Stay at home Friday

The kids stayed at home today cause Brad felt like keeping them at home. When I left for work this morning Riley was lying in bed with Brad and Rourke was trying to convince me that he wanted to go to church, rather than school and that he wanted to wear his pj's. Riley just wanted to stay in bed. I guess they convinced their dad.

They did a bit of tidying at The Bok and Rourke helped Patrizia set up the chairs for the patio at The Coolock. Meanwhile Riley went for a hair cut. I'm quite surprised by this cause she's been trying to grow her hair for ages. But I looks gorgeous and she is thrilled.

She's going to the stables with her friend Yoko tomorrow and came and asked me if her hair will still be short tomorrow cause she wants her friends to see it that way. "How do we make it stop growing, mommy?"

O and Brad gave himself a hair cut and a shave so he is looking very handsome indeed!

Now only the Tiger and I need to do something with ourselves.

I clean forgot that it's fathers day on Sunday and never got Brad something. I'm feeling terrible about it. If you have any last min ideas please let me know.

3 Home cooked Dinners in 1 week...

Our e-mail connection is up and running, yeah!! We've been struggling for quite some time to get it sorted out and so at last we had a technician come round and fix the problem. So you know what this means - no more interuptions.

The last couple of evenings the Tiger has been taking ages to fall asleep and calling me to tell me that he can't sleep cause he doesn't like his room. No further explanations just that. Or he'll tell me that he can't sleep fast, which is his excuse when I tell him to lie down and go to sleep quickly. Tonight it didn't go too badly, after their story and some water they fell asleep in no time. It would be great if I could find out what makes it all go well some nights as appose to others

Riley on the other hand was her "emotional" self. Asked me to put O'Malley on the bed with her only to start crying about 10 min later cause I didn't hear her calling to ask me to take the cat off her bed. She honestly drives me crazy by thinking that she needs to cry of every little thing that doesn't go her way.

She was very happy tonight to be my "sous" chef. She eagerly stirred the bolognese, dished up and served everyone. Now if only I could get her to eat the food as well. Rourke on the other hand complained about the food the whole time only to end up eating it all.

And to think I have cooked 3 dinners this week already, the only night I missed was Wednesday night and that was cause I went out for dinner with Tracy. Who knows I might just turn into a better mom after all. At least, I would say this is a step in the right direction. Brad says this must mean that we are a regular family now...I don't think we'll ever be a regular family.

Weekend News...

Riley got me really worried on Saturday morning, she took a good look at me and told me: "mommy you are really getting old, look at your face here and here..." pointing to my forehead and cheeks. I mean that must be one of the worst things a child can tell you! Or am I wrong? At least Tiger was quick to tell me that it wasn't true, "you're just brown mommy not old" Bless his little heart. I am working very hard at forgiving Riley for her comments though (ha ha).

We had a great visit with some friends whom we haven't seen for nearly 6 years. They lived in Brussels when we lived here the first time but moved back to the UK shortly after Riley's birth. It was a real treat catching up with each others news and finding out that after all this time we still had loads to talk about. They seem to enjoy being back in Brussels so much they even said that they would love to move back.

Speaking about friends, I must admit that our friends back in South Africa is the one thing we really miss. Don't get me wrong we love our friends here and our lives would be very dull without them but some friends just can not be replaced.

Friends in SA pop over to visit you at your house unannounced, they'll come over for a bbq or just a visit and the kids will just run amok in the back ground while you are sitting back having a good old "kuier" visit. Here, you see friends for dinner or at the pub or make arrangements to meet somewhere. To have them visit your house, or visit them at theirs, takes planning and invitations. Then again, at least you don't have to worry about people dropping in when the house is looking like a bomb site...(which may be a good thing in my case)

So to our friends back in SA, we miss you guy's and wish you were closer, and remember just cause we so far away doesn't mean you can't pop over for a visit at any time.... you'll just have to put up with a untidy house.

O and some celebrity news...the Baa-Baa's were in The Bok on Thursday night. (The Baa-Baa's is the international rugby team called The Barbarians aka the Baa-Baa's). Yes, ladies and gentlemen my husband's humble establishment played host to some international rugby players. I must admit that he came home a little disappointed "they really are not as big as you would think" "some if them are even smaller than me". Shame, poor man but at least he had a good time entertaining them.

Time to get back to picking up after everyone, never know who might pop in un-announced...