.  I have said it before and will say it again - I have the very best in laws you can imagine. It was such a very good visit. You guys that have very involved and able grandparents close at hand have no idea what a blessing they are.


But onto other news, although Hunter was away in the bush for the weekend, we had a lovely one. A busy one, but great. I had a fabulous riding lesson and can not believe that in 4 lessons I have progressed from scared to ride to doing a 4 jump course - something I have never done before (I used to do dressage). The thrill it gives me speaks to my soul. All for tackling fears head on and doing something for yourself. Thanks to Hunter who is instrumental in all this.

I can hardly believe it's the last week of the school holidays. How has this just flown by in the blink of an eye? As granny is home and we thought it a good idea to ease mostly our Lion back into school the boys are attending holiday school this week. A is having a sleep over at my mom. I am not looking forward to next week's pace.

I have to have the only child in Pretoria that does not like Wakaberry! My MIL and I took the kids after riding on Saturday for Wakaberry whilst in search of gumboots for Mr C and Mr L declared it uneatable! The other two of course loved it.


BTW finding gumboots this late in season is a mission. (Mr C's feet unexpectedly outgrew his) I went through all the possible options apart from the Pick n Pay hypermarket, where I popped in on Sunday morning to find them unpacking boxes and boxes of gumboots. If I only knew... ( but now you know if you need)

All along I find I am reading less blogs (apologies my friends but life has been busy and I had some lovely books to read) and blogging less, but painstakingly keeping up with Project Life. (If you are interested have a look here - I post every week's layout) I suspect my urge to document everything in our lives is happening in Project Life mostly. Maybe it's a good thing. Maybe I can talk a bit about more sensible things here. Whatever.

We had a lovely day last Tuesday when I took the day off to spend with the family on an outing - more about that later but I promise you, it felt like a holiday. I would totally recommend it.

The photo above was taken at a lovely cowboy party on Saturday. Mr C dressed what I put out for him, apart from boots, which as you know by now was too small. Mr L had his very own interpretation of what he believes a modern day cowboy is (note the darkies) and the Princess, well, she had a picture of Calamity Jane she saw in a book and styled herself accordingly.


And with that, I hope your weekend was great and this week will treat you well.

The past week

Has really been one of those golden weeks. Such a treat to have both the grandparents visiting - really, I could not have happier kids. There's been:

Crafting (friend K spend two days with us last week)

Knitting: Someone learned how to do "tolletjie brei" or French knitting

Snakes and ladders

Joint culinary exploits in the kitchen

Fabulous food

 Heaps and heaps of reading

And even some building work as Radiator Springs (from the movie Cars) made its appearance on our lawn. (all 3 kids took part in this)
























They certainly do not lack on the creative thinking side.
In the meantime we also attended a very cool first birthday Noddy party and all 4 adults had some fun - Hunter and my FIL spent a night in Pilansberg and the my fabulous hubby sent my MIL and I to the spa for an afternoon.