They Say The Funniest Things

Do you ever over analyse your children?  I should probably be more specific.  Every time they do something, like take a keen interest in the names of trees it crosses my mind that they could become botanists.  It changes all the time, and too be honest I don’t really care what they become later in life but one thing I know they could always fall back on is being comedians.

Here are little snippets of random conversations that I have witnessed recently:

You probably know The Marching Song to be “Up two, three, four”.  But clearly that version is dull and boring, and doesn’t involve nearly as much action as the new version, “Up, down, three, four”.

We recently converted the girls beds into bunkbeds to make more space in their room for all their toys that were taking up valuable space in the lounge.  And because we bought them as bunkbeds Seth was dying to put it together for as long as we’ve had them, but he only managed to convince Kyla (and I) now that it was a good idea.  Obviously Kyla needs to be at the top, because Ri would find a way to fall down, especially when she sneaks or more commonly, stomps into our room in the middle of the night.  So after that bit of background the next two will make more sense:

Riya tried to jump on her bed.  When that obviously didn’t work and she whacked her head on the bottom of Kyla’s bunk, she shouted, “Ouch, my kopinosity!“

Riya had managed to slip coming down the ladder earlier in the morning, so Kyla went to the top and showed Ri how to climb down – in detail.  Where to put her hands, where to put her feet, to be careful of the duvet so you don’t slip etc.  She gets to the bottom, puts her hand on Riya’s arm and says, “It’s real high and difficult to climb down, but you no have to be scared“.  Too cute for words!

If you are friends with me on Facebook you may have seen this one before, but it is my new favourite.  Riya was eating pasta when it fell all the way down her new clean top.  She looked down at it, then said, “Are you kidding me?!”   Then a couple of days later, I dropped something on the floor in her room while I was trying to put her to sleep.  In my frustration I said, “Seriously?!” and with perfect timing she pipes up, “Are you kidding me?!”.

They have these dolls that go with them everywhere and do everything with them.  They each have a little song that has something to do with caring and sharing.  Riya’s dolls song goes something like this, “Please and thank you, please and thank, sounds so nice, sounds so nice, Manners are important, manners are important, be polite, be polite.”  Great huh!  Anyway, Riya’s super awesome version goes a little something like this, “Please and thank you, please and thank you, four four nine, four four nine.  Manners are portant, manner are portant, be po-pite, be po-pite.”

Although we have finally decided to stay in our house for the longer term than we originally thought and have now made peace with that, Seth is still happy to look at other potential properties.  So on Sunday afternoon on the way home from the shop, Kyla points to a house and shouts, “That house is for sailing Daddy!”.

Goodness I love these girls so much!

Was That A Weekend We Just Had? (LWW)

Hi ho there everyone!  Have a good weekend?

We had a weekend.  I think.  It was mostly spent cuddling a very sick little man, making copious amounts of bottles, changing about a thousand sheets that had been vomited on, and just generally trying to survive.  So pretty much like every other weekend, except we kept all of the to ourselves and didn’t share it with the rest of the world by venturing out our doors.

Basically the just of it is that all our babies are sick.  They have been for about a week now.  The girls are slowly starting to get better, but Mr Knox has taken a turn for the worst.  Sounds dramatic, but I was seriously on the verge of rushing to the emergency room all weekend.  Because the girls are always all up in his business, he had been a little chesty for a couple of days but nothing too serious. I took him to the Doc on Thursday afternoon anyway just to make sure it wasn’t his ears or throat or something – it wasn’t.  So I went home pretty confident that we were all on the mend and with our new measures in place (finally got them prescribed to use Alecet) we would not be seeing these stupid bugs again this Winter.

But by Friday night I had to cuddle Knox pretty much continuously to stop him freaking out or vomiting.  If he lay down anywhere close to an hour after his food, it all came straight back up, followed by very, very runny nappies.  By Saturday he was just lying there, hardly even an inkling of his normally cheerful self.  Just lying there, tired no matter how much he managed to sleep and just generally thinner and quieter than ever.  Every time I looked at him I almost burst into tears.  I don’t know why I didn’t take him to the Doctor at this point, but for some reason we decided against it.  I think it’s partially just not wanting to admit that he was that bad.

Sunday morning he had perked up a little, still vomiting and pooping like crazy but there was a little bit more of a light in his eyes again.  We managed to get him to drink quite a bit of rehydrate and keep some bottle down – so at least that was a win.  But seriously.  No amount of kids ever actually prepares you  for this kind of thing, every time they are sick it’s like I am a new parent again, not knowing what the heck to do.  Second guessing everything and just generally feeling useless and helpless.

