Miles 4 Smiles Assembly

Dean had the privilege of attending the Miles 4 Smiles assembly at the boys school this morning.

We love how good the school is at getting involved in stuff but the way they get involved in this particular charity is quite amazing. Between the children in this picture they raised just over R34,000 (£3100) which will be used by Operation Smile for corrective surgery for children with cleft palates.

And The Winner Is...

A little while ago we posted about Book Week at the boys school.

Both boys loved dressing up and Eli  went as an Alien who Loves Underpants. He was particularly pleased with his costume, as he got to fulfill a bit of an ambition by wearing a pair of underpants on his head to school. What made it even better for him was the fact that the teachers loved it!

Well it truly paid off for Eli as he was presented with the prize for best book week costume in the junior school.

The World's Clean Again

So said Eli yesterday when he put on his very first pair of glasses! After 20 months of visits and tests and eye exercises it was finally agreed that Eli should start wearing glasses. Though he does need them all the time we are starting off with just TV, work on the whiteboard at school etc to get him used to wearing them and in the hope of preserving their life. Odds are already on on how long Eli will make a pair of glasses last!!

We remain so thankful to God for His healing work in Eli’s eyes. We have known for a long time that he has been experiencing sight difficulties but had not realised the extent until the first round of testing when he was just 3 years old. It was explained to us that not only does he quite serious myopia but he also had a stigmatism which meant that his retinas were shaped like rugby balls. The odds were truly stacked against him.

Flying Thing

I was fascinated by this bug in the garden this morning and managed to get this half decent snap of it with Paula's point & shoot camera.

I think it might be a hornet but am not too sure. Whatever it is I was surprised to see it out on a cold winter's morning.

Aunty Poppy

Not many people in life could ever come close to being a new mum - well Aunty Poppy is one such amazing lady!  We ask you all dear friends to please call out to God for the health of our wonderful friend.  She is currently in ICU at our local hospital having suffered a heart attack.  Paula had a precious 10 mins alone with her tonight before it seemed like half of Chris Nissen Park turned up to visit (!) - so popular and loved is this woman!!  Unfortunately, the nurse wasn't having it and we were all asked to move on!!

Don't Go Camping Tomorrow!

Apologies to Ben Witherington for plagiarising his blog post title about the pending judgement day.

So Harold Camping and his sect have come up with a convoluted mathematical formula to determine exactly when the day of judgement will be.

Book Week

Once again the boys's school demonstrated this week why we love it so much and appreciate the wholistic approach to education that they excel at! This week was the beloved annual book week! Everyday the school had come up with various activities for the children to join in and to grow in their love and appreciation of books and reading. For example, one day they were allowed to go to school in their pyjamas and had hot chocolate.

For the whole week they were given a 'reading buddy' from a higher year and every time the bell sounded they had to Drop Everything And Read (DEAR), grab their buddy and go for it - how cool is that! Each day there was a quotation competition for the kids to have a go at guessing and winning a prize (Joel was thrilled to win on Thursday when he guessed the quote from Charlotte's Web!) and they also ran an all-week photo competition with various staff and pupils hiding behind their favourite titles!

Exhausted!

Joel is starting to master one of the best things there is to do in the whole wide world. He's starting to read himself to sleep.

Tonight's choice, after mummy had already read the next chapter of Charlie And The Chocolate factory, was Charlie Cook's Favourite Book which is a classic Julia Donaldson tale which goes full circle to end where it began.

Hmmm, think I need to join my boys in the land of nod, accompanied of course by a good book.

Miles for Smiles

Once again the boys woke early and full of excitement as the annual Miles for Smiles event had dawned at the beautiful Lourensford Wine Estate.  This year for the first time both boys could ride their bikes unaided (no baby wheels) and had therefore been practicing in earnest for the event.  They gathered some great sponsorship along with the added incentive of extra money if they reached so many laps!

Celebrations

Had such a fun type ‘holiday weekend’ this past 72 hours with lovely friend Jo (in the blue car!). We had been planning for ages to celebrate her “coming off of crutches/drugs” and so had a wonderful lazy lunch together. Was so good to have all that child-free/work-free time just to catch up properly, alongside another magnificent lunch – the diet definitely starts in June!!

Then came the highlight of the week for Eli as Jo had promised to be his bunk buddy one night. Still don’t think Eli can believe that she actually did stay over in his bunk bed – lots of laughs!

Royal Treatment

Sometimes in life special people get rewarded. I was so thrilled to see that our local community newspaper printed an article on my HOPE Home Based Care team. We were recently blessed for lunch by our friends at Taste Restaurant and the paper picked up on it. Let's hope we get some local interest, these amazing women do what they do for nothing!