Our weekend started with a doll and camping in the garden

It was a very low-down weekend here. The budget was low, and we chilled at home.

Luckily it started with a package delivered from Our Generations Dolls which I had won over on Blessed Barrenness' blog. Little Miss got Abrianna with a camping set! She could not wait to get home to open up the package. (That made our Friday afternoon drive much easier in traffic!)

That started a whole weekend of camping inside and out of the house. She even got me sleeping inside her tent on Friday night, and still believes we both slept there for the whole night!

Setting up the Our Generation Doll camp set

Her friends came over and they "camped" the whole of Saturday and Sunday. We usually have a rule that there is no playing inside houses and they had no issues playing outside this weekend!
It worked perfectly with this weather. It's summer here!

It's lovely summer again! (How I love Summer! I have to note it, again!)

Little Miss even complained when we went for an ice-cream at five today!
She still wanted to play!

But I got a smile from her, eventually...

How was you weekend?

A weekend from hell that made us feel very grateful!

The lamp pole in question

We got a call near midnight on Thursday night. The Student was in an accident, and she was still sitting in the car waiting for the ambulance. They were driving on an unknown dark corner of Potch, and there was a turn in the road and the lamp pole jumped in front of them! The car went on it's side before it landed on the wheels again. Unfortunately it was on my daughter's side of the car!

She told us that she knew immediately her arm is broken when she saw it behind her and had to bring it forward...

It was hectic! As a parent you want to jump in the car and race to the scene. But she is a one and half hours away! Luckily we kept talking to her and the friend who was with her in the accident. They kept us in the loop while getting into an ambulance until they were admitted to hospital.

My default mode is going into scold mode before I am able to process it: "What are you doing out so late?" And "Why don't you use the maps on your phone when you know you are prone to get lost?" (She and the friend have lost their way before...)
But if is only for the first few seconds of processing this information...
We were worried and could not sleep!

We got in the car at 6 am on Friday because we thought she would be operated on already at 8 am! Little Miss had to tag along because we did not know if we would be able to fetch her the afternoon. Just as well, because we had to wait until 6 pm for the operation and she only came out of the operating theater after 8 pm on Friday night!

The bones and muscles in the elbow had to be reattached and she has 8 screws and 2 plates in her left elbow!

We could go and fetch her yesterday and she is recuperating at home for the week!

There is so much we are grateful for:

- Except for the arm, both the students are fine! The car is written off!

- The seat belts and airbags saved their lives! There are huge glass pieces sticking into the air bags. They have minimal scratches!

- Medical Aid made everything so much easier. The ambulance took her to a private hospital where she got great care! I did not have to worry about paying exorbitant fees! Everything was covered!

- Student friends allowed us to stay over in their flat for the Friday night! That helped immensely after we left the hospital at ten on Friday night. We stayed until we were sure she was ok.

- Student friends brought her clothes and gifts and visited The Student during the course of the weekend!

- A nice old lady in the same room in hospital who took care of The Student while we could not be around!

- The personnel and staff at Medi-Clinic in Potchefstroom did a great job! Dr Hattingh needs a special mention! It seems he knows what he is doing! He also came to talk to us and her on several occasions and kept us informed. He is also very happy with the operation and believes she will regain the use of her arm!

- It's the left arm that's affected!

- This week The Student also does not have classes and she can stay at home!


Now we have an Iron Woman in our midst!


Do anyone know where we can buy a cover for an arm in plaster?
Apparently Dischem does not stock it anymore and I have phoned one pharmacy at a hospital who also do not have it in stock.

Glorious Summer

It seems we are skipping Spring this year, and jumping straight into summer! 

We've had high twenty degree temperatures for the past few weeks!

(There's not much else we can boast about here on the south point of Africa... 
Suffering from a bit of Monday bleh...)

We had a great weekend of outside braais (barbecues) and family and friends! 

After we finally got Little Miss to finish her weekly CMaths homework, we could still squeeze in an afternoon ride in the park. That was a perfect ending to a great weekend!

What did you do this past weekend!

A very long and a very short weekend: Camping at Mountain Sanctuary Park

The long weekend is done and dusted already. A weekend of three days is definitely not enough when going camping! 

We had a great time, as always! 

It is really such a schlep to pack your house, unpack it at the campsite, to pack and unpack in three days again. 

But spending time with the family and with friends are worth the effort! Hiking and getting back to nature is worth the effort! Evenings around the campfire are worth it! 

We camped at Mountain Sanctuary Park again. We love the big campsites, but not particularly the ablution facility. We are planning to phone regularly to enquire about the extra ablution blocks they are going to build. In the hope that they would start considering doing it...

But the hiking trails is what makes us going back and back!

Little Miss did 6 kilometers of hiking with us yesterday! She enjoyed it tremendously, and only complained to the end of the two hikes that she was getting tired. She picked up rocks, and we printed out a photo of her in front of the rocks which she is going to use at show-and-tell tomorrow! (Love it that she is as big as she is now, and enjoying it with us).