But I am feeling mildly more positive today, mostly because as you read this I will be on my way to the Doctor with the little guy to know what’s up with him.

Sooooo here’s hoping that things become a little bit more happy around these here Alfino parts.  Cos seriously as much I adore all the sweet cuddles, squeezing him tight and being wanted by him, a little unbroken sleep with no little people in my bed would be welcomed right now.

Seeing as the post is all about this awesome little dude, here is some pictures of him doing his modelling thing about a week ago. He seems to have been a bit tired – judging by all the yawning, but he is just too cute for words!

Clothes from: Jacket from Woolies, random white vest probably from Ackermans, Jeans with suspenders from Woolies and ShoeShoos (We had these for the girls and they were AMAZING!)

Is That Snot On My Shoulder?

Jeepers people, this week has been a killer.

ALL the kids have been sick.  But after a couple of trips to the Doc I think we have finally figured out how to keep theses stupid germs away.  Well here’s hoping anyway.

Knox is probably the worst of all right now.  Constantly wanting cuddles and attention, that I am totally willing to give, but the girls are less willing to give up.  Nevertheless, I can now see that the “man flu” seems to start when boys are born.  He is just soooo sick you guys.  He looks so sorry for himself all the time.  To be honest, despite all the excess of snot in our house, I really am enjoying all the extra cuddles that I am able to get.

It’s the weekend though.  And everything gets better on the weekend.  Especially when you can rock it out like this monkey.

Have a great one guys!

 

We Found The Missing Piece

Quite a while ago now we decided to venture out to Hout Bay one evening to experience their indoor market.  We heard that it had a bit of an Old Biscuit Mill vibe, which we dig so we were looking forward to it.  I quite enjoy the hustle and bustle (good grief, I sound 100 years old) of markets, except of course when my kids are with me, in which case I stare everyone down like they are a potential pedo about to steal my kid!  Paranoid?  Maybe.  But I still have all my kids.  So there’s that.

Anyway, because they were with us, everything took about 10 times longer to do.  Moving from stall to stall was tedious and then when we did get to a place that I wanted to squiz through, they were totally not interested and tried to show me their frustration by pulling on my legs, tripping me up, pulling the merchandise off the shelves and other random acts of violence.  BUT despite this we found this cool puzzle of our beautiful continent.

It might not look like much, but let me tell you this puzzle is like a TV on steroids.  The girls are OBSESSED with it.  No jokes.

They walk in the door in the afternoons, go and pick it off the shelf and get down to business.  And look at it.  It’s quite intense.  Every country is a separate piece and the girls have figured out how to do it all unaided by me!  Do I need to even elaborate on why this is possibly the best thing we’ve ever purchased since, well the TV?!

And plus also, if you really want to make it even more time consuming, uh…  I mean, interesting for them, then I get them to divide it up into colours.  Then they have to do all of the yellow ones first, then all of the greens etc.  They are incredible, knowing where every single piece must go, even if the other pieces aren’t even in yet.  Which is pretty awesome considering that there are 58 pieces – side note, did you know that’s how many countries we have in Africa?  (I totes didn’t…  I had to Google it…  But I’m blonde and I’ve never travelled so it’s forgiveable.)

Then the awful thing happened.

We lost a piece.

Yes, we lost one single little piece to the abyss that we call our house.  It could possibly have been the worst day in my, uh I mean their lives.  Now they didn’t want to do the puzzle any more.  But I suppose I forgive them because really, a puzzle with a missing piece just sucks.

And then just the other day when I was starting to lose my mind one afternoon, after they had each had a turn on the naughty chair for biting each other, plus a klap or 2 for pulling hair and Riya putting one of Kyla’s toys in the bin, we found it!

Sanity has been restored in the Alfino household.  For now anyway.

Oh and these pictures were totally taken on the day of a party which is why she’s wearing that dress AGAIN.  OK, OK…  They weren’t.  I just let her wear it when she whines enough to break my spirit.  And sometimes it’s cool to have a party at home.

Kyla’s “what the heck do you think you’re doing Riya?!” face.

We Saw Tinkerbell At The Park!

