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!

One man's trash is another man's treasure!

You will not believe what we found today! Just before Cameron's party started Mike went up to the store for me and as he turned back onto our road he noticed that someone had put this John Deer truck on the side of the road. He immediately stopped and the owner of the house was in her garage and Mike asked her if she was throwing it out and she was! It's in perfect condition and she even gave him the instructions and charger for it. Well, Cameron was over the moon with excitement with his new ride-one car. We had looked into getting him one for his birthday, but the $400 price tag put us off. We can't believe we scored such a great deal, and for free too!! Just goes to show, one man's trash is definitely another man's treasure!!

Our Home

Here is a spring shot of the front of our home. I love to potter in the garden in the front and this year have decided to stick to a green and white color theme. (Still trying to convince Mike this will look good!)So far my perennials have all come out and I've weeded the bed and this weekend I'm hoping to get some white annuals in the bed. Oddly enough we have a security sign in the flower bed. My SA friends will appreciate it! No fence or burglar bars and we've never connected the alarm, but we have the sign! More garden pics will follow as spring turns into summer and the garden blooms!

Spring Concert '09

Tonight was Christopher's spring concert. The 4th and 5th graders sing and the orchestra plays. Chris has been playing the trumpet since grade 3, so tonight was his final concert as he has chosen not to continue with music in middle school. The orchestra was very impressive for 9 and 10 year olds and I thought they did a superb job. Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home, so you'll have to make do with the shot I took on my blackberry! I did get some pics of him with his trumpet at home though, before it gets put to rest for good. Hopefully he'll pick up another instrument soon and start tinkering around, but he just won't be doing it at school anymore.

Cameron is 4

Monday my baby, Cameron, turned 4 years old. I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. I can so clearly remember the day he was born. It was a scheduled C-Section done three weeks early as he had hydronephrosis (the fluid wasn't draining from his kidney's). He was my smallest baby weighing just 9 pounds, but he was definitely the easiest. Having a third child has totally changed the dynamics of our family and I just love having three boys. Things are never quiet or dull around here! At the moment he is totally into Playmobil, so that was what he got for his birthday. We're having his school friends over on Saturday afternoon for an animal themed party. I have my neighbour making his birthday cake for me and I have made all of the kids animal journals as their party favor. He can't wait, it should be loads of fun. I've also had fun planning it and putting it all together and I have two of my babysitters coming over to help me so that I can get a chance to enjoy it too. Will post more pics of it on the weekend.

Baxter

After having a Labrador for a few years in South Africa, when we moved here we had to give Jessie away. Chris has begged us for a dog ever since then, so two years ago we decided it was time to add a pooch to our family. Baxter is now 2 years old and he's a cockapoo (spaniel / poodle mix). We decided on a small dog as our winters here are really cold and about 4 months long and it's way too cold for a dog to be outside then and there was no way I was having a big dog bounding around the house with 3 kids in the middle of winter while we were all house bound! He is such an amazing dog and clearly mine - he follows me everywhere and will sit and wait at the front window until I come home! This is a really cute picture of him. He's off to the groomers next week for his summer haircut and he always comes back looking too cute, will have to post another photo of him next week after his pamper session.

Young Artists

Who knew I had such artistic kids! They certainly didn't get it from me. I would call myself creative, but certainly not artistic. Chris brought home the most beautiful blue flower he'd painted in art class. James absolutely loves doing crafts and painting is one of his best activities. These two pictures he painted at school are so colorful and beautiful, I love them. Now I have to go shopping for some frames and proudly display my boys artwork on our walls.

Back Online

I am now officially back online! My computer has been fixed - YIPPEE - and I can connect with the world again. I think I'm going to have to put a sign up sheet next to the PC though, as my kids have clearly missed it as much as I have!
Well Chris is now coming to the end of Grade 5 and graduating from elementary school into middle school. He has a busy month with writing club, sport, bible study group, lipsync practices and performance as well as a spring concert (he plays the trumpet).
Cameron will be 4 next week and his party will be here at home the following weekend. We're doing an animal theme party and I've made alphabet journals for all of the kids. He is so excited, he can't wait.
James is now reading so every night we're practicing his words. He's not playing any sport at the moment, but will be doing football in the fall.
With the summer vacation starting at the end of June we're also trying to finalize our vacation and decide what camps, if any, the boys will be doing. Only the sport camps come into consideration. We spend the rest of our time having fun together.
It's good to be back online, so here's to more regular updated posts!