My Birthday

I turned 46 today. I think that I am at a very good place in my life at the moment and getting very comfortable with who I am. My hair is back to normal brown again, I have ditched my "false" nails and don't feel ugly anymore when I decide not to wear make-up. Maybe I am eventually growing up? Who knows. Colin took this photo of me this morning as I was running out of the door to go do a kiddies scrapbooking party. I had to work on my birthday, how sad is that! I actually enjoyed it very much and it is money in my pocket!
I met my 2 sisters and 2 of my friends for coffee this afternoon and we had a great time. Stefanie took some photos, will let you see them when I get them from her. My sister Ansie gave me these gorgeous roses, 1 1/2 bottles of pink champagne (my favourite), Lindt chocolate and a lovely card.
Carol gave me these lovely lavender goodies and a chocolate on a stick. With a pink bow of course!
Stefanie gave me this gorgeous scarf that she bought in New Zealand. This photo actually does not do it justice, it is lovely!
I forgot to take a photo of the gift I got from Michael and Simone! They gave me a card, snow globe (I had to put on my reading glasses to see it properly - growing old sucks!), a reading light that clips onto a book and a gift voucher from exclusive books.

My sister Herlien bought me a little black dress last year that was for Christmas and my birthday. If it wasn't so cold I would have worn it tonight!

My family will be buying me a new melton jacket for my birthday. My old jacket got to big for me and I decided that my birthday was a perfect time to replace it.
A photo of my baby. After all these years it still amazes me how she can do so many things upside down and then pull herself upright without dropping whatever is in her beak. She must have very strong stomach muscles!

All in all I had a very good day. Colin and the kids made supper, lamb chops and sausage on the braai, carrot salad, garlic bread and a tossed salad. Very yummy! Robyn made the most delicious chocolate tart for desert. Forgot to take photos so you will have to take my word for it.

Uploading the photos for this post reminded me why I stopped blogging, it actually takes up a lot of time!

A whole weekend of birthday!

I made dinner for my family on Friday evening. It was very good and I think everybody enjoyed it! We only had 3 guests: Simone, Herlien & Mark.

Simone made Decadent chocolate pudding. If you look closely you can see the chocolate oozing out on the side. It was absolutely devine!

We also bought some sparkling wine, which I insisted on finishing. The kids thought that I was very funny! Well, somebody had to finish it, it was too good to waste!

I chose my own present from Robyn and Andrew. I have been eyeing this frame for quite a while and decided that I wanted it. Now I must just decide what photo of Ethan I want to put in it. Their is space at the bottom of the frame where I can have his name engraved.

We had another helping of pudding after breakfast yesterday and then went of to do a bit of shopping and to get Robyn's birthday gift from Richard - a belly ring. We ended up going to 2 shopping centres! It was very sore! I wanted to take a photo, but Robyn didn't want me to put the photo on my blog - how horrible is that!

We left the kids in Michael and Simone's capable hands, and went out to dinner with Stef and her hubby. The food was very good! (We ate far too much this weekend) We went and saw Elvis Forever at the Barnyard afterwards. It was also very good! Strangely enough the spectators were mostly our age and older, wonder why that is? We got home rather late, but it was well worth it.

We went to church this morning and spent the afternoon with friends. We had a good lunch and then my friend and I scrapped for a while. I had a really great weekend and sadly I must now return to the real world again - until next year!!

This is the other photo from my breakfast with Stef:

I am 45 today!

