{CHEEKY MIGUELITO}

Miguel is going through the typical 2-3 year old stage of not wanting to eat his veggies. I try my best to get around this by telling him that if he eats his veggies, his stomach will take the food and turn it in to energy for his muscles so that he can then go play golf, read, build blocks etc. As I have told you before I limit Miguel's TV time to one 30 min program a day - his favourite is 'Little Einsteins' and will do his best to wangle as many viewings as he can. Today at lunch I again use my energy for muscles speech to get him to eat. He goes very quiet for a few minutes when all of a sudden he says "Mama, I have a great idea. If I eat ALL my lunch my muscles will have lost and lots of energy, so I think that i must use all my energy to watch 2 'little Einsteins' - okay? Is that a deal? Lets shake on it!" He says holding out his hand, head cocked to one side with that little cheeky grin... needless to say that he got his 2 Little Einsteins as a reward for resourcefulness and great invention!!

p.s The poor little thing was so tired from school that he fell asleep 10 minutes into the first one!!!

{FINALLY A NEW LAYOUT!}

Yes I know I have been very bad .... 'my bad'.

I did this one to say thank you to our friends the Banfields - you have come to know them over the last few weeks - Michelle, John, John jnr, Hannah and Rachel. We spent a great morning with them all on the beach yesterday. The kids had a blast in the freezing water.

Especially Miguel who has found two new 'best' friends or as he puts it "my friend the boy John' and 'my friend the big girl Hanna'.

On Saturday afternoon we went to their house for a BBQ for the Rugby - Miguel was in heaven, playing in the the garden, weaving in and out of all the bushes, jumping on the trampoline - Hannah made his week when she suggested that they play hide and seek, she was so patient with him and let him find her most times. He was shrieking with laughter and excitement!!! Thanks Hannah for spending time with him.

{JUST FOR MY SISTER}

Look what I learnt to do ... Just a little something to say hi to my sister and to thank her for all the baby sitting that she does for us - my own personal lifesaving princess!!

I tell you what ... im feeling pretty chuffed with myself!! ooohh now I have to go and tidy up the house enough me time!!! later ... :o)

{ANOTHER BUSY WEEKEND!!}

Well on Tuesday last week we had a grown up night out with Branden, John-Terry and Michelle. We decided that it would be great to go go-karting. We got to the track and Michelle chickened out ...'cheep, cheep, cheep". She left me all alone with the boys on the race course. My Larry those karts are fast!! I felt like I was flying - flooring it on the straights, skidding around corners - I was an animal. I thought that was actually a contender, until I realised that Chris had won, followed closely by second place John (ooooh... I bet he is hating to see that in writing!!) and then Branden - when I realised I still had two laps to go !! To drown my sorrows we went our for sushi afterwards.

This is Michelle, she and John are the funniest couple that I have met in a long time. We all actually knew each other about 15 years ago whilst we were at school. Michelle and I did not become friends then, but now reconnecting with everyone after all these years. We have connected and I think we are on the way to becoming friends ... gosh I hope so, she is such a down to earth person who is incredibly funny and positive - she (and John) make you feel good just being in their company.

On Friday night we decided to have a FONDUE or a fondle as Chris likes to call it ... Michelle THANK YOU SO MUCH for the fantastic organisation, the food not only tasted great but it looked to good to eat!! Miguel fell asleep in the car on the way there, so we had loads of grown up time, while he slept! Yay! Thanks Miguel. Brendan and the OTHER Michelle joined us. We started off with a cheese fondue and some wine. We tucked in like children at a party ... the wine started flowing and the laughing started. I cant remember when last a laughed like that. The boys were hilarious, the more they laughed and joked the more wine was consumed - it was a vicious circle, till I was begging for mercy.

For desert we had a CHOCOLATE fondue ... good God, I think that i died and went to heaven, I made and absolute glutton on my self and I say this with absolutely NO shame. I revelled in chocolate and I am proud. Then the photos came out - you know the ones ... the 80's photos - oh my goodness, the Madonna hair, tanktops, stone washed denims. We were screaming with laughter and Brendan and Michelle just kept the commentry comming, until we were almost falling down with laughter. The party ended at about midnight and to tell you the truth, if Miguel hadn't woken up, I think that we would have all been there till the wee early hours of the morning!! Thanks guys for a awsome night!!