We did not get time to explore all the routes this time. The weekend was too short! 

We will be back!

What did you do on the weekend?

Related posts:

- Wordless Wednesday #108 - The Grotto at Mountain Sanctuary Park

- Xmas in the Bush

We really do some stuff on a weekend - for future reference!

Little Miss has to do a weekend report picture after each weekend of the stuff we did. We have only seen her books from school on two occasions when it got sent home. Both times her pictures of the weekend reports came back very dull.

Week after week it is only a picture of herself with sometimes a tree, and sometimes with a small dog.
Her answer is that she forgets when I try to recount of all the things we did!

Why do we even bother to go out of the house?
And most of the things we do for her!

This past weekend had a birthday focus (mine), but she could have reported the following:

Weekend report:

- Her Big Sister was home for the weekend. She loves having her around, and spending time with her!

- Big Sister made her a t-shirt headband and bracelet, and she also could help her with it.

-  We had a breakfast outing at Urban Angel Cafe (love the place!) on Saturday with friends of mine and she could choose anything from the stand. (She loves that more than ordering from the menu.) She had a pie and a cake!

- Dad took her to the gymnastics which she loves!

- She played "tennis in our garage" with Mom and Dad in the afternoon while waiting for Mom's friends to arrive.

- She also got to ride her scooter, which she loves more than her bicycle. Dad had to tag along, of course!

- She could watch a children's movie while we were having a braai.

- Her grandmother and grandfather visited on Sunday, with aunt Deb and uncle Leon. She always loves seeing them.

- Her uncle Leon played some ball with her.

- The neighbour's kids came to jump with her on her trampoline.(Big Plus for the Sunday!)

- She scored a R10 from the family, and she immediately had to spend it at the petrol garage when we dropped the Student off on Sunday afternoon!


She could not remember to include any of this in her report?
Next Monday we will be reminding her of all  the highlights of the weekend, especially since we are going camping with her.

(For future reference, Little Miss!!)


Photo: I tried to get the rainbow on the photo in the background. Not that successful!

A feverish weekend

We were planning a very relaxed Women's Day and weekend this past weekend!
(Murphy?!)

Little Missy started with a runny nose, and by Thursday night we were struggling with fever.
But not enough to prevent us from going to Decorex on Friday, our yearly inspiration! (And desperation!)
(I had won two tickets through Twitter's Stavey Vee! Yay!)

We dosed Little Missy with medicine, and for the most part she was sleeping in her stroller.
(As a matter of fact, Little Missy gets dosed by any medicine, so it is not on purpose that we "dose" her. We need to give the Panado or the Celestamine on occasion.)

(Dad got a lot of smiles from all the ladies while pushing her)

It was cold and rainy, but definitely not enough to keep the crowds away from Decorex.
I never knew I needed that thing, until I saw it right there!
Now our house and its interior decoration needs a complete overhaul!
We will be chasing that rainbow (see top photo), after all! *Wink smile*

Friday night had us up with the fever again. The Panado and suppository just before 12 did not help.
She was waking us up with fever dreams: "Hold me!" "I'm scared!" (Eyes wide open, but not awake! Afterwards she told us there was a HUGE FROG who touched the sky...)

While busy running the second bath of the night to cool her down, I followed my own rule:

"As soon as you begin to think "Should you take her to the doctor, or not?" - Take her!"

So we walked into emergency at 2 am on Saturday morning.

Not feeling well at all with red cheeks

20 minutes after the hospital's suppository kicked in!
Up and about!

The fever was dealt a definite blow, and up until now we are only struggling with the runny nose. I did not give her the antibiotics that was prescribed...

The rest of the weekend we tried to recover from the lost sleep, and spend some time with the family!


How was your weekend?

Weekends with Big Sister

We really miss our eldest when she is away at university. It was really nice to have her with us this past weekend!

Little Missy told me before the time that her sister would immediately go with her to her pink house when she comes home. That is her ultimate "gift" she bestows on a person; to promise them a visit to her pink house! (The pink house with the two dragons, the little sister and the small kitten.)
She told me that we could not come with, because our wings are broken...

We went again for a Saturday lunch at Glen Afric. It is not that far out of the city, and we feel as if we can breath a bit of fresh air, while looking at some animals walking in the distance. We saw a few elephants, giraffes and some antelopes. It definitely helps in recharging the batteries!

We are having a bit of summer again. The days are still warm and sunny!
Weekends are best spent outdoors!
Hope you had a lovely weekend as well?


We are missing you, again, Big Sister!


Related post:

Glen Afric: A place to go for a bush outing

Rainy weekend

We had a very wet weekend, and at one stage we thought the rain would never stop!
Our rain meter recorded over 100 millimetres, and then of course it overflowed!

