Show off...

Today was the quarter finals of the Maths Whizz competition!  I couldn't tell Jake, but I was so nervous for him this morning.  He looks nervous in these pictures, despite having told me that he was excited about it.

The little stripes on his shoulder are his leftenant stripes.  ie he's the class captain for the week...

 The hall was being used for something else, so we had today's test in the lecture hall.  It's a much smaller venue, but actually nicer for the competition...

 They started out by handing out the certificates to the kids who'd made it to the top 10.  This piece of paper is like gold to Jake...

 The group of 10 maths whizzes...

 Jake is so proud of himself, look how inflated his chest looks...

 And then it was quiz time.  Jake made a few mistakes, but the questions get tougher each week and I think he got 16 or 17 out of 20...

 Once all 20 questions had been asked and answered, the teachers worked out who the leaders were, Those few minutes felt like an hour...

 I was very pleasantly surprised - Jake has made it into the top 5 in his grade!  Apparently, my boy really is very smart!  I mean, I always knew that he was clever, but as a parent you always think your kids are brilliant, right?  This just proves it...

 A clap for the kids who didn't make it through...

 And a photo with the other whizzes, who'll be going through to the semi-finals with Jake next Monday...

I'm so proud of Jake, he's really done so well in this competition.  His Auntie Tam helps him so much with his maths and it's all paying off for him.  If he goes no further than this, he's done brilliantly already and we are all very proud of him!!!  Well done, Jake!!  What a boy!!

Love,

Sue X

Pride...

Until you have kids, you have no idea how much your heart can actually swell and just how much love it can hold!!  Jake makes me so proud, my heart feels like it can just about burst.  With each achievement I can see him growing in confidence and character and I am so pleased for him and for what these achievements me to him.  In fact, I am by far prouder of him and his achievements than I am of any of my own.  Each time Jake is rewarded for his hard work and dedication, I am reminded of just how special my little guy is!!

Jake's had a pretty good run just lately and we are on a little high in our home at the moment.  Besides that he's excelled my expectations in the maths whizz competition at school, where he's now made it into the top 10 will be taking part in the semi-finals on Monday morning, he's also really done so well at cubs this year.  They had their prize giving last night and Jake received 3 awards!!  The first was just a little one for always wearing his uniform with pride.  The second was for earning the most interest badges during the year.  He's worked so hard for his badges and has really stretched himself to reach this goal.  He has a whopping total of 29 now and his goal is to get every single badge in the book, so he still has 25 to go!  His third award was to win cub of the year.  This is for always abiding the cub law & promise, for leadership, responsibility and good behaviour.  This is that this is the second year running that Jake's won these last two awards!!  As a bonus, the chairman of the board awarded the cub and scout of the year each with an hour's flight over the peninsula in his personal plane.  He even said he might be able to squeeze me in too!!

The best part of all this is that Jake is so unaware of his achievements.  He's obviously proud and very excited about his flight, but he keeps asking me why they chose him to be the cub of the year again.  

So, to my Shakey Jakey - WELL DONE!!!  You are my bright, shining, golden super star!  I am so, so, so, so, so, SO proud of you and all that you have achieved!  You really do deserve these awards because you are dedicated to being a cub and because you love being a cub.  You love learning new things and are game to try anything new.  You love nature and being outside and building fires and being with friends and that's what cubs is all about.  It's that "old fashioned" kind of fun that we used to enjoy when we were kids.  It just comes naturally to you and that's what everybody else who sees you in your uniform can see!  I love you more and more every single day.

Love,

proudest mommy, Sue XXX

PS.  You can see last year's winning photos here.

A Touch of Heaven...

 As you know, it was my schmucksie's birthday last week and instead of a present, I decided to steal him for a weekend away.  Much to Jake's horror, the kids weren't invited.  Truth be told, we didn't go very far; just to Franschhoek.  We stayed at the Marco Polo Lodge on the beautiful farm Chamonix.  The lodge is right up in the Franschhoek mountains and the views were spectacular.  These two were taken from the balcony...

 Turning around and looking up the mountains...

 And towards our room...

A little peak inside...

 And the beautiful bathroom with the ginormous bath that I fell asleep in on Saturday evening...

 And this post would be almost incomplete without some pretty flowers...

On Saturday morning, we were up bright and early for our breakfast at the lodge, before heading into town to catch the wine tram.  If you haven't done this trip before and if you enjoy wine, I highly recommend it.

 Our first stop on the tram/bus was the exquisite Haute Cabriere...

Once again the views are magnificent and the wine did not disappoint...

Our day consisted of a lot of laughter...

It was so great to just be silly and enjoy time together without our kids.  It sounds mean, I love having the kids with us, but those of you with kids will know what I mean.  You just can't have a conversation with them around all the time...

Our next stop was Dieu Donne.  Their cross is the cross of non-conformity...

Their tasting room is very interesting - I love their chandelier...

