Not that I ever get much time to play on the computer anymore, I have created this blog to brag about the things that mean the most to me in life, firstly my husband, David and then close runners up are my daughters Jade that is 10 years old and Amber who is 4. This is just a way for all our family and friends in South Africa to keep up to date with our lives over here in the States. Hope you enjoy it.
I have no clue what I have done wrong in here but the entire format has been thrown out so I published everything I could till Saturdays pics which I have now pasted below here, hopefully y'all can make out what I am trying to do ... I hopefully will have pasted these pics below the other post so it should run in order and make sense, I am holding thumbs ... but not my breath !!!
Hopefully this all works out. On Sunday we had planned on spending the day on the beach but we had been tracking a tropical storm which was meant to hit the towns above us and further north ... but when we woke up Sunday it had started raining by us too, not too much but enough to put a damper on our plans. So once we had breakfast and checked out, we went to do some touristy shopping to buy goodies to take home with us and then we hit the road bringing us back home at approximately 4ish which then allowed us to relax and wind down after a nice weekend and get ready for the week ahead, back to school and back to work !!!
Well it looks like the format is all out again :-( I am sorry but for the most part hopefully you can see what I am talking about !!! Hopefully the format is the only thing wrong and you can still click on the pics to open them in good quality.
Sorry about this, maybe it's coz I did this all in such a rush this morning !!!
Well I had planned on updating as the weekend played out but it's Monday evening and I am only getting to this now and figured if I didn't do it now, I was not going to get another chance before us leaving to the beach so here goes ...
On Saturday morning we got up bright and early to go to the Matthews Alive Festival in downtown Matthews, for those that have visited us, you will know that is a stone throw away from where we live. We go to this small Festival every year and really enjoy it :-)
I took so much video and was so disappointed with the quality :-( Dave bought me a new camera but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet but I don't think this was the old cameras fault, it was just I obviously was sitting in a bad spot and the lens was catching the sun. Anyway I have uploaded a few pictures and video's. Two of the videos are of the parade itself, it was at least, gosh I actually don't know but I am thinking at least 45 minutes of parade, I love the parade, the load trucks scare Jade a little but she loves the parade too, probably because as the floats go by the throw candy at her, she racked up a good bag full :-)
After the parade we walked around and viewed all the stalls, I love doing that, would prefer to do it on my own though coz Dave hates to walk especially in places like this and well you know how kids are ... but I took a quick walk around while Jade got her fact tattooed and made a craft or two, the bottle one was really cool now I am hoping she won't drop it or mess all the sand around my house.
Then under a small tent there was a music guy doing a little show, it was fun but we enjoyed it more coz it got us out the sun :-) Anyway through the show he called up kids of all ages to have some fun with him, below you will see two videos, the first one is of Jade in the 4 & 5 category showing happy faces and happy feet. Then the other, now you need to sit down and get the Kleenex handy coz you are going to laugh your head off, Jade got Dave to go up and do the twist (hehehe) he almost dislocated his hips but he had a good work out and it was a ton of fun to watch :-)
After that we walked on over to the rides and bought Jade a few tickets to ride a few of the rides, I have some pics and video below of her having fun.
We went home after that and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, Dave started his mountain biking Saturday evening and did half the loop because one of the guys had a problem with his bike so Dave helped him out. When he came home he said he was riding again Sunday morning, which he did !!! Now all I can say is that his butt is so sore the guy can hardly sit ... too funny :-) but I am thrilled he is getting into something outdoors that will get him the exercise he so drastically needs :-) Now hopefully this lasts.
Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon were spend at the pool, may as well get as much use out of it before it closes ... now it's bedtime for Jade, early up again tomorrow, back to normal ... school, work and so much more.
Thursday Dave turns 40 !!! Wow he's getting old !!! We plan on leaving bright and early Thursday morning, everyone that wants to call him can call him either on his cell or mine, we will take the call on route (email me if you want the numbers, I didn't want to put them on here), the beach we are going to is Wrightsville beach in North Carolina, it's about a 4 odd hour drive for us. I thought since Dave has already gotten his birthday gift from me, we would hit the road early and do the smaller gifts and cake that evening at our hotel in Wilmington :-)
I don't think there will be any more updates this week, I will update again when we get back from the beach. Oh and by the way, it seems that all my comments have dried up again :-( am I doing this all for nothing ... anyone out there ????????
Jade is excited for the parade tomorrow, this evening we are going out for dinner, so I dressed her to get into the holiday spirit ... you only get to use these dresses a couple of times a year so why not right !!!
