Happy 2010

Today is such a fitting end to 2009. It's snowing! It's like God has put a pure, white blanket on his creation thus ending all that happened in 2009. It's time to put 2009 to bed forever, yet still being able to learn from the joys, heartache, accomplishments and trials that we've all experienced this past year. I am so looking forward to a fresh start in 2010. It's going to be a year of change for our family, so I plan to embrace it and make the most out of all the changes and in doing so hope to ease the transition for our boys into their new life down south.
This morning amidst the chaos of a household of three (actually four!) boys, the sound of tv games, phone calls and nerf guns I managed to jot down a few things that I would like to accomplish this coming year. I plan to take the next week to pray about those things and make sure that I've included not only all I'd like to do, but also all that God is requiring of me to do this year, so in about a week's time I'll share with you my aims and goals for this year, so stay posted!
I read an article yesterday that got me thinking ... "it's not only what we change, but why we change." I hope this gets you thinking too about what kind of goals you set for yourself and your family this coming year.

Tree

Here is a much better photo of our tree without the lights on. All red and white this year!

Oh Christmas Tree

Well we stuck to our tradition and bought and decorated our Christmas tree yesterday. It was quite a feet, seeing it poured with rain the entire day! Bringing in a wet Christmas tree was no fun and it made a nasty mess, but we overlooked it and had great fun together decorating the tree. This year I decided to go with a red and white theme and I must say the tree looks stunning. Only our red and white ornaments made it onto the tree, the others will have to wait for another year! With the tree entering our home the level of Christmas excitement definitely rose a level with the boys. It's so special to see them getting excited about Christmas. Today we plan on attending our Church's Christmas play in the afternoon and that will round up our tradition of the first weekend in December! I hope you've all put up your trees already, or if not are close to doing it. Enjoy.

December 2009

As we head into December and the Christmas season my aim for our family this year is to slow down. Easier said than done I know. With the kids being at school until 23 December (and I have 3 boys in 3 different schools this year) it gets crazy just with the school activities alone. I'm hoping to be super organized at home and on top of schedules and commitments that we don't over commit to things, but make time to just be together and do the fun things like baking cookies etc. Our family tradition is to put up the Christmas tree on the first weekend in December. This is always such fun as we go out together to hunt for the perfect tree for our home. Most importantly I want my boys to remember the true meaning of Christmas and the importance of Jesus' birth.

90 Years Young

Well my gran turned 90 this weekend. I think she's in incredible shape for a 90 year old woman. All her 5 children and some of my cousins all went to Durban to celebrate with her for the weekend. It sounded like it was going to be such fun, just only wish I could of made it as well. I'm still waiting to get the rundown on the weekend from everyone! Well I looked up on the internet to see what the headlines were in 1919 and here are some of them:

• League of Nations founded

• Treaty of Versailles signed, officially ending World War One.
  

• Afghanistan becomes fully independent from UK.

• Lady Astor becomes the first woman to take her seat in the British Parliament.

• The Nazi party forms in Germany.

My gran has seen so many inventions in her lifetime, I wonder if she could list them all! I wonder what invention has impacted her life the most? 4 of her 5 children still live in South Africa and one of her daughters lives in Denmark. Her grandkids are now scattered all over the world including SA, Australia, UK, Switzerland, UAE, Denmark and America. How small the world has now become.
Happy 90th Birthday Gran!

Fall

Well the temperature has dropped and the leaves have changed color and begun to fall. This is by far my most favorite season. The boys are by now entrenched in their school and sport schedules, Mike has begun a new financial year at work and somehow I am still trying to catch up with everyone! Somehow a new season spurs in me the need to re-organize and start something new. So far our basement floor has been redone so now I've been able to move the kids toys back downstairs and set up a storage room. I'm planning on moving the attic storage downstairs, but only once I've completely gone through it, re-organized it and decided we definitely need it! With Thanksgiving fast approaching it's a reminder for us to take the time to reflect on what we're most thankful for and realize how much we really do have (material and not).
Well the kids have now awoken and some are begging for breakfast and the other is begging for the laptop I'm on, so I guess my day has begun!

