Bits and Pieces...

 Last weekend, we celebrated Paul's 40th birthday.  It was an awesome evening, with delicious snacks and Paul had all the important people (him and Jo above) in his life together to make him feel special.  Turning 40 is a very big deal, so thought I'd share one or two snaps here.  I've been very lucky, my sisters have both chosen great guys to be my older brothers and Jake's uncles.  Pauly-wauly, here's to the next 40! Hope we can make it for a drink without our walking sticks!!

Pauly and his big brother TJ, who flew in from the UK to be with his brother...

 Cutting the big 4-0 cake...

 And no photo of Paul would be complete without his now famous, sometimes annoying, Pauly-pout...

 New parents, Rosie and Gareth, were there too.  It was their first outing without Rylee.  Don't they look great for new parents??  I mean Rylee's only 4 weeks old today and this was last weekend...

 In amongst other things, Jake went to check out the scout KonTiki, which took place at the Sea Scout Base in Lakeside.  Their theme this year was Lab Rats and each scout group had to build a raft for 6 scouts to live on for 24 hours.  It was great for the cubs to see what they've got to look forward to when they move up to scouts...

Some of the rafts were really impressive, this one had a chair and hammock on the upper deck...

There are lots of rules for the rafts - they need to have a toilet on board and be able to cook.  They must have the South African flag flying and make a sail.  They also have to have a life boat.  All of this is built and decorated by the kids themselves and there are no nails used in assembly - this is all rope work...

There were probably about 30 rafts and they were all declared sea-worthy.  After a little parade by the teams, they were on their way...

On Sunday, we decided to get the kids together.  The kids were missing each other - new routines means they're not seeing each other every day.  I'd hardly got in the front door, when Bi insisted on showing me her dolls house...

Her dolls include Nini, Pa, Rylee and Bi...  She asked me to get her more for her birthday after I asked where Jake and I were...

The boys played Lego together.  They're very sweet together at the moment...

Corky's getting very big, he'll be 5 on Sunday...

And don't get me started on how big this beautiful boy is getting.  Breaks my heart...

From one set of dolls to another.  Bi was adamant that she doesn't want a baby brother or sister, but was very keen to give Rylee a little cuddle...

Bi's hair's growing so long now.  It's fine and knotty and messy, like mine used to be...

She wanted to hold Rylee all on her own, no helping mommy...

A little kiss for her new cousin...

While we were there, Corky got to show off his certificate and prizes for a beach race he did in Langebaan on Saturday.  He was supposed to run 800m with the little kids, but obviously misunderstood the instructions and did 1.6km with the big kids (over 8s).  He had to run through water (sea) and sand and Jo said he was pale and exhausted at the end of it, but didn't walk a single step.  He came stone last, but he did it!  The organizers made a huge fuss over him, holding him up and calling him a champion.  Someone even recognised him on the beach later and called him a champion.  We are all so proud of you, Corky.  Well done!!

It really was an amazing achievement for this little guy...

Speaking of champions - these gorgeous girls are doing exceptionally well with their swimming.  They both swam at Nationals (Level 3, which is apparently the top) and did exceptionally well.  Go girls!!  We're super proud of you both too...

We spent some time in Blaauwberg on Sunday.  With my folks away, I don't have my usual dog-sitters around, so we have been spending a lot more time at home.  I cannot tell you how much I miss this place when I'm not there, but it's the people I miss the most.  I have seen lots of Marius and we spent plenty of time with him and the boys over the weekend too, but... my hammock on my balcony with my view of the sea and my coffee machine and my warm stoep in my backyard with my pretty white walls... I miss these things!

There's been a bit of excitement around Blaauwberg recently too - one of the roads collapsed and has had to be closed off.  It happened a little while ago, but this was the first time I'd managed to get down to see it...

 The sea water has managed to get under the road and hollowed it out.  Sadly, the erosion seems to go quite far back and these houses are going to need to do some serious damage control and fast.  Winter is coming and these houses are all facing the harsh winter storms...

 We had expected lousy weather on Sunday (it arrived on Monday and has been winter ever since) and it did rain a bit in the morning, but the afternoon cleared up beautifully and we took advantage of it, getting the boys out of the house and away from the TV for a bit...

This is looking back towards the hole in the road (it's off the picture on the right)...

The beach was quieter than usual - its one of the benefits of being close to the beach, you get to enjoy these stolen moments of exquisiteness, when other people think the weather's too grim for the beach...

We (the boys) spend a lot of time looking for shark's teeth on the beach.  People find lots of them down here, but in all his years of living in Blaauwberg (since he was 4!), Marius has never found a single tooth.  Michael has, so we continue to hunt...

It gives me time to play with my camera...

The kids really love the beach, it's so good for them to climb and explore and look into rock pools and get dirty and wet.  Michael and Cameron both went for a swim...

There's Cam taking a little jog...

All in all, life's busy as usual, which is great.  School's finally quietened down a little and Jake's loving having time to play more.  He's big into his Lego at the moment and spends lots of time building all sorts of things.  He's also loving making paper jets at the moment, so there's bits of flying paper all over the show.  I love it!!

Sending love,

Sue XXX

The Kids...

