24 August 2010 - Go-cart day

Michael had his first school go-cart day.  He was lookig so forward to it (apparently they practised with the go-carts at achool all week.  Come Saturday Michael was dressed and ready early already. 

Their little class did well and managed (I think) 43 laps of the course, but they were exhausted though and flopped down at the end after a good workout.

7 August 2010 - Michael's batman party

My mom gave Michael a batman suit for his 3rd birthday and since then he has been semi-obsessed with batman.  When he first go the suit he wore it to creche for about 2 weeks straight - he wore it day and night.  He fell asleep in it and I had to pry it off him to get it in the wash and dry again to get back on him before he awoke in the morning - if he was not wearing it there was chaos in the house :)  Every function/party/occasion we has he was batman - it was actually so cute. 

So come his party this year guess what he chose as a theme - BATMAN of course.....

I must say it was a lot of fun getting everything sorted and organised and I even attempted my own plastic icing this year, which was really not as difficult as I thought it would be.

The kids made their own "superhero" masks (covering my garden and house in glitter, feathers and sequins in the process), played, ate sweets, ate cake and (I think) generally had a great time.  The birthday boy was in his element from when his eyes opened up at 7am until they shut again at 7pm - it was HIS day, he had waited a full 364 days for this day and if the photos are anything to go by he LOVED it.

Happy 4th birthday my little batman.

20-something June 2010 - Target shooting

We went out to Al on the farm for a day (I think it may have been father's day) and between Al, Ed and the kids a decision was made to let them shoot with the pellet gun (just to get a feel for it I suppose). Rules were laid down and the gun was loaded. I must say I am totally against guns and was not too keen on this whole lot, but the kids ended up having a great time shooting a target and they also ended up being quite good at this. Was was meant to be a shot each ended up being about 5-6 each - Andrew did it all on his own and grandpa helped Michael a bit as the gun weighs about as much as him :).

I took a few shots of Michael too - of him and his beloved "teddy", a comfort item that he has used since birth and can't go a day without (wonder how long the poor thing will still last). And then of him playing on the stoep infront of the house - he is so meticulous in his play and every item had to go into it's own block and get played with there. He normally lines everything up in some way or another and here the blocks just helped the process.

10 June 2010 - Dress-up day

I actually can't believe how far behind I am with my posts.

On 10 June (way back when) the kids had dress-up day at school.  In keeping with the whole soccer theme (sort of) there was a theme of children of the world.  I threw around some ideas with Andrew and Michael but they were not having any of it.  Andrew decided that he wanted to wear his knight costume, so he ended up being an English knight (from England) and Michael insisted (suprise suprise) on his army outfit so he was just back from war :).

Sir Andrew my brave (and very fetching) knight.

Andrew with his friends, H the Mexican, R the cowboy, N as Zorro and Andrew.

Here is Michael with his buddies.  H the Springbok supporter, T and Michael.

Cute pic!

28 May 2010 - Chicken "pops"

So this afternoon I went to collect Michael from my mother-in-law (Andrew and I had been to a birthday party and Sue has looked after Michael for the afternoon) and I noticed a small blister-like mark on his neck. On closer inspection I found another 5 or 6 of these blisters on his back. My immediate thought was Chicken-pox and after a quick visit to the doctor this was confirmed.

I had to laugh at Andrew though. he kept saying to Michael that he must not come near him adn give him his "chicken pops" - every time I corrected him he just carried on with the pops instead of pox. Needless to sy the new buzz word in the Cross house is now chicken pops :).

Oh boy, so now I have a very contagious little boy who does not understand why he can't see his friends, can't go to school and can't scratch his very itchy skin.
Apparently the spots will get worse until about day 4/5 and then he can go back to "normal life" a few day after that. Wish us luck......

25 April 20101 - Shopping with Michael

Look what climbed into my trolley yesterday :) - Michael insisted on coming to the shops with me yesterday and insited on sitting "like the groceries mommy - so that you can pay for me". How naughty is that face LOL!

Big boy Michael

Here is Michael's first official school photograph (the first of 15 ;)). How cute is that smile and how naughty is that face!

6 March 2010 - Coffe at the airport

Robert and Katherine (my brother and his wife) were in SA for a week or so over the Easter weekend for a family wedding. They were to leave from Johannesburg on 6 April and between their flight landing from PE and them having to get their flight to London they had a few hours to kill. My mom, Michael and myself decided to drive through to Jhb to go meet them for a coffee - Andrew opted to stay at home with Ed, but Michael desperately wanted to go to the aeroplane-port to see his Uncle Rob.

We spent about an hour with them and at least my mom got to see her little boy, which was lovely.

The farm 20-22 March 2010

21 March was a public holiday (Human Rights Day) and here in SA if the public holiday falls on a Sunday the Monday is also a public holiday, making it a nice long weekend. We decided to go to the farm for the weekend and yet once again the kids had a ball. Grampy (my FIL) is the hero and he spent a lot of time with the kids playing ball, driving on the quad-bike and of course fishing (for both fish and frogs).