So who wants to win?

It's been almost 7 years since the two of us had a hotel holiday  - BC (before children) and although I at first thought not to compete in this, another night of broken sleep changed my mind! I could do with a weekend with my prince, alone and spoiled and although just in the neighboring city, I am sure we will find a lot to do. And going to Montecasino would be great - we spent our first wedding anniversary there and in our 10th anniversary year it would be great to win.So here goes - count me in - and you still have a few hours to enter!

Southern Sun have decided to give away a weekend of luxury.
They have just opened a new hotel Southern Sun Montecasino and have decided to give away a weekend stay to a lucky blogger. 
What you need to do is the following.
1.    Blog about the Southern Sun Montecasino opening
2. In the blog post mention that this competition is open to all bloggers
3. Answer the 6 easy questions
4. Send the blog post link to sheenag@aquaonline.com to tally all entries
5·   Questions are as follows: (which I guess you email with your entry?)

1. What is the opening rate special?
2. Where has the latest Southern Sun opened? (they opened on 24^th April)
3. Who is the General Manager of the hotel?
4. How many rooms are there in the new hotel?
5. When is their room service available? [How many hours a day?]
6. Which item would you most like to order off the Punchinello’s menu?

*Hint: visit the website and download the fact sheet for more info.

On Friday 14^th May, one blogger will be chosen to win a weekend stay at Southern Sun Montecasino for 2 adults sharing, bed and breakfast and dinner to the value of R200 each.
Terms & Conditions:
Subject to availability, not applicable during 2010 World Cup
Children under 18 sharing parents’ room stay and eat breakfast free
Valid for 6 months from date of issue
Winners need to make their own travel arrangements to the hotel.

Giggles.

As always on a Wednesday, being wordful with Angie.

On Saturday afternoon our big buddies came over for a braai and to watch Super 14 rugby. The 3 girls pitched up wearing the hand painted dresses we bought down on the South Coast as pinafores and our princess also changed to match. Then we attempted to get a picture of 4 over tired and giggling girl between almost 1 and 6. It was fun! Not a single perfect picture but the spontaneity is almost contagious.

Two for Two-sday - school friends

On Saturday The Lil Miss' school had their sports day. I am not quite sure who had the most fun - the teachers, the kids or the parents. On second thoughts, maybe the parents. I will show you some pictures at a later stage. While at the school, she and A played together and instantly we invited her over to come and play - the Lil Miss was at her house about 3 weeks ago.

They had a lot of fun - apart from just playing, the also did a little craft with my help - we made egg carton caterpillars - and they came out so cute. (They are apparently 2 girl worms - hence they have glitter and butterflies on them). So cute how differently they approached the painting - my princess, ever adventurous, mixed the colours and made her own. Miss A painted every segment a different colour.

Being a mom

Nothing in the world can prepare you for motherhood
No matter how many puppies you mothered before,
how many kids you were babysitter to
how many books you read in all those months waiting for the bundle to make it's appearance.

Nothing can prepare you for the absolute sleep deprivation
for the doubt you have in your own decisions
for the fear of something happening to your child
and for those endless nights with a feverish kid.

Nothing can prepare you for those 2 year old tantrums
for those hurtful words - "I hate you"
for the total disregard to mommy's time and things
for the emotional toll of keeping it all together.

Nothing can prepare you for the love you feel for them
for the complete and utter devotion you give to them
for the sacrifice of time and money
for the rich returns when they say: " I love you mommy"

I hope you all had a blessed Mothers day and were spoiled by your families - I certainly was .We spent the day with my mom and our friend Mariki who, due to an accident somewhere on the highway, could not make it in time to her own son and his family. I got the two pairs of stunning PJ's = just what I asked for - the one set features Tinkerbell - no guesses who chose that one. I love it!




Having a great Mothers day certainly makes my Monday.


Playing along with Cheryl.

