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Tonight my darling Husband decided to attempt banana loaf.  The very same recipe I always, always get wrong. Out of the 1973 Kook en Geniet.  And it came out beautifully, all light and fluffy.  He is trying very hard not to gloat and failing miserably. Fine by me, he does the cooking anyway 🙂 

Some pics:

Daniel’s hairwash night.  Can you tell how happy he was about that?

As the kids’ school always starts a day after everyone else I had them at home today, so my Mom and I took them off to Stodels as they have a really nice play area.  (please don’t tell too many people,we are trying to keep the riff-raff out)

Isabel on the slide:

The girls sharing a laugh, Daniel had run off with Granny.

Mignon posing for her turn, she’s very into posing now, too sweet 🙂

We had some issues with fevers, snots and a little fight with the Clicks Pharmacy at 17h45 last night, but I’m hoping everyone will be fine!

This is an overdue story, but worth telling now that we are through the worst.

We (read: I) decided that when we come back from Arniston we will bid the dummies farewell.  The girls only used dummies at bedtime, so in principle it should not have been that hard, right? Riiiight.

The trouble started in the car on the way home when the dummies got lost and I took it as my cue.  (to be honest, I was going to chicken out up to that point) There was some extended whining, but eventually everyone settled down to a mild panic.  When we got home we had a conversation about lost dummies and big girls and I hoped for the best.

Bedtime was well, let’s just say, a 2 glass (of wine) affair.

We did the usual bedtime routine right up to the actual sleep bit.  Then started the crying wailing for dummies that continued for well over an hour.  Much shushing and hugging ensued, but I eventually went in and out of sheer frustration offered gifts if they would just shut the fuck up. Ok, I didn’t say shut or fuck, but I thought it, really hard. Isabel bought into my plea-bargain of gifts and promptly passed out.  Her charming sister however continued her loud protestations for another hour and eventually just passed out cold.

Apparently they were awake a lot during that night, but I was so tired from 2 nights in a bed with Daniel I slept through all of it!

Fast forward to the next day and I bought them each a book. Isabel was very excited about her book, but when I asked Mignon whether she was happy with her gift now that she is a big girl with no dummy all I got was a grunted negative.

The second night went pretty much in the same vein, just subtract husband and add wine-plying friend that sang Barney songs and they eventually went to sleep.

Last night was almost perfect, they asked once and that was that.  So, stick with the 3 day rule, it’s the bomb.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

As part of this month of gratitude I wanted to end off with a bang and a really soppy and ethereal post about how fantastic my husband is, but I think I have pretty much covered how amazing and wonderful he is, so instead I will give you a glimpse into our wedding day as today we celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.

Our wedding was amazing.  It was everything I wanted and almost everyone we wanted to be there was there.  We kept it small, only 72 people and asked our (many!) single friends not to bring dates as we wanted to know every single person there.  We were lucky that most of our friends knew each other anyway.

It was an eclectic mix of people, there was SO much love and happiness and the drunkest person on the day was the DJ.  We left at 03h00 with the last guests and we had an absolute BALL!

It was held at La Couronne in Franschhoek (I see the name has changed to Montrochelle!) and the weather was crap, we went to scout spots for photographs the day before and found awesome outside spots, but had to move the whole thing indoors on the day.  Our photographer was Dawie Verwey and he used our pictures for his portfolio as ours was the first wedding he did.  My dress was a Paul van Zyl creation, back in the day when mere mortals could still afford it. The theme was daisies.

There are not too many serious pictures, it just wasn’t that kind of wedding.  But it was perfect for us. 

Love you babes, you still rock my world!

This is me bending over to show all the daisy petals (confetti) in my cleavage.

Us, close-up.

Just about the only serious one:

See, I said lots of horseplay!

My absolute favourite picture, taken very late that night.

Last of the pic shares:

The Big Walk to the beach, Mignon in front with her ‘shades’

I was feeling a bit abstract today, how cute are those feet?

