Friday, 30 March 2012
Frogs' Legs
I love spending lovely lazy weekends at home especially now that the weather has improved. Last weekend was one of those. On Saturday we invited some friends over for a braai. Just about everyone has children now so it is not only a social opportunity for us but a playdate for the kids. Our guests were not that keen on the frogs' legs we had for a starter but the boys loved the gimmick!
Monday, 26 March 2012
Sunday, 25 March 2012
Mother's Day
England celebrates Mother's Day in March and it is linked to Easter so it varies every year. SA takes a much simpler approach and marks the occasion on the 2nd Sunday of May every year. I guess that means I get to celebrate it twice every year!?
Nicholas made a lovely card for me at school. He designed the picture on the front in ICT, wrote the message inside himself and did a lovely collage to finish it off. That wasn't all, he also made a photo frame for me, with a picture of himself at the Discovery Center from a few weeks ago. And then while I was making supper he wrote a spiral love letter for me. As you can imagine I feel like one of the luckiest moms in the world!
Nicholas made a lovely card for me at school. He designed the picture on the front in ICT, wrote the message inside himself and did a lovely collage to finish it off. That wasn't all, he also made a photo frame for me, with a picture of himself at the Discovery Center from a few weeks ago. And then while I was making supper he wrote a spiral love letter for me. As you can imagine I feel like one of the luckiest moms in the world!
Saturday, 24 March 2012
St Patrick's Day
I've been dying to make green eggs and ham for breakfast ever since I came across the idea a few weeks ago. St Patrick's day seemed like the perfect excuse to try it out. Daniel gobbled them up, as he does with anything resembling an egg. Nicholas on the other hand sounded a bit like Dr Seuss, 'I don't like green eggs and ham!'. It was a good gimmick but I won't make a habit of it!
My Granny always used to make floats for us when we were kids. It's one of the reasons we used to like visiting her so much. So far I haven't exposed my boys to fizzy drinks other than sparkling water which they call jet water. When I saw some cream sodas at Snoggy's, the South African shop at the end of the road, I thought they'd make the perfect St Patrick's Day treat!
We went to the Jacksons for a braai in the afternoon. Phillipa enjoyed showing off the trap she built for the leprechauns. Much to my amazement Nicholas could remember the trap they built together last year very clearly!
What a perfect excuse to do some rainbow arts and crafts. One of the blogs I like to read, Pink and Green Mama, has some lovely ideas. The sun was shining the other day so we we decided to take advantage of it and did some painting outside. It was fun starting off with the three primary colours and mixing them to make the seven colours of the rainbow: Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet. Of course we were tempted to paint some other things too!
Any excuse to bake, right? Daniel and I decided to bake some green banana muffins and then when Nick got back from school we decorated them, in green, of course. I don't like a mess so I find it very hard to 'leave it up to the kids'. Next time I must try harder to let them just do the decorating all on their own!
My Granny always used to make floats for us when we were kids. It's one of the reasons we used to like visiting her so much. So far I haven't exposed my boys to fizzy drinks other than sparkling water which they call jet water. When I saw some cream sodas at Snoggy's, the South African shop at the end of the road, I thought they'd make the perfect St Patrick's Day treat!
We went to the Jacksons for a braai in the afternoon. Phillipa enjoyed showing off the trap she built for the leprechauns. Much to my amazement Nicholas could remember the trap they built together last year very clearly!
What a perfect excuse to do some rainbow arts and crafts. One of the blogs I like to read, Pink and Green Mama, has some lovely ideas. The sun was shining the other day so we we decided to take advantage of it and did some painting outside. It was fun starting off with the three primary colours and mixing them to make the seven colours of the rainbow: Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet. Of course we were tempted to paint some other things too!
Any excuse to bake, right? Daniel and I decided to bake some green banana muffins and then when Nick got back from school we decorated them, in green, of course. I don't like a mess so I find it very hard to 'leave it up to the kids'. Next time I must try harder to let them just do the decorating all on their own!
Finally, we're trying to grow some Irish Luck, four leaf clovers!
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Toothless
Last Wednesday, the 14th of March, Nick lost his second tooth. Exactly 1 week after his first one fell out. He now has a splendid gap in the center of his bottom teeth. I believe it's a good thing because it means the two new teeth ought to grow simultaneously. I've been calling him Toothless ...