Beautiful pictures by Jeaneete Verseter Photography

Friday - 7 May 2010

Hosted by Cecily

Hosted by Chris

120/365:
  30 April 2010:

Our nanny Lucy is learning to read and write English, at 45. It is tough as this is her 4th language (others being Tshwana, Zulu and Afrikaans). With 11 official languages this is quite a task. And the silly hat - she loves them - makes them herself and also sells them. As you can see little man C is also busy learning to read and write English ;-)
121/365:
  1 May 2010:

At the party. Although it looks as if she is looking right at me, I was behind a jungle gym. Playing pirates with the boys - she was fierce and ferocious, as a pirate girl should be.
122/365:
  2 May 2010:

Beautiful gerberas from my charming hubby and the princess bought at the farmers market.
123/365:
  3 May 2010:

They went to sleep on Monday night with their new wooden tractors made by a gentleman at my mom's retirement village, and the usual blanky bunnies.
124/365:
  4 May 2010:

She made this little trinket box for me at the pottery for a Mothersday gift. She could not wait until Sunday to give it. They make the cutest things there.
125/365:
  5 May 2010:

Indigenous Strilitzia flower in the office garden (also know as the "crane" flowers - named to our national bird, the blue crane.
126/365:
  6 May 2010:

 The lemons in our driveway are ripe and ready to be enjoyed. They are very richly coloured this year, almost orangy. Not sure if it is due to the unseasonal huge amounts of rain.

Keeping the balls in the air - or not?

We all have our frustrations in life - mine, mainly , is keeping all the balls in the air. And having no play, no margin for error in my day to day life.

Tuesday was one of those - where you drop the balls. It is not going well at work - I am completely swamped - and I am frustrated. I have worked two nights this week at home, and still I am not even seeing the light. Remotely. The boys are also once again into a phase where they are not sleeping as well as they should be by now. This all adds up.But I digress - the real issue is schedule and how tight I have to keep it every. single .day.

So this is my daily schedule:
5:00 - 6:15 Wake up when random child gets into bed with us with random toy that they slept with - be it a rugby ball, dinosaur or fluffy dog.
Get up and go downstairs the moment no 2 wakes up. Feed random children their morning milk and dry serial to keep them busy. Switch on Mnet with Barney and High 5. Oh I love High 5
Make coffee.
6:30 (latest) Wake up Hunter if he is not awake yet. Pop in the shower, dress.
Rush downstairs - make the Lil Miss' little lunch (snacks) for the day.
Feed breakfast to random children in need of.
Rush back upstairs to do hair, make up etc.
Rush back downstairs to remind the Lil Miss to dress.
Rush back up.
Greet hubby on his way to work.
Drag small boy downstairs.
Put in DVD when 7 o' clock comes and the sport appears.
Feed dogs if Hunter did not.
Brush the Lil Miss' hair and get her to brush her teeth.
7:30 Lucy reports for duty - discuss items, greet boys and get girl child into car.
7:15 Drop her off at school.
7:55 (if I am lucky) - arrive at work.
The usual mess of work happens.
1:00 - 2:00 Lunch time - gym, if I am luckly, shopping for dinner, home essentials. Catch up on work. Read blogs.
2:00 - 4:30 Work.
4:30 - shut down  and try to get out of the office asap through all the interruptions, questions etc. (I am taking liberties every day to get home soon enough so I have to deal with these.)
4:50 - Pick up girl child at school.
5:00 - Arrive home, Lucy leaves immediately after reporting on eating, sleeping etc.
If I have been a clever girl, I left out instructions and ingredients, Lucy would have dinner ready. Play with kids - relax a bit.
If not - I have to cook dinner. DVD for kids, the princess might "help" and make dinner.
6:00 Dinner.
6:30 Bath time. Hunter usually gets home during this
7:00 - 7:30 Bed time.
We have dinner - work, tv whatever.
The part that gets to me is the fact that I have no play for error. I can not stop after work to pick up milk or bread, because I do not have the time. Hunter had to step in with this. I will be late for the school or for Lucy's time to leave. It is a frustration.