All we wanted to do,  was this...

But we were extremely busy, and we had to rush from one appointment to another.
Luckily it was all fun, especially the wine tasting on Saturday afternoon, and the Rock Cod fish braai on Saturday. In the cold!

The Little Missy had a great weekend playing with friends, and with her cousins. We don't see her when the friends are around - she is off playing with them!

I realised this morning that her 3-4 year old clothes are not doing the job any more (I had hoped it would still see me through the winter)...
She complains that her stomach stays cold. So we are off to the shops this afternoon.

And the weekend is gone!


Hope your weekend was good?

A quiet weekend... The best!

Puzzle building

We had a very quiet and relaxed weekend, without having to go somewhere, or to do anything!

Breakfast at Second Cup and photo taking

I am ordering some more of these this year!
Nothing that restores and gives so much peace than a bit of quiet family time!

The Little Missy spent a lot of time on her art works, and she came up with this all on her own.
She ordered me each time to take a photograph (where we usually have to beg for her to pose for a photo).

I added the second title. Maybe we have a budding artist in our midst?

Little Missy art 1
(Self-portrait: Reflection on love)

Little Missy art 2
(I had to write my name and her name on the paper)
(Self-portrait: Reflection on love)

Little Missy art 3
(Self-portrait: Reflection on love)

Happy Monday!

Love is...

An arm around my neck, accompanied by a bear hug AND...

"I like you!"


I am looking forward to a weekend with my girls! We have nothing planned, and at this stage it sounds like heaven HEAVEN!

Hope you have a great weekend as well!


Related post:

Love is...

Pretville visit

The Pretville movie set is still up at Hartebeesportdam, and well worth a visit.
Pretville is an Afrikaans film musical that is set in the 1950's.

It was a rainy day yesterday, with lots of mud, but it did not deter anybody, and afterwards we heard that it is much better than going there than when it is too hot!

There are tons of photo opportunities for snap happy patrons.

Definitely a place to take a photo

The Diner which was jam-packed 

The detail in each of the little shops is amazing
(like this AlphaPharm Pharmacy) 

Waiting for the bus

I hear that they are going to break it down in about a month, which would be very sad.
It was like going back into the past...

"Mountain climbing" at the Botanical Gardens

The Toddler keeps on asking us that she wants to go mountain climbing. 

I think she got the idea from us after our visit to Cayley Lodge in the Drakensberg mountains. We did a bit of hiking with her, and after that she was hooked...

We took her to one of our favourite spots nearby: The Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens. There is a steep hike next to the waterfall to a lookout on top of the black eagles' nest. 

Going up went very well! Much better than I thought she would do for her first time, and she walked most of the way.

She even wanted to carry on walking on the walking trial when we got on the hill top ...

Going down was a bit more daunting, and she had to be carried for most of the way.

The Toddler loved it!

This is still one of my favourite spots for a Sunday afternoon!

You will definitely find us here when we want to take a breather in nature. Especially since it is just around the corner!

Related posts:

Weekend of three

Sunday sun!

Weekend camping

The full-blown winter weather had us uncertain about going camping over the past weekend...
I had a few calls from Hubby saying that we should make a call: NOT going!

But in the end we were packing. Haphazardly, because of the going/not going... (That explains the forgotten stuff!)

We arrived at Kokoriba (just a few kilometres from Brits) with scarves and jackets, and realized we had not packed any summer clothes. Luckily I put in the swimming costumes as an afterthought.

Heated pool fun

It was definitely worth the effort to get away from winter for a weekend and to soak in the rays of the bush!

Lesson learnt: Never ever plan your holidays around the weather. Even if you think the winter has got you slumped... Just go!

The Toddler had a ball!

It was only dust where we camped, but she was found playing in it the whole weekend.
The bunnies, and birds around the camp site made for excellent entertainment.

And I got to see wonderful sunsets!
I wish we could have stayed...

North West sunset!

Photo report of the weekend

Decorating in the boardroom 

We had such a quiet and uneventful weekend...

I started with two functions on Friday, but by six thirty we were home.
We had a weekend of rest and time with the family!

Some more of these kinds of weekends, please!!

Tiny Tumbles exercises

Left-right...

We also had two breakfasts; on Saturday and Sunday.

My ultimate guilty pleasure!

Moroccan Lifestyle - one of our favs

We also went to check out Lemon Rose Farm, which we always drive by and say we should stop there one day...

We loved the garden restaurant area and the farm yard with the animals. Mostly because the Toddler assured us it is the "Zoo"while she thoroughly the animals and the play area. The chickens and ducks were walking between the tables.

Jumping Castle at Lemon Rose Farm

Butterfly balloon made for a small fee at Lemon Rose Farm

Lemon Rose Farm

But the food was not that exciting... Here you definitely go for the children!


What did you do on your weekend?