Finally Spring Tea Day is here ...

What an awesome day we've had today and yet again another Proud Mum Moment (PMM) ... the boys, Kelsey & Heinrich did not let me down at all .... in fact they rose to the challenge beautifully and their table was SHHTUNNING !!! (as you can all see by the photos ....

Our Hosts ... Kelsey & Heinrich ....

Different stages ...Kelsey doing the chair bows on the left ...

Table finished ... almost

Can I pour the champs now ??? Can I please ???

The finishing 'tweeks'

Just some of our guests ... Cyndi & Diane missing from here here

L-R Lynette (Heinrich's mum, June, Irena, Mum, Juno, Tamar & Tegan

The best 2 looking gals at the table...(and yes the hair has 'streaks' in it ... the blue has almost gone now)

My amazing centrepiece:

Although we did not win any of the prizes !!! judges just didn't see what we could see ... maybe they didn't have their pink & black glasses on LOL ... but as far as I'm concerned our table was by far THE BEST (oh and I am biased)!!! (I think and this is just my personal opinion ... we were way toooo good for their categories ... so they felt sorry for the others and gave them a prize instead PMSL)

We had a really great fun filled morning ... with a scrummy breakfast :

The Menu....

Hot Croissants with Butter & Jam

Freshly Baked (and mum was up at 6.30am to make them) Cheese Scones

Ham & Spring Onion Quiche

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Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Muffins

Koeksisters (local delicacy)

Melktert (also local)

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Tea, Coffee

Pink Champagne (non alcoholic boo hoo ... kids serving etc...)

Fruit Punch (also non alcoholic boo hoo)

The kids served us our teas & coffees, filled glasses, passed the buns etc... it was a really awesome morning ....

Oooh and forgot to mention the 'Special Guests' .... apparently some "Amazing International Models" !!! (ROFLMAO) had been hired for the day to give us a sample of their .... professioanlism LOL

This young 'LAD'y was just 1 of the Blonde Rugettes...

Here is a photo of the 2 'Blonde Rugettes' ....

And I am bloody knackered ... the whole week (well last month or so really )has been planning, making, changing and adding for this event ... I only went to bed at midnight last night and tossed and turned, made new lists etc till 2.30am .. eventually got SOME sleep and we were at the school for 7am sharp !!!!

AND now it's over ... all the stress, the tears, the cross words, the frustrations, the aggro and the sore fingers (not to mention the empty purse too) ... and I'd do it all again in a heart beat ... ;-)

NOW WHAT AM I GOING TO DO TO KEEP ME BUSY ???

MMMmmmmm......

yet more ... what's she up to ???

Bet you just can't guess what our Theme is ??? Can you ? eh?

What? Another Week !!! Gone ??

Aaah!!!! ... another week gone by and just no time for anything !!!

Once upon a time I was able to blog daily ... what's happening here ???

I will be soooo glad when August is over and maybe, just maybe I can get back to some normality ... like what's that ????

The weekend was just a distant blurrrrr ... Heinrich stayed at our place after rugby on Friday night ... they had to do their 'practice run' for this Saturdays Spring Tea !!!! ??? ( OH ! boy it's going to be fun .... that's all I'm going to say about it .... at least I know Kelsey can tie a BOW !!! LOL)

But first thing Saturday morning I had a Scrapbooking Demonstration ... that was fun ... I had planned this whole talk etc ... (as you do!!!) with my demo model etc. etc. When I got there I found there was another lady there ...she was giving the ladies group a chat on cosmetics first ... and I got thrown my curve ball ... "If you can just chat for about 20mins" ... LIKE Hellooooo who can explain Scrapbooking in 20 minutes ... I only start to get warmed up at minute 19 !!!! :-0

But true to my professional (ROFLMAO) self ... I pulled the white rabbit out of my hat and I think the ladies all enjoyed my demo and very quick run down of Scrapbooking !!!

It was dash home ... start the 'dry run' of the table settings ... several swear words, screams and temper tantrums later ...(Kelsey only broke the brand new .... never used ... Pump pot before we even got started !!!...aaargh ;-(.... Eventually I think, hope and pray that I got the idea through to the boys of what it should look like ... I promise there'll be tons of photos next week ....

But of course the boys were not really interested ... they were too busy planning their visit to Jenna's house ... her dad had said they could all go round there for a braai !!! ... :-) so I dropped the boys off ... Heinrich dad brought Kelsey home after 8pm ... so after my crazy hectic stressed morning I said 'stuff it' and I read my book !!!!

