home sweet home

so after a wonderful holiday we are back home and the washing machine is going madly, emails downloading and kids in front of tv.

Yesterday was my parents 44th wedding anniversary - can't believe it, a tough act to follow - CONGRATULATIONS MOM AND DAD.

We finally got home from J-Bay at about 18h15 last night and were them promptly invited out to dinner which was lovely. Lynn I have just realised though has deleted the photo I took of her kissing her frog "prince charming" - but not to worry, this year might be coming to an end, but certainly not my camera battery.

The camera has also been going non stop capturing cute little Tigger and co. today we had to get Capstar and flea thingies to get rid of the fleas on the animals only R450 later, but at least they have all stopped scratching for now . . . The cats were beside themselves last night, needless to say we did not get a lot of sleep as they were all all over the bed last night. Mickey trying to wake a dead to the world Rob up so that he could climb under the covers, Jess at our feet and Tigger around Rob's head. This evening little Tigger climbed into Rob's arms as he was asleep on the bed and passed out, front paws splayed across his arms. We tried to get him to eat some solids today for the 1st time, but he was not interested - Jess on the other hand nearly did her nut trying to get to the food.

Poor old Mickey is really missing Gran, I happened to take some post into her flat and Mickey shot in and jumped up on the ottoman and started rolling around and purring like a crazy thing - obviously hoping Gran would magically appear.

Can't believe another year is almost done, tomorrow night we are off to a end of year party - can't remember when last we had one of those, so hopefully that should be good.

James was lucky enough to go for a ride in a Porsche Cayman with Lynn today - ask no questions and we will tell you no lies. Chris managed to sit in it last night.

Chris on the other hand spent the day with Gill, whilst I had to go shopping YUK YUK YUK!!!! As luck would have it, when I got to the till to pay for my loaded trolley, my debit card would not work, and that took me about 45 minutes to get sorted out with the bank - I am sure the women at the till thought I probably didn't have the money and was not going to come back when i said I would go and draw the money and took forever to get back to her.

Rob on the other hand is having a fight with Ford who have tried to wrangle / fiddle(or for us South African's reading this 'smokel' ) something to do with the maintenance plan on the Focus, but being this time of year, he is not having much success getting answers so we will have to wait for the new year.

Right going to bed now on this very last Tuesday of 2008 and will probably need to get a Red Bull to keep awake for tomorrow night.

more photo's of Christmas Day 2008 - J-bay

playing with Picasa Collage Maker

Bear with me on this one, I have discovered Picasa Collage Maker, downloaded for free from Google and it automatically makes these lovely collages for you, at least now I don't have to choose which photo's to publish.

Last night we had a lovely dinner and this morning were woken up by James at about 6am wanting to know if they could open presents, but Rob told them to go back to bed until about 7h30 - that as you can imagine took a lot of self control on their part. so we told them they could in the meantime open their Christmas stocking and one of their gifts were bubbles (always a winner)
We spent the afternoon on the beach, the kids building a castle out of rocks and playing catch with their ball.

Rob was exhausted and manged to get a couple of hours shut eye. Don't you like the sign that James made Rob buy for me for Christmas? No Grumpy HusbandsAnyways, off to go and play with some more collages . . .

there were 2 in the bed and little one said . . .

Well that will teach me to brag as I did in the previous post, all about there being no wind. Last night I think every possibly God out there wreaked their revenge on us and an almighty storm broke out over us last night. The wind was so strong we honestly thought our tent would blow away and as for the rain, it did not stop until after breakfast this morning.

I don't remember what time it was this morning, but Rob woke up and found poor Chris and Maxine were getting wet, as well as the floor in the tent of the caravan. so there he was lifting all the clothes and goodies and unplugging all electrical appliances. Maxine eventually had to move into the caravan with Andy and Mandy and Chris moved in with Rob and I onto the double mattress (u can picture the squash), thank goodness he did because literally half an hour later, the tent poles where they had been sleeping collapsed.

On Monday we went up the Outeniqua Pass using the Power Van's from the Transport Museum. The museum was very interesting and the kids had a ball running and climbing into all the old trains. We also sat in an old railway coach and had lunch with the kids. After the museum, we decided to try and find the house where Gran had grown up in George, but the address she gave us in Albert Street is now a second hand car sales lot, so that didn't exactly work out.

