Baby or Blizzard : Bring them on!!!

This weekend we were due to take a trip up to Detroit to reunite Jacques with his sister (Liesel's aunt). Unfortunately a bout of sinusitis for Liesel and Doctor's orders, we had to cancel and spent a quieter weekend at home. But that was not a bad thing in the least. We managed to satisfy most of Liesel's nesting needs! This included my putting on the finishing touches on the nursery paint job on Friday night. On Saturday morning, we purchased the curtains for the rooms , as well as a side table and lamp that will accompany the rocking chair - for whoever is on baby duty! Liesel made sure everything for the baby was washed and sterilized. By Sunday, everything had dried and put back together, and then placed in the nursery - ready for use :)

So we went from this.......


to this!


Other weekend activities included going to church and a walk around the block with Nathan's sporting his brand new Spiderman helmet! We need to take advantage of these sunny days as we are very well aware of the cold, wet and icy months ahead of us!


Speaking of which, this forthcoming week has a couple of things in store for us. Firstly, on Sunday November 2, the USA moves back an hour as we bid farewell to the summer's Daylight Savings Time. Then secondly, our first forecasts of snow have already cropped up! There is a rain/sleet/snow chance on Monday night/Tuesday morning!! At least the weather is still warm enough that we won't see any accumulation of snow for a while still. The snow should melt as it hits the ground as the temperature is still above freezing. Our accumulating snow usually moves in near the end of December and definitely in January and February. This season, I do not fear any accumulations or even a blizzard! This is because I have hopefully said goodbye to the back-breaking work of shovelling snow off the driveway with my latest purchase. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my new snow thrower!!!

After some conversations with my South African family this weekend, I realized that they don't have the slightest idea of what a snow thrower looks like - which is which why I included the photo above! This little beauty should keep my driveway and sidewalks clear throughout the snow season, and I can't wait for a decent snow fall to fire this baby up! I think Nathan summed it up when he came looking for me at lunch time - and I was outside giving the thrower a test run. He shouted back to Liesel, " Mom, dad is outside playing with his new toy!!!"

Energy-sapping weekend II

Yet another weekend, where at the end of it, my reserves of energy have again been depleted! Friday marked the day that Nathan turned four - and it was full throttle from that morning through the rest of the weekend.

Liesel and Nathan headed to a local farm on Friday morning. The local MOPs group had arranged an apple picking morning and hay-ride! Afterwards it was back to our house for Nathan to continue opening and playing with his presents! It was around 4:30pm when I got home - and when Nathan could open his remaining gifts! His smile didn't leave his face for hours! He loved all his presents - especially his very own digital camera! This gadget has accompanied us on all our excursions this weekend!
For dinner that night - we went to Nathan's favorite restaurant, Moe's! Of course the camera came with :)

On Saturday morning, after a few morning chores, we drove out to Cleveland's Little Italy - where Jacques was treating us to a lunch at a renowned bakery. The food at Presti's bakery was fantastic! After my Ravioli, I had, arguably the best dessert that I have had in my 30 months of US residency! It was a miniature Chocolate Mousse cake - filled with decadent and delicious mousse! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!! Jacques had a Chocolate Cappuccino Brownie which came in at a close second!

Later that afternoon - we decided to go for a walk around our neighborhood with Nathan on his bicycle! We were amazed at how Nathan hopped on his bike and flew down the sidewalk with us increasing our pace to keep him within eyesight! After the kilometer long walk - Nathan was all ready for a second round, unfortunately the adults weren't and we headed inside for the rest of the evening!

Sunday morning had the boys heading to church - while Liesel stayed at home and rested. Lieesl has been feeling under the weather for the past few days as she has been trying to elude a head cold that seems to have set up a base camp in her sinuses! Even with her head feeling like a pressure cooker, she prepared an awesome roast for lunch! After lunch Jacques and I headed upward as we replaced some damaged shingles on the roof. This was not fun as the steep angles of the roof make it very uncomfortable! But we were successful (or so we believe) and by the time we made it to terra firma again, Nathan was ready for another bike ride. So Jacques and I obliged and made another round of the neighborhood before dinner time.

Nathan's Birthday Party (2 hours of energy sapping fun...)

North-east Ohio was blessed with the perfect weather this weekend, which was the when Nathan's birthday celebrations took place! Shortly after waking up on Saturday morning, it was all hands on deck, as last minute preparations for the party took priority. Jacques and I hit the shops for an early morning supply run. Fortunately for us, Costco had all the good food to get us through the party!