Fairies are one of the many new “hits” in our household, and though so many people freak out that their girls are obsessed about one day growing up to be a princess who marries her prince (and therefore not really having any real aspirations), I’m not so sure that’s altogether a terrible thing.  Making sure that you don’t just settle for some loser that treats you like dirt is something I would like them to remember.

Actually don’t get me started on the pro’s and con’s of fairytales cos I won’t stop.  For instance, if Cinderella’s shoe fit so well, why did it fall off?!   Anyway, their obsession with all things make believe is probably my own fault for letting them watch the Disney Channel for too long.

So aaaaanyway…

That’s just random background.  The real story here is that we were invited to celebrate a very special friends birthday party at the park and the theme was Tinkerbell.  My girls almost died of excitement when I told them about it and showed them the invitation!  Unfortunately I told them waaaay to early, so every single night we had to count down how many sleeps were left before we could go to the party. Finally it was just one more sleep before they could go and sing Happy Birthday to Leah and play with all their other friends that they actually hadn’t seen in so long.

On the day the girls insisted that they wear their traditional “party dresses” that you may have seen before…  A lot.  I promise that they do have other clothes.  Really they do.  We joined all the rest of the fairies and Peter Pan’s at the park to celebrate our dear Leah’s birthday.  What a great party it was!  Her Mommy pulled out all the stops and really threw a very cool party!  There was a Tinkerbell cake, party packs, treasure hunt AND special Tinkerbell cupcakes that had tiny little Tinkerbell shoes on them (but I forgot to get a picture of these :/).  However I managed to get a few other shots of the day, so enjoy!

Check out the detail of this Tinkerbell cake that was done by Jolene and not only did it look fantastic but it tasted fantastic too! 

The awesome Tinkerbell birthday girl, totally owning that slide.

Tinkerbell had a few followers.

I love this picture of Kyla.  Like really I do.  It’s just so her!

Precious little Naomi.

Tinkerbell rocking it out!

Ella very seriously wanted Sadie to take her finger out of her mouth.  It was so concerning to her, but she was so very sweet in trying to get that across to Sadie.  Such lovely girls!

How cool does this Peter Pan look!!

It’s The Thought That Counts

So in case you missed it, yesterday was Mothers Day.  If you missed it and you are a Dad, you probably realised that you missed it when you found yourself sleeping on the couch last night?

If you’re a Mom, I hope that you got the chance to have a hot beverage while it was still hot from being made the first time around, got to shower or go to the loo unsupervised by little eyes or even just had a chance to sit and take in how amazing it is that we are blessed to look after these very special little people in our lives.  Because let’s face it, Mother’s Day by any other name is actually just another day.

No matter how hard Seth tried to make sure that I did as little as possible, my children fought back and made sure that it was just like every other day.  But really, I expected it.  Which actually made the day so much better than previous years where I was silly enough to think that my tiny baby children would realise that this is a day to give Mommies a “break” – puh-lease!  And do you know what, after I got over myself and how selfish I can be, I totally enjoyed spending time with my kiddo’s, so despite the crazy hecticness of it all, we had fun!

Despite all three kids joining us in bed throughout the night before and us being a bit zonked, we managed to have a jampacked day.  Most of the night disturbances were due to Riya, thanks to a bit of a cough she’s got going on which resulted in her coughing so much that vomiting soon ensued, which was then follow up with more coughing and pulling my hair for the rest of the night (her calming mechanism and my anti-calming mechanism).  After I was woken up by Knox poking his fingers in my eyes, I was then properly woken up and surprised by the girls carrying in a present and some flowers that they had picked in the garden – accompanied by toast and tea that Seth had made (thank goodness – I don’t think the girls are up for that just yet!).

Then it was the usual routine of morning getting doneness and church, followed by a quick dash home to fetch my Mom and then a trip through to the Waterfront.  Knox slept pretty much the whole way through lunch which was quite cool because then we only had to worry about the girls.  Riya was still not really feeling that great and was extra tired from the lack of sleep from the night before so she was a little bit miserable, but Kyla loved the food and even got her face painted.

The girls had been begging to go to the Waterfront or the place with “the roundy roundy slide” for weeks.  Finally we actually went and unleashed them on the park for a bit.  Once Riya’s nose was running down to her chin we decided to call it a day and headed inside.  It was then that Seth casually suggested ice-cream.  You cannot, under any circumstances mention ice-cream in front of the children unless you intend on giving it to them or if you intentionally want to have the whole of the Waterfront explode.  So we went for ice-cream.  And it was amazing!