And then, my absolute favourite.   My Mom jumped out at a shop on the way home and the girls were holding hands in the back.  I actually got a lump in my throat, thinking how wonderfully close they are.  I think I’ll frame this and put it in their room for if they ever start hating each other. (Initiated by Mignon, by the way.)

And whilst they were holding hands, their brother was fast asleep, clutching his sea-star to show his Daddy.

Tomorrow I will tell you the dummy story, stay tuned 🙂

We are finally going home tomorrow, I think the kids are missing their Dad!

How can you not love this face?  I couldn’t resist, he looks too sweet.  He shared a bed with me last night, but kept kicking me!

We took the kids down to the beach today as the sun peeked out this afternoon.  Check the winter outfits with the ice creams! (Mignon in the middle)

And from the back

I’ll do a proper blog post soon, promise 🙂

Arniston, where even the bus stop is posh:

Daniel in his outfit he chose himself.  Blue pants (wrong way around), yellow t-shirt, red jacket, slipper socks and crocs.  The slipper socks were my end.  But hey, his feet were warm..

Walking to the beach, the girls each with their personalised t-shirts 🙂

Trying to catch fish in the rock pools

Just a pretty rock pool

Puzzle mania

I was going to do a long whiney post about how my sister (who ended up coming for one night with the non-boyfriend) just pisses me off and relate every little thing I managed to pounce on that grated me, be it fair or not, but I am rather going to kick a door or have some more wine.  Moral high ground and all, you know.

My Mom and I have stayed behind with the kids for an extra day or so and plan to just take it easy. Well, as easy as you can with 3 little ones of course 🙂

May everyone have a fantastic week, catch up soon!

What a week!  

I’m just grateful it’s over and we made it to Arniston relatively unscathed.  We managed to dodge a massive pile-up on the N2 thanks to my friend Sue and headed over the back of Franschoek.  Why am I sharing this completely useless info? So I can share this pic with you:

I have never before been able to capture a rainbow, much less on a cell phone, through a car window.  The whole drive was magic through the back road and around tall grey mountains, a big dam, rain sifting down with the sun peeking through.  Absolutely beautiful.  I love driving and the ‘journey’ bit, whereas hubby just normally wants to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible.  I enjoy the meander, the colours, buildings and people along the way.

We gave the kids each a Jolly Jammer biscuit when they got restless in the car and it is fascinating to watch their approach to eating a cookie:  Daniel, being a boy, simply stuck the whole thing in his mouth. Chomp chomp, all gone and he starts looking at his sisters to see if he can nick theirs. (his turn to sit in the middle today).  Isabel ate hers like a normal person.  Bite, chew swallow.  Mignon separated the 2 cookies, licked off the icing and then sat there, holding on the cookies whilst her brother was foaming at the mouth.  And a little car-scuffle ensued which Dad had to resolve.

But, we are here, the silence is amazing, the kids are asleep and I have had enough Rose to ensure I sleep very well tonight for a change.

I bid you farewell, I hope you have a fantastic long weekend, I’ll try to pop in and share some pics, but I have some serious catching up to do with hugs and kisses.  

Another sarcy one for the fans:

1.  I am always amazed at my children’s ability to just smell whenever I am in a rush in the mornings.  It feels like they do everything super slow and are even more particular about wardrobe/toothpaste/porridge/fruit choices than usual.  No wonder my dentist says I’m hard on my teeth, it’s because I grind them in the morning.  I’m just grateful I managed to get to my appointment with my old friend, well worth the early morning teeth-grinding!

2.  Another fun-filled afternoon of shopping.  I needed to print out 4 photos for my in-laws (don’t ask, they are going to visit family and scoffed at the idea of pics on a cd.) and buy 3 things at Pick and Pay.  It all went well until I almost lost a child in one of those big revolving doors.  It was another foot-dragging wanderer. (Mignon).  Followed by some more grinding of teeth.  I’m just grateful we made it to the car.