... which he kind of likes because his latest favourite movie is: How to Train Your Dragon. This was actually the very first and only movie that we watched at the 3D cinema - way back before Nicholas' 4th birthday - he quite liked it then too. A couple of months later we attempted Toy Story 3 - TOTAL DISASTER - after 2o minutes of hysterical crying we had to leave. Ever since then he has been anti movies big time. You might be wondering why dragons didn't scare him but toys did. The answer is simple: the dragons were friendly and the toys were mean. The boy has a soft heart. We decided that we wouldn't rush him and that we would re-introduce movies slowly as and when he was ready. It's taken a while but we finally have him watching movies at home. Now I can't wait to go to try out the cinema again!
He chose one of the How to Train Your Dragon books for his free book as well. All other books have taken a back seat now. This is all he wants to read. Every time he opens the book he points out to me that there are NINE books and he wants them all. I love it when he tries, and mostly succeeds, to read it himself. We found the official website which has all sorts of fun games on it!
... which he kind of likes because his latest favourite movie is: How to Train Your Dragon. This was actually the very first and only movie that we watched at the 3D cinema - way back before Nicholas' 4th birthday - he quite liked it then too. A couple of months later we attempted Toy Story 3 - TOTAL DISASTER - after 2o minutes of hysterical crying we had to leave. Ever since then he has been anti movies big time. You might be wondering why dragons didn't scare him but toys did. The answer is simple: the dragons were friendly and the toys were mean. The boy has a soft heart. We decided that we wouldn't rush him and that we would re-introduce movies slowly as and when he was ready. It's taken a while but we finally have him watching movies at home. Now I can't wait to go to try out the cinema again!
He chose one of the How to Train Your Dragon books for his free book as well. All other books have taken a back seat now. This is all he wants to read. Every time he opens the book he points out to me that there are NINE books and he wants them all. I love it when he tries, and mostly succeeds, to read it himself. We found the official website which has all sorts of fun games on it!
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Spring is finally here
Happy spring day everyone! Scientifically, today is the vernal equinox (Wikipedia) in the northern hemisphere, that means it's officially the first day of spring. The seasons changing is one of my favourite things about living here. Each season has it's attractions for me!
Spring has definitely been in the air for the last week or so. One of the first signs of spring for me is all the daffodils that seem to spring up from nowhere. Before you know it, the trees burst into bloom and other flowers start appearing. There's no wonder the birds begin to sing. Not only have we had sunshine and blue skies, but the days are clearly getting longer and longer. It's amazing the effect some good weather has on a person's mood!
I'm planning on doing loads of spring related activities with the kids in the next few weeks, especially since it will be holidays soon. I decided to kick the whole thing off with a cool idea that I found on one of the blogs I like to read (Colour Giggles). The boys were a bit perplexed when I gave them 7 jelly beans and suggested that they plant them and water them and leave them in the sunshine to grow. They were even more puzzled the next day when there were two multicoloured lollipops instead of a beanstalk. Danny was totally fooled by it all but Nicholas told me in no uncertain terms that it was impossible. That didn't change the excitement of licking the biggest lollipops they'd ever seen!
Spring has definitely been in the air for the last week or so. One of the first signs of spring for me is all the daffodils that seem to spring up from nowhere. Before you know it, the trees burst into bloom and other flowers start appearing. There's no wonder the birds begin to sing. Not only have we had sunshine and blue skies, but the days are clearly getting longer and longer. It's amazing the effect some good weather has on a person's mood!
I'm planning on doing loads of spring related activities with the kids in the next few weeks, especially since it will be holidays soon. I decided to kick the whole thing off with a cool idea that I found on one of the blogs I like to read (Colour Giggles). The boys were a bit perplexed when I gave them 7 jelly beans and suggested that they plant them and water them and leave them in the sunshine to grow. They were even more puzzled the next day when there were two multicoloured lollipops instead of a beanstalk. Danny was totally fooled by it all but Nicholas told me in no uncertain terms that it was impossible. That didn't change the excitement of licking the biggest lollipops they'd ever seen!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)