Catching up...

 Last Friday saw us all gather at the Moelans home to celebrate Jake's grandparent's 44th wedding anniversary.  It was a nice chance for me to get some snaps of Jake with his big cousins.  It's awesome how well the 3 of them get on and the girls adore Jake as much as he adores them.

Jake's very relaxed around the girls - it's so sweet how they all accept one another so well, warts and all.  They really love each other and Jake is very lucky to have such beautiful girls to call his cousins.  Becky (middle) is Jake's class prefect this year.  As you can see, they're all kind of tech-junkies.  At least they're together, right???

 I've been spotted...

I love how relaxed they all are together.  Abi's 14, Becky 12 and Jake 10.  That's her sharing her foot-stink with the rest of them.  Must've been bad - this picture makes me laugh...

 My beautiful nieces...

Not to miss out on a photo, Jake sneaks in too...

 This photo also makes me laugh - Abi "fweeped" Becky.  Jake has no idea...

 What does "fweep" mean?  It's the noise you make when you tweek someone's boob.  Jake thought it was the most hysterical thing he'd ever heard...

 OK, enough photos - back to phones...  The kids have such funny things on their phones...

 Abi's had enough of me...

 But she knows I'm still watching her through my camera...

 One last smile, while Becky contemplates getting a "fweep" back in on her sister...

 On Sunday morning, we met up with some good friends that we haven't seen in a while, for brunch in the Company Gardens in town.  For those of you not from around these parts, the gardens were built by the Dutch when the Cape was "first" discovered in 1652.  They established a garden to supply fresh fruit and veg to the passing ships.  Over time, the gardens became a bit run-down and dodgy, but they've recently been giving it a bit of a re-vamp.  The restaurant is gorgeous and they've even started growing fruit and veggies again...

 There's Jason and his daughter, Eve.  Jason was in pre-school with me and he was one of the best men at our wedding...

 Jake is getting too big... I love it, but I don't...  stop growing so fast...

 It was nice for the kids to explore the veggie patch...

 Jake was great with Eve.  I think, thanks to Bi, Jake has a lot more patience with younger kids.  Jake hates it when Eve's mom, Sandi, tells him that Eve's his future wife...

 but he was so sweet, showing her things in his quiet way...

 Jason & Sandi...

 The view of our mountain from the gardens, with the South African museum to the right.  Not sure who the naked man is with the horse, but Eve did say it was her daddy. hahahaha...

 Jake bought some nuts to feed the pigeons...

 It made for some funky photos...

 He wasn't happy when I told him that the birds were doing "it" on his hand...

 Seriously - have you ever seen him looking happier?  He was catching them by their feet with his thumb to keep them in his hand longer...

 Blur...

 Like I said, happiness is...

 and yet, he won't actually look at the camera at the moment.  At least not when I ask him to...

 The feathered birds are way more entertaining...

 A few years ago, Jake's Auntie Tam took him to an outdoor restaurant and made a video of him actually catching pigeons.  You can watch it here - very cool and look how little he was!!  Baby teeth and all...

We had a holiday here on Monday and tomorrow's another one, so it's been a short week, with two really long weekends.  It's been insane trying to get through the mountain of month end paperwork on my desk, but it's just about up-to-date now.

Sending love, enjoy the long weekend

Sue XXX

Picture perfect...

The spring tides always amaze me.  In winter the incoming tide can be pretty ferocious, with the water level rising right up to the road, never mind the lawns!  Sometimes, on a perfect pre-winter day, you can be lucky enough to catch the tide just about disappearing all together.  Coupled with a perfectly clear and breathless day, the beach was the place to be early on Sunday morning!!

It's very seldom that the water is low enough for you to be able to walk to these little islands, while we are lucky enough to be able to walk to the one above most low tides...

 There's a new artist on the beach making these pretty amazing sand "castles"...

 Jake was amazed...

 Mom and dad were there too... they were joined by some friends (that's mom at the back).  Kathy, in the middle is joining us on our Kruger trip, she's fantastic with Jake and loves him like one of her own grandchildren.  She's very patient with Jake and also loves birds and wildlife, so takes time to discuss our weird and wonderful world with him.  They spend a lot of time in the Kruger too, so they are great at seeing the things that we'd often drive past.  The lady in the front is Evie, Kathy's sister... 