I have to tell you some of the things that Miguel has come up with lately .. he is always making me laugh!!

The other day I am trying to give him some medicine that he is not very fond of, when he tells me ... "Mama, coz im a big boy I will take my medicine, but after I'm going to say YUCK!"

I have been trying to teach Miguel the concept of brothers and sisters, explaining to him that boys and girls that have the same mama and daddy are called brothers and sisters because they are family ... he thinks about this for a while and promptly states that " daddy is my favourite brother because he is my family!"

I an still trying to convince Miguel to move from nappies to underpants as he is now a big boy ... well to say the least - this has been met with great resistance. On most days he will use the toilet with confidence, but on this day he was too busy too and did not have the tine to take a loo break (according to him " No fanks mama, I'm busy"). I kept asking and he kept turning me down until at one moment I said to him "All your friends at school use the toilet and underpants" " Yes mama" he replied, "but they are not here .." How can you fight logic like that??

{WHAT A BUSY WEEKEND}

Well i don't even know where to begin ... oooh oooh i know I think I will begin where I whipped the boys at Poker on Friday night !! Yea Ha !! Malcolm has made me promise to let you all know that he was NOT there on Fri night to defend his title and according to him my win would not have been possible if he had been there ... humbug is what I say, GIRL POWER IS WHAT MADE ME WIN !!! Not the lack of Malcolm's 'expert' competition.

On Sat it was Brendan's birthday we went to JT and Michelle's house for a stir fry ...mmmm it was good!! Miguel stayed overnight with Abuela as he was not 100% better yet and I did not want him in the freezing cold air in Kloof. He picked up a bug - I assume from some-one at school, and was so ill on Friday.. Poor thing had his first school outing marred by coming home and being sick allover Abuelas couch and himself. Took him to the doctor because he kept complaining of a sore head and I know that it is unusual for young children to have headaches - Dr van Rooyen said that it WAS a virus and the headache was caused by the glands on the top of the back of his neck swelling (did you even know you had glands there?). Ran a very high fever all night 40/41Deg Celsius (40 degree Celsius = 104 degree Fahrenheit). By Sat mid morning he was 100% better - im so glad as it breaks my heart to see my Miguelito down and out.

Branden, Michelle and JT thanks for an amazing party - it has been ages since I have laughed and chatted like that - it was a medicine that the doctor ordered. Thanks. (See you on Tues at Go Karting - watch out baby I'm a mean machine!!!)

On Sunday we met up with Branden, Michelle and JT and their great kids - Jonh Jnr, Hannah and Rachel at Giba Gorge Bike Track. What an amazing place, it has over 20kms of off road bike trails for just about every one (though none sedate enough for me!!) as well as a huge BMX track that was infested with dozens upon dozens of kids of every age, shape and size. There is place to picnick, BBQ as well as a little coffee shop. We will be going there again.

Here are some photos that I took of the kids having the time of their lives, Thanks Michelle for allowing me to put photos of your kids on my blog. Will let you all know how the Go Karting goes tomorrow night ...

{Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com}

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, including condensed excerpts of Wikipedia articles and IMDb profiles, instant playing of videos, display of stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots brings the information needed right to the readers, without them having to leave the site, while other times Snap Shots enables users to "look ahead," before deciding if they want to follow a link or not, saving them time and effort and increasing their ability to focus on the content that matters most to them.
However, should you decide this is not for you, just click "Disable" in the upper right corner of the Snap Shots bubble and opt-out.

{NEW GLASSES!}

We have had such a busy weekend!! Poker on Friday night (sorry ladies, I let the team down... Malcolm won!! sigh ...). Got new glasses too!! What do you think?

Went to Debbie (Chris's cousin Nick's wife) birthday party - thanks Debs it was great, Debbi is one of the best party thower that I know.

Yes folks - I actually did a paper card, I must admit it was a lot of fun to work with paper again!!!

Then on Sunday Malcolm and Elmarie came round and the boys did a roased chick on the Webber (kettle BBQ) with all the trimings ...mmmm. Thanks boys im now stuffed for the week and i am going in to hybernation!