The table in the centre of the room is solid wood and beautiful.  It comes with a very interesting story and was made from a tree that collapsed due to its sheer size...

And there's the full story if you're bored...

The wine was lovely, especially their dry rose bubbly...

Next up was Chamonix's tasting room.  It's a little drive away from the lodge and it was nice to do a proper wine tasting there too.  It was so pretty under the oak trees and we ended up staying for lunch...

 Strictly speaking, my tasting limit is generally 3 farms.  The mixture of wines and jumping from sparkling to white to red and back again, plus everything in between, just gets me tipsy so fast.  I know we did the reserve wine tasting at Chamonix and I know that we both thought their wines were the best of our tour, but I cannot tell you a thing about them... whoops!  It was a good day...

On Friday night, we had dinner at Racine, which is Reuben Riffel's new restaurant on Chamonix.  It didn't disappoint!  We shared their trout plate for our starter, Marius had ribs, I had sirloin and we shared lemon and berry sorbets for dessert.  The trout plate was by far our favourite and neither of us could resist again for lunch.  It was divine.  My little piggy had a cheese platter too...

From Chamonix, the bus took us to the station to finally board a real tram...

I was already feeling more than a little silly...

Marius is slightly better behaved then me...

We spent so much of our time giggling and laughing at absolutely nothing.  We are by far the most childish people I know, but I love it.  I think we were laughing at the Kardashians in the background here. hahaha...

The tram took us past vineyards (and a sewerage farm - yuck to say the least), to a tractor, which took us on to Rickety Bridge...

A pretty gate...

We stayed a little longer here too, Marius ate more cheese.  And then the tractor took us back to the tram

And finally, here comes the tram...

At least I wasn't being silly on my own all the time - Marius is great company like that...  Here's a snap of both of us...

We had to wait for the next tractor to pick us up...  or was it a bus??

Our last stop (thankfully) was Grande Provence.  They have beautiful grounds...

But this was far more interesting...

As was this.  Hi honey...

I think Marius took this photo, because there are about 17 shots of the same thing and I certainly don't remember taking it.  Well done though, my honey, it's very pretty.  Actually now that I think about it, I don't even remember how many wines we tasted at the last 3 farms...

Someone kind offered to take a photo of us.  I do remember taking one of them too - not sure how that came out!  hahaha - I look as tipsy in this picture as I felt.  Marius still looks good...

Back at the lodge, the sun was getting low and the mountains just looked so beautiful.  You can see how high up we were...

And it was dinner time for the zebras and eland...

Marius and I had booked to go out for pizzas for supper at 8, which gave me the time to fall asleep in the bath and try sober up a little.  By the time we got to the restaurant though, neither of us felt like anything to eat and we certainly didn't feel like more wine.  We ended up having a coke each and getting our small pizza that we'd ordered to share, put in a box to take home with us.  Such softies!  

Sunday morning I had a serious fry up for breakfast, Marius had healthy food like yogurt and cereal.  I think I could've eaten his bacon and eggs as well as mine.  I felt a lot better once my tummy was full again.  I even managed a few last photos.  The view behind the lodge...

The view through the side window in our room...

The ostriches were out and put on a beautiful show for us.  The male did his full dance right in front of the lodge...

And next time we visit, there'll be little ostriches too...

Like me, the zebras were watching...

For the environmentalists amounts my readers, the lodge is owned by a hunter.  Aside from the bedrooms and bathrooms, it's a very manly lodge.  The owners been a hunter for 35 years and the trophies he's collected during that time are hung all over the place...

This is the entrance hall....

I have to be honest, I'm really not pro-hunting and I don't like seeing our big cats stuffed, nor do I particularly like the elephant tusks, but I guess each to their own and the animals on display are beautiful specimens.  It's a bit like a museum, I suppose.  There weren't dead animals in our room...

This is an elusive Marco Polo sheep.  They apparently live at very high altitudes and are extremely difficult to hunt....

Marius getting squashed by an elephant...

And one of me with the Marco Polo sheep at the fireplace, where we enjoyed our coffee - they actually lit the fire for us, was fantastic...

A view from the fireplace through the lounge, entrance hall and dining room...

I far preferred the living animals outside and they made me long for Kruger.  What I wouldn't give for a break in the bush...

One last pic of the view, it's irresistible...

And a view back towards the lodge - it really was beautiful...

It really was the most fabulous weekend away ever.  We ate, we drank and we laughed till it hurt.  I slept so much.  It was so relaxing that it felt like much longer than just 2 days.  To Marius - I still cannot believe that I am such a lucky girl to have met you!  I haven't been this happy in a very long time and it feels great, I so enjoy being with you.  Thank you for the most wonderful weekend, I'm really glad we had the time together.  We have to do it again soon!  Love you XXX

Hope you all had a great weekend too - bet it wasn't as good as mine!

Love,

Sue XXX