Sickness

Last week was our week of sickness... but to be honest the kids have been sick on and off for the whole year. This bout of sickness was the measles and our youngest was infected.
Having said that I got to stay home with my munchkin one of the days and it was really lovely spending some alone time with my girl. Mike and I have been trying to make time to spend alone time with each child at different times and when we do its so wonderful!

Our sick day was saved by some Barney / Pepa pig and many snacks.

This child is getting cuter and cuter with every passing second... my joy!

Church playroom

This is how we do church with my little one...

She does stay quiet so I am able to listen to the service which is a lovely change!

Ollie's valentines...

Ollies school do the cutest little valentine dance for the kiddes in the hall. They sing and dance and have so much fun. He really LOVES orange group this year and is thriving.

 We also bought the sweetest little valentine day badges from school and I wore mine to work.

My heart loves baking...

My heart loves baking.. and my boy loves baking so Ollie and I often bake together. He is really good and measuring out cups of flour and he LOVES to turn the mixer on and off so hes the best helper. We love baking anything and everything but lately our favorite thing to bake is cookies - partly because they are easy and delicious and partly because cookie batter is my favorite thing in the world.
Even with being on a very healthy eating plan I love baking as for me baking is more fun than eating the baked goods... don't get me wrong fresh cookies are heavenly BUT I am happy skip the cookie for a salad but enjoy the time baking.
Our last batch of cookies was a 3x choc chip cookie - milk choc, dark choc and white choc.

 My mom got me 2x cookie sheets for my birthday and they are AMAZING!! A definite game changer for cooking baking...

I want to be that mom that bakes delicious goodies for parties and sleepovers - practice makes perfect so cheers to more baking!

My precious girl...

This girl has my heart!

Having a daughter is surreal at times especially since I was convinced I was going to be a boy mom - she has shaped my heart and changed me in so many ways! I look so forward to the many many girly things we get to do together.

A rare quiet morning...

This was one of those mornings when we were all ready way before we had to leave and as the kids sat down to have some breakfast Ollie asked if I could read him his school library book... and we had time so I did. It was just lovely having Charley on my lap reading to both kiddies and I didn't realize that Mike had taken a photo of us which he sent me later.

Its moments like this that make life so much sweeter!

Special Fridays...

Friday are the only days I get to leave early enough to fetch the kids and then 'do' something with them. Our week days are fetch the kids, feed them, bath them and then its such a small amount of time until bedtime... but Fridays I have some extra time and I have decided that it will be a treat one way or another. Ollie gets to choose one week and Charley (me) gets to choose the week after.
The choices are -
1) Spur for an ice cream (total cost of R25 and they have to share)
2) Wimpy for a baby-chino (R4.50)
The reason I am adding the values is that another change we made this year was trying our best to stick to a very strict budget which we lacked a bit last year. I have explained to Ollie the value of money and the reason we cannot always buy something when we want it - he fully understands and often says "mom, I would really like that but its very expensive hey?" to which I reply YES and we move on. I must say, I am very proud of my boy - he has never had a tantrum when we are walking in the shops and he asks for something to which the answer is NO (which is more often than not), he makes my heart very proud!

The last Friday play date we had was at spur - Ollie chose to rather have the bigger ice cream and share it with Charley than have a cone and this boy is too bright cause he must have known Charley wouldn't have liked the ice cream too much - she just wanted the empty little sweety containers which Ollie happily gave her.

 The week before we had baby chino's at wimpy - poor Charley just had water :) But next time she can have her own one I think.

I have been really enjoying going to our Wimpy or Spur, ordering one small things for the kiddies and a water for myself and seeing the bill be less that R30 each time. We have put money aside for weekend spending and when its finished then its finished - this way our outings can be so many more and we just eat at home - which is healthier and cheaper - I always felt like I needed to make the bill a substantial amount by ordering extras because swiping for R30 seems ridiculous but why? I feel more than ok to pay a whole R30 for something as having excess is more ridiculous than paying a small bill. I so cherish this time with my kiddies!