KIDS!!!

Jeez, living with a teenager and a double digit kid (10yrs) is challenging some days. Today James my darling youngest child helped me plant up some planters for Gran and did a beautiful job of it. He then obviously decided that gardening was the thing to do for the afternoon, so when his friends Liam and Ethan arrived, the all got stuck in. Lindi and I were sitting on the patio and the kids kept walking past us with bricks and other things and when I asked James 'what are your doing?' he innocently replied 'carrying bricks' DUHHHH!!!!

Now one of my all time favourite plants/flowers is a Jasmine, but to date I have had zero luck trying to grow one (and believe me I have tried many times). I clearly remember one outside our TV room growing up and loved it, so last week Frances and I bought one whilst at the flee market and I planted it at about 3pm this afternoon and yes you can see what's coming, at about 3.05 is when James decided to make his own garden and of course vrooops there went my Jasmine, into his little garden. So I could do one of 2 things, freak out, or take a photo, guess which one I did. My take on it is I could spend R30 taking him to the moving, plus R30 for me and then another R30 for Chris, OR he can use my R25 plant and have an entire afternoons fun in the garden. The answer was a bit of a no brainer actually and with a smile like his, what could I say?


Please note the lovely garden with its Clivia, Rosmary Bush, Jasmine bush and banana tree (compliments of Frances' father's garden) and especially the little bench and fencing around the garden. They even took the time to dig out the newly laid lawn and relocate it to their garden.

During all this, Chris had disappeared for about and hour and I thought he was just watching TV/listening to music (he was definately not interesting in helping us garden). When I went to check on him I found him fast asleep on his bed, earphones protruding from his ears. When he woke up, there was one times very grumpy teenager shuffling around. He hates it when I call him grumpy and says I am just irritating him. Had to threaten to remove his phone tonight if I found him back on mxit or whatever else he's on. So one of them calls me irritating and then James who asked me to push him around in the driveway on gran's trolley also told me I am a 'bad driver' and that I drive tooooo fast, ha! nothing a couple of tickles and threats of walking to school couldn't cure.


The 3 stooges then decided they would make popcorn which they did and then sat on the trampoline and ate it, along with Kelly who was eating all the bits that fell on the floor.


Lordy Lordy Lord and we are not even 1 month into this teenage thing yet! Just kidding, we have great kids and they are behaving as I suppose any other teenager and younger brother do.

Just Another Fun Filled Friday Night

Yay, its school holidays and that means I don't have to swim for a week, might just be enough time to get the smell of chlorine off my body and hair. It also means that I don't have to make school lunches, but that I will need to increase the availability of food in the house as these kids can eat when they are home, add in a couple of friends and 2 loaves of bread a day is nothing!

Our first night of school holidays, I am sitting at the computer at Fran's house when people come running in telling me to phone BKM as Grendon's scooter has been stolen. We had all been sitting having a braai for Adele's birthday when the doorbell rang and women tells us she saw 2 guys steal the scooter that had been parked in the street. It turns out she was driving down the road with her 7 month baby in the car, when he started crying as she drove past the house, she had to swerve to avoid people who were pushing the scooter into the road, she thought nothing of it and pulled over a little further down the road to sort out her baby. The next thing she knew there was a guy in her back seat with a knife to her side, demanding she drive. Anyways after many phonecalls and radio chats, about 8 police vans and patrollers, the scooter was found on the other side of the railway line already damaged (presumably stripped for spare parts to sell for drugs). Unfortunately one of the patrollers spotted the suspects and was chasing them when they ran over a river and he was unable to follow them, so yet another crime goes by unpunished. I suppose we should all be grateful that no-one was hurt, but it just makes a person mad that we cannot live our lives in peace and have to continuously worry about how the criminal might catch us.

But back to Adele's party, we all had lovely evening, with many bottles of wine consumed and plenty of photo's taken that have been updated to the relevant facebook profiles. Adele got it into her head that she needed a photo of every person present with her in the photo.

