Pizza on the braai

My friend Tracy showed me how to make pizza on the braai today. Boy is it tasty. So this weekend with Leon home we will attempt the most amazing pizza. Victoria is scared I will catch the braai alight like Lisa and I did. I told her not to worry as daddy will be home to help mommy.



Victoria acting like a banana.

  Cookie sale on Saturday
Kara, Victoria and Grace are having their first cookie sale on Saturday. They made fliers and were putting them in all the post boxes. Kara did a business plan. I bought pumpkin beer which tastes quite nice for the parents. Should be good fun.


The Fred machine(postman)



Kiddies handing fliers to all the shops. What good sports because they all put the fliers in their shop windows.

Will update you on the happenings on Saturday.

Celebration

Yesterday I got a skype from my dear friend Jude who said "hey whats going on, where are your blog updates"? I was yes they are coming, OK I will do it. Really not having much to say and been in a negative frame of mind. Anyway I decided to pull myself together and put some pictures up. I had some special moments with Caroline and Harold I wanted to share, I have a niece who is too cute and I wanted to share her. Its the small things that add up and make big moments. Also writing the blog you keep positive.

Another fantastic friend of mine Rose said to me one day when I was drinking wine with her in a camp site.  "We cry alone and laugh together". I want the together so I need to laugh and I need to be around fantastic people, so best I get laughing.

Leon has been in South Africa to see his mom who has just had a quadruple bypass. He had a very special time been with all the family. Its hard been left behind and I did well this time. He had the most special time with everyone in Nelspruit. Feeling a bit low as he has to say goodbye. One thing about living far away is you cope and make things happen and have a great time. When you with people who love you and care, you tend to drop your guard and allow yourself to dive in with gusto and cherish absolutely everything. Then its time to leave and you feel the whole in your heart. The whole closes after a while until the next time.

Kate and Jaco are getting married on the 5 October. I am so excited for them. They leave on Saturday to fly to Mauritius. The timing was so great because I was able to spoil her just before her special day. Megan helped me choose the bracelet and Kate loved it. Thanks Megan. I also had to add lots of cheesy wedding stuff. Kara and Victoria had the most special time wrapping presents for their cousins. Nothing better than a celebration to celebrate.

Caroline took this picture of us wrapping all the presents

Leon arrives in London tomorrow. The travelling has been a killer. Two days there and two days back. I am sure a curry will sort out the world for Leon and been in the company of special people will just do the trick.

I made a huge batch of biscotti biscuits. I will be handing it out. Two of the lifeguards / swim teachers I work with were kicked out of home because their father got remarried and the step mom does not like the kids. I feel so sorry for them. They were so kind to me today and thought a special treat would make them feel great. It made me feel great making them.

Now that we have been in the states for a year you get the hang of things. We are all sorted for winter. We have hired ski stuff for the season.

Cheers, ho ho and a wow wow to you all.
Lots of love

Stuff

Happy Birthday Megan

This is Kate's little baby girl Megan. She turned one on the 2 September. I am the worst auntie ever because I completely forgot her birthday. I always talk about Kate and the kids but keep saying Megan is 8 months. Well the months pass and I just never caught up. I wish for the day to give her a cuddle. One day soon.

Friends
Caroline and Harold drove all the way from South Carolina to come visit us and some other friends in New York. It was great to have the house full and full of energy. Caroline make us the most fantastic lunch when I got back from swimming. It felt so nice to be spoilt. Thank you so much Caroline. Always good to drink red wine with Harold.

Walk to  Earth Place

Softball fun in the garden

Sherwood Island
When James and Carmen came over to visit we took a ride to watch the model airplanes flying. James is passionate about helicopters. Due to bad weather is was cancelled. We need to get rid of cobwebs and needed fresh air so we loaded the bikes and headed out to sherwood Island. Good fun watching the planes

Dress up box

Caroline bought a huge big box of dress up clothes for the kids. They had a fantastic time playing with all the clothes and bags. Caroline you would have loved the shrieks of laughter. Its a good happy sound.

Westport Blues Views and BBQ
http://bluesviewsbbq.com/
Click on the link to listen to the music. It was great fun. There were a group of South African guys and their team was called the Vuvuzela's. They entered a BBQ cooking competition and came second place.

All the bouncy castles. Tracy and I were drinking beer and listening to the Blue music in the background.

Pig races

New York Weekend

Labour day weekend we took a trip to New York and decided to spend the night. It was such fun. As we left the Grand Central building we saw a film crew filming The Avengers. It was fantastic, a real life movie been filmed. They had cabs on their sides, pavement pieces all over the place. We watched them blow out the window in the restaurant. 5 minutes later the guys were picking up all the glass and a new window was reinstalled.

The Avengers

The Intrepid

We took the kids scooters again which really helps, so we are able to cover more ground. Loads of walking. I remember when Leon's parents went to New York they had to buy Lu another pair of shoes because hers were broken from all the walking.







Space capsule



The Concorde

The flight deck with the New York skyline behind us

On the move again and waiting for the bus. I'm bored, I'm hungry. Usual story with kids

Love all the taxis zooming past.



The High Line - http://www.thehighline.org/

The High Line was built in the 1930's. It was made to lift freight traffic 30 feet in the air, removing dangerous traffic from Manhattan's streets. The views are fantastic. The people are even better.

Trying to get the kids to use there creative brain and take photo's using their DS's. Kara had her gogo's  on the deck with the taxis as a background. Victoria was moaning somewhere. This is also where I broke my camera. So the rest of the photo's are taken with an aim, shoot and hope for the best.

I love the art and of course all the people. This was taken quickly in the meat packing district.

SOHO

Scooting along the pavement and we come across pavement art.



Cast iron Architecture

 Washington Square

 

Kids, water, sun and big smiles. Big signs no bathing in fountain. We must be in New york where people are a bit more wild and free. So the kids had a ball playing in the water. We watched the homeless also take their showers there too.



East Village

East Village looked better in the guide book. Lots of tattoo and piercing shops. I wanted arty farty. Not even interesting people. Loads of Chinese. They sure do get around. The lamp poles were covered in cable ties.





This really great pub Mcsorley's.