Dinner with the Sonnevelds



Monique (11), Ruth (16), Bee (15), Essie (14)
The pavlova we made -yummy!

The Sonnevelds invited us to go to their place for dinner after our visit to the Botanical Gardens. Of course, we weren't about say no! haha After the Botanical Gardens, we came home to get the washing off the line, feed the animals, and all that. Then we went to the Sonnevelds'... Ruth and Es were cooking, and Monique and I joined them (many hands make light work! Well actually, I think it's more the talking, but anyway...).

So...for dinner we had potato wedges, samosas and spring rolls, peas and corn, carrots, and coleslaw.

Pavlova!!!

Everyone ate well at dinner, so it was a unanimous vote to wait with dessert!  That gave us time to do the dishes and finish preparing dessert...

For dessert we made pavlova (or actually, I think Es made it, we just helped put the topping on), and fruit salad (yep we made that too).

 After dessert, Mum and Mrs. Sonneveld did the dishes, and we four girls went upstairs with the guitars...actually we'd planned to play Bible Trivia (as we'd had fun playing it the day before!), but we actually didn't get that far!

Mum announced all to soon that it was time to leave!

Botanical Gardens Visit



Diana (6), Bryce (4), Amy (8), and Joanna (5)

On Good Friday, while my Dad and Mr. Sonneveld were away on a father/son camp with Jarrod and Samuel, we invited the rest of the Sonnevelds to go for a walk at the Botanical Gardens with us. I'm not sure when I last went, but I know it was a LONG time ago!

yeah..Ruth and Es pushed the stroller..
thanks btw =)

It was a beautiful (and fairly warm) day, we had an awesome time hanging out...and taking pics...oh and afternoon tea is always good too...!! lol

Nice pic Essie, you could just about be a photographer!

Essie and me...

Another one of Essie's awesome pics!



Diana and Joanna



Essie and Me



Ruth and Me



Ruth, Essie, and me...oops I think the sun was too bright!



Essie, me, Ruth & Laura out the front of the visitor centre

Sorry, just HAD to post this!!!



And this...=D



Monique's Birthday



Monique with her cake



My sister Monique turned 11 on April 3rd, here are some pics of the cake (which she made herself!); we gave her pressents to her on a seperate occasion.



She made a banana cake and put a filling in it.
(the way Aunty Yvonne had done it in a cake we had been given recently.)






Maria (isn't she cute?) ;-)




Danielle (9) with Laura




Banana cake and ice cream



Maria's Pressents

One of the girls iced the cake,
then I attempted to put some
kind of design on it!

Later on the 24th of March, we had Maria's birthday cake and gave her pressents to her.

   



New book!

 

She loved this doll, but didn't want
anything to do with the smaller
one that could laugh!



Diana and Maria with pressents.



Meet and Greet

From 2-4pm on March 24th, all of us but Mum, Maria, and Laura, went to the de Boers' place to meet our minister's family, who had arrived from America the day before.
I was kinda sleepy, but it was nice to meet them!

The little ones were very taken with Snowy, Dieuwe's maltese puppy. (Sorry I just realised I don't have any pics of Snowy!)

And...Amelia Smith (5yrs) was very excited to lose her first tooth that afternoon! See if you can spot the gap in the pic:

Ok so I suppose I should introduce them a bit...

Mr. Smith is Texan, the eldest of 7 children, and was homeschooled.
Mrs. Smith is Canadian, one of 4 children (sorry can't remember where she is in the lineup!), and was also homeschooled.
The met through the church (The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland), and now have 4 children: Amelia (or Amy) 5yrs, Aaron (4rs), Owen (2yrs), and Keith (4 months).
You can read their blog here.

The arrival of Laura Yvonne Jago

Written 30.3.12

My mum’s eighth pregnancy appeared to fly by; the birth to creep upon us. One minute there were three months to go, the next, this new addition could make an appearance any day!

We washed, dried, and folded seemingly mounds of baby clothing – could anyone possibly be small enough to fit it? A car seat was organised, meals arrived for the freezer, and midwife visits became more frequent. People began asking whether we had news yet. My parents leafed through baby names books. Finally, we were ready, and were left to wait.

Thursday night/Friday morning of the following week, Mum thought things may have begun. Everything stopped, however, and our day continued as normal.

Mid-morning on Saturday of the following week, things started again. Despite a promising start, they slowed down, but did not stop entirely. Danielle and Diana attended a birthday party from mid-afternoon ‘til early evening, hopeful that they would have a new sibling when they arrived home. Chores were done, and our day continued.

My uncle took my siblings and me to church on Sunday morning, and the midwife (Mrs. Vivian) arrived at our place soon after our departure.

After lunch, my siblings went to my cousins’ place, and Uncle Pete and I did the dishes and made a roast dinner.

At one point, my dad thought the baby might not be far away. After assuring my uncle that there wouldn’t be anything to hear during the birth, he refrained from using his earphones, but was still adamant that he would put them to use if even the slightest hint of noise reached us.

Then, at 4:22pm, Sunday March 18th, Laura Yvonne made an appearance. She measured 54cm long and weighed 8lb 12oz - the heaviest of us all. Almost unbelievably, her arrival occurred on big sister Maria’s second birthday! Laura’s middle name, Yvonne, is after our aunty- Yvonne de Bruin.

Laura had many brothers and sisters eager to hold her, or simply be with her, when they arrived home about an hour later.

Uncle Pete took most of us to the evening church service, leaving mother and baby to sleep, and Dad to have a somewhat needed rest.

More pics....

ok so one day last month I decided to sit outside while doing biology so I could enjoy the last remnants of summer....and I took my camera with me =)



Maria and me (Don't you LOVE my laptop? lol)

                                                 Below: Me...only slightly photoshopped!!! :P

Danielle and me


  And then my siblings wanted a turn with my camera.....



Danielle



Maria (2), Bryce (4), Diana (6)



Diana, Danielle (9), Bianca