It was a lovely day.  Thank you Seth for trying to make it extra awesome.  I love you and our munchkins so very much!

My First Mothers Day Concert

Happy mothers day to all you Mommies out there! For those of you who don’t celebrate it, happy Sunday to you!!  We will probably be spending the day a little like we did last year… Except that I’m not pregnant and we will probably not go on any boat trips.  So maybe nothing like last year except that we will have lunch outside of our house.

Seeing as it’s Mother’s Day, it’s probably fitting that my first post for you – after being absent for so long to study for my exam (did you miss me?), is one about my first Mother’s Day concert that the girls did for me at their school.  One of the things that I absolutely love about our school is that they really make the effort to do these awesome things for their kids and parents.  Which is even cooler if you are a single parent, at least you’re guaranteed that you don’t have to make yourself everything that you receive on Mother’s Day.

I can’t even express to you in words how excited I was to go to this concert.   Definitely not because I expected my kids to steal the show (which they totally did) but because it’s a chance for me to see how they are in this foreign world that I have no influence in or control over.  What an experience it was! I got the opportunity to meet a lot of the Mom’s of the kids that my kids talk about all the time and a chance to see how my kids interacted with their teachers and friends. Or didn’t interact is probably more accurate.

Do you want to hear about every facet of the morning?! I bet you do! So here it is…  If you don’t, just scroll through the pictures – I don’t mind.

The morning started off well enough – I managed to get the girls to school on time – always a great start to the day! After dropping them off in their respective classes, I went and found myself a spot to sit and study in for the next hour or so, because (if you missed it) I had exam at 2pm the very same day.  I managed to secure the cute bench that I pass everytime I fetch the kids, and so I made myself comfortable.  (It’s the one above that cute little sign in the first picture.  Also apparently it’s a swing and not a bench according to Seth, but to me it’s just a bench that happens to swing…)

After a while I noticed that I wasn’t really soaking in any of the knowledge of the words that I was reading…  I think it was then that I realised that my teeth were chattering so badly that my whole head was moving and I may have lost the functions of my toes.  Cold is kind of an understatement of what it was like out there, possibly the most accurate term would be Arctic .. Thankfully they had thought ahead and put out tea and coffee things for all those Mom’s that had it all together and got to places early…  I was even more pleased that there was no one there.

Anyway, I managed to stumble over there with frozen feet and fumble some coffee into a cup.  Drinking it was like a little slice of heaven.  Feeling the warmth spread all through my icey body was just amazeballs!

Then it was time to secure myself a badly positioned seat to see Kyla’s show.  When she came down from her class she kind of acknowledged me with a half smile and then clung to her only friend.  This is the only friend that Kyla ever talks about.  Ever.  This girl and the boy who hit her (she has forgiven him and now sometimes says that she is going to marry him one day – oh dear!). She participated like a champ and really did all the moves that they were doing – I was so chuffed and impressed by her!  I couldn’t believe it though, I really expected her to shy into the background or refuse to do it like the brief stint we had with ballet.  But there she was dancing her little heart out, riding horses and cleaning off mud.  It was so very precious.  I did wonder if she did so well because she just ignored the fact that I was there at all.  She maybe looked at me like twice…

After the show we went up to her classroom and made iced biscuits.  I tried talking to her but she was just so mute that getting any kind of interaction from her was like talking to a wall.  So strange and opposite to how she is at home.  But I guess it can be quite nerve wrecking when your Mom is in your school space and you’re not really even sure of yourself when you’re alone in that space.

I left her and joined Riya in her class to do our little arts and crafts which involved decorating a butterfly.  She was totally the opposite, showing me everything, shouting for the glitter and glue, grabbing the feathers and generally causing a glorious mess – just like she would at home.  There was glitter everywhere and it was great.  I love glitter.  Seemingly Riya adores glitter too.  I took some pictures and she took some pictures before she had her turn out on the grass.

Now it was her turn to sit out there and sing for me…  Which she totally did…  Not.  It just goes to show that you can never really predict how they will react to things, they are little humans that change their minds at the drop of a hat, or more specifically at the clap of all the Mom’s watching.  But as you know, there is always one that just doesn’t perform, we just happened to be that one this time.  After trying to go up there and do the dancing with her, I just gave up and watched her watching her friends and singing for me alone.  Which was just perfect too…

Hope you all have a great day!