I am sure I will post more pics tomorrow, hopefully I remember to take the camera this time. The parade is at 10am but we have to get there early to get a decent seat so Jade can see and hear everything, it's great fun for the kids and for us newbie 'Americans' it's fun too :-) One of these years we can actually say ... true Americans, about another 3 years I think, man it's been a long process but oh so worth it !!!
Hold onto your seats ... tomorrow Dave is going to start mountain biking, golly my brother is going to be impressed :-) Him and a couple of buddies from work, the 'fat club' if you can believe Dave would join a club like that, well they are going to try and get into a weekly routine of biking at the park close to us. Close enough for Dave to cycle to and get going although I am not sure that is a good idea to start off with but anyway. I told him he couldn't buy a bike of his own until he was into a decent routine and I could see he was serious about this, I have the off road bike in the garage to explain why I have said that but anyway thankfully he has a work buddy with two bikes. I am excited for him to start this and hope it pans out !!!
I will update you again later this weekend with more news. Have a good one !!!
Wow, I cannot believe that more than a week and a half have already passed that Jade went back to school, this year, what can I say ... has just flown by !!! Jade settled back into school like I knew she would, we have really been blessed with an easy child, only the Lord above knows what he has in store for teenagehood, oh my golly !!! Some days I feel like I am already living with that teenager with what comes out of her mouth, I think she is most definitely going to give her dad and I a run for our money, so we will enjoy this easy time while it lasts :-)
The rest of the kids in the road went back to school Monday this week so now we are getting woken up especially early in the mornings since they have to catch the bus around 6h45 and have to pass our house to get to the bus stop and my golly do they make a noise and obviously wake Jade up. Well only one more year and she will be one of those early birds too so I may as well get used to it.
So yesterday, Tuesday, she started her gymnastics again, this year she will be in the girls novice class, it looks like, from what I saw yesterday, the class is going to be a good challenge for her which is great, I know daddy thinks that is better since he is then getting his money's worth :-) Either way, she has a ball there so that's the most important thing. Below are some of the pictures that I took before we went off to gymnastics, I am messing with a new program that Dave put on my machine so sorry the quality is not as good as I would have liked them to be but hopefully in time practise will make perfect :-)
This weekend is the Labor Day long weekend, yipeeeeeeeee !!! We plan to have a pretty relaxing one, I would like to take Jade to the Matthews Alive Festival on Saturday morning, they will be doing their usual parade, floats and all which she totally loves so we will probably do that Saturday. Hopefully the rest of the weekend we can spend a good amount of time at the pool since it won't be long before the pool closes for another year :-(
Next week I have another plan for Daves 40th birthday ... yeah my man is almost over the hill :-) But more on that later, enjoy these pics in the meantime.
I am getting in here bright and early this morning ... today is Jades first day of school, Pre-K, one more year and then Kindergarten !!! One more year of sleeping in, it seemed way too early to get up this morning but it is nothing compared to what time we are going to have to get up when she has to catch the bus to school !!! The kids in the road have one more week before they go to school, Jades school always breaks up one to two weeks early and goes back earlier as well, thankfully she doesn't realize that or that would be something else we would have to deal with ...
This morning she got up no problem considering the late night she had on Friday, she must have caught up on her sleep, thank heavens because she is like me, not a morning person if she is woken up :-) but if she wakes up on her own, the first thing she does is sing, it's too cute, definitely doesn't take after me on that one !!!
Anyway Jade got to chose the clothing she wanted to wear on her first day, it seems to be what is done here, thankfully she is still big into the Hello Kitty stuff so when we were out last week buying a shirt for her High School Musical party, she saw this one, we had bought the bookbag a while back before they all got sold out thank Heavens and this little shirt matched it perfectly. Now skirts are not something Jade is in a lot just because of how rough she is and all, but this one has the built in shorts which helps, now once that skirt and those new tennis shoes go through today, they will never be that pink again LOL but what the heck, it's what she wanted right and they only have this first day once a year right ?
Shame, the bookbag looks huge on her, it's not heavy, oh golly I just remembered she wanted me to take a picture of her Hello Kitty lunch box too but I forgot, anyway all that's in there is a change of clothing, you know just in case ... her big lunch box and her folder that stays in there for communication between the teachers and I. So that's Jade all ready for her first day !!!
Thank you to those that called yesterday and this morning to wish her good luck, she thought she was very special getting all these calls :-)
