A morning at granny's house

My mom lives ina  retirement village - right at the dead end of a quiet little "street" that serves 8 units.. The perfect place to ride your bike (and yes, no helmets, but no traffic there). We spent a delightful morning with her the Saturday of the long weekend. Her garden is always fantastic.

One stem of orchids - the hearts pink or white. Fascinating.

So whic picture is your favorite? I love the first one.

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Hey kitty kitty

Very very busy with work around here, but for your viewing pleasure my best image from our visit to the Pretoria Zoo on Friday.

As always, well worth the visit. Full post to follow.

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The evolution of a cot

My kids had the most beautiful cots (cribs if you want) that my FIL made for us - we got one when I was pregnant with the Princess and used it for a few months as a bench at the end of our bed (with no  sides) after she moved to her big girl bed. Unfortunately I took no pictures of it at the time. My FIL designed the sledge cots to be utilised for that or as a kiddies couch after their use as baby beds. When we found out that no 2 was actually no 2 and 3 he sent us a twin cot. I feel that they were a huge and beautiful gift made by their grandfather for them and that I can not sell or give them away and no one in the rest of the family wanted them for their new babies. So we decided to re use them as intended, for kiddies couches. But I have one of those ugly plastic kiddy tables in my living area....And then I saw this picture on Marcia's blog which provided just enough inspiration.

 Well, suffice to say that we did something with it that my FIL never thought about - and he loves the idea. Because it is a sledge cot and has the uprights and a bottom rail we had to adapt a bit and made an over sized top with slots to go over the sides and painted it in blackboard paint so that they could actually comfortably sit with their legs under the top. So in pictures, I present the evolution of our cots.

Our special double crib

Two separate cots later

The one that is still a kiddies couch

The brand new desk/cot  I use the plastic party tubs to put all the stationery in and a paper tray for the scrap office paper that we use to draw on (earth friendly and all that) and a sturdy shoe box, still to be decorated for stencils etc. I also have some colouring books close at hand in the one corner.

Joining in today with a very Wordful Wednesday and a Way back Wednesday

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Easter 2012

We did exactly what I said we would do in my last post.We went to church (and the kids did so well considering there was no family church), we saw family and friends (and socialized way more that we , thought we would), ate a whole lot of very tasty food and all the rest.

It started on Thursday night when Hunter grilled the most divine steak for the two of us.On Friday we went to church, had brunch with my mom , a bit of an afternoon rest and made paper mosaic crosses. Hunter's cousin and his family came over for our Catholic tradition of fish on Good Friday. He made snoek on the fire, with roosterkoeke and home made bread. It was a beautiful day. Just nice and relaxing.

Mr C's cross

On Saturday the Princess was invited to play at a friend and when I dropped her off for her play date we got invited for a braai the evening, which turned into our latest evening out with the kids ever (we left for home at about 1:30). It was great to make some new friends with the parents of her friends. I just loved the evening - relaxing and casual. During the day we treated the boys to ice cream at the Spur - it was great to spend a bit of time just me, Hunter and the boys. And we had a great nap. We should really spend more one on one time with each of the kids.

On Sunday we went to church and as Saturday was so busy and we never got around to make baskets, we quickly made some easy ones with old washing powder tubs and eater paper I printed out in the office during the week.

The bunny was hence delayed in his delivery (we notified him as such on Facebook on the Princess' request - according to her everybody is on Facebook including the Easter bunny) and he only came ofter nap time, but then the hunt was on. He was rather clever in hiding eggs.

The hunt was on! The Princess even found an egg shaped pebble (by chance)

 She divided the eggs and I was totally surprised when they each gave dad and egg out of their baskets and ate only one items before playing through the rest of the afternoon.

At 5 our friend S and the kids came (his wife I is on a tour of Europe with her mom) and Hunter made the most stunning venison burger patties - we had a very relaxing evening together and E slept over.

Monday morning saw belated Easter egg decorating with this cute set I bought at Woolworths for R22 - a total bargain - has colouring tablets, stickers and stencils with edible ink markers. It was huge fun and we all had an egg for breakfast.

 The rest of the day was spent playing and playing and when L decided to take a nap (he has a rather crappy cold) the others left to drop off E and have a swim (their pool is heated and still at a very nice 29 degrees C). So when he woke up the two of us baked Hayley's Brilliant Condensed Milk cookies with our Big Blue handmade cookie stamp! A winner recipe.(Here in my granny's Joko tea tin - an heirloom I love)

It was truly a great weekend. So how was yours? (Unless I have read it all on your blog)

A very Wordful Wednesday joining:

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Rainy days....

 Following a cloudburst on Sunday morning....

And where was Mr C? Searching for his misplaced rain boots. And then the rain started again...

The Princess' rainboots from Pick n Pay - the boys' from PEP stores

Playing along today with Angie

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The cutest little fur trees ever

 featured in the school's annual Christmas play on Friday night. Somehow I always feel that the year is over once this concert is done and dusted. Really, I was so proud of my little fur trees - participating and singing along. Mr C was quite the showman and Mr L surprised us. Still can not believe how far he has come this year.

And while we are on the topic of the weekend, it also had a party in store

 We also did some painting and potato stamping

And put up the Christmas tree - but that is another post all together.

Playing along today with Angie

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It's just so more real with every milestone

Every event - that our little Princess is growing up so fast. Just the other day (ok in January 2007) she went to school for the very first time. She was all of 2 years old and desperately needed the social interaction.

 Yesterday I watched my little girl all dressed up in her big school uniform. Excited and ready to go to grade 1. Not so sure if the mom is ready to go to grade 1 but I guess that is totally irrelevant.

They are allowed to wear their big school clothes to pre-school this week as part of making that going to grade 1 a bit easier. BTW - I was rather impresesed by the practicality of their uniform - a skort (short with skirt front) for playing and a golf shirt.

Playing along today with Angie

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City of Jacarandas

Last week a collegue and I did a little photo drive/walk up the one little hill to take in as much as we could of the Jacaranda filled city.

The University of Pretoria node

Panorama

Another Hatfield view

Herbert Baker street - the only one with white Jacarandas

The Brooklyn Node
Playing along today with Angie

Sometimes the city gets to us all

and then it's good to have a breather in one of our green city lungs. On Sunday afternoon we went for a walk around the dam (and a swim for the puppies) - some walked with joy, others lagged behind, but a break out of the ordinary to nature, how contained, is always good.

Playing along today with Angie
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