Now I just feel old...

Recently my cousin Murray turned 21.  Happy birthday Murray!  And so his mum (my aunt Shelley) posted on Facebook a whole bunch of photos taken through the years.  It seems a lifetime ago that this particular photo (below) was taken.  Well, I guess it has been 21 years ago, so really it is a lifetime ago!  I must have been about 14 at that stage.

This photo was taken in Amanzimtoti in the Durban area in South Africa.  Every year we'd go and visit my grandmother who lived just around the corner from Uncle Nico and Aunt Shelley.  And usually we'd go in the June / July school holidays because Durban gets incredibly hot and humid in the summer.  I know it doesn't make much sense to people here, but that was the only time we ever got to spend time at the beach because we lived about 600km away at the time.

Oh the memories this photo brings! 

Front: Amanda (my mum), Ouma Ella [RIP] (my granny, my mum's mother), Aunt Shelley with Murray on her lap

Back:  Eric (my brother), Uncle Leon [RIP] (my mother's oldest brother), Me, my cousin Dionne (or Deenie as we called her), Aunt Janice (who was married to Uncle Leon at the time), Cousin Leigh-Anne (Dionne's younger sister), Uncle Nico (Murray's dad and my mum's youngest brother)

A busy Saturday

Today was a long and busy day!

At 10am we had to be at the CCF offices as they had booked a family photo shoot (this meant we had to leave home by 9am).  I think it is the Wellington Photographic Society who volunteered their time and offered to take photos of families for free.  Then later on we'll get some prints as well as a disk with the photos they took today.  We did this last year as well and we were so pleased with the results. 

Because we needed to be in the city for 5:30pm for Terence's one work Christmas party, we had to find some other things to do in the city as we live an hour away and so we couldn't just come back home and back to the city again.

So after the photo shoot we took the girls for a movie and we saw Puss in Boots.  And then had a quick lunch.

We browsed around the one toy store as Bianca had to find a birthday present for one of the boys in her class whose party she has been invited to and then took the kids to the park and then the one shopping mall afterwards where they got to meet Santa!

And finally it was time for us to make our way to Wellington Zoo where Terence's work Christmas party was held.  Basically his company booked the zoo from 5:30pm to 8:30pm.  They had food stations set up in different areas and of course we were able to see the animals.  We only saw a few of the animals as the kids got distracted by the entertainment that was organised. 

I'd have to say these little ones are by far my favourite at the moment.  They are Pigmy Marmoset monkeys.  And they are really small, but oh so cute!  You can read about them here and here.

And the rest of our zoo visit in photos!  If you click on the photos you'll get to see them a bit bigger!

Nearly the end of the school year

It is exactly a week until the end of the school year for Bianca.  And while I'm excited for what next year will bring, am also a bit sad that Year 3 went so fast for her.  She had a fantastic teacher this past year.  We could not have asked for better!

Today they put out the class lists for next year and it is now official, Bianca will be going to Year 5 next year and effectively skipping Year 4.  She'll be in a Year 5 / 6 class (they combine certain classes here) and today Bianca got to spend a little bit of time with her new teacher.  She is very excited. 

It was also really exciting to see Caitlyn's name on the Year 1 list for next year even though she'll only start on the 22nd of February when she turns 5.  Just the other day Caitlyn wanted to know when her school visits will start and she is pretty excited that one of the little boys with her at daycare will also be in her class next year.  I took Caitlyn to go and see her new class and she suddenly became all shy :-).  So hard to believe Caitlyn is actually starting big school next year!

A recipe

I don't have a specific blog entry in mind for today.  I suppose I could write about working on a specific project (but you'll have to wait for specifics).  Or that just last night I heard the most beautiful 2 songs that was sent to me.  Or that Bianca wrote the most amazing letter today (I'll share it next week some time).  Or that this really freaky stick insect sat right by the door as I was about to go out (and I don't do well with things naturally born with 6 feet or more).  So I suppose I could do a bullet point kind of entry.  But instead I thought maybe you'd like this recipe that a friend on Facebook shared.  Thanks for sharing Lauren :-)  So to quote her, here goes...

Once again this year, I’ve had requests for my Tequila Christmas Cake recipe so here goes. Please keep in your files as I am beginning to get tired of typing this up every year! (Made mine this morning!!!!)

1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup water
1 tsp. salt
1 cup brown sugar
Lemon juice
4 large eggs
Nuts
1 bottle tequila
2 cups dried fruit

Sample the tequila to check quality
Take a large bowl; check the tequila again to be sure it is of the highest
quality..

Repeat.

Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.
Add 1 teaspoon of sugar. Beat again.

At this point, it is best to make sure the tequila is still OK. Try another cup
just in case.
Turn off the mixerer thingy.

Break 2 eegs and add to the bowl and chuck iin the cup of dried fruit.
Pick the fruit up off the floor.

Mix on the turner.

If the fried druit getas stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose with a
drewscriver.

Sample the tequila to test for tonsisticity.

Next, sift 2 cups of salt, or something.

Check the tequila.Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don't forget to beat off the turner

Finally, throw the bowl through the window.
Finish the tequila and wipe the counter with the cat.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Last night we finally got round to putting up the Christmas tree.  The girls were so excited and had great fun decorating the tree.  And this year it was Caitlyn's turn to add the star to the top of the tree.