more birthday photos...

more birthday photos

Presents...

So the day after... I knew I should have encouraged everyone to get the boys maybe things like a cooking set or microwave or kitchen stuff! Here is Ike playing for hours his little tea pot and tea cup set, stirring then pouring and pouring the water back and taking water from the pool. So nice to have peace to garden nearby while they play.

Nate got a present from Uncle oded... blocks to build a castle. Wonder what they will open as presents tomorrow?!

Happy birthday Michelle

Hmm, I thought I took more pictures than this? must have been those shots made by Barry that have inhibited my clicking power... he made something minty called a spring bok and something chocolatey called the soweto toilet.

Erik not to be outdone, made larger swedish shots tho they were in wine glasses! vodka with a list of at least 6 other ingredients. That one I didn't touch!!! The cake was yummy, it was called chocolate velvet, looked reddish, wonder if the chef did a "jessica seinfeld" and its actually beetroot choc cake?

Discussed Shelley's belated birthday... it seems it may be an all girls night thing at a Karaoke place.

Golf range gardening project

There is a golf range near our home, its on Main Road and facing the N1. Its been open for about 2 months and there are always people hitting balls. I should have taken a picture of the golf range side. Anyway these pictures are of the area where they will be planting a huge vegetable garden, there will be 3 mandalas (circles) and a kind of a slice of pie at the end (which will be planted with berries). The owners are a husband and wife team, he will run the golf range side and she is a chef and will get the bulk of the produce from her own garden that we will build and plant.

This thursday we went to stake out the mandala's. The biggest circle will be 20m in diameter and the other two, which resemble mickey mouse ears will be about 10m in diameter. Between the ears, olive trees will be planted. I may actually get to learn how to preserve olives!

While doing a walk thru, we passed all these lovely, wild plants. As the digging will be done by hand and not machine, the bulk of these will be saved and planted to another area. As we did the walk thru there was also a nest of some type of ant, it could be a termite? but there were no huge mounds. They were red tho and had big heads. Each ant was about a cm long. Funnily the ants inspired me to start a gardening sketch - scrap book.

Over the pass 20 months I have cut all sorts of gardening articles and this weekly gardening has been one of the best joys and pleasures here that I will try to document the places I have been (compost heaps, nurseries, seed places), the sites built and the people met, hopefully also before and after pictures of the veges! I think I have seen more of Joburg thru gardening in the last 3 months than the first 18 months of being here.

spring has sprung...

Days are longer now, just as the boys are doing 6am ++ wake up times... Those orange flowers in our back yard that seem to bloom one plant at a time in fall or spring, this year has decided to bloom altogether! Flowers and more flowers everywhere!

The Boys birthdays 2008

Nate is 4!! Ike is 2!! and they celebrated their birthdays at the Lonehill Firestation. Here are the shots I got on my camera, more shots to follow when I get them off the photographer on Tuesday.

Ike woke up late at about 8am! one of the latest he has slept. Had a big smile on his face and was very cheerful, but all that faded as the day wore on. Maybe those child guides on birthdays are right, invite 2 friends if the child is 2 and 3 friends if the child is 3... he was very clingy the whole party and did not seem to enjoy himself except in the beginning as the Clamber Club people did their set up and the end when it was cake time. My left arm today is sore from carrying him about. Ikey was probably sick though... he didn't eat much, not even the sushi placed in front of him.

Ike not happy on the fire truck... later tho he did sit quietly for the ride. The lock to secure the towel in the bathroom! I guess Malaysia is not the only place they lock towels, toilet paper etc... Michelle testing the pole, had to remind her its a kiddies party but it was also her actual birthday yesterday and she made full use of that priviledge (more photo's later of her birthday party).

The party planner, Belinda, did a wonderful job (www.cherrytreeevents.co.za) and I am glad she convinced me out of having a fire eater and juggler as the kids are small... she instead hired Clamber Club who brought party equipment and two very energetic young men to play games and entertain the kids for over 1.5 hours.

