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