But all is well that ends well, we had a lovely breakfast of bacon and eggs etc etc and then packed up the car and as I type this message, am now sitting in J-Bay, with lovely smells coming out of the kitchen for Christmas Dinner that Dawn is cooking.Dawn is also making marshmallows - yes, marshmallows. Will let you know how they come out, looks really simple. Gran of course is standing around doing absolutely nothing (hee hee), no just kidding, that because she's not allowed to, as usual Dawn is spoiling all of us rotten as we all kind of sit on our bums whilst she does all the work.

The kids of course have plonked themselves down in front of TV that they have missed for the last couple of days and Chris has already been on facebook to look at the pictures of Gill who went shark diving . . . . (crazy girl!)I think poor old Chris is really missing his friends and particularly Gill, he is just that much too old to play with the little ones, but not old enough to go socialise on his own (thank goodness)

According to Ingrid, little Tigger is becoming really playful now and pouncing around - can't wait to see him.
With all the piddling rain, the kids did a lot of beading and James and Tiffany in particular. They in fact took their wares and sold them around the campsite and made about R160 - needless to say Mandy and I did not see any of that to cover costs of the beads . . . , but hey it kept them occupied for ages and ages.We took the rubber duck out and had a picnic on one of the beaches, whilst Andy took the kids for spins (and tumbles) on the tube. They all came back afterwards with bumps and bruises and grazes, but having had loads of fun. That night they all went to bed nice and early.

It was Andy's birthday whilst we were there, and instead of a cake, we raided woolies and had a chocolate selection, which needless to say did not last very long.

One night, the kids (and I include Rob and Andy in this) decided they needed to go fishing after catching about 100 prawns with the prawn catcher. So off they went, with all their gear and when they came all that was missing were the prawns and no fish to replace them, but they had fun.

This whole holiday has been great so far, the kids all get on so well, making it so much easier for us as parents. So far all that I can see that we have left behind at the Camp site, is my computer charger (AARRRRGGGHHHH) Thank goodness I can still access the cyber world via Dawn and Peter's pc and Rob's. We will have to stop in there on the way back - what a pain, but I need it for work.

Yipeee we are now officially on holiday, sitting here at our campsite in Knysna, the kids are pumping prawns, the boys are roasting duck and chicken for dinner and Mandy and I are on our pc's. The weather here is stunning and so warm, but the best part is there is no wind!!!

The journey up was uneventful, buy VERY long for some reason. We stopped along the way to buy a beading book for James so that delayed the trip slightly, but at least we are here and firmly entrenched int he dirt. The camp site is absolutely beautiful, we are situated right in front of the pool, closest to the Knysna Lagoon and the trampoline's, so we don't see the kids for dust the whole day. The coming up here was loaded to the hilt, so much so that Rob could not even see out the back windows, we had to bring bedding for the four of us as well as Christmas present, so going back should be much easier.

Gran on the other hand took the easy way out and flew up to Jeffrey's Bay yesterday, so we will link up with her when we get there.

Andy and Mandy have decorated the caravan with Christmas lights and it looks so pretty. We are here now for 5 nights and then off to Jeffreys Bay for Christmas.

Before we left we had a Christmas lunch with Nana and Oupa and Ingrid and that was so nice to spend the day together. Check out the photo's of the 'breekers' . . . It was so hot that the kids spent the afternoon in nana's pool playing silly buggers with their Christmas presents.

Ingrid has kindly agreed to feed our zoo whilst we are away, hope she can cope with little Tigger nuzzeling into her hair and sleeping with her on her pillow.

Hard to believe, but I was actually swimming this morning for about an hour with the kids, the water was lovely and much as I am in the pool every day, I couldn't even make one length under water, which only Tiffany and James did manage. We all seem to have gotten burnt on our first day away (tut tut) even though we put sunscreen on all day and I was sitting in the shad of a tree, obviously the rays got through.

The kids and Andy all went out ont he boat with he tube and were gone for more than an hour, then swam the rest of the day. This evening the kids have gone off to the local caravan shop to buy a prawn pump and bucket and are now down at the waters edge pumping prawns so they can go fishing tomorrow. You can imagine the squeals of glee/horror at the prawns having to be picked up. What a bargain, R85 for the pump and hours of entertainment for the kids - couldn't be cheaper.

We off to read my book some more - will post some more soon.

Absolutely nothing to say on this one but AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW HOW CUTE!!!!

Just finished a lovely dinner of snacky finger food with Ingrid, Nana and Oupa, Nicky and Gran. The kids had their own friends there, so we ate first and let them have the leftover - mean hey!