Fast Forward

Well it's been a while since I updated my blog, so it's time for a quick catch-up. Chris has started middle school and seems to be really enjoying it. He really likes the fact that he has so many different teachers and gets to move around to their different classes. Figuring the locker out in the beginning was a challenge, but it all seems fine now. James is in grade 1 and loving school. He is now starting to read and can't get enough of it. Cameron is now in Pre-K and going to school 5 mornings a week, three of them till 2pm, so at long last I actually have some time to myself. Since school has started everyone has been sick. All the boys have missed at least one day of school already and this week it's been my turn! So far having the week to myself has been chaotic. My list of things I've been longing to do is still there, untouched. I am dying to put together a scrapbook about our summer vacation and have everything I need to do it, now I have to find the time - maybe tomorrow morning! One day at a time, so hopefully sometime in the next few months I will eventually get around to everything on my list.

We've had a scare already. One morning we had a stranger trying to coax a boy at Chris' bus stop into his car. The bus stop is right outside our house too. Needless to say we called the police and Chris and his friend made statements. Very unnerving.

Football season is in full swing and both Chris and James are playing this season. They really love it and it's been fun watching their games and practices. It has already started to cool down quite considerably now so I think it's time for me to now pack away the shorts and swimsuits. We have already cleared out the garage and made space for a wood delivery for the winter.

Well that's a quick fast forward to today, so from here on out I can hopefully keep my blog updated. I am still without my pc - waiting for it to be fixed, but still aiming to stay updated!

Summer Vacation

This summer we had our vacation in the Outer Banks on the coast of North Carolina. We spent a week on the beach and then we headed up to Williamsburg, Virginia. We spent an afternoon at Colonial Williamsburg and the next day we spent the day at Bush Gardens, a theme park. We had such fun! Luckily the park was pretty empty so we got to go on all the rides and there were no lines at all. The kids loved it. The following day we drove up to Leesburg, Virginia where we spent the day and night with South African friends of ours. We had the most amazing vacation and created wonderful family memories. The photo above is of the beach at the Outer Banks.

New Shoes

Well Chris is very fashion conscious and knows exactly what he does and doesn't want to wear. He has been begging us to get him these basketball shoes for months now, but they start around $150, so with a growing foot the answer has always been no. Yesterday we ended up at the outlets and he could not believe his luck when he found these shoes. It was the only pair his size in the whole store and they happened to be on the sale rack too!! I did a silent jump for joy as well!! I ended up paying less than half price for them so we were both very happy. Then of course James and Cameron wanted sneakers too, so I was fortunate enough to find them a pair of saucony sneakers for $20 each on sale. I also ended up with something - a really cool summer hat for our vacation (of course it was less 50%). My kind of shopping.

James the Artist

James absolutely loves to paint so Mike bought him an easel, some paints and two canvases. He took his time deciding what to paint, but eventually settled on flowers. I think he did an amazing job!

Finished Cupboard

Well I eventually finished my cupboard this weekend. After painting it I had to apply two coats of the crackle base, then the crackle and followed by the antiquing stain. Because the cupboard was white it was very hard to see the crackles start when I applied that medium, so I only got to see them once I put the antique stain on. I love the outcome. It's imperfect and it looks like an old farm house cupboard - just the look I was going for. I will definitely try this again, but maybe with a different color base paint. Not it's time for me to tackle my dining room table!

Weekend Tubing

Well Chris has had quite the weekend! Friday night he had football practice and again at 8am on Sat. Straight from football him and Mike met one of his friends at the yatch club and they went tubing out in the bay for the day. After tubing Mike came home sunburnt and exhausted. Chris stayed on as they were having a huge BBQ and fair at the yacht club. He then went back to his friends home where he was going to spend the night. I later went over and dropped off some clothes for him (and of course the hairbrush and toothbrush!) and then brought back the friends youngest brother to have a playdate with James. It was now 5:30pm. 7:30pm we were called and invited to come over when we dropped the friend off and stay for roasted marshmallows (outside over the fire pit). We had a great evening and ended up staying until 11pm. Needless to say today we just hung out at home and recovered!

Strawberries and Cream

Check James out!! He has a total weakness for cream and for dessert here he loaded up on some strawberries with a plate full of cream. He was in heaven!

Water Wings

Cameron is a total water baby. He absolutely loves to swim. This past weekend we spent the day in Montauk at our friends hotel and Cameron hardly ever got out of the pool. That morning I bought him some water wings (armbands) and he totally got the hang of swimming all by himself. When we go down to the Outer Banks the home we're staying in has a pool and I'm really hoping that by the end of that week both him and James will be able to swim.

Grade 5 Graduation

This is a late post as I only downloaded these pics this week off Mike's camera. The last day of school was graduation day for Grade 5 at Chris' school. As of September they all move on to the middle school (Grade 6-8). This photo is of Chris' teacher giving him his diploma.