Sunday we were off to rugby ... of course ... our home match so there was so much more to organise ... We won of course ... both U13A & U13B so we are TOP of our leagues !!! ... our super star boys !!!

BUT Kelsey had a bit of a rough day ... I've decided there's going to be NO MORE socialising over weekends when he's playing ... he's just tooo tired and incredibly GRUMPY !!!! I'm so NOT USED to a grumpy child .... (teenagerdom I'm told!!!)

Monday we had no school ... thanks to the damned striking teachers AGAIN !!!! But I was up and out rushing off to help Juno ... she's the coordinator for our GOLF DAY ... which by the way is Tomorrow ...with Spring Tea on Saturday .... HOW STOOPID is that ??? this is the reason we mum's are running around like headless chickens at the moment !!!

T.G. Tuesday and Wednesday have been back to normal for school ... except I'm a p'd off mum ... because of all the time lost courtesy of the strikers !!! the school has decided to move the dates of the GR7 school play to a week later ... this now means that Paul will AGAIN not be here to see the play ... the performances were supposed to be the 1st week of October and Paul is here until the 9th ... now they have moved them to the 11th - 16th !!! Of course I did the expected 'toys out of the cot' performance at school ... not that it makes any difference ... but I felt better ;-)

TODAY I am supposed to be finalising ALL the stuffs for Spring Tea cos I is helping at the Golf Day tomorrow ... what am I doing ??? Blogging and procrastinating again !!! What can I say I work soooo much better under pressure ...

BUT wanted to get this written up otherwise I'll be writing 2 weeks in 1 and that would be way tooo confusing !!!

Soooo back to work! Back to Work !!! ;-)

NOW WHAT...

is she up to ... ????

IF ....

... I said this week has been manic I think that would be an understatement ...

Can't believe it's Thursday already and I haven't had a minute to blog !!!

Where to start ... well the party was a roaring success !!! We ended up with all the friends and family, Lawrence, Penny & the kids, June, Irena, Cyndi & Robyn& Jason, Juno, Steven & Kids as well as about 25 kids from school .... phew the nightmare did not come true !!!

Kelsey ... ready to P.A.R.T.Y ...

Matthew ...also ready to P.A.R.t.y ...

Seems the boys are having a good time !!!

Even the older generation party-ied ... in fact I think the oldies enjoyed it more than the youngies !!! Of course we missed Paul... and we even played a 'special song' for Uncle Ben ... A good night was had by all...

Sunday we were up early and out to rugby ... again... bummer our match started at 10am so we had to be there by 9 for warm up ... day started out lovely and within 20 minutes we had gale force winds blowing ... very strange weather patterns !!! But that didn't stop both our A & B teams from winning their matches ... both teams are top of their leagues at the moment ... after having eaten a fair bit of the pitch I called it a day by 3pm ... had to drop Matthew off at home then we went home to catch so ZZZZZ's

Monday was just a flash by ... with stuff to return, calls to make, e-mails to do ... 1000 odd photos to sort from the rugby, letters to cut for the class on Tuesday ... and before I knew it it was pick-up time, homework, food and bed !!! I'm sure there are no longer 24 hrs in my day !!!

Tuesday another flash past ... school run, mum, shops, bank, school scrapbooking,(had another 6 kids join us today !!! that now makes us 12 ... so they had to catch up with the others !!!) collect Kelsey after rehearsals, extra lesson with Mandy, homework, dinner ... bed .... !!!

Wednesday ... aqua (exercise good but the bloody rash has come back again with a vengeance... apparently the lady has now changed the pool chemicals ... reduced the amount ... but it's not making any difference ... really p'd off cos this scratching is driving me mad soooo I may just have to give the aqua up ... I don''t get itches when I'm not at aqua !!!) Then the rest of Wednesday I was running around collecting prizes etc. for our Golf Day and the Grade 7 Spring Tea ... got home in time for a sarnie, and it was back out to school to drop off prizes etc... Kelsey got some Mr Price sports vouchers for his Birthday so I promised him a visit there ... he didn't find anything he liked ... told him to wait till we go the bigger store at Pav. Home ... homework and off to rugby practise ... the boys looked like they really enjoyed themselves tonight ... think the lovely 'balmy' evening had something to do with it !!!

And then onto today ... for my sins I have agreed to give a Scrapbooking demonstration and talk on Saturday for one of the local Ladies Groups ... like I don't have enough on ... (stressing over this damned Spring Tea the kids are supposed to be doing ... and in fact I'm doing it all ... but then again ... if I wasn't so bloody fussy I'm sure Heinrich's mum would help ... but I would only find fault with it so ... moan moan moan ... I have to do it myself !!!!) SO it meant today I HAD to get some scrappy stuff sorted out ... T.G it was much cooler today ... (in fact it's bloody cold !!! windy and thick black clouds in the sky... temps dropped to 13c ... after yesterdays 29c!!!)