 The main reason they all came down to our beach, was to look for these babies...

 We find quite a few shark's teeth on the beach.  There's a definite art to hunting them out and the conditions have to be good.  9/10 they're half buried under sand, so you have to walk slowly and look carefully.  We weren't so lucky on Sunday morning, these are my dad's pics from a previous trip...

One last snap of the beach and breathtaking views...

The weekend came to an end too suddenly.  Marius was out and Jake and I had to leave as soon as we got home from the beach - he had a party to go to, which took up the entire afternoon.  It's always so hard to leave this beautiful place, which I am lucky enough to call my weekend home.

Love,

Sue XXX

Looking back, moving forward...

 

 Jake joined 1st Edgemead Air Cubs & Scouts in December 2011, when he was 7.  He has absolutely loved every moment and has learned so much in his time as a cub.  He starts scouts tomorrow evening, so that when he turns 11 in May, he can be invested the following week.  I feel quite sad that we are reaching the end of this part of the journey.  It seems to have gone all too quickly.  Look how little Jake was when he started...

 Where did those chubby cheeks go to?

 This was Jake being invested as a cub. His big front teeth were still busy growing...

 Look how tiny he looks in his uniform that now seems to fit him a little too snugly and look how nervous he looks...

 Once Jake became a cub, he began working on badges.  There's a whole list of them that you can check out here if you like.  We began with easier badges, like gardening (when we were putting in our new garden)...

 Homecraft, which saw Jake washing by hand (and enjoying it)...

 Ironing...

 and washing windows...

 He's done things like photography...

 made masks...

 Gone fishing and caught something...

 And learned how to 'catch and release'...

 He's made sweets...

 That were delicious...

 Jake's made balloon cars, water mills and windmills...

 He's learned about geology...

 He's made a collection of money (note the one hundred trillion Zimbabwian dollar note)...

 

 He had to learn how to paddle a canoe...

  Jake has learned about the importance of clean water and how to make a simple water filter...

 He's done lots of experiments, like this one to see how plants give of water...

 And seen them working... Jake loves doing experiments...

 We've learned about waste and the environment...

 Buried things in the garden to see how long they take to decompose...

 Jake's built tents (with Marius' help) and slept on the stoep in them with Michael and Cameron...

 Nutters...

 Jake's taken part in planting projects, visited our local retirement village and spent time with the elderly, he's gone on camps and taken part in campfire evenings, he's gone hiking and all the way, he's learned new things...

 He's built rubber band propeller boats and model ships...

 He's made collections of seeds, leaves and shells for his nature craft badge...

 He's made toys, with some woodwork help...

 A recipe book stand, a notice board, a notepad holder and a book shelf...

 He's woven a little basket (with my help)...

 He's learned a lot about making safe fires...

This boy still loves fire so much.  He cannot leave it alone...

 Jake has just completed his leaping wolf badge - this is the highest achievement that he could get in cubs.  This is him with his knotting board...

 And so, I'm very proud to share it here with you all... Jake has finally completed all 56 interest badges!!  With just 1 month to spare - phew!  His sleeves are full on both sides and he is very, very proud of himself.  As part of his leaping wolf badge, he had to complete a personal challenge.  Since Jake began cubs, it has been his mission to earn every badge and so it was apt to use that as his personal challenge and thus complete his leaping wolf badge too...

 Full sleeves and a proud grin for mom...

 I am totally blown away looking back on some of the photos, mostly by how much Jake has grown up and matured in the 3 1/2 years that he's been doing cubs...

 SERIOUSLY??? Where did that baby face go?

Like you've all heard me say 1000 times before, I am very proud of Jake and I'm proud of what he's taken from being a cub.  He's learned so much and it's been so great for him to experience some of what we had when we were kids and free to run and play.  Some of the badges were easy peasy and quite exciting to earn, others were really, really tough for him, but he's done them and he can be as proud of himself as I am!

Sending love,

Sue XXX