3.  Ah hell, I’m just bloody grateful they went to bed tonight.  My In-laws were here for supper before they leave tomorrow and my alcohol consumption was direct correlation to the kids’ behaviour.  (Read: I had A LOT of wine.)  Half-way through supper I had an out-of-body experience and for just a moment saw what they probably saw, because I’m so used to the chaos of it all.  This one doesn’t want meat (Isabel), another is mortally offended by a stray mushroom found on a plate (Mignon) and yet another took one look and promptly left the table.  He was coaxed bribed threatened back, but almost tripped on his lip dragging on the floor.  I love them ‘stukkend’, but I love them most that last 5 minutes of the day when I can kiss them goodnight.

We are hopefully going away and (I’m really, really, very grateful about this) managed to dodge my sister and her non-boyfriend coming along.  Yes, that’s a story for another post. Or not.  I suspect my parents are reading my blog, but they know how I feel about this. 

What are your plans for the long-weekend? 

Phew.  So much to say, so hard not to bore anyone 🙂

Bad news first:

I didn’t make it through to the Final 2 of the Blog Awards.

The good news:

The amazing support I have had from people near and far (very far!) and the love that has poured into my mailbox.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  That is better than any award. (ok, mostly) Thank you for stopping by and reading about our crazy little family!

I am now the (not so) proud owner of the lurgies the kids have, so I have cotton wool where my last brain cell was.  I really should just be put out my misery. 

My new friend, Insomnia, also visited last night, and just when I dozed off at about 02h00, Mignon came into the room: “piepie Mamma!”  She was fast asleep, so I took off her night nappy, she did her thing, put another nappy on and off we went back to bed.  Where I probably was awake for another hour.  So today I was literally sick and tired, but am off to have an early night.  I mean really, what is up with this Insomnia crap?? (It doesn’t help that I was up ’till all hours worrying about school fees, but that’s a whole other blog post)

I popped in at my Mom’s over the weekend and the 3 kids all ended up in her bed, watching Jungle Book (I left, M right):

And here are the girls, feeding each other cookies last night, terribly cute! (M left, I right)

May everyone have a fantastic short week!

Another fun filled day in suburbia with not a stitch of work done.

This morning Isabel crawled into bed with us at around 5h30 and her chest was so bad we got a huge shock.  So, we do what every couple does at 5h30 in the morning with a sick child: fight over which doctor to take her to.  I won.  (I usually do).  Mignon wasn’t far behind, so I carted them off to our friendly Paed with the usual fanfare i.e. shouting, giggling, unpacking everything in sight, peeing and pooing in practice toilets.  Amazing the recovery they make the minute we step into a doctor’s rooms, but it was Friday today and I was just NOT taking that chance.

The good news (very grateful!): no antibiotics or any sucky steroid/cortisone thingies, let’s keep our fingers crossed!

I’m really looking forward to the weekend, a whole lot of special gals and children are popping in tomorrow.  Chaos looms, but I can’t wait, the more the merrier! I am really grateful that we are due for a sunny day tomorrow and that there is lots of space to run around. (note to self: get hubby to pick up dog poo)  I’m toying with the idea of baking a cake, but will probably screw it up as I usually do and I can’t ask my Mom as she helped out with the girls today.  My ability to NOT be able to bake is legendary.

Incidentally, the other thing about me that is legendary is how undomesticated I am.  I once lied my way into a restaurant job on Santorini, but I think they realised that they had made a mistake when I had no idea how to wield a mop and work the bucket thingamajig.  Needless to say, I lasted about 3 days.  Worst 3 days of my life.  The food was really bad.

Lastly, I was also honoured to take care of a 7 day old baby today whilst my friend had an errand to run (read: watch her breathe).  She had natural birth and it all happened really suddenly, so there were no painkillers.  What-so-ever.  I am (in equal amounts) completely horrified and absolutely awestruck that she did it.  She rocks.  There should be a very large diamond winking in her very near future..

May everyone have a fantastic weekend, catch up soon!