Some 'BREAKING NEWS' ... get a panic stricken phone call from Louise (one of the mum's) this afternoon (Kelsey was supposed to be doing rehearsals so I wasn't collecting him until 4pm) there's rioting and toy-toying outside the school ... the teachers union (again not our teachers but the 'indigenous teachers) are on strike for better wages etc. etc. etc. all the usual bumf and gum pf ... and cos our kids are at school 'they' (the locals ... LOL ) decide 'they' are going to demonstrate outside our school ... but true to African nature ... it always ends up with violence and aggression !!! Everywhere else in the world unions can go on strike -peacefully- NEVER in Africa !!! 'They' are apparently throwing stones, banging sticks jumping about like ... ("quote" a bunch of monkeys "unquote" acting just like savages !!!) scaring our kids, intimidating our teachers and threatening the parents that are there to collect their kids ...W.T.F ... riot squad are there, police ... the whole lot ...

Oh the joys of living in Africa !!! ;-)

(But there was 1 good thing came out of this ... No Homework today ... hooray !!) and that's why I've got a few minutes to blog !!!

And yes our kids will be back at school again tomorrow ... well the school will be open and it is at the parent's discretion ... I reckon only half the school will be there ... !!! Does this mean if our kids don't get pass marks cos they haven't had enough time at school and learnt all that they are supposed to learn that they will all pass no matter what ??? I bet NOT!!!!

Crazy Friday 13th ...

Yesterday was just crazy !!!

The teachers & governing body decided for the safety of the kids!!! ( due to certain parties striking !!! yes it does get that bad here !!!) that school would be closed yesterday ...

So you think it would mean a lie in no !!! Weekend madness just started earlier !!! I was up with the larks... collected Matthew, he's staying over at our place for the weekend ... due to a certain persons DIKSCO !!! (yes I spelt it wrong on poopuse !!)

The the kids in Kelsey's class, un-be known to Heinrich mum, had decided that they were ALL going to descend on her place !!! Poor woman... she phoned me frantically ... "did I know they were planning a braai?" NO of course not ... so Please could I call and get her some 'provisions' before dropping Kelsey & Matthew off !!! Poor woman (again)

Now Kelsey has an EXTRA lesson on Fridays ... so mum & I shot into town... get party foods ... then it was back to pick up K... take him to lesson, collect K... take him back to Heini's place... home ...in between the taxi service it was party platter cooking !!! :-) OOOh forgot to mention collect the cakes !!! ... then it was kit bag packed and off to collect K&M and off to rugby !!!

What a crazy day ... and Paul you want me to still find time to run a business !!! R.U. MAD ???

This morning it's been up and out early ... collect Hall keys ... pray the DJ is going to pitch !!! Pray there's going to be kids there too ... co no-one bothers to RSVP these days !!! (sorry to those 6 people who did bother to RSVP... out of the 50 odd invites he gave out !!!)

Now it's car packing, party food finishing off ... gotta go collect Balloons ... yes my 13 YEAR OLD son wants BALLOONS !!!! ;-)

Then we'll be off to hall... hope the Karate guy has been and moved his mats .. if not !!! we'll just dance on them ... be a bit sponge'y ...

Remember stoopid things like --- torches for the bouncers LOL ... tables and extra chairs in case we don't have enough ...

Gosh this party stuff is damned hard work !!!

Please let it be a success and everyone have a good time ... please just let the relevant folk turn up ... oooh I said that already ,,, think I'm stressing a bit ???

A sad Farewell...

Today is an incredibly sad day for us all ...

We say a final farewell to a very special friend, a loving husband and a devoted father ...

Ben Strauss was an incredibly special person.

He was a quiet devoted man, a good friend who accepted you for who you were, a man who inspired others, was gentle, firm and true.

He loved his family, his life and the African Bush.

Ben you will be missed, but never ever forgotten.

FOREVER YOUNG....

Let's dance in style, lets dance for a while

Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies

Hoping for the best but expecting the worst

Are you going to drop the bomb or not?

Let us die young or let us live forever

We don't have the power but we never say never

Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip

The music's for the sad men

Can you imagine when this race is won

Turn our golden faces into the sun

Praising our leaders we're getting in tune

The musics played by the mad men

Forever young,

I want to be forever young

do you really want to live forever, forever and ever

Forever young, I want to be forever young

do you really want to live forever?

