So...A Little Big Girl Turns 4

Today our beautiful girl turns 4!
We can't believe it has only been 4 short years since she joined our family, it's unimaginable thinking that there was a time she wasn't here as she lights up our home every day with her personality and smile.
She can write her own name, swims like a fish, dresses up every day and has her own sense of style, washes dishes, helps hang washing, sings her own songs and so much more, we are proud to know and love her xxx

 The face of concentration

 Creating art out of plasticine

 Dressing up

 Our new little fish

 

Happy happy birthday my girl, I hope being 4 is a marvelous adventure for you!

So...The sweltering heat

It has been hot hot hot here, especially the last few days.
While we have been enjoying the pool immensely, we are also all wilting under the relentless heat a little.  You know it's bad when your 6 year old comes crying to you that he wishes we could just have a rainy day so he can feel cool again :)

All the swimming has meant the children are coming along in leaps and bounds water wise though, our little girl finally let go of the pool noodle and realised what everyone else already knew...she could already swim!  Since then she is improving every day and is loving her new found water freedom.  Our littlest has also decided that since everyone else is swimming he will give it a go too, and he now swims from the step to you and back again....he swims underwater and can't lift himself out to breathe without the step or some assistance as yet, so he needs constant supervision, but we are very proud of him and if he continues I'm sure it won't be long before he is swimming unaided too.

We have been keeping ourselves busy with all the usual every day stuff and we did a quick trip back up to our old stomping ground for a bit of work and a bit of a family birthday celebration.  We enjoyed seeing family and friends again and it was a little nostalgic driving past our old house, but when it was time to leave we were all were happy to make our way back to where our home now is.  The trip confirmed we miss the people a lot, but we are quite happy to have left the city behind us.

Today we said goodbye to 8 of our roosters (and hello to some free range chicken meat), sadly you just can't keep that many around, they fight and can hurt each other and their hens.  However we have another batch of chicks joining the remaining rooster and his hens this weekend which we look forward to.  We've also managed to find a local source of raw milk (yipppppeeeeeee), and I made my first tiny batch of cottage cheese...scrumptious!  The veggie garden is flourishing thanks to my Mom and I recently added a kombucha SCOBY to the kitchen so I'll let you know how that works out.

Between being camera lazy and the children just moving too fast I don't have many photos to share, but here are a handful.

Very serious work washing the car

 Cutting and gluing activity

 Playing with Gellibaff goo

So...My Promise To My Children

Someone sent me a meme recently, it went like this...

My promise to my children ~ as long as I live ~ I am your Parent 1st -your Friend 2nd. I will stalk you, flip out on you, lecture you, drive you insane, be your worst nightmare & hunt you down like a bloodhound when needed because I LOVE YOU ! When you understand that, I will know that you are a responsible adult. You will NEVER find someone who loves, prays, cares & worries about you more than I do! If you don’t hate me once in your life – I am not doing my job properly. Re-post if you are a parent and agree

Now I have no idea why the person felt compelled to share this with me, it was an acquaintance and presumably they connected with something in this writing and felt I might too.  Perhaps they felt so strongly about it they forwarded it to everyone on their mailing list and it wasn't specifically meant for me?
Indeed after looking into it it appears this sentiment has been shared and agreed upon by thousands of parents worldwide, if not hundreds of thousands.

It certainly did invoke a response from my side, and I can assure you I am NOT re-posting in agreement!

Honestly I can't imagine a more unpleasant relationship with my children, or my own parents.

It saddens me that there are parents our there holding this twaddle up as some sort of ideal of what a loving relationship with your child should look like.

Some words that spring to my mind when reading it are 'controlling', 'possessive' and 'needy', which are the complete opposites of what real love is.

While trying to find out where this meme originated from I came across another 'promise to my children' which is much more aligned with my own feelings and I share them in the hope it will resonate with other parents out there.

PROMISE TO MY CHILDREN

I will love you, nurture you, talk with you, share with you, hold you, support you, respect you and trust you. I will know you are doing the best you can in any given moment and I hope you know I’m doing the same. May you find many people who love, care for and respect you like I do.

52/52 - The End

Wow, I can't believe it's been a year since I started this photo challenge and here we are already at the end!  I've had a good time and it definitely kept the blog ticking over, without the weekly updates this blog would have been in a very sad state indeed.  That said I am not sure what to do this new year, another photo challenge, take the blog in a different direction, focus more on the children again? At the moment I am very undecided...

But all that aside, here is my very last photo for the weekly photo challenge I set myself...and this one was a collaboration with my lovely husband :)

51/52 - Crochet Squares

So...Catching Up

There has been a lot happening over the last few weeks and the blog took a backseat for a bit, but I've finally had a chance to upload all my photos and catch up a bit, so here's some of what's been going on.

We lost a little girl who happened to be fast asleep behind a closed cupboard door (and her mother's heart nearly stopped beating for several minutes before she was located)

 Chickens outside my backdoor where they are fond of gathering and pooping right where the children can step in it before entering the house.

 We did a tree planting ceremony for each child

 The children decorated the Christmas tree and did a fantastic job

 My Christmas Angel :)

 And then the visitors started arriving, friends and family, and before we knew it it was the big day

We picnicked at the Karkloof falls, swam in the river and caught up with an old friend who was visiting from Dubai.

 My beautiful boy

 We celebrated some birthdays, and a special person invited us to Highover to spend the day with her.

 We came across some Impala on our walk

 And lots of termite hills - the children specifically asked for a photo of this one

The river was raging with all the rain we've had recently

 They have the loveliest campsites, we will definitely be back!

Then it was time for another birthday, my special boy's!

 We fingerpainted

 And body painted and swam and played

The children baked and decorated a cake, and it was time for candles...but not time for singing

 Showing how old he is!

 And finally we went to our local pub for a pizza dinner and the children had fun playing with the dogs there.

And that's all for now folks :)

50/52 - Chocolate Birthday Cake

The birthday boy asked if he could bake and decorate his own cake...with the help of his sister...and they did a superb job in my opinion!