It's Summertime!

[WARNING: This post is photo packed!]

Finally, after quite a few stop starts, summer has returned once more to Johannesburg - though we're not sure how long it will stick around because the weather fundies are predicting rain and a cold front for next week - bleh!

To keep up our excitement we'll celebrate the sunshine we had this past week with a photo bonanza!

We took a trip out to Pretoria Zoo and spent the morning basking in the sun and animal watching.

Daddy and Beanie

Check out the flamingos! Bet you didn't know that flamingos wore khaki hats [check out Addie's leg!]

This elephant was bending down to reach a branch of leaves Addie threw into the moat.

Pure amazement

What is summer without a sun dress?

What's a trip to the Zoo without Candy Floss?

 
Then this weekend we spent as much time as we could outside. There was floating...

Slippin'...

an a slidin'...

One of us was partial to the see-saw [teeter totter]...

But even with all the busyness and running around, Mom didn't miss the opportunity to sneak a cuddle in when both kiddos were cold and needed warming up...

Here's hoping summer sticks around to we can fit in more outdoor fun!

So now you know how I've been spending my free time and hopefully you'll forgive me for not blogging lately.

Love Di

Not Me! Monday

From time to time I like to participate in MckMama’s NOT ME MONDAY blog carnival. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Now onto what I did not do this past week! 

• I did not miss a web presentation, that I had set up, with a prospective new client – no, not me. The only reason I did not forget is because my nanny didn’t come in this morning and I had to watch Beanie, so I didn’t go into the office. Instead I did not go to an educational toy store to get Christmas ideas :-)
  
  
•  I did not send my son to school with just water in his juice bottle today because I was angry with him. Luckily for him, he likes water so it wasn’t exactly a punishment!
  

• I did not drop a Marmite sandwich on my laptop keyboard and then pick it up to carry on eating it – something about a 5 second rule. Gross! I was not hungry at the time so that didn’t factor into my decision at all.

• I did not do a load of washing without fabric softener simply because I didn’t have the energy to open up and mix a new batch of softener. Thankfully the washing powder does have some softener in it, but still.

• I didn’t just tie up my hair this morning instead of washing and blow drying it as I should have. Geez, we’re back to that whole energy thing again. But seriously, my energy levels are in the toilet at the moment. I wish I knew why?
  

Ouch, I haven’t exactly been a class act this week, have I?  Will have to do better... 

So feel to join in the confessions. You can link to Mckmama's Not Me! Monday or you can 'fess up in the comments to this post!

Love Di

Odds 'n Ends

Here are a few vignettes from today.

More 3-year old speak:

Addie: Mommy, I want a pet
Mom: But Addie, we've already got a few pets. What about Oscar (our daschund)
Addie: But Mommy, Oscar's not a pet - he's JUST a doggie

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Addie (fighting with Mommy): Mommy, I don't want to be your kid anymore!

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Addie: Mommy, I want to take my piggy bank to school tomorrow
Mom: Why, Addie
Addie: I need to ask Simone (teacher's aide) to marry me and she said I need buckets load of cash

Ah, what cute little gems??

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We harvested our first batch of potatoes this afternoon. They were a tad small so I'm not sure if we jumped the gun. We're pretty happy with the results all considering we just threw a couple of "past-their-prime" tatties in the ground one day.

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 We also gave fudge a try this afternoon. I got the recipe from Se7en and it looked easy enough and it was! Don't worry, the photo above was taken well before we put the heat on. Once the heat was on I banished Addie from the stove top until it was eating time :-)

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 All in all an eventful day and productive day - not bad considering Beanie has been unwell and super clingy!

Love Di

PS I need to find a more efficient way of uploading my photos onto Blogger. Currently all my photos are uploading really pixelated sorry about that.

Destination: Dentist

Addie had his first visit to the dentist yesterday. We've been preparing him for a while so that he knew what to expect and wouldn't be intimidated by all the dental equipment. We've been reading him stories from the library and showing him YouTube videos of other children visiting the dentist. He was more excited than nervous so I guess our prepping strategy worked!

Here's a pic of him in the waiting room:

He was real excited about the adjustable chair so we had no problems getting him to lie down on it.

He opened his mouth wide and just sat there and waited for the dentist to do his job.

Just a quick polish and some fluoride...

Addie got a clean bill of health, which we were happy about. He won't let us help him brush his teeth so we weren't sure if he's being thorough enough - the dentist assures us he's reaching all the right places and that his teeth look great!

After that both kids got Colgate toothbrushes (Addie asked for a lollipop - the dentist had a good chuckle) and we were off home and congratulating our little man for being so brave.

I was so relieved it went  well and that Addie didn't pick up on my apprehension, because my view of dentists is not as positive as his!

Love Di

Dinosaur Fun

Addie is still going through his dinosaur phase [remember this] and I'm doing my best to capitalise on his interest and to turn his enthusiasm into an opportunity to learn. So with that in mind I thought I'd share some of the resources we've been using to learn more about dinosaurs and fossils.

The Dinosaur Song

We've been playing this Dinosaur song on YouTube A LOT. Addie watches it 5 or more times in a row and now knows all the names of the dinosaurs featured in the video.

Dinosaur Sequencing Game

We also downloaded a free DINO SIZE IT Sequencing game from FilefolderFun.com. Addie had a ball ordering the dinosaurs from largest to smallest and then smallest to largest.

Dinosaur Theme Unit

We also downloaded a wonderful Dinosaur BIG theme unit from Kidsparkz. For a nominal fee you get 111 pages of activity ideas and creative worksheets. Great value for money.

Dinosaur Pipe Cleaner Toys

We also made pipe cleaner dinosaurs, an idea we found at Make and Takes. Sadly our dinosaur met an unfortunate end before I could photograph it.

The Great Big Book of Dinosaurs by Rupert Matthews

We found this amazing, large and colourful hardcover book at Exclusive Books and it is also available at Amazon.  Addie loves paging through it and asking me to name the dinosaurs he points at. Addie also likes to know if the dinosaur is a meat or planter eater.  The information is presented in bite-sized chunks and I can see us paging through this beautiful book for years to come.

If you have any other dinosaur ideas, or links, please share!

Chat soon.
Love Di

Wordless Wednesday

I'll admit it, loving this little girl is SO easy...

Hail, Hail Everywhere

We had some serious hail in Joburg this afternoon. It sounded like someone was throwing rocks on our roof, which wasn't too far off. Instead ice rocks were falling from the sky.

After the rain had stopped Beanie and I headed outside to play with the melting ice.

Now if only diamonds were made and delivered like that!

Love Di