Frances, Michelle, Ursula, Louise and everyone else there all had their photo's taken, but some of these left a LOT to be desired.

Poor Rob was only flying in late that evening and of course (no big surprise) his flight was delayed due to a power failure at the airport. So he only arrived quite late.

Since we left there late, our kids who are of course past the stage of going to sleep, spent the entire night playing boxing, bowling, tennis etc on the Wii. Even Rob had a got a the boxing and came outside puffing after a few rounds, looks like a great way to get the kids a bit of exercise, rather than watching TV. Chris of course did his usual Friday night stint at the moving, but this time made sure he was there early enough not to miss the movie.

Well after all that excitment, we woke up to a relatively peacefull day. James eventually stumbled out of bed at 09h45. Chris and his friend Kevin spent most of the day at the ramps and as you can see from the photo had quite a hard day of it. Believe it or not he hasn't been beaten up, the eye is from where he was attacked by a candy floss stick (don't ask) and the mouth, I have no idea . . .

for all the joys of technology that makes our lives easier, I tried to go to SARS efiling registration but as simple as it seems, I can't get it right, will have to get my technical director / tax advisor (aka Rob) to investigate the problem.

Poor old Micky he is beside himself without Gran here, and we have been telling him all day that its just a few more hours then she will be home, as I am writing this Rob is on his way to the airport to collect her. Will be nice to have her home again.

Rob as per usual spend his weekend charging around the house like a lunatic, clearning rubble away, visiting his favourite store Builders Warehouse, unblocking drains and throwing a concrete slab (No rest for the wicked)

I on the other hand spent my morning catching up on admin and showing my mom how to get onto facebook and already she has found some of her ólder' friends on there - watch this space, next thing will be her own blog page.

My Wonderful Parents

Over the past couple of months, I have had many occasions to be reminded of just how wonderful and special my parents are. Things I have taken for granted ito of my family have been highlighted to me about how much they have sacrificed and done for me to mould me into what I am today.

Whilst we all have our faults and irritations, I see so many quirks and traits of my mother and father that come through in my daily life and the way I am raising our children and for this I am eternally grateful. One of the most important attributes being integrity, honesty and respect that they installed in us as children. I can only hope to carry this through to my children as well, using my parents as my role models for raising children.

There are many of us out there that never acknowledge our parents and what they have done for us and I am ashamed to say I am one of them, so what better way to pay tribute to my mom and dad than to publically tell everyone.

I am proud to be known as their daughter and am eternally grateful to them for everything they have done and continue to do for me.

Their patience and understanting with us their children is unquestionable and their understanding and acceptance of our hectic lifestyle is amazing. I think everyone knows Nana and Oupa, who are an integral part of our lives. They are such an incredible support system to me in raising our children, from providing recipes for dinner, taking kids to the doctor, fetching from school, and spoiling their grandchildren rotten.

I couldn't ask for more, yet I seem to get it all the time.

I LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD!!

Flitting in & out of Jhb

So after a quick drop in to Guatengaleng to go to Tim and Meloney's wedding, I am back and have survived a day of swimming. It was a long wait at the airport this morning, but worth it as my Kalula flight was canceled, so they put me onto a Comair flight which was really great as there you get cabin service. Landed up sitting next to Claire ??? from Mango Groove's parents.

The wedding was beautiful, Meloney was positively glowing and Tim was grinning like a cheshire cat. The weather was stuning and after their stress of having their venue double booked and having to find a new date, they were truly blessed with a beautiful day.

Gran and I flew in with a very uneventful flight and arrived at Andy and Mandy, to a wonderful braai on the go. Gary and Lydia and their kids were also there and it was great to catch up with them now that they have deserted us in Cape Town and moved up to Jhb. Andy introduced me to fried Hulumi (spelling??) cheese that he included in a salad, it was absolutely divine.

