Two for Two-sday - smoking with Oupa

and 5/365:

This morning Oupa was puffing on his pipe and Little man L went to sit on his lap for a cuddle. The play dough cutter in his hand became an instant play pipe. I caught the two without them noticing it and immediately thought that I should edit it to sepia as it would suit the pensive mood.

Just 3 hours ago we dropped of Ouma and Oupa at the airport. It's been a great visit and I will really miss them, especially getting up at 5 tomorrow morning with the kids as the last week or so I had the chance to go back to bed and sleep a bit more. That was heaven! Also the afternoon naps wil be greatly missed, as sharing cooking responsibilities. They also gave me some great moments with Hunter and we managed to fit a date in as well as a date with my little princess to see Alvin and the Chipmunks 2.

Some highlights from their visit:

With Ouma at Safari Nursery





Getting jumping castle lessons from Ouma.

Swimming with Oupa.

Lounging around with Oupa.

Playing with Ouma.

Way back and wordful Whensday - Granny Annie

Playing along on a Wednesday (as per usual) with Cheryl at Twinfatuation and Angie at 7 Clown Circus:

My few regular readers know that I truly have the best Mom-in-law in the world, ever! She left yesterday and we are already missing her. Granny Annie - we love you to bits! We had such a great time with you visiting.

In honor of her visit:

Timeline: 25 September 2009
The Boys' age: 1 hour

Timeline: 29 September 2009
The Boys' age: 2 years 4 days
I just love this picture - the love for each other just shines through

Thanksgiving Thursday - fun with the Grandparents

Playing along with Nicole at What a trip! on Thursdays.

I have already mentioned on Monday all the practical little things that I am than thankful for resulting from my In-law's visit. But I am also thankful for the time the kids (and us) had to spend with them. Time to....

Dance...

Watch television....

Cuddle...

And read...

Quality time indeed.

Makes my Monday - the grandparents are here!

Playing along with Cheryl - what a great way to start the week.

Every child loves to spend time with attentive and spoiling grandparents and mine, off course, is no exception to the rule. Since they arrived on Friday evening it has been non -stop fun, fun, fun! Yesterday we tried to chase the grey day away by visiting one of our open malls - the Irene Village Mall which is located close to our area's most famous dairy - hence, the mall has a cow-theme and is family orientated. It has a lot of sculptures spotted through it that are all "play-sculptures" - kids are encouraged to climb on them.

The kids with the grandparents in front of the huge cow statue - it has plants growing all over it.

The Little Miss on the cow sculpture with the horse behind it. It has climbing footholds etc.

The central open are has a play fountain in it and in summertime the kids just love it. At the moment, they have a synthetic "ice-skating" rink in it. The Little Miss didn't want to try it - the mommy was grateful ;) If you enlarge the picture you can see the cow's paws and udder sticking out behind the rink - another play sculpture.

Closer up - the udder is a slide.

The kiddo's on the udder - as usual, Little man L loved it - Little man C was scared.

The Little Miss wanted to get up and slide and couldn't stop. Up, down all the time.

She also loved the fountain.

We let the Little Men out to run - for once we were a one on one adult/child ratio so we could do it. They loved it!

Checking out one of the other sculptures.

And the other half of it - it's twin.

Taking a break to have pancakes and Milo - the two L's in the family - they share a name.

And our two blonds in the family sharing a moment. (not a blond one I hope!)

For some more feel good Monday news - head over to Cheryl's and play along too.

Way back and wordful Whensday

Timeline: April 2007
My MIL with her only grandchild. We told them that weekend that they will be adding two grandchildren to their tally shortly.

Timeline: April 2008
My MIL with her 3 grandchildren.

April 2009: My MIL with her 4 grandchildren.

Oh gosh, this was such a difficult photo to take! And Little man L is hidden, but this one is the best we have. We love you granny Annie!

For some more blasts from the past, head over to Cheryl's and play along and if like me, and Angie at 7 Clown circus's Wordful Wednesday you have to "talk" about your photographs, head over there to have a look as well.

Makes my Monday - Ouma is here!

For those who are not regular readers, let me explain my excitement. Ouma (Granny), my MIL is visiting! That means the following:

• We are having a solid week of good solid sleep - she insists on sleeping with The Boys in the room so that we can have a good night's sleep.
• My kids are being entertained and loved to bits - she only see them once every 3 or 4 months, so she really makes up for time.
  
• She came bearing gifts for the kids.
• And even more important - bearing containers of date cookies, oats cookies, buttermilk rusks and muesli rusks.
• For a whole week I will arrive home to a home cooked meal, ready to eat. I can actually sit back and enjoy my kiddos.
• And the best of all, my freezer is being stocked with ready to cook home made meals.

I ask you, can a girl be that lucky! That really really makes my Monday! And to top it all, we really enjoy each other's company.

For some more bright Mondays visit Cheryl at Twinfatuation .

Happy Mothersday!

So it's that time of the year again - a day to honour the moms amongst us. Although this blog is all about me and being a mom, I want to dedicate this post to my moms. I will only focus on the positive toady - so hay, Happy Mothers day to all you moms out there.

My mom is a brave woman with heaps and heaps of love in her heart. She has Rheumatoid Arthritis (check the hands) but still manages to pick up The Boys for a cuddle. She always encourages me when times are tough and always rejoice with me when wonderful things happen in my life. She is a great granny and although she can not run around with the kids, she reads, plays and stimulates them continuously. She visits more than 3 times a week and I am very grateful that she fills a gap in the afternoons when I am at work, giving the Nanny the chance to do some work in the house.

My Mom -in -law

My mom-in-law is the least selfish person in the whole wide world - in fact, she's a borderline saint. She lives about 1100km( 680 miles) away in Port Elizabeth and I really wish I had her closer to me. She never criticizes, she never sticks her nose into our business, she always supports. She is still quite young so she runs around and physically plays with The Little Miss, as she will later with The Boys. She comes to visit for two weeks and in those two weeks she fills my freezer with meals for me to pop into the micro, she takes over the household and cooks every day and she tidies the kids' toys.

Happy mothers day! May your life be blessed with great moms and great kids.