Disney Albumn

Well I at least got started on my Disney albumn this week. I only managed to do a few pages, but at least it's a start. In doing the albumn I realized that I needed more scrapbook paper as well as more photo's. We took hundreds of photo's at Disney, but I didn't print them all, so now I need to go back and choose some more pics to print. The scrapbook camp was great and everyone who came really seemed to enjoy it too. So many people have asked me to do it again, so I think maybe sometime in September I'll try and do it again. This time instead of doing it every evening all week I'm going to aim for just a full day. Will keep you posted! These are pics of some of the Disney pages I did.

Lekker Lekkers!

Our friend, Jaco, came to stay with us this weekend from CT, South Africa. He always treats the boys with candy from SA whenever he comes over and this time I think he cleared out the Pick 'n Pay shelves in Durbanville! He stocked up on all the candy we can't get here. Fizz pops, Fizzers, Sparkles, Jelly tots, Liquorice allsorts, Smarties and of course some SA chocolates - the best!
Some of the candy is hidden (out of sight, out of mind) as Cameron will finish it all in no time flat - obviously mom would help him too! The boys all have their own stash, there's a stash in the fridge too and then of course the candy jar! Rossouw family, thank you so much for all the lekkers. We had a wonderful time catching up with Jaco too.

And the winner is ...

CHRIS!! Chris attended basketball camp this past week in the evenings at our church. He had a wonderful time. The boys had to memorize scripture during the week as well and their names were put into a hat and every night kids got to win various prizes. It was certainly Chris' week! On Tuesday night he won a Nets basketball jersey and then on Thursday night he won the grand prize. He won 4 tickets to the Mets game scheduled for 31 July. The Mets will be playing the Arizona Diamond Backs and they are really good seats too. Parking was included too, so the guys are so happy they won't have to walk too far to get to the stadium! Chris, one of his friends, Mike and James will be going to the game. Cameron and I will be attending our church's VBS fair that night. This was the first time that Chris has won something, he was so excited!

Alphabet

I friend of mine just had a baby girl so as her baby gift I decided to make her something. I made this pink 3-D alphabet canvas using my scrapbooking supplies. I had such fun making it, I hope she and her new baby daughter, Kaylah, enjoy it too.

Cupboard Update

On the weekend I got Mike to help me move my cupboard inside and into the diningroom. I have since given it three coats of paint and it's looking really good now. Now I just need the time to put the distressing paint onto it - hopefully this weekend I'll be able to do it!

Baxter

I eventually managed to get around to having Baxter neuted yesterday. Today I've had to put the collar on him as he started licking his wound. He's not happy about that collar at all, he keeps trying to get it off! Last night he was really uncomfortable, but today he's been running around and seems a lot better. The vet says about a week till all is back to normal with him.

Scrapbook Camp - Journal Class

Last night I taught a journal making class. We had such fun! Jen and Sue came over and I must say for their first journal's, they did an amazing job. Here are the journal's that they made.
On Monday evening I got started on my long awaited Disney World albumn. I managed to do about 5 pages, so I'm off to a really good start. This evening I have more friends coming over to scrapbook and hopefully I'll get a bit further with it. Will post some pics of my scrapbook as the week goes on.

A Boer Maak 'n Plan

Well the boys in our home absolutely love biltong! We usually order some as a special treat from a South African store in North Carolina. We last did this in December and the boys have been begging Mike to order some more, so on Friday he ordered a pound of biltong and a pound of droerwors over the internet. Shocked at having to pay $50 for his small order, he set out to make his own biltong maker!! On Friday afternoon we went off to Target and the hardware store and he gathered his supplies. He put together his own biltong box for less than $10. Yesterday he did whatever it is you do to the meat and then hung it up. It currently lives in the garage, however because the window on the garage is broken we have to bring it inside at night due to the raccoons - they'd have a feast on it. Our biltong will be ready on Wednesday, now we just need a good rugby game to watch and we're all set!! Will let you know how it tastes.

Mom's Off To Camp!!

Well, I decided that instead of the kids having all the fun this summer and getting to attend camps, I was going to go to a camp myself!! What better one to choose, than scrapbooking. I have organized my own scrapbook camp for this week - for mom's only. I have transformed my diningroom into a scrap room for 6 scrapers. I have taken out all my scrapbook mags and books and put them in the livingroom for inspiration for any campers to enjoy. The camp runs every evening (and Tuesday evening I'll be giving a journal making class) as well as three day sessions where I have babysitters coming in to look after the kids so us mom's can get 2 hours of work in. All my scrapbook friends can't wait to come and everyone has signed up for different session. This week I am planning on putting together our Disney Vacation Scrapbook as well as catching up on the boys school scrapbooks. I'm looking forward to a great week spent doing what I love with some of my best friends. Check back later in the week and I'll post some pictures of the pages I've managed to complete.