Whilst up there Tiffany and Maxine got hold of Rob and my cell phones and were on Mxit with their cousins and are now harrassing their parents to download it onto their phones. (sorry guys).

Mandy and Andy took us all out to breakfast at their local bakery - what a stunning bakery, from chocolate crousants, to milk tarts etc etc, yum yum yum.

It was also really nice to see my little car again, since Rob has my car in Jhb and his car here, I unfortunatley don't get to call any of them my own (just kidding).

Poor Rob is once again battling with his back so it looks like its time to pay a visit to Mary again, that or stay off the roof where he does his bungie sliding tricks.

Mandy and Andy are as bad as us when it comes to taking photo's of themselves, so we made a point of taking this photo of them as a family.

Before we left, Chris and James had started building a tree house in the few remaining trees in our garden. Whilst we were away they spent their days perfecting it even more and have even put chairs up in the tree. Of course when I got home I HAD to come and see, and Chris then took the camera up to take a photo of the view. Pretty impressive hey! Maybe we should build up a new levels to maximise the view.

Ingrid, who looked after the kids and animals was fantastic and my home has never look neater. I love having her stay as I always come home to a more oganised home. Mirriam however doesn't enjoy it as she doesn't get away with slacking off anymore.

Poor little Mickey is desperately missing Gran and wonders around the house moaning like a steam train. When you pick him up he head buts you trying to get fuss and attention out you - poor little thing.

Kids conned me into letting them stay up late tonight since its break-up day tomorrow, but that just means I get to go to bed that much later HRMPFF!! They are off for one week only.

Well so much for my early night to try and get rid of the bags under my eyes, this is so much more fun.

Glorious day in Cape Town

Had a glorious day today with beautiful weather and the kids and their friends Mich and Sarah spend the entire day outside building bases and having water bomb fights, whilst Frances and I visited the market and found a couple of good bargains. They of course used every towel in the house and it was not as much fun cleaning up as it was making the mess.

Frances and I attempted to make fudge today and as we explained to Gran, neither of us are any good at it, but she insisted the recipe she has is foolproof, well needless to say we managed to mess it up and if it was not for Gran running back to her place to fetch the rolling pin, it would have been a complete flop. It really is a sad state of affairs that between us we have 80+ years of experience and yet we cannot make fudge.

With all this rain we have been having, we have discovered a few leaks around the house, so Rob spent his weekend home fixing leakes, erecting washing lines and filling the wendy house. Below is a picture of Rob on the roof that he fell off whilst trying to waterproof the tiles. He suddenly started sliding down the roof and only managed to stop himself by jamming his foot into the gutter, thank goodness as there is a vibracrete wall you can see sticking out of the picture that he could so easily have landed on. I shudder to think . . .

Granny and Gandpa come to stay

So Granny and Grandpa have arrived from JBay and will be off again tomorrow on a train to Johannesburg, followed by Gran and I who will be flying up. The reason for all of us descending on Johannesburg is for Timmy's wedding to Melanie.

Kids are staying home with Ingrid, Nana and Oupa and I fly back Thursday again.

Of Course it hasn't taken the cats long to realise that Granny and Grandpa love cats and manged to wangle food from our braai out of them.

Just Another Normal Day

So with feeling sick as a dog, I get home and remember we have to study for James' history test (or as they call it now, Social Studies). On top of this the drain in the kitchen is blocked and it is amazing what a woman can do when they have to since there is no man around, I managed to figure out what, where and how to unblock it by clearing the trap.

Whilst I'm busy with that Chris says to me that his roof is leaking, which it has been dripping during all this rain and we have stuck a bucket under it, so I don't take too much notice of him. Well of course when it comes time to go to bed he says he can't as his roof is leaking onto his bed - WELL the whole bed, duvet, floor everying is soaked, so much to his delight he got to sleep in my bed.

James of course who had gone to bed earlier had sneaked my pillow off my bed (Rob and I have special pillows) and shame I felt so bad that his brother was sleeping with me and he had to sleep in his room that I left him with it, needless to say I had a rather uncomfortable nights sleep.

