Halloween

Every year Dylan goes trick or treating in Notten Road. This year he got to take his sister along...


Here Fire Chief Dylan is about to start the mad sweet dash!

Larissa gets right in with all the action!!

I just love this photo of Larissa with her skirt all snarled up in her wings.

30 minutes later and that bag was packed with sweets!

Granny comes to stay

My Mom recently came to stay with us for 2 weeks so that she could attend Grandparents Day at Dylan's school. Dylan was so excited and spent weeks practising his songs. In this photo, Dylan has lost sight of Granny and enlists Ronan's help in the search for her .


Larissa has taken to calling Granny "Mom". Rather intelligently, she hears me call my mom "Mom" and copies me. Here is a cute picture of the girls having a little play on the carpet - Larissa and her "Mom"

Photographing children...

Last week we went to "The Pizza Place" with some friends. I decided to take photo of the kids. Actually I took sixteen photos and shockingly, this is the best one for the following reasons

1. It includes at least one eye of every child

2. It includes every child

3. Nobody is crying (yet)

It unfortunately also includes:

1. Chopped off heads

2. Kids chewing with their mouths open

3. Stupid expressions

But hey, we all had fun!!!

Family fun (or not)

Call me a sick bunny, but I can't help myself. Everytime I look at this picture I nearly wet myself laughing! Maybe it is the bemused expression on Larissa's face or perhaps the fact that Dylan is very far out of this shot with just a splash left as evidence... who know's, its still funny!

But to redeem my self somewhat I'll include this really nice photo of Johan with the kids...

Larissa's first day at play school

I can't believe that this day has already come!! It seems like just the other day that she was born... and now she is off to play school. Having said that, she is so ready for this.

A quick smile for Dad and my beautiful princess is rearing to go!

And off she goes, Dora the Explorer

Quite happy to play with the play-doh at school and not a single tear shed! Unbelievable... I'm so proud of my princess!

Cousins...

A few weeks ago when we were at Granny and Grandpa's in Cape Town, I took a few pics of Dylan and Larissa with their gorgeous cousin, Dominic. As you can see, they are both quite smitten with the new addition to the Greater Shand family.
The last picture I have included because of the Naughty Monkey expression on Larissa's face. I just couldn't resist. Boy oh boy it is such a cute age - or am I just biased?

The week that is!

Sunday, Johan left for Cape Town. The kids and I spent the first half of the week enjoying some real summer weather in Joburg before heading down to Somerset West for 10 days. Johan is in Cape Town for two weeks, so we decided to join him instead of coming during the Spring Break later this month.

Thursday poured with rain and we all enjoyed a rare quiet day. In fact it was quite late into the afternoon before any of us got out of our pyjamas!

Friday afternoon we met up with Jodie and the kids at the usual haunt - Cape Garden Centre, where I discovered what a real adrenalin junkie my daughter is! On arriving, she climbed to the very top of the jungle gym and slid down the biggest slide - HEADFIRST! Oh my shattered nerves!

Today we went to visit Johan's folks in Fisherhaven and I have to say that I saw the funniest thing.... their dog climbing a tree! Just weird - apparently both dogs do it.

On the way home we stopped off in Betty's Bay to see the penguins. Dylan was absolutely fascinated and Larissa kept on pointing and saying "Bunny" It was really worth the visit and as cheap as chips (in fact we didn't even pay the R10 to get in)

We then detoured past the dunes where I used to dune board as a teenager. It is unfortunately closed to the public now, but Dylan had an awesome time jumping and flying off some mini-dunes

The week that was!

When I started this blog, my intention was to update it quite frequently. That was until my darling husband disappeared off to Cape Town last Sunday, with the weekend's photos still on his camera. But what a weekend it was!

Saturday night we hosted an inpromtu wine tasting / 30 seconds evening. The weather was stunning and the wine was absolutely awesome(Wooded Chardonnay) and there wasn't a single wine there that I wouldn't highly recommend.
30 seconds turned out to be a real hoot. None of us have actually played for years and we were all a bit rusty (and tipsy ... to be polite ... at least I was. I have averaged about 2 glasses of wine per year for the last 2 years, so you can imagine what tasting 5 different wines would do to me ) Pictured here is the winning girls team!

I think Johan's card said "Dick King", but we were all laughing so hard I don't think anybody got it!

Anyway, we were all in our own beds by 12pm. Quite civilised for such a super evening!

The Bush Rat

Every morning my beautiful baby wakes up with a bit of a 'Fro going on. Bedhead supreme!!! Here are a couple of pics I took this morning. No doubt who her maternal grandfather is...

Five minutes later and a quick comb with some de-tangling magic juice and my beautiful princess is back!!

The Worm Composter!!

For the past week or so, Johan has been researching worm composters. Since they are not that complicated to make, we decided to make our own. Dylan has been in seventh heaven since hearing that we will have a REAL worm farm!!

I was giving the arduous job of drilling holes into the containers we got. A job I was quite happy to do considering the alternative was hunting for earthworms in the compost heap. I suspect that my right arm is going to be rather sore tomorrow after drilling and de-burring 150 holes!

Larissa was kept occupied (away from the noise of the drill) on the swing. Dylan occasionally pushed her... and when she started to moan because she wasn't going anywhere, Dylan would give her another shove.

Johan and Dylan had "that other job" . At this stage they had found 22. Just another 978 to go.... Okay, so he decided to stop at 50 and we will buy another 1000 online.

...and after all that hard work of earthworm hunting, the boys chill on the couch. It's hard work being a farmer!!

I must just add that Dylan has asked me at least 3 times this evening if he can go and visit his worms.. the next thing I know, he'll be giving them all names!

Brotherly (and sisterly) love

I have had such a lovely weekend with the kids and it seems as though every now and again they do get on really well.

Friday evening I managed to keep them both occupied with play-doh while I was making supper. They were playing so happily I decided to take a few photos and "capture the moment" as it doesn't come along too often. This picture of contentment lasted for exactly another 30 seconds after I had taken this photo, when Larissa decided to climb across the counter to see what I was up to. It all unfortunately ended up with the play-doh being packed away and Barney being put on.. AGAIN. Supper was great though!!

This morning Dylan decided to make a fort with my cushions (I absolutely hate my cushions being played with on the floor - but since they are all covered in little banana hand prints anyway I was prepared to make an exception today and let them have a little fun - particularly since they were playing NICELY for a change.. VIVA washable couch covers!!!) Anyway, I discovered Dylan, Larissa, the Baby, Leppie Bunny and Warren (the giant teddy) all in the fort. They played like this for ages... I couldn't believe my luck. Larissa, by the bye, is pulling a funny face in anticipation of the flash going off, Dylan is pulling a funny face because he is five and that is what he does!!

Later this morning we went to the Secret Garden for brunch with Esme and Caitlin. Dylan and Larissa spent ages in this little boat rocking together singing "Row, row, row your boat" Dylan told me later that he had actually made up a lullaby for Larissa and was singing it for her, but he had forgotten it now. So sweet...