peacock cake!

This year Friday decided she wanted a Peacock Party for her 5th birthday. This is how that came about ...

A few months back -
Her: 'Mum, I want a Hello Kitty party for my birthday.'
Me: Silence

A few weeks later -
'Mum, I want a Fairy party for my birthday.'
Silence.

A few days later -
'Mum, I want a Peacock party for my birthday.'
Me: 'Great idea! We can use the beaded peacock on the patio for inspiration, and have blue, green and gold balloons, and feathers, and glitter and ... and ... and ...'

Manipulative? Me? Never.

We pretty much blew our glitter quota on the invitations, but we had peacock themed party favours ...

scented tea light candles wrapped up with an extra-long match and some chocolates ~ for a little bath time treat

... and peacock coloured decor.

I had SO much fun scouring Pinterest for peacock cake ideas, but the thought of all those colours got a little overwhelming - until I remembered how taken Friday had been with the white (albino) peacock we saw at the World of Birds last December.

And so, tah-daaaaa!

with a little blue surprise inside

'Cos I think I'm incapable of a plain coloured cake after last year's.

Again this was actually pretty easy ... I used the Barbie cake mould from my closest cake-hire store and, I confess, bought the heart-shaped cookies (baking them would've added another stage to the whole production which I didn't have time for). I piped the designs onto the biscuits with royal icing and added edible glitter for a sparkle.
Husband engineered the head - bamboo skewer, polystyrene egg shape, googly-eyes, pearl-headed pins and some feathers.

Success!

why why why wasn't this pic in focus??!

Happy peacock birthday Friday Five!

kirstenbosch winter wonders programme

Wait, what??

We've been so distracted by The Birthday that the THREE WEEK SCHOOL HOLIDAY rather crept up on us.

Secretly I love the school holidays, for no other reason then I hate the mad term-time morning scramble to get out the house (why do you think I've conspired to mainly work from home for so many years?), however there are other complications - namely that whole work from home thing...

The girls are pretty content to play together at home, for which I'm grateful, but I do feel I need to plan a couple of outings - to stave off cabin fever, and to allay my guilt for leaving them with their nanny when I do work.

Kirstenbosch being one of our favourite places

For all the above reasons I'm very excited about Kirstenbosch Gardens' lovely looking Winter Wonders programme. The full programme is up on their website - they're really catering for all age groups (check out the great art workshops for older kiddies), but for my small girls I'm most looking forward to:

Puppet shows in the Conservatory - followed by a guided walk around this amazing indoor garden. The puppet shows are R30/child, but entrance to the gardens is free for kids under17 until 16 July.
10h00 - 11h00
26, 28 June, 3, 5, 10 and 12 July

Garden Walks - all free - guided walks with specific themes. We're keen on -
All Creatures Great & Small: the animals of the Garden
10h30 - 12h30
28 June & 10 July at Gate 2
Medicinal Plants: SA's indigenous healing plants
11h00 - 13h00
12 July at Info Desk, Visitors Centre (Gate 1)

Story-Telling and Colouring-In.
These happen every week day at 10h00 from Tuesday 26 June at the Visitors Centre bookshop (Gate 1).
There's even a reading of Vumile and the Dragon by the author, Claerwen Howie on Mon 2 July.

I'd love to take the girls to the Frog Awareness talk, but you know, there's the whole bufunophobia thing ...

And for a special treat, maybe lunch at Moyo Kirstenbosch? The set-up is not yet looking as rich and colourful as the other Moyo's we love, but I'm sure they'll get there soon and with great kiddie specials this holiday (and a good deal on coffee for the parents) it'll be worth a visit I'm sure.

I'll be sharing more fun holiday activities as I find them - please let me know if you've any recommendations too!

did I mention we LOVE Kirstenbosch?

friday turns five

All of last week was about this monumental birthday in our household. Every birthday feels like a momentous one when you're raising small children but 5, 5 felt pretty damn phenomenal.

5 is all about ....

... proving you can touch your ear over your head
... having (the first!) wobbly tooth
... proudly showing your age with a whole handful of fingers
... looking forward to starting 'Great R' (Grade R) and possibly wearing a 'unicorn'!
... learning to tie your own shoe laces
... feeling very grown-up but also,
... needing to be reassured that you're still small enough to be cuddled and babied
... being oh so very lovely and chatty and interested and insightful and thoughtful and considerate and ...

entrancing your parents more and more every day.

Happy birthday my first, my eldest, my extremely special big girl.

misty milnerton market

A misty Saturday morning, and the vaguely unsettling feeling that we may not be doing this as easily in the near future, had us heading to Milnerton Market.

Pre-kids we used to joke that we'd bring them here to show them what old telephones looked like - cameras, typewriters and such - and now we're doing that. Showing them old stuffz.

One man's junk is another man's treasure - and an endless source of fascination for a small child.

Go early, avoid it when the South Easter blows. Take hats in summer, jerseys in winter, an open mind, a thrifty eye and a belly hungry for pancakes.
And wet wipes - those little hands get grimy!