Then we had pizza making time and 3 fire truck rides so all the kids could go (the fire master was very nice to throw in an extra free ride!), I suspect many adults enjoyed the ride much more. I got to sit with Ike in the front. The sirens and hooting was quite exciting! Then the firemen let them play with the big hose.

Will post pics of the cake and other stuff soon! Nate said the best part of the party is the presents! this year, they are allowed to open a present a day, so far that is going quite well. They play with the toy at least for a day instead of being confused with so many toys. Nate looks forward to opening a gift every morning. Thanks everyone for the great gifts... we're not sure what they all are yet but am sure they are great!

Spring Hat Day 2008

Since I am having problems uploading images, I think I will stop at these 4 images. For Nates hat we used his builder hat and made big daisy petals, for ike's I used a soft builders hat and small petals, both have a little painted in ladybug. Of course, both kids refused to wear the hats! As backup i saw in China a cute bug hat and a ladybug one for myself.

Nate's big daisy hat ended up on his classmates head for the parade. That same day I had to go and get Ike earlier from school, he developed a high fever, then at night he had a barky cough... he now has croup. Its day 4 and although had no fever today, am not sure his cough is getting better. He's now been quiet for 5 minutes after coughing for 30 minutes straight. Has had drinking water, bathroom steam (hmm... should I take him to the steam sauna tomorrow?). Ike hasn't eaten much in 4 days, can't say his cheeks have disappeared but his belly has gone down a bit.

We now have a cold front and temperatures have dropped alot. Or was it a heat wave we got the last two weeks?

I have finally started Nate on night time no diapers, I had been waiting for 3 straight days with dry diapers but Phedre in one of her weekly notes said, if they know they have it on they will pee in it... So we did a few things, we have moved his room to where he has his own bathroom, we have talked about it for some time and we have also bought a very absorbent lining for the bed. Day 1 went very well, he woke up and went to wee, happy that he accomplished a dry bed. Day 2 (last night), went not bad, he woke up at 7am today and it was because he peed but he made it for 12 hours!

Day 3 (today), I forgot to have him pee before going to bed (oh oh). He is either not feeling great or going thru a growth spurt because at 6pm he wanted to sleep (instead of 7 his usual bed time). He was yawning alot and passed out by 630. We did have a bit of excitement where he let the dogs out and Elli was at our garage. While carrying Ike, and holding on to Bullets collar, the other 2 rats went to attack Elli. probably too much for nate, he stood frozen unable to help me close the garage door and then started to cry as we was scared, not sure if its because he was scared for Elli or jake and pistol.

Zooom zooom zoooooooom....

Here's a shot of the boys going down the ramp!

Slapped Cheek Rash

Nate had a few bites on his hands on sunday and I thought, oh no the mosquitoes are back already and it isn't even spring, the downside of a warm winter. Over the next few days the spots increased a bit and i thought they were probably mosquito related. Today he woke up with one very red cheek and I was hoping maybe it was because he slept on that cheek. Then both cheeks turned red!

I remembered that Emily had this slapped cheek condition and went to check it out on google. Well its the # 5 rash, hits kids 4 to 12 and apparently will go away... but its not supposed to be itchy. I send Ike off to school, got lucky with the dr and snuck in before his first 9am appointment. The symptoms are not consistent with Slapped cheek rash... more like bitten by something. So he is on some antihistamine and anti itch cream but it sure doesn't look like its subsiding yet.

He doesn't have a fever and fell asleep in the car. While at home with Mabo he found his train set from Idan and Ronni and this time he seemed more mesmerized by the train moving back and forth and getting little balls in the process. Even Ike at the end of the day sat with him watching the trains go back and forth and picking up balls and passing to thomas, percy and harold.

I've signed the kids up for more Chinese classes, found a teacher advertising at the Chinese grocery store and we will try going to her house on Tues, wed and thurs for an hour, both kids and me and see if we get into the swing of the language. I may then cancel Nate's Friday chinese class where he attends it alone and seems rather unhappy. I also contacted another Chinese teacher who will come to the house on Sundays to play with them in Chinese.