Today Chris has his Grade 7 market day to raise funds for their farewell. So he managed to co-opt Granny into making fudge to sell. He then came home and made a second batch of fudge on his own and it was perfect, clearing got those skills from Rob as that is one thing I have never been able to make.

Poor Rob is only home about midnight tonight, he has been in Kenya, left about 5am Monday morning and only reached his hotel in Kenya Monday night 7pm, apparently he was delayed in an accident where 2 taxi's collided (nothing too serious).

Great excitement for me as finally they are moving the wendy house from Gran's to us and we will then be able to get all the excess garage items out of the house and into the wendy house (YAY) then at lease we will be able to walk around without killing ourselves tripping over bikes, tools etc.

Got to go and buy the new James Bond collectable car that has come out this week. James has been dilligent in collecting these and spent all his birthday money buying them, the rest are going to have to be funded by the mom and dad bank though.

Well time to go do some work, although I feel so grotty and snotty that I would far rather curl up in bed and go to sleep.

A Special Day

What a wonderful day to be made to feel so special is truly unbelievable. Even although Rob is away in Nairobi he was my first phonecall this morning just to wish me Happy Birthday, what a special man!!

With in excess of 40 birthday wishes via sms, telephone calls, facebook, skype, email and personal touch, deliveries of flowers etc it has been a phenominal day. And can you believe it, in the time I have been typing this, a further 3 wishes have come through.

It makes me feel quite ashamed that I never remember other people's birthdays, yet all these people can remember mine, so if you are reading this and I have forgotten yours I AM SO SORRY (but in all reality I will probably forget it again next time, as this is truly not my strong point)

Although it was a day of meetings one after the other (didn't even get to the office), out of the meetings, into the pool and out of the pool into the kitchen to cook a simple dinner for the family, my boys were simply wonderful, together they cleaned up the TV room, made the pudding for dinner, did homework and Chris helped James study for his upcoming test. In amongst their busy afternoon I even got a cup of coffee delivered to me in the pool.

Chris got his bike back from Ingrid where it had been stored over the weekend and even though he has been ill for 2 days, the first thing he asked was if he ride to school again.

He is sitting here with me watching CSI whilst poor little James is battling to understand why his brother gets to stay up later than him, but its just one of those things.

It is so nice to see Chris smiling again, since he turned 13 its the wierdest thing but its seems he has found his smile that has been missing for 2 years again. (Perhaps its the new girlfriend or he is just in a happy space)

Chris has his Grade 7 dance coming up (can you believe they have dances in Standard 5) and he has already decided that he wants to wear a white shirt with a sleevless jacked (aka a waistcoat), so guess we are going to have to go shopping, as his current wardrobe consits of t-shirts, shorts and skating shoes.

It has been a really strange month, where I have been reflecting over people that have had an influence on my life and about my wonderful friends and family involved in my life, but also wondered about those I have lost contact with. I have even attempted to make contact with all of them and would you believe that my attempts were unsuccesful, but that out of the blue 3 of these people have made contact with me again, Meg googled me (thank you to BKM), Lydia remembered my cell phone number and Nicole was via facebook. I would still love to make contact with Debbie who is overseas and who I often think about, especially when times were tough and we would share a packet of soup and brown bread.

I am truly blessed to have such awsome friends and family who are so special to me and my family and I thank you all for being who you are.

RAIN RAIN AND MORE RAIN

I normally don't mind all the rain, but its starting to get a little tiresome now, especially since our driveway is under flood, the last time I took the car down the driveway, the car felt like it was sinking and then skidded off to the side. Not quite sure how we are going to overcome this problem, but fortunately we only have the one car here, a second car would have nowhere to park.

I think the only ones that are enjoying the weather are our garden of Clivia's and the cats, of for life to be that simple.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA

So its Nana's birthday and we had a lovely tea at Ingrid's house. Merle and the boys had a few discussions that I think she found quite interesting, giving her insight into the teenagers of today.

