Last week he flew away. His wings had grown a little too long and before we could clip them, he took flight from the 4th floor balcony. He’d done it before, and we’d simply retrieved him from the trees below. But this time he flew out while we were away for the day. We arrived home to no Cheeki. And later were told a pack of Indian Miners had attacked him.

The video clip below is of his 1st birthday party we threw for him.

It’s a quieter sadder home we have at the moment : (

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The Challenge was straight-forward. Order 4 of the biggest HOOHAH! Burgers we could, and see who could finish them? None of us had lunch in the lead up to our big competition.

So we had one 41 year old, two 11 year olds, and an 8 year old. The results…. only one winner. Jordi was the only one to finish.  Our excuse for losing was that we had chips and Jordi didn’t. Of course she wasn’t accepting that. Them burgers were BIG!

You can see other pics here

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Two shows on Friday and two on Saturday. An exhausting two days.

To top it off they both received their Central Gauteng Gymnastics Half-Colours.

Below are two short video clips of some of what they did. One for each of them. Carli’s first, and then Jordi’s.

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We had a spare ticket and the girls voted to take Carli’s friend, Ollie. It was Ollie’s first trip to a live Idols show, so she was completely taken by the event. This became obvious when she joined the throngs of girls in their high pitched screams, right next to me. How do people hit those notes : )

I’m sure I’ve said it somewhere before, but for R40, Idols puts on one fantastic show. For R100 they put on an amazing show. If you’ve got kids, it doesn’t really matter how you feel, Idols is a great outing.

For a couple of extra pics, click here.

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The Cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus), also known as the Quarrion and the Weiro, is the smallest cockatoo endemic to Australia. They are prized as a household pet and companion parrot throughout the world and are relatively easy to breed. As a caged bird, cockatiels are second only in popularity to the Budgerigar.

Carli made a short video of Cheeki this morning. We posted it to YouTube, and it’s available with a click on the video below : )

If you’d like to see some pics of the girls with Cheeki, go here.

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Still it’s in that category of cooking and gardening for many of us. Something we wish we could do, and take it up more for therapy and hobby than anything else. Thankfully we usually go on to both enjoy it and pick up some skill that has us feeling somewhat competent.

Right now it’s more therapy than anything else. A new outlet to express, discover and explore. I’m trusting in the skill component down the road. For now that’s not important.

So I headed into Rosebank, to the Mall, and found me the Mr Magorium equivalent of art shops. I can see how people get so hooked into art? Like computers, it’s a black-hole for money if you let yourself go. I picked up the beginner set, which included real canvases. I felt arty walking out, even though I wasn’t sure what I was letting myself into? I got enough for Jordi and Carli as well.

This morning we settled down and did some painting. My learnings from the morning were simple and profound. You know how they talk about all children being creative, and we knock the creativity out of them? I think it was Picaso? Well it’s true. Jordi and Carli tore into their projects with little to no thought and did things with a paintbrush that left me in awe. I received several lessons with regard to colour, technique and style as we went. There’s no doubt in my mind that whatever I once had by way of being able to paint, that I’ve lost much of it.

Click here if you’d like to see bigger images of the girl’s paintings.

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School holidays in South Africa to accommodate the World Cup. Little to almost no business for me because of support of the World Cup : )

And so I accepted the no-work reality and worked from home, and played with our family. And play we did. I won’t go into detail on each event, simply point you to albums of pics that we took to record the events.

First Gautrain ride – we attempted to go on the first public Gautrain ride. We didn’t get onto the first one, but darn close

Bafana parade through Sandton – what a day. School closed a day early and we went to join the masses to celebrate and support our National Team

World Cup prep – Jordi and I went shopping for decorations. For our bodies, our cars and our home. We all supported Bafana, and then each picked a 2nd option. Carli took England. Jordi took Brazil. Leish and I took Spain.

World Cup game in Durban – I managed to secure tickets on the Friday morning, and we hit the road (by car) to catch the Japan v Netherlands Game the next afternoon. Home on Sunday

We still have two weeks of holiday to go – woop woop : )

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There were a couple of hiccups and I offloaded (puked) them here, for those that are interested, but outside of that, it was one awesome experience.

The Gautrain is fantastic. It leaves Sandton underground and stays there until it ‘surfaces’ at Marlboro. It then stays above ground until the airport. The entire trip takes around 12 min which includes 2 stops. Pretty impressive. The technology is kewl, and you pay R10 for a smart card that you keep and re-charge as and when needed. This pays for the train, the bus and for parking.

Jordi’s friend Daisy stayed the night and joined us for our adventure. And the girls loved it. It was very kewl to see how easily they slotted into the vibe. As if they’d been traveling on high speed trains their entire life : )

It’s definitely something you should do with your kids. It was awesome for Leish and I, and several times more for the girls.

We got to school 15 minutes late this morning. Not because it wasn’t possible. Let’s just put it down to first day teething issues : )

If you’d like to see some pics click here.

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This year was Carli’s first competition. She’s not competed before. She’s on level 1 and is in the under 6 age group. She was nervous, we (Leish and I) were nervous, and Jordi was amazing. On the way from picking up Wimpy Coffee and toasted sandwiches, Jordi told me she hoped that there wasn’t any thunder while Carli was on the beam. She’d hate Carli to fall. And she’d be prepared to fall 5 times if it meant that Carli didn’t have to fall once. What a beautiful and caring wish for her sister. I just wanted to give her a great big hug. I couldn’t. I was driving : )

Carli was a star. She ended up 2nd overall, and won her floor and bar routines. She placed in the top 3 for beam and vault. She ended up with 5 medals, and while they were presenting to other age groups and levels, Leish and I watched her count those medals 6 or 7 times. Not sure if she was checking just how many, or if they were all still there? But she certainly seemed very proud. Rightly so.

Jordi’s level and age group was hotly contested. There was no clear ‘super-star’ amongst them. Many of the girls got medals for the different disciplines. Jordi ended up 5th overall and came home with 3 medals. She was disappointed as she loves gymnastics, works really hard, and was hoping to have finished higher up in the rankings. A hard lesson about competition, not getting what you hoped for, and not finishing as high up as she did least year, to watch her learn. She wasn’t interested in us trying to console her. It was a tough afternoon of emotion here at home.

All in all, it was a great day for the two of them. This morning everyone was back to counting medals, talking of the regional competition, and practicing their various routines on the furniture around the house. They do spend more time on their hands than on their feet : )

I’ve posted some pics of the competition here.

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For those with children that cliche about children growing up so quickly was brought home once again for Leish and I. No more 6 year olds in the house. While Jordi pushes the boundaries on the older end, Carli represents the end of each era for us as a family. So there’s always a hint of sadness as she moves into her next world, but it doesn’t take away from the exciting adventures that she allows us to share with her.

She is an amazing human being in our family. She brings so much that we don’t have, and teaches us things we’d not learn easily if she wasn’t here. Her confidence, imagination, sense of humour, adventure, laugh, need for her own space, her skill with any sport of activity that involves a round objective (ball), her gentle spirit and her loving cuddles. The list is long…

I’ve posted some pics of a little piece of her day. Her ‘big’ present was a drum kit for Guitar Hero (Nintendo Wii) and you’ll see us all playing in the pics.

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