brothers, birds, bredie and a box

i just bought a new vacuum...i was pretty excited about it.....

but gabi was absolutely bowled over about the vacuum box!

she put the box on over her head and spent the rest of the evening walking around, 

bumping into walls, scaring roxy, watching tv, trying to sit down

 and carrying on echoing conversations with the rest of us.

you know what they say about children and toys vs. box... 

(they will always choose the box over the toy)

well, it is true, even with 10 year olds.

i love that my children love music. 

 i love it even more that they are interested in what each of their siblings are working on.  

ben was nearly late for school this morning because he was helping gabi with a new piece.

there's sebastian!!  just home from school.

on facebook, again......

hi sweetie, how was your day?

today was "traffic light day" at fairview.  this weekend is winter ball (girls ask boys)

so, if you already had a date you were to wear a red shirt to school.  

if you were still available, you were to wear green.

hands off, sab is taken!

i decided to surprise paul and make one of his favorite childhood dinners tonight......

tomato bredie

the recipe is from a favorite, tattered and torn cookbook of ours entitled

cook with ina paarman, 

a staple in any south african kitchen.

my copy was given to me by my mother in law when paul and i were first married. 

i believe it was given to both daughter in laws so mervyl would feel secure in the knowledge that

her boys would continue to stay fighting fit and well fed with genuine, hearty south african meals.

we have birds.

we don't just have a couple of birds,

we have 5 finches.......

and 2 parakeets named delilah and candy.

in fact, 

we have a bird apartment house......

if you ever phone our home, you will hear the sounds of a beautiful spring morning

no matter what time of year it is with all the chirping and chattering going on.

how did we end up with all these birds?

a bird story

once upon a time, a beautiful, big-eyed twenty year old asked her mom if she would take her 2 finches 

because she was moving into an apartment, and the mom says, "sure, no problem."  

then, the mother speaks to the adorable girl working at the pet shop asking for her suggestion as to what bird seed is best for finches and the girl suggests that actually, finches are really only happy when grouped in 3's.  the mom decides, "well, i really only want them to be happy, 

so i will take home another one."  

then, the mom and her family went on vacation for 3 weeks, and forgot to tell the family friend who was looking after the house and pets to keep checking the finch nests for new eggs and to remove them.  so when the family got home, there were 2 new babies!

 then, the mom's cute, little, brown-eyed 8 year old daughter tells her that she has saved her money to buy the one thing that would make her the happiest girl in the world - parakeets - and that she has found a "great deal" on craig's list and she will never ask for anything else ever again, never!  

of course, the mom says, 

"ok, sweetie, as long as you feel you can look after them."

and the mom looked after them forever after.....

the end