Milnerton Market is on Otto Du Plessis Drive, Paarden Eiland (the sea side). Ample parking, and dog (on a lead) friendly!

on father's day

I'm grateful that my father is such a big part of my life.

That he lives close by, that he loves unconditionally, that he makes me laugh, that I learn something new every time I see him and that he loves his granddaughters with insight and humour and absolute joy.

And these days, especially on Father's Day, I am grateful that my girls have a father - who is present, responsible, who loves them unconditionally, who makes them laugh, teaches them stuff, who is intuitive, inventive, patient, supportive, firm and ridiculously affectionate.

Long may they have him in their lives, and may they appreciate his presence every day.

On Father's Day I take a moment to think of all those women, strangers and friends, who are doing this amazingly huge job on their own. And for all those people,who no longer have a Dad in their lives.

Thank you Dad, and you husband-guy - thank for being here.

moving on up

So we sold it!

And in a couple of months we'll be leaving Observatory, something we'd sometimes thought would never happen. We'll be leaving Obs and moving to our dream house where we'll all be thin and beautiful and fart rosebuds and no one will ever tantrum or get sick or call me 'Poo poo Mum' ever again. Right?

Right.

But it's bitter-sweet, this leaving the old hood.

On Saturday we grabbed a break in the rainstorms and walked around Obs delivering Friday's birthday invitations.

And I was struck, again, by how lucky we've been with our little community. We hand delivered 8 invitations on Saturday. 8 invitations to 8 little friends who live within easy walking distance of our house.

I think that's a bit special.

vumile and the dragon

My Dad is a big fan of chameleons. He always seems to have some in his garden and one of his great party tricks is to walk around catching flies with one standing on his fore-finger, poised and ready to strike like a tiny bug-eyed hunting rifle.

A few months back he discovered a clutch of baby chameleons, and although I knew the girls would love them, we were concerned they may love them just a little too much so we kept them secret. I felt a bit badly about that.

But I didn't feel badly at all when Hippo Communications sent me a review copy of the very beautifully illustrated Vumile and the Dragon by Claerwen Howie.

And neither did the girls.

We're all about books which work over multiple age groups in this family. We like books that us adults enjoy reading, with story-lines and illustrations varied enough to captivate both girls.

Vumile and the Dragon is all this. Friday was intrigued by Vumile's initial fear of the 'dragon' and reading the story provoked a long discussion on the meaning, and origins of, superstition. Sunday loved finding all the hidden gogga's in Lisa Strachan's rich and detailed colour plates, and long after we'd finished reading the story she was still hunting for the 'meleon's.

Claerwen Howie will be reading from Vumile and the Dragon at the Cape Town Book Fair in the “Children’s Zone” this Saturday, 16 June, between 10h00-10h45, and the book can be ordered directly from Print Matters or found at any good local bookstores.

There's even a picture, the black & white's are illustrated by Meg Jordi, of Vumile looking 'just like Grandad!'

Kinda.

honey bee

We're big honey eaters in this family. In fact, as Sunday enters her picky eating stage (naturally just as Friday's coming out of hers and happily eating virtually anything I offer her), she'll gladly eat toast and honey for breakfast, lunch and supper. And morning snack and hey, why not a slice at 3pm too?

Luckily we've friends who are honey farmers and provide a steady supply line to keep her happy.

But a few days ago Sunday had to share her breakfast.

This little guy couldn't believe his luck and both my girls watched in fascination as he slurped away.

It was the quietest breakfast we've had in our house for months. Thanks Bee!

pop quiz

What goes:

'Whino!'

'Burd!'

'Graffe!'

'Ant!'

'Ebra!'

'Lephant!!!!'

'More 'lephant!!!!'

'Buck!'

'Burd!'

'Lion!'

'Monkey!'

'Baba lion!!'

Answer: The Lion King, as narrated by Sunday.

eyes forward

Shew it's been a rough few weeks!

Sickness, property stress, an intermittent (i.e. never when I need it) internet connection ... the list could go on.

This house selling / buying business has been all-consuming - stressing me out in so many ways. The strain of keeping the house permanently show-house ready, the nagging worry that another (cash) offer will go in on our dream house, trying not to show too much concern in front of the kids, the insomnia! It's been ... all-consuming and actually so very, very boring.

Which is why I love Friday's chosen birthday party theme: peacocks! Symbol of regeneration, hope and renewal - eyes forward to face the future, colour in the darkness etc. It seems very fitting.

I found a printable peacock invite design online and the girls spent a happy afternoon decorating them chucking glitter about.

As the girls get older I love how we're developing family traditions, especially around festivities. Last year was the first time Friday was involved with creating her own birthday party invitations and she especially loved playing postman, walking or driving round to her friends houses and slipping the envelopes into their postboxes.
This year, before we'd even made the invites, she was already excitedly talking about doing that again.

eish what a crappy photo

Check your postboxes over the next few days ... if you're really lucky you'll get one of the invites Sunday painted!