Yes, I am 45. I must admit, between the stiff neck and sore hip I sometimes feel much older! Colin brought me a cup of coffee and my present to bed this morning. Fortunately he didn't take any photos as I looked particularly sad this morning, bags under the eyes and messed up hair, sure you know what I mean! He bought me a new watch as I battle to see my other "silver" ones face. Sad getting old! Anyway, he sorted the kids out and got them of to school. Afterwards he came back so that we could have some alone time and made certain that the bed was made up and the dishes were done! Sweet man!
I complained to Colin that Robyn didn't wish me happy birthday, so he told me that she is cross as I didn't phone her on her birthday (I was in Kidds Beach). Nevermind the fact that I was busy directing furniture and boxes all day! Anyway I bought her this cupcake to apologise:
Needless to say, I was forgiven! Stefanie and I went and had a lovely breakfast at a shopping centre. We went there as they serve delicious eggs benedict. Stef did take some photos, I will post them when I get them. After breakfast we went shopping. It was a really great morning! My family, Simone, Herlien and Mark will be eating here tonight - I said I would cook. Simone is making a decadent chocolate pudding - I will take photos:

Here is a photo of granny with her little grandson. He is now 5 weeks old and too gorgeous! Seems to be getting darker by the day, but we love him so much that it doesn't matter! (Note to self: start wearing make-up, you really look dreary!!)

The little boy from closer up.

Ethan had a dirty nappy while we were there and Allisen made Michael change the nappy! He managed very well and Ethan's little "bottom parts" were thoroughly covered in fissan paste!

Stef, this is the photo I wanted to put in a frame. Only saw the face when I downloaded the photos - it will just not do!! I think I will use my favourite photo - the one where you can see his little hands.

Michael went and spoke to Simone's mom last night. She was a para-legal and knows quite a bit about the whole custody thing. She suggested that he approaches the maintenance court and then take it from there. We are NOT giving up!!! Please continue praying that the whole process goes speedily as it can sometimes take very long! In the meantime I decided to approach Allisen's mom to see if we can't go and see him again. We will just not let Michael go there on his own again - she is far too abusive!

Later folks, I have to go and cook for the masses!

Babies and parties

We saw baby Ethan everyday except yesterday. Michael has decided that he is very boring as he sleeps all the time. He doesn't know how lucky they are! Isn't he just too adorable, here comfortably sitting in his daddies arm!
Isn't these little hands just to "oulik"!

To think those perfect little hands are still going to get up to such a lot of mischief. His hands looks a lot like Michaels. Very broad with the slightly broader thumb. If you look closely you will see the little brown marks just above his nails. He is definitely going to become darker as he gets older. Not that granny minds at all!

My niece, Stephanie, turned 18 yesterday. She wanted a pink cake with "panda" written on it. It came out very well.

The cupcakes also looked gorgeous! It really was worth every bit of time we spent on making them! Stephanie was really very happy with her cake and couldn't believe how much trouble we went to for her birthday party!

The mama and Stephanie.

Michael and Simone, his new girlfriend. Simone loves working with sugar and icing and helped us ice the cupcakes and she also wrote the "Panda" on the cake. A very talented young lady and then she has a lovely personality as well. Thanks Simone!

As you can see it was a very busy weekend. I am supposed to clean house today, but my friend is bringing her daughter to me for babysitting, so I will rather do that than clean house I think!

My week at a glance

A whole week since I blogged - goodness me! Anyway, I think everybody knows by now that I am not very fond of spending time on the computer. I spent quite a bit of time sorting out my photos today - must be a record!
Chillie getting a bit of love. He is doing well, I just feel sorry for him as his "mother" doesn't give him as much attention as what he should be getting. And my green bird is not happy when I spend time with him.

My sisters daughter is turning 18 on the 22nd of March and wants a kiddies party and the theme has to be pandas. My sister and I sat and made these pandas last week. We must still paint the eyes and noses. They got a bit flatter and fatter after we left them to dry, but I think they will look really good on the cupcakes. The bigger one is supposed to go on top of the cake, but unfortunately it cracked when I put clingwrap over the plates. The big one wasn't dry yet! I am sure we can make another plan!

I saw this cute bird last Friday, and just couldn't resist it! It goes well with the bedding we are using at the moment, but I don't think it will go too well with the new bedding we bought! Anyway, I will make it work. The boys are painting our bedroom this weekend and I am very excited! Will (try) post a before and after photo. My sisters boyfriend and Colin are also going to fix up the kitchen a bit on Sunday. Hopefully they will find the ant nest and destroy the whole thing!
I found this at Cum books last week - I want to put it in my bedroom once the painting is done - will go very nicely with the new colour scheme.