At 10:30am, Nathan's friends arrived for the Fire-fighter themed birthday party. As the official entertainment organizer, I gathered the 6 boys and kicked off the fire-fighter inspired games! One of the games was a variation of the classic "Pin the tail on the donkey". Each child had a pipe-cleaner and once blindfolded, attempted to push it into my Styrofoam fire-engine that I had made a few days earlier!

Next was my fire-fighter obstacle course. Each apprentice fireman had to climb up a ladder into Nathan's "fort". From there, they slid down the slide and put on a Fire Fighter jacket, a pair of boots and a fire fighter helmet. Once clothed in the kit, they had to crawl through a tunnel and run to me, where I handed them a hose. Their final objective was to knock over (aka extinguish) some containers that I spray-painted red, This was a far safer alternative than setting some gasoline alight for the 3 and 4 year olds to extinguish. I think the parents appreciated that! The final game I had put the boys into 2 teams. Their objective was to carry a bucket of water over to their partner - who in turn, ran with it to the one side of the garden and emptied it into a big bucket. Then they would have to return to me to refill the bucket, so they could hand it off to their partner. And so it continued until they collapsed from exhaustion..... KIDDING!!! They did it for about 4 complete rotations! Right after that game, it was time to hand the children a baseball bat so that could beat the living foam out of the unsuspecting fire engine pinata! It didn't take long for the kids to break through the flimsy cardboard exoskeleton, and reveal the hidden candy treasures!

At the end of the games, it was time for the pizza lunch which went down very well with both children and parents! Finally it was time to bring out the cake! Liesel baked the caked and iced it, while I put on all the finishing touches such as the ladders, windows, lights and nozzle! And it tasted pretty darn good too! Everyone seemed to enjoy the party and Nathan has been asking for another party on Sunday, and Monday, and Tuesday, and......... We take that as a compliment :)



After the excitement of the morning, Jacques and I took Nathan to a local playground, where Nathan rode around on his bicycle for a while, before climbing on the slides and other playground equipment. It was a beautiful day - with no clouds, no wind, with the trees slowly relinquishing their summery green leaves. The yellow, orange and red colors are becoming more and more predominant, making the landscape look like a beautiful watercolor painting!. So we were making the most of the Indian summer that we are experiencing - before the icy northern air invades Ohio again!

Fun Fair and a Flag Faux pas

As the Fall temperatures continued their steady march into north-east Ohio, we kicked off the weekend by visiting Nathan's Preschool. They were hosting a Fall fun fair for all the children that attend the school. It was very well organized with a variety of activities to entertain the children. There was bowling with a pumpkin, bean bag toss, and a leaf blowing game to name a few. Nathan even sat patiently as one of the teachers painted a spider on his hand. Hopefully this is the closest he will come to getting a tattoo!

Afterwards we headed for Home Depot to buy the paint for the baby's room. That is the next project that is looming around the corner. The rest of the morning was spent in the beautiful fall sunshine! Just before lunch, Liesel received a phone call from Nathan's preschool teacher who was contacting all the parents to inform them of their child's progress. Nathan's report was excellent, with the teacher very impressed at Nathan in all areas of the preschool experience. We are incredibly proud of our little prodigy!!!

This weekend, a family friend of ours, Jacques, came over to spend the night on Saturday! He is in Cleveland for a month on a residency at the Cleveland Clinic. Nathan and I drove to the train station to pick him up at 5pm, then picked up Liesel at the house and headed for our favorite fast food outlet, Moe's South-western Grill (Mexican). We followed this up with a sunset drive along Lake Erie, which offered up spectacular views of the city of Cleveland as it reflected the retiring sun in its thousands of windows. Later that evening, after Nath was in bed, I got a rare opportunity to enjoy some of my prerecorded Office episodes with a fellow Office fan (Jacques)! What a great way to bring a day to close by watching a couple of hours of my favorite sitcom!

Sunday morning was another beautiful one. We went to church with Jacques, and saw that this week was the start of our church's Missions Month. There were numerous flags decorating the stage. After a quick scan of the flags, my eyes fell upon the South African flag. Unfortunately, it was the old South African flag (orange, white and blue). Oops.... obviously the average American would not even know the difference. However, after the service, I did mention this to the lady who had put out the flags, and she told me that I could remove it, and save the church from possible embarrassment.......

The rest of the day included some Wii play, a delicious lunch, weekly catch-up chats with our families in South Africa, and dropping Jacques off at the train station.

Here is a photo of Liesel at 29 weeks and one from Jacques of Nath and myself at Huntington Beach at sunset!