This is such a lovely photo of Nana and the boys where they are all actually smiling! Thank you to Ingrid who gave Nana and I the most beautiful protea flowers which are proudly on display.

message from Franschoek

Well the weather is just absolutely beautiful here. Last night we had dinner at a French restuarant that was supurb. Our room at the hotel is lovely and we are right in the centre of town so can walk everywhere. Here i am standing next to a huge teddy bear on a chair (taken for James's benefit)

We went to Dieu Donne for lunch, which has the most beautiful setting, where we had some wine and their local beer as well as a scrumptious butternut and bilton chip african ceasar salad.

Rob keeps moaning at me about all the photo's I keep taking of him, so we have gone with the anonymous one. He loves this t-shirt he got from Gran, as it is so unique and only people that watch Top Gear would understand what its about.

The weekend was very relaxing, even with the 13 phone calls i had on Saturday. There is not an awful lot to do around Franschoek, so reading and drinking wine it was. Both Rob and I felt a little strange just lying around doing nothing, a concept we are not used to.

We managed to buy a good few bottles of wine to add to the collection, and a present for Nana, but other than that not much to spend money on (always a good thing).

Going to fetch the kids from Ingrid and then home to watch the grand prix and then back to Ingrid for tea for Nana's birthday.

Another day goes by

Yes, can you believe it, one of Rob's cousins Jonty, has just started school in England. Jonty is only 4 years old (don't ask, its very complicated), Robs Uncle (Jonty's dad) is younger than Rob . . .


I can't believe how the time flies, with Jonty starting school, our eldest going to high school, where is the time going?


James my techno junkie loves to see what the latest is on the blog and asked if he can start his own one, which of course he has done and guess what Ingrid he has called it Cheesball. (cheeseball). I was most impressed, he went and created his own gmail account and then created his blog all on his own (very little guidance from me).


Chris had interhouse rugby today, unfortunately their house (Disa) lost, but Chris managed to score 5 tries, but he looks like he has been through a couple of punches, with scratches down his chest and bruises on his legs. Oh the mixed feeling on this sport, where it is wonderful to watch your child doing so well, but cringing when the tackles are as hard and dangerous as they are.


Of course it wouldn't be a Muller day is there wasn't something that went wrong. Christoper's new high school phoned me to tell me they had misplaced his application forms, they did however have the deposit we had put down, so just have to resend them. They were full of apologies.


The kids are looking forward to spending the weekend with their aunty and then its tea and scones to celebrate Nana's and my birthday.


Hopefully next week the wendyhouse will arrive so that we can finally clear out the clutter that we all keep moving around and falling over, thereby restoring a bit more calm order to our home.


Well Rob and I are looking forward to our weekend away, will try and see if we can post something whilst we are away, you know us both with our pc's and cell phones, we will probably skype each other whilst sitting on the bed, that if my pc survives till then, my harddrive is full and my email keeps downloading all my messages twice. Work have agreed that I should take it in for repairs since I use it for their purposes mostly. Hopefully they will be able to solve the problems.

Gran and Mickey

As you can see Mickey 2 has settled in beautifully and absolutely adores Gran. He moans like a trooper if the flatlet door is closed and he can't get in. If Gran calls him, he comes running. Tonight he was interferring with the sewing operations going on, wanting to know what was happening the whole time. He is like a little pet dog, Gran can walk around with him in her arms and he is unphased.

It finally looks like we are getting him used to using his cat litter box, rather than the carpets and blankets. Internet tells us it could be a couple of things e.g. stressed by a move, doesn't like the cat litter, well we tried changing the litter, but that didn't work, so know that he is more settled things are looking better.

Jess and Mickey regularly charge around Gran's flat like fools, running across the couches and behind the curtains chasing each other, running after bits of paper all sorts of nonesense.