Project Day

Well today I tackled the closet I found. I finished sanding it down and then gave it the first coat of primer. Tomorrow I plan on doing the second coat of primer. This will allow the paint to adhere to it really well and it'll also prevent the wood color from coming through. I'm hoping to have it painted by the weekend. After it's painted I'm planning on doing an antique glaze on it to give it an aged affect. I hope it turns out like I've imagined. Will keep updating my blog with the photo's as I go along.

Hello??

This is too cute. Cameron on the beach in Connecticut digging to who knows where!!

Madison Parade - 4th of July 09

Here are a few more photo's from the 4th of July parade in Madison, Connecticut.

4th of July '09

We spent Independence Day with some friends in Madison, Connecticut. We attended their town parade with them in the morning and then had a BBQ at their home. After that we went down to the beach and saw a bit of their beautiful town. They live on the river, so Chris and their older son had great fun going up and down the river in a small boat. The parade was beautiful and it's always such a pleasure to see how much pride Americans have in their country and how they so appreciate all their armed forces. Madison is a small country town and it was so refreshing and relaxing being in that environment. We picked up a few fireworks as well and lit them when we got home. On our drive back that night we were able to see some of the spectacular fireworks from the Macy's firework display in NY. We had a wonderful family day and it felt like we spent it in true American style.

Swans at Sea

As mentioned in my previous post we had some swans swim past us on the ocean just before we left - and they had cygnets. They were absolutely beautiful.

Sunny Weekend

Thank goodness the rain stopped for two days so we could have a wonderful sunny weekend. On Sat Chris had a Lacrosse tournament which was great to watch. He played really well. Today we had to quickly run to the stores to find a life jacket to fit Chris as he'd outgrown the one he had. We then headed down to the beach to test out our kayaks. It was so much fun, and all the boys loved it. We weren't sure if James and Cameron would take to them, but we couldn't get them off in the end. Mike took James with him and Chris took Cameron and off they went. I got to sit on the beach under the umbrellas and read my magazine. I actually got to read quite a few articles. We were there for three hours and now we're hooked! Just before we left a pair of swans and their babies came swimming past. Swans in the ocean, it's quite a site, but I have the photo's to prove it! Now my kids have 10 weeks off for the summer vacation. Oh, what to do!!!

Summer Project

Well, this summer I have given myself a project to do - actually two! My neighbours put out this piece of furniture a few weeks ago and I snatched it up as I could totally see the potential in it, plus I needed the storage for my office things. Much to Mike's dismay, I got him to help me carry it from the road and into our garage. This past weekend I got started on it. I am going to give it a light sand and then paint it a creamy color and then put a varnish on it. This will give it an older, little bit more rustic look. From the picture you can see I have already sanded the top half of the cabinet, so hopefully this weekend I can finish the sanding part altogether. I'll post another picture once I've completed it. (Hopefully Mike will then allow it back in the house!!) My other summer project is to finish my dining room table. I have decided to sand the whole table down and then paint the legs and stain the top, after I have distressed it a bit. Distressing is a wonderful tool when you have young children, it hides all those imperfections and makes those scratches and dings part of the look. Keep checking back to see the finished cupboard!

Kindergarten Recital

James had his kindergarten recital this past week. I was surprised, he actually sang and did the actions. Usually he is really shy. For quite a while he couldn't find me in the audience, but I noticed that once he actually spotted me, he became more aware of himself and seemed more reserved. His class sang some songs and the children had turns reciting poems. The event of course was followed by a party - seems to be the American way! It was such fun though and my babysitters even came to see James and one of his friends that they also babysit. He has one more week of Kindergarten left and then it's Grade 1 for him in September!

Moving Up Ceremony

Cameron had his last day of school on Thursday. His three year old class had a moving up ceremony. They sang some songs for the parents, received their certificates and had a little party afterwards. My good friend Julie has been his teacher this year and he has absolutely loved his little class. In September he will be in Pre-school for three days a week. He loves to learn and can't wait for his new class to start.