It was quite a busy week for some reason. Don't ask me why as I really don't know, I seem to waste a lot of time. Did the usual scrapping on Tuesday, had breakfast with the mama on Wednesday and have been rather house bound this past two days. My car had to go in for some repairs and couldn't come home last night. Hopefully tonight. It has actually been quite a nice and relaxing day today. As I said I sorted some photos, I also read and went through my new CK magazines for inspiration.

The grandchild still hasn't been born and with the due date that was yesterday, it can happen anytime. I am getting very excited to see what the baby looks like and what sex it is. I am still hoping that it is a girl, even though the 1st scan did show a boy. Time will tell.

We are having a fundraiser at our church tomorrow. A potjie afternoon. I initially thought that it was a potjie kos competition, but apparantly there will be no prizes. Colin is making a potjie and I am making a pudding. I think it is going to be a very pleasant afternoon socialising with the members of the church and our guests. Will take some photos and let you see!

Have a great weekend!

He's back!

Well, the man came home yesterday and it is really great to have him back! He actually took quite a few photos, none with him in it, but he is still learning. Here is a few of his photos:
It was snowing on the first night when he went for supper.

He did some sight-seeing on Sunday and did quite a bit of walking.

We took Michael out for supper for his birthday. Don't worry, he wasn't drunk, just acting!

Richard was holding the straw paper and Michael was cutting it with the steak knife. And they call themselves adults! We had a lovely evening.

Of course the man had to go back to work today, so it was just a normal Monday for me. We had to go to the High School to collect Robyn's text books for next year and then we did a bit of shopping for stickers. I wonder why?

We went to the "Liggieboom" at Andrews school on Saturday evening, but it was raining. They moved the play and carols by candlelight to the hall, but unfortunately their was not enough space for everybody. We had supper and then went home. We did however hear the fire works later on in the evening.

I also had a very good session scrapping with my friend on Saturday. Will show you a layout tomorrow.

Sleep well!

Bits and pieces

I woke up to this site this morning! Boys sleeping everywhere! As some ladies came to my house today to do some scrapping in our teachers absence, I had to get them up quite early! We had a great time scrapping though and are planning to do it again next Tuesday as our teacher is really galavanting all over the place! Lucky thing, I think I am just jealous!

This is my gorgeous daughter that turned 14 on Saturday. She celebrated by having a whole crowd of teenagers over on Friday night for a party. It was rather loud, but luckily we could close the interleading door and have reasonable peace. It was actually quite nice as they played games, listened to music and basically acted silly all evening.

I wanted to add a photo of Colin working on the roof, but the silly blogger wouldn't download it. Will try again tomorrow.

My beautiful son turns 21

Tomorrow morning at 07H10 my firstborn will be turning 21. We had a very nice family braai for him yesterday and everybody enjoyed it very much. Robyn made a poster and I named it "Michaels journey to 21".

Looking at the poster afterwards I realised just how far we have come in the past 21 years. He was this gorgeous little baby that screamed a lot and drove me almost insane, but very proud that I could create such a gorgeous little thing (with a little bit of help from Colin of course!)

It was really lovely having the whole family here and catching up with them a bit. Max tried to convince me that it is much further from Fish Hoek to Brackenfell than what it is from here to Fish Hoek, but we still felt very honoured having him, Aunty Judith and Karl here with us. The amazing thing for me was that Max quoted " Life isn't about waiting for the storms to pass - its about learning to dance in the rain" for Michael in his birthday card and then when I opened my e-mail this morning there was a mail from Stefanie with exactly the same quote! Must be God at work as I felt it to be a very apt quote!

I just realised that my little boy has grown up into a gorgeous young man that I am very proud of. For those of you out there with the appropriate age daughter - he asked me to add his cell number, but I think you can rather phone me for it!