They are both so sweet. Titch on the other hand couldn't be bothered and just ignores everyone in a true cat fashion, particualry when he is lying in the pool room where its nice and warm and the young kids want to stroke him. Only time he gets upset is when kids PULL his tale.

Bicycle Ramping

With Christopher's vast earnings for his birthday he, with dad have been surfing the net to find a new bike. This is a picture of what he is wanting to buy.

As you can see by the other picture he abuses the poor bike ramping with all his might. Between him, Kevin and Dillan I am not sure who gets the highest clearance, but they certainly have hours of fun doing it.

Our Boys

So another day goes flying by and when I got out the pool, what did I find but my studious boys doing their home work (NOT!!!) There they were snuggled up in my bed watching TV. After chasing them out of the bed I got them to cook supper for Granny and themselves whilst I went out to a meeting. They made bangers and mash and did a very good job at it.

Our teenager is growing up so fast, Chris now has a girlfriend from school, her name is Gill and the two of them spend all available hours on Mxit, sms or the telephone talking to each other, goodness only knows about what. But I do seem to remember my mom moaning at me to get off the phone when I spoke to my boyfriend for an hour at a time when I was a teenager. Fortunately we have a special Telkom package so the cost of the calls is literally nothing.

Just one more day to go and then its downhill to the weekend, can't wait as Rob and I are going away for the weekend (no kids!) Love them with all our heart, but time for just us.

James "The Man"

After a wet start to the day and working from home so that I could at least get some work done with no interuptions, I had to backwash to pool in the peeing rain as the pool had been overfilled and had become a rim flow pool instead - I forgot it was running, just like I forgot about the cheese scones in the oven.

This morning, my birthday present from Rob arrived, which is an adapter for my ipod to operate in the car, at least now I don't have to drive around with earphones on.

Chris and I tried to figure it out, but it took James to get it working for us. James then also managed to get my cell phone camera to operate (it was stuck on video camera) and finally James then cooked dinner for us. Very tasty indeed. Between his Aunty Ingrid and I, we will hopefully skill him enough to be able to cook a dinner for himself when he gets older.

Chris on the other hand spent his evening researching trick bikes, as he managed to wreck his bike ramping off pavements, so with the tidy sum of cash he got for his birthday is now going to invest in a proper trick bike, just waiting for some time when dad is able to go with him.

It is interesting times having a teenager in the house, particulary now that he has MXit on his phone, we seldom get to talk to him as he is either listening to his ipod, or chatting on mxit. I suppose at least he is still at home . . . for now. If I am not fighting to get into my own bed at night, I am fighting for time on my computer as the kids now jump onto it at every opportunity they get - oh well I suppose that's what you get with the modern day kids.

Granny Has Moved In

At last granny has moved into the granny cottage. What a pleasure having her there, although I sometimes wonder if she has regrets as her small 1 bedroom cottage is overrun by the 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 kids and mom and dad who all keep popping in to visit and disrupt her peaceful life.


Granny claims to love it, including all our friends who also pop in shouting "hello granny - how are you" so just like with Nana, her family has extended to everyone and anyone who walks through the door. (poor women is going to run away and live overseas)

Granny is such a blessing to have around, especially with Rob away during the week, she is the one I go and cry to when council give me problems, or offers me her car when mine won't start and is my built in baby sitter so that I don't have to drag my parents over to my house - even though I know they don't mind, I hate inconveniencing anyone.


The animals of course absolutely love having her around as there is now always someone to either feed or fuss them - you know how needy our animals are.



Granny also makes the most wonderful food.

How Rob's Travelling Affects All of us

When Rob first contemplated working in Jhb, there was a lot of discussion, but we felt that since he would only be gone from Monday morning and back again Friday afternoons/evenings, we would give it a try and see how we coped.

The disruption is all on Rob, who has to get up and awful hours on a Monday morning to get to the airport. He has a shuttle service that collects him, which means Chris, James and I are able to sleep till our normal time. It is also very lonely for him in Jhb, but with the joys of modern technology we speak as a family via cellphone, skype or whatever is up and running at the moment.

