Happy birthday...

It was my dad's birthday last Wednesday and he had his annual birthday party.  Dad loves a party and I guess he has good reason to celebrate his life each year.  Even though he can drive us all mad sometimes, we are lucky to have him and he has been a wonderful dad and grandpa to us all.  He has a great group of friends who love him to pieces too.  Cheers to another happy, healthy year ahead to the best dad in the whole world!

Rosie and Gareth live around the corner and so joined us all for a bite to eat...

 A definite highlight for little Rylee (aka Gogga) was the birthday cake and singing happy birthday - he throws his arms in the air and yells "hooray" as loudly as he can...

 Jake's growing by the minute at the moment and it won't be long before he passes me.  His head is already up to my forehead and I think he's grown about 6 or 7cm since his birthday in May.  His face is changing too - those chubby baby cheeks are a thing of the past...

 Rosie and Rylee listening to Dad's speech...

 In other news, Jake continues to play out of season rugby.  They've got a fantastic coach who trains a small group of them on Saturday mornings.  He's an ex-pro player (for Zimbabwe) and he has done all his formal coaching courses.  He puts a ton of effort in and Jake's confidence in the game has improved in leaps and bounds.  On Saturday morning, they trained at Milnerton rugby fields, which is where Jacques used to play when we were dating.  I have spent many Saturdays watching rugby on those very chairs and that club house was a frequent watering hole after practices/matches...

 Jake was chuffed to be playing on his dad's grounds, but wasn't too keen for me to photograph him in front of his buddies...

 On Sunday we had a little family braai, also for Dad's birthday, this time just for our family.  The weather was magnificent and the kids spent most of the day swimming...

Our kids are all little water babies - they've all done swimming lessons since they were tiny and it's lovely to see them enjoy themselves together...

 Sweet Stinky...

 Corky...

 The Princess again - I daren't tell you what she did to me after I took this photo...

 Jake and Corky had a really good day together.  They haven't seen each other in a while and miss each other a lot.  Corky spoiled Jake with a lego advent calendar, which Jake can't wait to start tomorrow!!  Can you believe it's nearly December?

 My special prince...

 Goggle eyes...

 Rylee's swimming beautifully.  At his proper classes, he isn't allowed arm bands, but at home, generally the grown ups don't stay in as long as the kids.  It did mean that he didn't want to put his face in the water at his lesson on Monday morning though.  He spent hours in the pool on Sunday, just bobbing around with the bigger kids and even after they all got out.  He was a little dried prune...

 At 5, Stinky is very confident in the water and she has been for a while...

 Jump...

 Rylee also had a turn on Jake's shoulders...

 And used Jake's head as a drum...

 A precious moment - Rylee and his Aunty Jo...

I'm really sorry that I've been so bad at blogging.  I am trying to find time to write more often, but life is just crazy...

We had some great news yesterday - Jake's been accepted as a Junior Ranger for 2017, which is a course run by the South African National Parks.  Jake will start on Level one next year and graduates up to the next level once he's completed the full first year's program.  Once he's completed all levels, he will become an honourary ranger of our national parks.  It's right up his street and he is going to learn a lot about indigenous/alien plants, healing plants, animal diversity, dune ecology, healing plants and life on our rocky shores.  They meet once a month and explore different things each month.  It ties in well with his scouts and all these things are helping develop a well-rounded boy, who's goal for the future is to make a difference and to help our wildlife.  I am very proud of Jake for being selected for this program - he was only 1 of 27 kids chosen and I can't wait to watch him grow and learn as he follows this adventure.

Love always,

Sue xxx

The things I'm up to...

Hi,

Just a quick post - time always seems to be rushing away from me these days!  Life is full and beautiful and Jake and I are looking forward to the up-coming holidays.  How is it possible though?  The year has gone so fast.

The end of the year always feels like a bit of a schelpp.  I hate the build-up to exams and Jake seems to be overwhelmed with homework amidst the studying.  He has decided (on his own) that his lower dose of Concerta actually isn't working properly and so we have upped him back to the 36mg he was on last year.  He's doing really well and trying his best to study as much as he can at the moment.  Sadly, when you have to medicate your kid to get him to focus, it means that once that medication has worn off, there's not much that can be done in the way of studying.  It also means that all Jake's studying needs to be done before 5ish and if he's got extramurals on, that time is very much reduced.  It does mean that evenings are calmer and we have time to enjoy relaxing a bit too.

For me, I've been working hard!!  Things around the office are crazy busy (productive) and I'm really enjoying it most of the time.  We all have not-so-great days at the office, but those are really few and far between for me.

I attended a photography workshop last weeked, called Wild Shots and it was AMAZING!  There were about 15 speakers for the day, who shared their work and I left feeling very humbled and inspired!

I begin another photography course next week, this time for processing my images.  I've never really managed to get the hang of editing and it's about time I did.  It's a 3 week course run in the evenings, just once a week.  I can't wait, because the next step is that I'm going to start working on getting a proper photo website going.  Watch this space!

We are busy planning out 2017 holiday and it's going to be an exciting adventure.  Again, watch this space.  I am doing lots of number crunching to see if we can actually afford to do what we want to do...

In other news, Jake received an award at scouts last night for the most promising scout of the year - I was completely blown away and very surprised, especially considering that Jake HATES sleeping out anywhere and I have been called to camp to fetch him on more than one occassion.

Sending love,

Sue XXX