 It's been a little while since I posed pictures of the kids.  Lots of Rylee, I know, but the other kids.  Corky has started pre-school this year and Bi is going to playgroup, so they don't come through to my folks in the mornings and so I don't get to see them as often as I used to. They're well though and I guess seeing them less makes the time count more.

Corky first.  He's loving his new school and the challenges it brings him.  He's such a bright little button, I imagine that school will always be fun for him.  He seems to have grown so much in such a short time.

He's still super cute and those precious blue eyes will break many hearts in the years to come.  For now though, they belong to his mommy...

Our Princess Bi is also growing beautifully.  Her hair too.  Finally!!  She's also enjoying being able to go to school and the house where her playgroup's held has a huge garden for them to play in.  She loves being outside.  Like most girls, this girl knows how to get what she wants.  She's the real rose amongst the thorns and the boys all take good care of her.  She also loves seeing pictures of herself, but if I was as pretty as she is, I'd be the same...

 Sweet children...  It's amazing how different boys and girls are and it's fun to see these two together. Corky's loud, because he's just like his dad and they don't have a volume button!  But he's a very sensitive, caring, bright and happy boy.  Bi is also loud, but girls whine more than boys.  It works for her though, it drives her mommy nuts, so she gets what she wants when she wants it.  She's funny and caring and sensitive too though and they both have excellent manners, which is always a good thing.  Us aunties notice...

 And then there's precious, sweet little Rylee, who's crept into our hearts from the moment we knew he was on the way.  I cannot get enough of this tiny being and just want to kiss him and hold him all the time.  He still keeps his mommy up plenty and he hasn't managed to switch his clock the right way around yet, so he's up quite a bit at night, but he's quite happy to chill quietly in his cot.  Sweetness in a little bubble of love...

 Put them all together and what do you get? The cutest bunch of kids under the sun...

  It's really difficult to get all of them to look at me at the same time and smile nicely, but I think these were OK...

 And of course, they just have to be silly sometimes too...

 Jake is crazy about his new little cousin.  Rylee doesn't seem to mind being over-cuddled either...

Jake's other cousins took part in the South African National Swimming Champs and both did well.  Well done to them both!!

Other than that, Jake has had an unbelievable amount of work to do for school and his brain is fried.  They have a mini-break coming up from next Friday, marking the end to the first term.  I don't know how parents with more than one child, who work full time, manage to get everything done.  I can go on for hours about how overloaded Jake's been and how miserable I feel about school at the moment, but I don't have the energy.

Mom and dad left on their cruise to Italy on Monday.  They're somewhere north of Walvis Bay now and their next stop is Dakar on the 25th, so a good few days on the water for them now.  They've been very excited about it and I hope they have a fabulous time.  I suck at saying goodbye and balled my eyes out - possibly just the thought of knowing I have to say goodbye to Jake in a few week's time when I go to New Zealand...

Anyway, a nice long weekend ahead, I'm looking forward to doing very little!!

Sending love,

Sue XXX

My precious...

I've been so busy and have wanted to get these pictures up since Tuesday already.  Hope they're worth the wait!  Look how this precious little boy has grown!!  Rylee spent an extra night in hospital with jaundice and Rosie's been very good about keeping him in the sun as much as possible to help him with this.  You can see in these pictures that he's still a tiny bit yellow, but he's doing super well and he should be fine in a few weeks on his own.  Rosie's doing exceptionally well and is taking motherhood in her stride.  Anyway, enough talking, here are the pictures - that's what you're waiting for anyway...

 Tiny, tiny hands...

 And tiny feet.  Rylee's got such long toes.  And look how wrinkly his skin still is...

 

  Rylee still sleeps a lot, which is great for picture taking.  I'm still hoping to get some more snaps of him before he passes this precious newborn stage.  It goes so quickly...

 He wakes up for little bits, I think mostly when I'm annoying him...

 Or perhaps a sneeze...

 But most of the time, he's quite content to just chill and doze...

 I love those cheeks... Rylee, I'm going to be your auntie who pinches your cheeks.  It's just because I love you...

 Sucking his thumb... look at all that soft fur...

 We had him chilling on the couch in his birthday suit, catching some sun.  He didn't seem to mind it at all...

 Look at his long, white eyelashes...

 You can almost imagine what he'd look like if he was still tucked up in Rosie's tummy.  He was only due on the 13th, so should still be in there for a few more days...

 Look how little he is next to my mom's hands.  My mom has pretty hands...

 Just let me sleep for 5 more minutes...

 He does cry sometimes.  He's got a little husky voice, it's very cute...

 And he's got so much extra skin.  When Rosie was a baby, we used to squash her face up like a cabbage patch kid and bite her forehead.  I promise not to bite you Rylee, but I'll probably squeeze you...

 After homework, we popped back in for bath time.  Jake has SO much work at the moment, I can't keep up with him. Rylee's a great excuse to get away from his books...

 Rylee was keen to have his bath...

 Until his mommy wet him and started soaping him up...

 Jake was on hand to watch his littlest cousin pull funny faces...

 Once Rylee got into the warm water, he was a much happier boy...

 Which was not as exciting for his big cousin...

It's hard to believe that 2 weeks ago, we had no idea that this was the little boy who was coming into our lives.  It's even harder to believe how quickly he's stolen all our hearts!!

Love,

Auntie Sue XXX