Rob really did not want to disrupt the family by moving us to Johannesburg, since my business is going so well and the kids are well settled into school. There was obviously also the issue of crime that, even although its here, is worse in Jhb.

Of course when he is away, all the household tasks fall on my shoulders which is why by the weekend I throw my hands up in the air and tell Rob - the house, kids and animals are all yours (hee hee, I wish)

Life is pretty hectic, with the kids having long days, and often only getting home after 5pm from school, which is when we still need to do homework and bath and relax (?????), but Chris and James are wonderful in that most of the time they just buckle down and do what they have to.

They are also phenominal in stepping up to the plate to help me, where Rob would usually be there to assist, be it changing light bulbs, to feeding animals and yes, cooking dinner - we have been truly blessed with special children.

When Rob comes home on a Friday, it is like he has been away forever, even though this year is flying past at a rapid rate and we all spend time as a family together. The biggest challenge is finding time to visit and spend with our friends and family as we barely have enough time for ourselves and finding time to relax is a very conscious effort.

But fortunately all our friends and family understand our circumstances and are not offended when we don't see them for a while. (well I sincerely hope so anyway)

Micky 2 (latest addition to the family)

After our first Mickey was run over, we decided to get a new kitty, and went and found what we thought was Tinkerbell, until we went to the vet and he politely told us that Tinkerbell was now a Stinkerbell, so we renamed him Mickey.

Mickey has however taken up residents with Gran who has been wonderful giving him his medicine. Mickey has also taken a strange liking to one of the vanilla scented teddy bear that he carries around like a toy and sleeps with. Unfortunately he is not very keen on his cat litter box, so needless to say 2 down duvets and 2 double blankets have already been to the cleaners and back, picked them up on Friday and the little (delightful creature) has peed on 2 of them already.

He is adorable, has a loveable nature and likes to sleep not with you, but on top of you. Jess (the brown cat) is very happy having him around and the 2 of them charge around like lunatics chasing each other. Titch on the other hand is of the opinion (like lots of you out there) that we are all stupid getting ANOTHER animal, and he just hisses at the kitten and walks away - well that the act he puts on anyway, when I last looked, the kitten was sleeping on top of him, both of them hidden behind my curtains basking in the sun.

Jess we think has come into season, as we have had the most beautiful ginger cat howling for her on the window cills, needless to say the little madam is encouraging it and not overly charmed that we are keeping her in, but I personall think we have realised tooooo late and there may be a couple of little babies on the way soon - I can just hear what most of you are already saying . . .

SURVIVING OUR FIRST TEENAGE PARTY

Christopher had his 13th birthday party at home, with about 40 kids. Until they all arrived, we had no idea how many were coming, seems the latest is that you don't RSVP to invites as we only had 3 that replied, everyone else sent a message via Chris.

The party was from 6 - 10pm, and the last child left around 11 (still not sure why so late, but we as the parents CAN'T ask questions like that.) Rob hooked up his monster speakers outside on the patio and the kids played music from their ipods (sorry neighbours)

Rob and I sat with Frances and Adale around the back of the house braaing and keeping a beady eye on the kids. As a whole they were really well behaved, swimming and just chilling. Other that the sweets lying all over the garden and the papers in the toilets, the house remained unscathed. Michelle was really great, as she is a 15yr old teenager who acted as our go-between, it was easier to have her check things out that the parents walking around.

It is so strange being a parent to a teenager, when we still feel young and as though we have only just recently left school.

4 of Christopher's friends slept over, so there were bodies all over the show.

Poor Gran, shut herself into her flat and hopefully survived the doof doof of the music. As for James, he was a super star, staying out of the big kids way, I think its a bit of an adjustment for him now that Chris is spending more and more time with his friends, although he is still brilliant with his younger brother, the time is coming where James is starting to excluded at times.