A Super Giveaway for the Cape Dairy Experience at Sundringham

Some of you may remember that I mentioned in my post that we are heading to the Cape Dairy Experience in Sundringham on the 4 and 5th November 2011?  Well, we are soooooo going.  I am totally convinced that not only will this be an amazing learning experience, but so many lovely things for the parents too! Besides the inner child in me longing for those finger licking good yummy goodies like - ice cream, cheese, yoghurt and real butter; the children will love this event.

TheWoolworths Dairy Pantry will be teaching us how to make milk tart (proudly South African), roosterkoek and good old traditional pot bread.  So let's see:  Woolies (tick), milk tart (tick), roosterkoek (tick), pot bread (tick) - who could resist?

Oh and did I mention that there will be cooking demonstrations by food bloggers?! Go bloggers!  I didn't even know that bloggers could cook if my culinary skills were anything to go by - but then I am a uniquely unusual unculinary individual with a few bright moments of the ordinary.  My children think I should enter for Masterchef South Africa based on the fact that the only person they have really been able to compare my cooking skills to, is their dad? Did I mention their dad can cook? - oh yes! Fried eggs, french toast, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs and eggs with kind of left overy things in the kitchen.  So you can see why they think I am a chef;) But I AM getting a little distracted.

There are lots of things for the children to do: 

*  ice cream eating contest

*  milking demonstrations 

(be ready to answer all sorts of interesting questions about udders for those of you that have small children)

*  dog jumping competitions

*  tractor shows

*  they can milk a dummy cow 

(that wouldn't be a really dumb cow but just a prop)

*  boeresport games

*  jumping castles

and more......

The Price:  R30 for adults but children under the age of 13 go free! And in fact if you are a school group, provided you register before the event, you can go in free.  Our homeschooling group will definitely be going.

To find out more why not visit their website or call Mariana Rabie at 021 975 4440.

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Here's the Giveaway

Thanks to Mariana Rabie and the Cape Dairy Experience, 4 of you will be able to go free.  I will be giving away 2 tickets to 2 of you that enter. 

Here's how to enter:  Simply comment on this post and tell me:  

What is your favourite  Dairy Experience?

Are you in love with the new double cream dessert yoghurts?  

Do you love milk and drink gallons of it just straight out of the bottle?  

Do you hide a secret stash of chocolate under your pillow?  

Do you love smelly cheeses?   

Come on 'fess up!

(Winners will be announced on Monday!)

 

News: SA Lifesaving Championships in Strand 2011

What an amazing 3 days of SA lifesaving championships. This was a first for us but I can see how this really is something to look forward to every year. I am amazed at how many children arrive from all over South Africa to participate. Obviously they are only represented by coastal places so we had places like East London, Durban, Plettenberg Bay, False Bay and more. There were 22 teams represented.
Apparently for the last 2 years Fish Hoek has come second, well this year we changed all of that and came first place beating Durban by 30 something points. Though our team members do not always get individual trophies, the team participates in every event and that earns us points and that's how we win - by team work.

It was also so good to get to know some of the parents, as often at practices you don't really get a chance to chat but with this event you are together for a solid 3 days and you get to shout, cry and laugh together. Every evening we had a meal in a conference facility and the children were given feedback about the team and booby prizes were handed out for silly things that happened during the day. It was so festive and lively and though by evening everyone was exhausted it was so much fun to be part of all of the hype.

My children have always participated in various sports - they love it and they are good at it - but this is really the tops for them,and for us.
GO FISH HOEK!
To go to the photo album just click on Chad and he'll take you there!

News: The Grant Boys Western Province Champs

As you remember I mentioned the boys participated in the Nippers (which falls under the Fish Hoek Life Saving Club) Western Province Champs and did really well.  They have really taken to this sport and have achieved good results in almost all the competitions.  The team got some press coverage for the event!  

In fact this weekend is the SA Champs and they have been selected for every event individually and for teams.  I am so proud of them and Chad (who is still in the younger age group called Starfish ) has been chosen to be the team mascot - no surprises there.  He may be 7 already but he is still so handsome (dare I say cute?!!) He apparently has to walk out in front of the team when they do their march on with flags.  They had their last practice tonight and of course the coaches wanted to have one more team talk before the event. 

 

 They train really hard and at the moment they have been practising 5 days a week, mostly evenings which in this part of the world means wet suits and freezing water, though they normally get hot chocolate after practises.  During the competition they participate in sprints, flags (run for flags, one less flag than participants, elimination each round until 1 winner and this could mean up to 10 heats one after the other), body boarding, malibu's, long distance running, surf swim, run-swim-run, tapeline relays(run, swim, body board and malibu), sprint relays, malibu relays and body board relays.  As you can see lots of events! And they participate in every single one over 3 days! And to qualify they have to also do an oral exam and time trials for swimming just to be included in the competing team.  This is definitely not a sport for the faint hearted. 

And the best part of all of this is that we know that God has given them these exceptional talents and we pray that they will continue to give Him all the honour in everything they do.  We have seen Him grow them through some of the things they have experienced - swimming amongst jelly fish and being stung and still needing to carry on racing, being disqualified for false starts, losing in races, winning,  injuries because of unwise behaviour, learning to be a team player, persevering when weather conditions are really unpleasant, being dumped and hit by boards, and so many more.  They have earned the respect of their peers and coaches - and their mom:) We often underestimate our children and their abilities, but give them the right opportunities and they can and will amaze you.

News: Grants and Vrouekeur

I was recently contacted by Vroue Keur (local Afrikaans magazine) who wrote an article on how we lost our daughter Savannah and through that started up an organization iKhaya LikaBaba – home for orphaned and abandoned babies.  Her comment to us was that many of us go through challenges and tradegies but its what we do with them that make a difference.  So I have included a scanned version of the story.(for those of you who don’t understand Afrikaans you can read the original story I wrote here.  I hope that this will be an encouragement to many of you who read this. We all face hardships but He walks alongside us and sometimes carries us as we let go and let Him help us through whatever it is we are going through.  Nothing is too big or too small.  Nothing is too big for our God and yet He is interested in every detail of our lives

To read the article, click on the image and you can zoom in.