Forever young

Some are like water, some are like the heat

Some are a melody and some are the beat

Sooner or later they all will be gone

why don't they stay young

It's so hard to get old without a cause

I don't want to perish like a fading horse

Youth's like diamonds in the sun and diamonds are forever

So many adventures couldn't happen today

So many songs we forgot to play

So many dreams swinging out of the blue

We let them come true

Forever young,

I want to be forever young

do you really want to live forever, forever and ever

Forever young,

I want to be forever young

do you really want to live forever, forever and ever

13 Today ...

Wow it is soo hard to believe ... Kelsey is 13 today ... it feels like just yesterday that he was a new born baby ... and there I was so unsure of what I was supposed to do next !!!

We've had the most amazing, adventurous, fun-filled, stressed out, enjoyable 13 years ... I can hardly wait to see what the next 13 are going to be like :-)

Happy 13th Birthday Kelsey

Love from Mum & Dad...

Boy have we had a hectically crazy weekend ...

It started out with Sports Day on Friday ... we all went a little BLUE crazy ... to be expected from me this year ... this is Kelsey's last Sports Day at Primary School so the GR7's are allowed to dress up and go a little crazy ... seems the mum's think they can too ... LOL

Then we dashed home ... packed the car up ... only took us 4 hours !!! then we were off to The Berg for our camping trip ... 3 whole days of it !!! (Monday was a public holiday for us here in SA 'Women's Day')

All I can say in MAD !!! NEVER AGAIN ... if I ever had any doubts or misgivings about camping before this trip, it well and truly cured me of any stupid notions of camping again ... We arrived in the dark ... it was BLOODY freezing and we had no idea how to put the damned tent up ... some of the pieces were missing for the blow-up beds ... the air was damp !!! OMG it was miserable and so was I !!!! Mind you I was encouraged in my miserableness .. cos Stephen Juno's hubby was just as aggro about this whole camping thing and the stoopidity of pitching tents in the cold & the dark !!!!I hardly slept a wink the 1st night .... it was sooooooo cold ... even my eye balls were cold ... eventually I slept with 2 hot water bottles, my tracksuit (which I had a t-shirt & vest under that) my body warmer and a fleece jacket.... 2 duvets and 3 blankets ... long fluffy winter sox, I kept my gloves on AND my hat ... the 2nd night I pulled the hat down over my face I was that cold !!!! :-) ... Juno's girls slept in my tent with me ... and Kelsey shared a tent with Jason ... Kelsey (who NEVER complains of the cold) said he was FROZEN to the bone...

I have to say I just could not get my head into the "oh look at the beautiful scenery, oh this is luverly & quiet and we should be enjoying the beauty around us" MODE !!!! I figured if I moaned enough about it all I'll never get a second invite ... and if the others are daft enough to even think about inviting me !!! I'll just say NO THANKS !!! LOL...;-)

The mountains were beautiful though and during the day the sun shone so we were able to de-frost a little ... in fact Kelsey was stoopid enough to go swimming too !!!

Sunday night Cyndi decided to tell me about fan heater she has !!! great!!! So on the last night Kelsey moved into my tent with me ... Juno's girls moved into their tent with them (they had a heater for the baby) and we all got a better nights sleep BUT boy was I was soooo glad when Monday arrived and we could pack up ... only took us 2 hours to break everything down and squish everything back into the car ... and believe it or not but it took us a whole 38mins to unpack the car when we got home ... OK still have several full washing baskets ... but they'll empty eventually ...

Mum & Indi spent the weekend with Aunty June & Aunty Irena ... so we picked them up on Monday afternoon... and when we got back the weather here in Hillcrest was FREEZING !!!! And it still is ...

Monday night I received the worst ever phone call ... my bestest friend in the whole wide world, Nan phoned me to tell me her husband, Ben had died of a heart attack !!! Any of the regular blog readers will have heard me talk about Nan & Ben, they live up in Polokwane on the Game Reserve... Ben was called out to work on Monday evening as there was a bush fire, and he went with his crew to help fight the fire ... apparently he collapsed due to excessive smoke inhalation and the doctor was unable to save him ...

I can't believe this has happened and I am seriously struggling to come to terms with it all ... I don't understand ... WHY HIM???

A 'slight' change ...

While I was away in the UK a new rugby mum joined our group ... Anne with her son Stephen also playing in the U13 team ...