Roses from NY

This is for my mom. She is an avid rose gardener and has grown roses in every home we have lived in, including Walvis Bay, in the middle of the desert. I planted these roses last summer hoping that they would survive the NY winter and return this year. Well they survived the snow and ice storms and returned this spring and are now actually blooming! I can actually grow roses! I have two bushes outside my living room window and I won't dare cut the roses as I really want to enjoy them in the garden this time around. Now if only my parents lived around the corner my dad would be over tomorrow morning spraying and pruning them for me!

Rain, Rain Go Away

Well it's the middle of June and we are currently having so much rain, it's unbelievable. Great for my garden though! This is typically the weather that we get in April, certainly not used to so much rain in June though. One good thing though is that the humidity has not set in yet, so it's still much cooler which I'm really happy about. My summer electric bills are a real killer with the air cons running all the time. As long as the rain keeps the humidity away, I'm happy. My little garden in the front is starting to look really good, I even have some roses blossoming. I'm going to have to post some pics of them for my mom. So far we've been having a week of rain followed by a somewhat sunny weekend, so as long as it stays that way I'll be happy!

LAX

Chris is a Lacrosse player and he just loves it, it's definitely his sport of choice. This is only his second season of playing the sport and he's actually become really good at it too. He made the A team this season. Mike took this photo of him at his game yesterday.

So, what do you do??

The small creative business I do at the moment is making journals. I love to be creative and it's a wonderful stress relief for me as well. One of the recent journals that I made is my own To Do book. I figure that if it looks nice and colorful I'm going to want to dive into the pages and accomplish everything I need and want to do! Still putting that theory to the test though. The inner pages I can't show you as yet as they are part of my new business, but in time they too will be revealed. The other photo is of an album I made that contains all the photo's of the journals I've already made, most of which have all been sold already. I love what I do, but it's only a small part of what I do! Besides all my mommy responsibilities at home I also do some work for a good friend of mine who owns the South African based Baby Sense company. I do a bit of research for her monthly as well as any distribution of her books in the US. Then of course I'm in the process of setting up my new business. Another responsibility I have is to head up the Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our church which runs for a week in the summer. It is such a fun week with over 300 children attending, but more of that will follow as it draws closer.

Journals for Party

Quite a few people have asked me what the journals looked like that I made for Cameron's party. Here are photo's of some of them. Cameron had an animal themed party and I was able to find these gorgeous animal alphabet cards that I turned into journals for the party favors.

Chris Outfit

So here is Chris in his Pocket full of Sunshine outfit! I eventually managed to get it up and rotated!
Now I'm running late to get Cameron to school on time, so I guess we'll be late - again! Gotta run!

Pocket full of Sunshine

Last night Chris' school had a LipSync concert and he participated! My ultra shy ten year old actually got up on stage in front of a packed hall and danced to a song!! I was so proud of him and it looked like they had a blast doing it too. The kids formed groups and chose a pop song and then put actions to it, so we had our own little 'American Idol' live performance. They did an amazing job. The song that Chris and his friends chose was pocket full of sunshine. They chose their costumes as well with the help of one of the mom's. In the photo's you can see Chris on stage as well as one of him in his 'pop concert outfit' (OK, having a hard time uploading this pic, will have to do it seperately). Cameron had a blast too before he fell asleep on my lap. Luckily we were sitting in the back row so he got up on his chair and was dancing and singing along with the other kids. Such a performer, and because we'd watched so many of the rehearsals, he actually knew the words to some of the songs as well! Not bad for a 4yr old. It was a great night out!

My First Website

Well, as previously mentioned, I am starting a business!! It's called Human Mommy and the slogan will probably be: life made simple. I would love to be able to just 'go live' right now, however so much is involved in starting and setting up a business. I've spent month's researching it and today I took the first step and purchased my domain name. I have started to set up a website: humanmommy.com If you visit the site you will be able to see the basic outline of it, but it is still under construction and over the next few months I'll be adding more and more information to it. My target date is to be up and running by October, so hopefully all will fall into place by then. My next step is to do the whole legal side of the business. So what's my business about?? You're just going to have to keep tuning back in both here to my blog as well as the website to see as it unfolds! Nothing like keeping you all guessing!

Cameron's Party

Cameron had his 4th Birthday party this afternoon and it was such fun. Some of his little school friends came over and we celebrated here at home. It was an animal themed party and he had a dinosaur cake that one of my neighbour's made for him. I made some pita chips in the shape of animals and there were plenty of other goodies to munch on as well. The kids played outside and we had a treasure hunt as well as face painting. We also did a lion pinata. I am now totally exhausted and ready for bed! I think that Cameron has already passed out!