On Tuesday afternoon this all went terribly wrong. The nearest off ramp at our home was closed due to an accident - I heard this on the traffic report and headed home 15 minutes earlier. My word - what chaos. Took me almost and hour to get to the school to pick up the princess - Hunter had to phone the school to make an arrangement. I had to phone Lucy to tell her I will be late and guess what she asks " What time will you be home?" My goodness - if I knew I would not be in this mess. My answer was simply, I do not know. She was not happy when I got home, but on returning home, she understood - she landed in the same mess to school. Then the boys were upset and tired and bath time and bedtime was chaos. I put them to bed and they refuse to stay there. They keep interrupting the princess' five minutes alone and story time with me. Hunter was working late and I snapped - I yelled at the boys when they did not want to go to sleep. I lost it. I shouted. They cried and cried. I felt like a horrible horrible mom. Then a little girl puts her arms around me and says: " Mommy, I know the brothers have been very naughty but they are so tired and they are really crying a lot" and I felt even worse. So I left her in her bed and sat down between the boys' beds and talked to them. I told them how much I loved them, how much I want them to sleep and be happy. They stopped crying. Then I cuddled each one of them and placed them back in bed. When I got the the princess' room she was fast asleep, without her cuddle and her story. So I went to lay down next to her and gave her a cuddle and in her sleep she put her arms around me and snuggled close. I felt better - a lot better. I guess the lesson is that love gets you further than anger. And guess what - for the first time in a week everybody slept through.

Big chef, little chef.

As always on a Wednesday, being wordful with Angie.

The Lil Miss has identical twins in her class and on Saturday, in the crappiest weather imaginable in our part of the world, they had their 6th birthday party. The mom owns a restaurant, so she got clever. They had a big chef, little chef party and made their own pizzas followed by their own cookies. They really had so much fun.

 

Second Tuesday Blogparty.

2nd Annual Tuesday Blog Party

From now until May 8th, I am holding this give-away to help benefit Whatchagonnado.org, which is an organization that was founded by Charley & Jessica Whitt to honor their daughter Tuesday.
Although their site is not completely up and running yet, the idea they have is. (it will be up by mid-May)
Whatchagonnado.org is being set up to benefit families that are dealing directly with pediatric cancer. It will help to fund their medical costs, food & travel, and even funeral arrangements, if needed :(

And, of course, it will also help to provide funds for Pediatric Cancer Research.

Charley & Jess know all too well what it is to live with pediatric cancer....
Tuesday was their beautiful twin daughter who bravely fought and sadly lost her 8 month battle with stage 4 neuroblastoma in January of 2009. They learned firsthand what cancer does to a family and they want to turn their pain & their loss into something to help others.

I, along with all of Jess & Charley's friends, want to do anything we can to help them achieve their goal and make sure that the loss of Tuesday is never forgotten and always has purpose.
For me, on the the side of the world it is difficult to offer something that works in dollars or have to be posted with our corrupt less than great postal service. So, up for auction is the original high quality image of my crosses and signed by me as shown here:

I will place it on a FTP server for the winning bidder to download with which you can do as you want to - as long as you recognize me as the author. I have had it printed on canvas and mounted and it came out great.

All you have to do to enter to win this auction is simply leave me a comment letting me know you are interested in winning and then, be sure to donate $1 to the Tuesday Fiona Whitt Foundation, which benefits Whatchagonnado.org.

Also, head on over to the Tuesday Blog Party to see what other fantastic items are being auctioned off by clicking the image below.

There are lots of great auctions going on and all it costs is one dollar to enter each one. (unless otherwise specified)
This is a Blog Hop! 36 entries so far... you're next!

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If you would like to make one donation, instead of many individual donations, please feel free to donate however is easiest for you.
If you end up donating $10, but only find 5 auctions you are interested in, you can use those additional dollars as additional entries :)
Thank you so much for supporting a great cause and remember to have fun!
Good luck!

Super Troupers

Sometimes life throws you a curve ball, just so that you can have something infinitely better as a reward. This is exactly what happened on Friday night. When our community braai was canceled due to the wet weather on Thursday night, we had a baby sitter lined up, and no where to go. We looked at the movies, and really, nothing was calling our names. So on Friday morning Hunter suggested we look at what is showing at our local Barnyard theater - and I managed to get us two seats..

For someone growing up in the 70's and 80's Super Toopers(seriously giving away my elderly state here), was a trip down a very joyous memory lane. The music was of course fantastic, the costumes spectacular and the performance of the high level you expect at the Barnyard. It was an unexpected highlight of an evening. If I need to single out one single showstopper it would without a doubt be the hard rock Deep purple inspired version of Mama Mia. We had a great night out. The only thing I was wondering about was if our families' biggest little ABBA fan (yeah, the princess knows the words to every single song) would have enjoyed it too.

And what better to make your Monday?

Playing along with Cheryl.

There's a rat in my kitchen..

But a very cute one with blond hair and blue eyes.

Does anybody else now have a UB40 tune stuck in their heads?

Participating at: