FIVETRIBE

Madam faced her fears and did both her modern and tap exams today.  Wowzer, the nerves were off the hook as she has such high expectations of herself. I collected her from her tap exam to find her almost hysterical. She had forgotten some of her routine. She had had her routines down perfectly for months….but on the day her nerves let her down.  Thankfully she had about 2 hours to recover before facing the same examiner and performing her modern routines. She was more relaxed and enjoyed it far more this time around. Nerves beginning to kick in before tap exam The hair! I tried but thankfully there are more talented hair-lasses on hand to help me. Moments before her modern exam She loves the dance outfits! Experience is what is going to help this young lady cope with exam performance pressures. Her exam marks were not what she had hoped and certainly not reflective of her talent (her teachers words not mine!) but she passed and she gaine...

One week until our very first 'real road trip' experience. For the last two years my guys have flown up to PE for the Sevens Rugby International Tournament - they usually fly for a weekend. This year we have decided to go up as a family for the event but to build a holiday around it. In preparation for this I watched Groupon for accommodation specials in the areas we planned to visit and came upon some amazing deals. Our first stop is Sedgefield for 3 nights at Shearwater Resort. We love Sedgefield and this will be our second stay in the lovely little town. From there we head up to PE and arrive on the Friday and spend 4 nights at a lovely self-catering cottage (Abalone Place)  in Seaview which I found via SafariNow website. While in PE I plan to meet up with two of my blogging buddies; one of which I have never met before! From PE we continue up the coast to Grahamstown to spend 2 nights with wonderful friends of ours who relocated from Cape Town a few years a...

I have never felt settled in my decision to send Rachel back to school. I have wrestled, second-guessed, rationalized and agonized. Not normal for me. Today I had a chance encounter of a very fortuitous nature that changed the tide completely. I have subsequently ordered the curriculum and given official notice of her departure from school. A sample lesson sheet The sweetest thing was when I showed Rach the new Love2Learn curriculum - she took a look and said "This is the right study stuff for me because I truly do love to learn!"

my birthday dawned bright, still and hot! and in came my family,  singing with a bright,  hot cake which looked alarmingly  like it could set the world on fire! how is it that i am 41 already?  we headed down to our shark-infested beach upon hearing the nets were up - much jubilation as the kids were able to swim out far and enjoy some fabulous bodysurfing. The afternoon was spent chatting (and skyping my sis) and generally lolling in a carb coma after we all indulged in my moms spectacular mac n cheese followed by a monumental trifle - my all-time favorite meal and dessert! Evening was rounded out by a swim and a sunset walk around our estate. A superb day to remember.

A few weeks ago I decided I would host  a small garden party. *ahem*  Or shall we say a small cocktail party.  There was much excitement (friends) and google searching (me) about what exactly constitutes a cocktail and whether I should even entertain the thought of making my own. The google search answered my question. No. It really is just like cooking.  Except you drink the result instead of eating it. I wanted to feet up in the sun with my mates and enjoy pretty sundowners with even prettier people. I decided to chill the glasses early because 'apparently' cocktail glasses should be cold. (as a non-drinker I had to serious research on this event people!) I decided to also make a big jug of Pimms #1 - we decided this would be offered as a 'life-skills' module for Rachel. The art of the perfect Pimms. ;-)  Sadly we failed as the general consensus was that our concoction was WAY TO WEAK.  I am sticking with the...

This week Faith invited a few of her favorite (ex) classmates for a playDate. One of the biggest changes since she left school is her increased capacity for playmates. Ironically she had zero interest in after-school socializing as she was simply too exhausted and 'peopled-out' to ever want to have playmates. She would spend her afternoons either chilling with her siblings, dancing or reading a book. Nowadays she is excited about seeing her friends on a more regular basis and her social circle has grown dramatically. She if far more able to hang around all different types of kids across a far broader age/interests range.  The photos below capture a few minutes of their free-play time at our place this week. I didn't want to interrupt with my camera all arvie but took a moment to snap these highly amusing images.

I saw this floating around the interwebz last year and decided to ensure I stuck to this simple shopping guide for Christmas 2014. Much as I love Christmas I do tend to be left with a feeling of hollowness as I see the abundance of 'stuff'. While I consider ourselves to be pretty conservative gift-givers I still think we can simplify even more. I have just finished ordering a book for each of the kids from Loot. (READ) The girls showed me various clothing items they like today and I will nip out and get 1 item for each of them. (WEAR)  They all need new swim goggles and towels. (NEED) The only tricky item is the WANT but I should be able to wrap that up in an hour at our local mall. Christmas suddenly just so much lighter.