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.