I'm sat chatting to the gang ... as you do ... and I mention that I really, really, really would like to have BLUE hair ... for Sports Day ... Friday 5th August ... Anne pipes up "I can give you BLUE hair !!!" I go "oh and hows that "... Yippeeee she's a hairdresser ... well that was it I was HOOKED...

An appointment was made ... and I told her I want BLUE hair !!!

So off I went today ...................

Anne has been working at her job for a fair few years and she has never had a problem giving other folk BLUE hair ... along comes me ;-) ... 3hours and 2 treatments later !!! and ...

Guess what ... the blue became the MOST GORGEOUS PURPLE indoors but BLUE in the sun, that I have ever seen and I LOVE IT !!!! Now I want ALLLLL the head the same colour !!!!

I think she was being a bit conservative ... so we only ended up with the 'blue/violet' 'splashes ... I wants it allllll this colour now !!! It is soooo wicked !!!

Ok in some light it has a blue tinge ... but hey is'nt PURPLE part of that colour spectrum anyway !!!

Mum was expecting me to come home with ROYAL blue hair ... hey I was kinda expecting the same thing ... NOW mum says it look 'SHTUNNING!'

Now tomorrow I will be supporting the BLUE team ... Go IBIS ....

A new visitor to the garden ..

Yesterday as I was working in the garden .. unpacking & checking the tent, for this coming weekends 'Berg Trip ' ... I heard some rustling in the dry leaves and the next minute here is this young chap sitting on the verge ...

Indi was rummaging thru the leaves sniffing and generally having a good old nosey around and this 'Lizard' just sat perfectly still while she walked up to him ... I ran to get the camera not sure if he would sit still long enough for some shots ... well as you can see he was as still as a 'dead' lizard ... I even managed to sit on the grass next to him to get these close-ups ... nature is such a wonderful thing ... as I was sitting there you could see his colouring changing to camouflage him ...

I'm not too sure which type of Lizard he is ... but I've searched the tinternet ... and he seems to fall into the 'bearded dragon' family somewhere ... It was amazing watching him ... and I even reached over and touched him ... he never moved a muscle ... then as I stood up to move around him he took off like a bolt of lightning and he was gone ... incredibly fast ....

With it being 'winter' here he was probably coming out for a bit of warmth in the sun ... shame we upset his tanning routine cos we didn't see him again after that ....

145 days ...

Sorry to have to do this to you but ... there are only 145 days till Christmas !!! yep you read it right !!!

WHY do I have to mention this I hear you ask??? Well today I popped into one of our local Cash & Carry's and there they were unpacking Christmas Decorations .... W.T.F !!!!

And on top of that... one of the mum's in the car park starts telling us she's planning on changing her Christmas colour scheme this year .... I mean hello ... AUGUST ... no where near Christmas ... still soooo much of the year ahead ... still tons to do before I even go there !!!

OOOH but did start buying some 'stocking' fillers today PMSL ....

I AM GOING TO MAKE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS THIS YEAR !!!! I am honestly I am !!!.... and maybe even card to ROFLMAO !!!!!

And here I am trying to get my head around Kelsey's 13th Birthday !!! Yes .... 13, our camping trip this weekend, our Golf Day at School and Grade 7 Spring Tea ... and that is just in August .... Plus I still insist on saying YES to "any volunteers for?" !!!!

But I have sent e-mails and sms messages to my trusty helpers (a.k.a my personal shoppers & dept. of Information... ) hopefully all this networking will do just that 'work' and I can have a smooth sailing for all my up-coming functions LOL .... (yes right ... you dream on sister)

Had a great weekend ... did the local markets ... found plenty to moan about with Thomas More College's so called proudly South African market !!! especially the ethnic stuff that had made in China on it LOL ... but oh can't be bothered with them ... their loss not mine ... I would sooooo have made their market stalls so much more up-market LOL....

Rugby Sunday ... could bombard you with tons of photos ... but won't ... Kelsey was even more thrilled as he was Captain and they won 29-7 ... so another great day for all .... and the weather this weekend has been phenomenal ... worried that it's the 'calm before the storm' .... please let the weather be good this weekend, please !!! So Don't want to be in a tent in the cold !!!!

Oh the itches went ... but they are back again this afternoon ... went back to Aqua this morning so think there may be something to that ???? Well I will just have to stop scratching and keep up the exercising !!! Doctor has advised to take anti-histamines before Aqua !!!Otherwise put up with it ??? We'll see !!!

Kelsey starts Hockey practice this week ... oh shin guards, gum guards ... the whole lot again ... boots etc... It's a never ending story ...

Oooh a bit of a teaser ... look out for an upcoming change ... soon ...