Look what appeared in my house...

Christmas is around the corner and our countdown is about to begin. My friend Judi told me that Woolworths was selling train advent calendars and so I just HAD to buy one. And now Aaron is sooooooooo excited about it and pushes it all over the lounge floor.... hope it lasts till Christmas and beyond.

Where I was today....

Hubby paid for me to go to the spa for my birthday.... sooooooooo nice. So after doing a bit of research, asking questions and then deciding... I picked Chicama Spa at Glenburn Lodge. What a wonderful morning.... okay 2 hours! But it was sooooooooooooooooooooo worth it!

The treatment I had was: GRAPESKIN EXPRESS BODY TREATMENT
This treatment is designed to create warmth in the muscles and joints, hydrate the body and restore the elasticity of the skin, leaving your mind, body and soul refreshed. You will begin with a full body exfoliation, and then your body will be cocooned in a Body Mud so suite your skins need. While letting the mud get to work you will slip into bliss as your therapist gives you a pressure point scalp massage, followed by a foot massage. Then it’s into a HydraVine Hydrotherapy Spa Bath……. followed by a back, neck and shoulders massage

The lady who did my treatment, Stephanie, was so nice and her hands worked their magic. I dozed and relax and came out of there flying on air. Much refreshed. I would definately recommend this to anyone who wants to be spoilt.

An award

I got it from Desire who got it from Kim... such a fun idea... just a little butterfly fluttering past and going from one blog to another... so if you're a visitor here and you leave me a nice comment from time to time (THANK YOU!) you are welcome to take this little award and let the butterfly touch you blog with some love...

Silly me....

I don't know if this has EVER happened to you before... but now that I think about it, it's the second time it's happened to me.... WHAT? you ask... hehehe... running out of petrol... that's what.

Yip it happened to me this morning. My red light in the car has been on for a few days and I planned to fill up this morning on the way to work. Well..... murphy's law right!... I no sooner pulled off from school having dropped Aaron off and sat for an hour reading (my usual routine), when cough splutter jerk... nothing... car dead! Yip it was empty.

Thank goodness I was only one block from school so just locked the car and walked back. Got hold of one of the moms who was still there and she kindly agreed to take me to a garage to get some juice for my car. We borrowed a container and makeshift funnel from the school grounds staff and off we went.

Got some petrol, put it in my tank and after pumping the pedal a few times... success! Drove quickly to the garage and filled up! Relief. Now it was off to work... only 1/2 an hour late!

So you see... even with my winning luck, I still manage to do silly things.

Please vote for me

I joined a group on Facebook called "Scrapbook Showcase" and have entered a whole bunch of my layouts.... please go vote for me....

http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=33314341575&view=user#/group.php?gid=33314341575&ref=mf

I hope to be able to do this one each week.... will just have to see the criteria... so keep it in your favourites!

I won....

hehehe... see me doing a little dance here.... I w-o-n I w-o-n.... okay it's not much but it is mine! hehhehe.

I commented on a post on Creative Souls and got lucky... I'll be getting my very own one....

Thanks to Lara and to Stephanie.

Monday mayhem

Not really but it sounded good as I typed it.... hehehe.

Well this morning dawned decidedly early again!!! I opened my eyes around 5am but turned over after checking the time and went back to sleep..... heard Aaron come through but he ever so sweetly just left again and went to do his maze book in the lounge... at least that's what I found him up to when I got up at 5:30.

The reason behind all this excitement... no not school but rather... party at school - well semi-party anyway as I had baked Aaron a cake to take to share with his class mates.

He had a good day... they all sang to him and I even managed to get photos.... sent camera for teacher to use!

And after school the day continued.... with swimming lesson... which will be one of the last for a while because Aaron didn't enjoy it quite so much and says he doesn't want to go back... in chatting with Keith tonight, he said he would teach him.... so reckon I can save a bit of money there!

Besides that bit of fuss we did have a good rest of the afternoon..... I did the pile of ironing and Aaron watched his brand new movie... The Reef.

A start of a new week.... lets see where we get to by the end of it!

Happy Birthday to Aaron

Sunday was Aaron's 7th birthday... he was one very excited little guy. I had told him when I put him to bed on Saturday night not to wake me before 7am.... well that didn't work ...hehehehe..... he crawled into my bed at 6!!!

But actually it was fine as I had lots to do before leaving for church at 9.....
1. bath and dress
2. bake cake for Aaron to have at Sunday School
3. open presents
4. make breakfast
5. ice cake
And yes we got it all done!

Aaron had his presents...
- got $15 Canadian dollars and a small card from Keith's folks
- swimming cap and goggles, chocolate, new clothes and undies and The Reef dvd from Daddy
- four "i like to read" stories, a maze book, some smarties and some m&ms from Mommy

One very happy boy!

