After a number of juice spills, and general kiddy messiness, the kitchen and lounge needed a mop, so after cleaning some dishes Grace decided she wanted to help mop…and Eli just wanted to be a part of the action.

Grace decided she wanted to mop her dirty feet

Having some fun sweeping

Eli is obsessed with all things electronic. If you have a phone in your hands he is there with his hand to his ear and letting you know that he to would like to have a look. When we are out and about he tries to befriend people with electronic devices, well in truth he tries to make friends with everyone. The man eating sushi, the granny in the furniture store, the man who said hello to him, the guys in the carpet shop, hugs and high fives all round. Very endearing, gets me talking to everyone (which is good for the introvert in me), but freaks me out at the same time because anyone could steal him.

Grace playing a game on the tablet and Eli getting a closer look – aka interfering!

We went to the Drakenstein Lion Park this morning for Grace’s end of term school outing. It is a sanctuary and many of the lions have been rescued circuses or zoos where they have been mistreated.

This lioness was seriously stalking us…I was glad for the fence between us.

Questions for the guide

This lion was rescued from a French circus and is blind and stunted from the way he was treated. He is fully grown, but is about a 3/4 size lion.

Tiger watching

The two tigers were donated by the Tygerberg Zoo when it closed down. I think tigers are stunningly beautiful cats.

We’ve been hearing “Oh! Montessori!” for the last few months, which finally culminated in the graduation performance.

Grace decided that she wanted to wash the dishes after supper, and cleaned the ones she washed really well. She then helped to pack the dishwasher and tidy up. She may have a long and illustrious career ahead of her…

We have wanted to see Grace in a ballet lesson since she started in the last term of last year, and finally at the school’s graduation and end of year function they performed. It was more like a demonstration of a mini lesson, but we did enjoy seeing our little girl doing her ballet moves.

Showing us her moves in the morning before the graduation

Eli normally wakes up around 06h00, and then has his morning sleep starting sometime between 08h30 and 09h00. Today was Grace’s school’s gradation ceremony and end year function, which started at 09h00, leaving a bit of a sleep predicament. And we both had to be there to see Grace’s ballet “recital” (more to come on that point).

Eli, being the soldier that he is, missioned through the morning without any hassles at all. There were people, animals and a swing, so he was good to keep going. Eventually it was time for us to go, partly because he was falling asleep on the swing.

It always feels like a bit of an event when one of our children falls asleep in the car, and fall asleep he did. He was out cold by the time we got home and even endured a nappy change without any sleep disturbance.

Stone cold on the changing mat

I didn’t quite make it home