Today I excitedly went and attend my first day of one on one Chinese class, with my granddad's written works as study material... I need to find another teacher, the one I have is from mainland china and they have moved to jiantizi whereas the material I want to cover are all in fantizi. Maybe Nate's teacher will take me in!

I have been working harder at using chinese with the boys. Tonight I heard nate recite 1 to 13 in chinese before sleeping... must remember to recite more numbers.

Perfect afternoon part III

Finally caught a fish, its a bass of some sort, quite a good meaty fellow, perfect for steam fish but it got lucky too and was thrown back in.

Instead we had fried rice. I should have taken a picture of Ike sitting on the mat and feeding himself happily. He was happy to throw rocks in the dam and to play with the beagle pup.

Nate learning the finer points of fishing...

We had a great zip back on the golf cart and then nate stepped on a small piece of glass, a bit of blood, alot of tears. Ike then grabs some leafy plant and gets a splinter! I removed half but the other half I only managed to remove back home.

The ride back we encountered some traffic but I took the back route and managed to cut thru a few shortcuts and got back without the kids falling asleep. Very nice afternoon! Thanks Christine!!

Perfect afternoon part II

I can't believe how many new fangled fake baits there are, Ray showed us a wobbly jelly like fish and also a small octopus... they look quite real. He doesn't use any worms or shrimps... tho Kelly's nanny packed him some shrimps, she was sure that his lack of a bite was from the fake bait he used.

I think people who fish seem to like to fool the fish, Ray was tossing in the bait and then making it swim pass the fish a few times. Then the fish suddenly took to the bait.

While waiting for Ray to catch something, the kids ran around the golf course chasing those polka dotted birds and ike had a great time practising his run down the slopes.

Then we saw a golf cart come... and it delivered food!!! It was definitely not a rough it picnic. When we got there the drink station was already up and a table and an umbrella!

Perfect afternoon part I

Today we got lucky and was invited by Christine to Eagle Canyon for a fishing and picnic afternoon. Every september, they close the golf course for maintainence and so she and her family usually enjoy a fishing day at the dam. her husband Liu loves to fish. We got greeted by the golf club manager, the boys had ice cream and then we headed out in 3 golf carts, racing thru the golf course, it is quite a hilly one so we were going up and down, lots of giggles from the boys. I had to drive with my left hand and use my right to hold on to Ike. That was already immensely fun!

It was windy enough to put up a few kites... I think I will start collecting kites again to fly with the boys as they are now probably old enough to do so. I gave my last bundle of great kites to a kite flying friend in Singapore before we left 5 years ago. I should build the collection up again, it is a really fun activity on a golf course with no golfers.

Here is Uncle Ray, stringing up his fishing pole.

Art from Africa

Here is Ike's first artwork that I have brought home that will go into his scrap book, which reminds me I need to try and put that in some organised state. Nate really likes looking at his old works and pics, I really should get cracking!

nate did the "mounted" lion head, its from paper mache over a balloon. Its hung up in the toy room. While bubbi was here she helped us get a higher and bigger table for the boys to work on and some chairs as well. We can do proper art and craft there now.

The last is photography art, from my N82... a barber shop in the middle of nowhere... this is more like the africa I had expected to see. Speaking of which, loren has headed to nigeria today and will be back on sunday morning.

Weekend activity

We took the boys swimming at heated pool at virgin on both days and will make it a routine. Ike has swimming lessons starting mid Sept but i will have to be in the pool.

He is now the perfect copy cat, what gege does, he will do too. He was so upset over the weekend that he did not have a swimsuit like gege. His terrible 2's are also quite shall I say, terrible. His vocab is still not increasing at any fast pace tho he said a 2 word sentence today.

Here's shots of them picking rocks at the gemstone area in gold reef city, ike and his appletiser in a coffee cup and them with dada at the birdpark on sunday. The two beijing olympic hats from one of loren's clients was a really good gift!