We Had A Sixties Party And It Was Groovy Baby

This blogs comes to you straight from my tablet… While I put the girls to sleep… (Which is why some of you may have seen a preview of this post last night when it was only really ready to go this morning.  Sorry about that – I’ve learnt my lesson now).  I figured I could get in a bit of my blog fix seeing as I can’t read my study notes in the dark…. Plus people are wanting to see the pictures of us all having a blast in the awesome photo booth and of the party in general, so I thought that instead of explaining why it’s taking so long for the photo’s to make an appearance I’d just do it.  You know, saving time and all that.

So we had this amazing party to celebrate my wonderful Mom turning the big 6-0! She chose the theme because it was her favourite music period, and although I don’t quite get it, we went along with the theme.  Besides fluffing up my little speech, the rest of the night was pretty great.  Which is perfect because my Mom deserves to be spoiled rotten.

Because I fluffed my speech, here is my chance to say what I really wanted to say to you Mom…

I love you so much. Really I do. You are so many things to me that “Mom” doesn’t really cut it – more like confidant, friend, listener, role model, baby sitter, washer-uperer, alarm clock and the most matched person I’ve ever known. I really don’t know how I would cope without your guidance, support and listening ear. You have a heart of gold and that’s why we all love you from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. You’re a fantastic grandmother and the kids absolutely adore you. You are an amazing example to me of what being a mother and wife is all about, thank you for being this glorious role model without even trying. You’re perfect and we love you.

There. That’s much better than my mumbled words through a constricted throat (have I mentioned how I don’t do crowds…)

Now for what you’ve all been waiting for… The pictures…  There are A LOT of pictures.  Seriously.  Sorry.

I’ll start off with the decor, which we all spent a good couple of weeks planning.

The birthday cake, courtesy of the wonderful Frances Bell!  So divinely delicious!

The venue that we did up – it’s the same one that we use for the girls parties.

Some of the props for the photo booth – thanks to Catherine for making it all!

I made Oreo pops to try and make records out of it.  It didn’t really work so well.  But then I made mini rainbow flap jacks, which looked pretty cool as pops with the Oreos.  Like a pot of flowers.  Quite a cute little party thing I think.

Our lip props…

Our Beatles photo booth sign, totally stolen from – here

Our Beatles themed cupcakes.  I did the baking but Seth did the awesome drawing!

Then we got to have a bit of fun just before everyone arrived and while people were coming in.

Brother and I…

Mom and Dad

Mom and I

Mom and Dad taken by Riya!

Shane and Cat

Family photo!!!  Like the first one since we’ve become 5!

After that it was all about the photo booth.  Which is awesome.  And I recommend it for any party – so much fun!!!

Just a little disclaimer, if you don’t want a picture to be available of you on this bloggy please let me know and I will immediately remove it!

Knox – The Love, The Wish And The Wardrobe

Happy Tuesday that feels like Friday!

I hope things are going well in your neck of the woods?  For us things are a bit hectic for the next 2 weeks, hence the next instalment of LWW.  I got news last Friday that I have to write a very intense exam next Friday (the 10th) which involves loads of studying in every single bit of my “spare time” (because I have lots of that), plus I have my Moms 60th to do this Saturday and you know, look after 3 kids and all that.  Basically what I am trying to say is that my blog and I are going to be a bit separated for the next few days…  It’s so sad.

Thankfully looking at these pictures makes me happy again, because at least when this little crazy period is over this guy will still be here to give me cuddles…  Hopefully.

Jeans from Woolies, TShirt from Naartjie and Jacket from Naartjie too.

 

We Saw Him Live And He Didn’t Want To Buy A Donkey…

I have never laughed so hard.  Seriously.  The next morning I woke up and my tummy was still sore and I struggled to move.

He may have repeated a few of his jokes that I had watched a million times on TV, but there is something amazing about seeing him do it live too!  The skipping, the hair whipping and the man drawer.  All things that should go down in Michael McIntyre history.

I think he was in serious shock at the amount of people that adore him here, before this we didn’t really exist.  Hopefully there will be a next time for him to come and he will appear with even more original jokes.

We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the event, but I do have this little treasure…  The best farmhouse biltong you will ever have!

That’s all from me folks.

This weekend is going to be a blur of shopping for clothes that actually fit me now, planning my Mom’s 60th (any great ideas for a 60′s theme would be appreciated although I have searched the heck out of Pinterest) and having fun with the kids (who are finally better)!  Yippee!  Let’s hope Cape Town keeps up this great weather!