Happy New Year!

To all our fans, our friends, Granny and all our family from Cape Town to the far Northern Province - Happy New Year and love you lots!

This year we plan to go to school, play a lot, go camping, sleep in our tree house (we all got sleeping bags for christmas), turn 9, 6 and 3, make new friends, go to a live play, go to the movies (we havent been for two years!), and have lots and lots of fun!

Hope you all have a fun year too1 - Rathla, Franci, Savuti

P.S. Veels geluk met die onderskeidings Karel - dis great! - S

Especially for you Granny!

Here are some pictures of a little girl - just for you Granny Beryl! Love you lots and lots. Thanks for the money - we are going camping with it as soon as mom finishes her exams!

Cheti is a wonderfull little girl. She is certainly on her own mission - most of which remains a mystery to us exept that she is extremely compassionate and always willing to help. Whenever she accidentally hurts Savuti or Rathla she cries more than they do - she feels so sorry for them. She is a real softy, I suppose we all are, although Rathla and Savuti seem to be a bit tougher.

She loves playing on her own sometimes, but she also loves playing blom-blom etc. with Rathla and wrestling with her dad. Her and Savuti play together nicely now and when Rathla goes to school next year we expect the girls to play together lots more.

Cheti started speaking English when we made friends with Carol and Lorna our neighbours. Now she speaks English very easily (after refusing point blank to for 3 and a half years!)

Franci loves fairies and fairy picture books and she also likes colouring in those black and white pictures and stuff Granny gave her once. She loves doing her schooling and once we have Rathla out of the way we will also get more time for that.

She loves wearing dresses over pants (just like her mom), and whenever we go anywhere she always tries to look like me. She doesn't like blood and gore and gets very upset when Ian has a fatality on the game farm. She doesn't mind getting very dirty, she is not very girly (impossible with parents like us and living where we live!)

Savuti unplugged...

Net 'n paar fotos. Ian se rekenaar is gesteel en ons het 'n hele klomp verloor. Van Rathla en Sav se verjaardae ens. Nou sit ek hierdie maar op dat hul darm gesien kan word.

OK, eks gereed vir die ski-hellings - wie kom saam?

You've got to stop and smell the roses...OK irises will have to do...

Ek is so vreeslik oulik en ek weet dit ook...

Newsflash! Rathla is going to school!

Big News! I am going to school next year. Mom and Dad and me went to go check out Woodlands school after mom heard about it from two of the teachers from there who were in her 'learn not to hit your children' class. (My Parent Effectiveness Training' class, but Rathla tells everyone I teach people not to hit their children, which is part of it. - S)

Woodlands school is amazing. (It is a nature-orientated school). There is a stream running through it where the children catch fishes and crabs in breaktime, when the weather is nice we have classes outside, lots of snakes in cages and scorpions and owls which got hit by cars and then the school looks after them (the school rehabilitates owls). And there is a secret passage, mom doesn't believe this, but there is - I saw it when I went to go check out the school for a day.

Anyway, I am so exited I am counting the sleeps and although mom had a bit of a hard time letting me go (ja, I did, its quite hard - S), she is also exited now.

We go to school in any blue shorts and green t-shirt and mom has bought me that and red underpants.

I am going to love school, I am going to gr. 2 and I am so looking forward that I said to my Uncle Rathla and all my other aunts and uncles that I don't want Christmast presents - they must put the money in a special account that mom made for me to help mom and dad pay for the school. (Rathla really did this and we are very proud of him. The schoolfees are a bit steep, but it is such a lovely place, will make plans -S.)

Next year we will post photos of me at Woodlands then you can put it on your fridge Granny! But now we first have to do Cristmast and that is another story...

Love

Rathla

Abseiling!

We all went abseiling in November. A friend of mom's is an abseiling instructor and she said we could come for free! Thanks Nina! It was very very scary - 18 m high off a steep cliff. Cheti got all kitted out, but she decided she would like to rather learn to abseil off a lower rock or the roof or something.

Cheti - eks nou mooi opgedress en als met sommer TWEE harnasse aan, maar ek dink ek sal maar liewer dit volgende keer doen dankie!

Rathla - I was very scared and halfway I stopped and wouldn't let go the cord, but then mom and Nina talked to me from high up there and eventually I could do it! There was like a place where the rock goes in, (an overhang) and that was super scary because you just hang free, nowhere to put your feet! Dad was waiting for me at the bottom and it was great when I realized that I did it! Mom says now I know how to face my fears. Hope I don't have to do a lot of that... Now I love abseiling and cannot wait to do it again!

P.S. More photos to follow when the signal picks up - same old promise. En sorry Karel, ek het probeer maar ek kry nie die beloofde videoclip vir jou verjaardag gelaai nie, ek sal weer probeer. - Sonja

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Karel! Here are some birthday wishes for you from us. you also have to check this spot later because we will be loading a videoclip for you when dad comes home for lunch. (Oh, please ignore the date at the top here - mom's computer is a day behind. It is now Monday 24 November - we know.) - Rathla and Cheti



From Rathla - Happy Birthday Karel. I hope you have a wonderfull day with lots of presents. Love you.



From Cheti - Happy Birthday! Watse persent wil jy he en watse persente het jy gekry? - Cheti

Girls and Blooms

We have a beautiful patch of Dutch Irises growing in front of the house. I just couldn't resist taking these of the girls, even though the light was not perfect. I thought I would go back later when the light was softer, but then I never got a chance again and before I knew it the flowers were all spent... perhaps next year then, but for now these are just lovely.

Summer is beautiful here in the Magalies mountains. Rathla and Cheti just LOVE flowers and at least half of their games are about flowers being people. The other half is about the characters they hear about when we read for them. At least 3 times a day I have to answer the question: 'Mom, what animal are you?' and then if I don't choose an animal THEY want they will say, 'No mom, you can be either a squirrel or an otter'. So I usually end up being an otter.

We love the garden at Redwall although it had been a bit abandoned and neglected before we moved in - we have had our first bits of rain and have sown lots of seeds, so will send some more pics around Christmas when things should be beautiful. (S)

Signal poor here today, took ages to get this on, will try again some other time.