Hockey 10 May 2007

The girls love hockey. These were taken at a match against Kenridge Primary on 10 May 2007.Michaela only started this year and has already played in two matches.

Dad and his toys!

We all know that Dad's love their toys...... This is the latest piece of machinery that Adrian has to amuse himself with, and has an added bonus : we get to make a living from it.

The rest of the family

These are are our first babies! We have had Columbus (Black & White), Enterprise (Ginger) and Loverboy (grey) since they were born in 1995.

Columbus and Adrian have a special relationship. They do "cat aerobics" - next time you visit ask them for a demo!


Sasha is the bold one of the two labs. She loves water and when we got the jungle gym she was determined that she wasn't going to miss out on the fun...

Stitch is more cautious... the blue shell is their swimming pool. If it's filled with water, Sasha will lie in it but Stitch will only put a paw in the water.

The latest chapter is hamsters. Bianca used her birthday money to get her hamster, Hamsty.

Not long after, we adopted Julie's hamster so now Michaela has her own hamster, Hammy!

Oh toothless one!

Loose teeth seem to bother Michaela! When her top front teeth started getting loose she made it her mission to get them out asap. Eventually the first one came out and the next day the second one followed suit. I have to be honest and tell you that the poor tooth mouse forgot about the second tooth! I felt terrible. Luckily we devised a plan and convinced her to look in her room because maybe the mouse had made a mistake - he wasn't use to coming to the same house two nights in a row. Michaela was a happy camper once again! But she was still on the loose tooth mission....She had two loose teeth at the bottom. So at aftercare she pulled both of them out : one fell in the drain and the other one got lost. She was going to sleep out at a friend so wasn't even interested in writing the mouse a letter.

So now we have our own chipmunk! 4 teeth in 1 week!

Ouskip - Easter weekend

We couldn't get place at the Berg River for the Easter weekend so decided to try Ouskip. This camp site is by Melkbosstrand on the West Coast. We'd never been there before so wasn't sure what to expect. Pam and I took the trailer and the kids - the men were going to come through later that evening. Well, when we got there the wind was howling and then lo and behold if I hadn't given the key to the locks on the trailer to Maree along with my house keys! This was not a good start to a long weekend! Eventually we managed to get a bolt cutter. Pam and I managed to get the tents up even though the wind was gushing. The campsite wasn't too wonderful. There was a lot of sand and you feel as if you've been put in a cage because there are so many squashed together. The drama didn't end there. When Anton eventually arrived; he was in the wrong car! Pam had pack all their stuff that we couldn't squeeze into the trailer. Anton was suppose to go home and switch cars! So Pam had to go back home to get the right car. Juliana decided not to come through because Julie had an asthma attack. We nearly blew away that night.

The site or wind didn't stop the kids - they had a ball. There was lots of space to ride the bicycles. There was a very nice park and a lovely huge pool. The pool was only open to the campers so it wasn't overcrowded. Juliana brought Julie through during the day but decided that she wasn't going to sleep there. So she drove in and out everyday. Thankfully it's only 30mins from home. We decided to stick it out because the kids were having so much fun. The wind eventually settled and then it wasn't too bad. It's not a place that I would recommend to anyone or that we would go to in a hurry again but it was an adventure non the less.

Berg River 9 - 11 March 2007

We're off to the Berg River Resort again. Pam and I went through early on the Friday morning because the campsite is first come first serve. We wanted to make sure that we got the same site as the previous time. So the two of us went through and pitched the tents. Pam then spent the rest of the day there and I returned to Cape Town to fetch the rest of the stuff including Adrian and the kids. Yes - all this stuff is just for a weekend. But then with camping I suppose it doesn't really matter if you're going for a weekend or a week. This time we took some tubes with us. A friend of Adrian's gave us four Land Rover tubes which are perfect. The kids were up and down the whole time.


We were four families. Miikha and Tiago are both in Grade 2 with Bianca. Tiago was the only boy amongst 7 girls - this didn't slow him down. Maree and Eve joined us for the day. The Millards also came through for the day and then Courtney stayed over.
Most people never pictured Adrian as the camping type. Well, thank goodness there's electricity on site :

So much sun and fun is just too much for some .....

Cousin Eve's birthday party

Maree (my aunt) arranged Eve (her granddaughter)'s 6th birthday party at the water slides in Muizenburg. It was on the 21st of March. The weather was perfect. The kids had a great time. They just carried on and on and on....Michaela looked like a character from the days of Asterix - with her swimming cap and plaits! She had perforated her eardrum so wasn't really suppose to swim. There was no chance that I couldn't let her swim so we put in ear plugs and made her wear her cap.
This is Carla. Her and Bianca have been friends since they were 1! Maree and Eve have slotted into my circle of friends which is great.

Camelot

A friend of Adrian let us use his villa for the weekend. The villa is in Constantia but we felt as if we had walked into a different universe. We stayed in the one wing but had access to the entire house. It was rather windy so the girls spent the entire weekend indoors. This wasn't a problem because they have this HUGE indoor pool. It was awesome.


The main bathroom had one of those jet baths. The girls thought it was Christmas! They would alternate between the indoor pool and the bath. We went home with two very waterlogged (but clean) kids.

Berg River 17 to 19 Feb 2007

This is the girls' first camping experience.
Our view was awesome. There was lots of grass and huge trees for shade. We went with the Schavemakers and the Albertyns. The girls were in their element. They could swim, ride their bicycles and they had their buddies around them all weekend. It's relaxing for us parents because we can see them all the time and they know the rule : Never go anywhere alone.

This man made pool in the river is right in front of our site. Next time we'll bring some tubes with for extra fun.
It's amazing how quickly children make friends.

There is a waterslide at the resort that adds to the fun...

2007 A new school year

Bianca started the school year off in crutches. She had climbed a tree to talk to the neighbours grandchildren and then fell off the wall and back into the tree. A thick twig pierced her leg - casualty here we come! Much crying, morphine and dormicum later the twig was eventually pulled freed. It was quite nasty. The dormicum is suppose to give them amnesia but I think that because she has heard us talking about the incident she still gets upset if we talk about it.

Michaela started Grade 1 so it's her first time in a school uniform. It's amazing how grown up they look when they are in their uniforms.

Bianca's 8th Birthday Party

Bianca decided that her party theme was going to be "Scary Monsters and Things". It was great fun preparing for the party. We wrapped up Pinky in loo roll to make our own mummy. The girls helped make all the ghosts. Bianca went as a "Skeleton Witch" and was very chuffed with the results. Michaela wanted to go as a "Vampire Princess". After I did her face; she took one look and took it all off before I could even get a photo. This was my attempt at making a Mike cake from Monsters Inc. The kids loved it! Michaela's touch was putting the candle in his eye!