At Sunday School the kids all sang to Aaron and ate the whole cake! Evidently it was a huge success.

Once home, Keith took Aaron to the gym for a swim and I went shopping for more eggs and sugar and came home and quickly threw together another cake for Aaron to take to school on Monday! The guys got back, the cake came out the oven and then Aaron and I left to go to Monte Casino to see Beauty & the Beast.

We met my parents at the show and they gave Aaron his birthday present... a beautiful autographed train book... and it even had photos of the train that we went on on Saturday in it! Aaron loved the show.. asked lots of questions (true to form) but really had lots of fun. Though I had taken Aaron to see Babe at the Youth Theatre last year (tickets I won in a competition), this was the first time Aaron had been to the big theatre... quite an experience.

After the theatre we popped into the Spur for a juice and ice cream.... Aaron kept talking about having a cake with a sparkler in it and them singing to him.... so yes we ordered an ice cream complete with sparkler and singing.... one very happy birthday boy!

He was even more excited about the gift he received.... hehehe... a pen that writes, shreds and lights up... three in one!

Got home, late supper and after a phone call from Canada... Granma & Grandad phoning to wish
him Happy Birthday... it was bed time... the end of a fun weekend!

The train trip

Oh the day was awesome!!!! There are not many words that I can say to describe how much I enjoyed the train... it was fun, thrilling and just a perfect day all round.

The alarm went of WAY TOO EARLY but we had to get up and dressed so as not to miss the train. Judi & Aidan arrived just on 6:30 and then we made our way to Pretoria... arrived at 7:30 so had an hour to spare before the train was due to leave..... we put that time to good use... exploring the engine!


Everyone arrived and we boarded the train. In our party was:
- Keith, Cathy & Aaron
- My folks
- Judi & Aidan
- Marianne & Andreas and their two kids plus two friends
- Pamela, Kevin, Kevin's mom and their daughter Carmen


Our only downside of the trip to Cullinan was the roudy bunch in our coach who kept downing alchol... at 9 in the morning I ask you!! Actually they were already imbibing on the station before we left!



We had a glorious trip... chug chug chug and choof choof choof... wooohooo... peeeeeeeeep! The train arrived in Cullinan at 10:30... right on time! We then took a stroll into the village of Cullinan... each going our own separate way with plans to meet for lunch.



Mom, Dad and the three of us went into the information at Cullinan see if we could find out more about my mom's ancestor Frederick Wells... he discovered the Cullinan Diamond. Well the very nice guys there should us around their museum and then also showed us a DVD of the history of the town and the diamond... with PICTURES of this guy... my Mom and I were soooooooooooooo excited. This town will need another visit in the not to distant future to give us more time to explore.


We then made our way to The Lemon Tree for lunch.... a lovely little restaurant where we all had yummy lunch... more than enough to eat. The kids got to play on all the old forms of transport in the open air museum.




And we of course couldn't forget about pudding.... the main reason I chose this restaurant was because of the menu... the kiddies menu desser was listed as:

supercalaphragilisticexpealidotious ice cream

... sounded divine so I just had to have one....

mmmm... yummy. Didn't quite match the pavlova from the other night but was very nice.

Took another stroll around the village and went into Jan Harmsgat se agterplaas where there are all sorts of creations made out of all sorts of stuff... bottle caps, flattened tin cans, old sinks.. such a fun place. There were even old sewing machines bricked into the walls.


Aaron also got to cuddle a bunny before we made our way back to the train for the journey home... a much quieter affair as people were feeling a bit tired. Got some stunning pics of the train going around a few of the corners.




The weather forecast for the day had been 60% chance of rain but I had asked God if He could see to it that we didn't get rained out... but if we did to let us enjoy the day anyway. Well He must have heard me because it didn't rain... until we were driving home!! So Thank you Lord for answered prayer.


Got home at 6... two cups of coffee later before Judi & Aidan left.. then scrubbed Aaron in the bath and put him to bed. We all collapsed just after 9pm!


This was sooooooooooooo much fun that I highly recommend it... a fun day and well worth the cost. Check out http://www.friendsoftherail.com/ and do yourself a favour and book!!!

Counting sleeps....

Yip around this time of the year we start a major countdown. First it was for my birthday and now it's for these...

ONE SLEEP till we ride the train to Cullinan... soooooooooo excited about this.
TWO SLEEPS till Aaron's 7th birthday.... we're taking him to see Beauty & the Beast.

So you won't (or should I rather say might not?) hear from me until late Sunday night or Monday morning.... we're hectic over here.

And once all this is done we will start our count down to Christmas!