It's Going To Be A BOOtiful Day!

The sun is shining, the costumes are made, the decorations are done....It's going to be a BOOtiful day! A very friendly Witch stayed up late into the night to make sure that three little Goblins did not wake to a fright!

We are having a party today to celebrate Halloween, American style! A little apple bobbing , costume contests, and of course some scary food! We are ready, we only now need to wait about 12 hours for the guests... I am not sure the kids can hold their excitement! Here is a sneak peak at our costumes, can you guess who we will be(there is one missing, mom is always last)?

The McScary's and this little blue feathery creature wish you all a Happy Halloween and hope you have a BOOtiful day!

Who Said You Need Electricity to Survive...

Well, I know we need it to survive; but we sure did a heck of a lot without it! We lost power 3 times this weekend, twice for over 6 hours. It did not stop us from doing a little picture taking, a little crafting, and even some Halloween decorating. I had a photographer come to the house on Saturday and take some pics of the kids, everything went well except for the kids insisted that our small zoo be included! So needless to say, we have quite a photogenic cat... I was hoping it would be one of my kids, but I will take what I can get!
Here is a sneak peak of some of our pics...



I also spent some time getting ready for Halloween. We scaled down quite a bit from what we would do in the States, but we had to add a little spook!

And last, but not least...a little crafting! I have been making some gifts, clipboards, and embellishing them as best I can without my monogram machine. They actually have turned out really cute and have been well received! I only need to whip up about 6-8 more! I am also going to be making some of our costumes, as it is very hard to find costumes here . Luckily Claire has hers all ready, a birthday present from Mimi and Poppa!

Back Online...

We have had a lot of things happening around here! I would have blogged earlier with everything, but our Internet service was out for almost 5 days....very frustrating! Being so far away, the Internet is our ONLY connection with home. It serves as our line of communication via email and via our Vonage phone. Our Vonage phone is amazing...it allows for us to have a Louisiana telephone number all the way in South Africa, no international fees!
Well, back to the good stuff! We have a new "country club" member, Taylor. I got him a membership to our local golf club, and he played nine holes with his friend this past Friday(without parents). He also went to a game farm this weekend with some kids from school, for a camp out birthday party. More firsts for Taylor, he played in his first cricket match this week and really did good. You know you love your children when you find the most boring sport in the world exciting, because your kiddo is playing it! Taylor continues to make us proud, he really has embraced this new life and has welcomed all of his new adventures.
The rest of us had a little less action packed week. Claire has perfected her bike riding, and can be found most days pedaling away on the tennis courts(remember our house is surrounded by walls, and tennis courts serve as a huge concrete playground)! Pat and I snuck away for our new Saturday morning ritual..coffee and shopping adult style! We are trying to explore some of the older antique stores, we found a gorgeous oil painting that is now hanging in my dining room(dirt cheap)! Hunter also had a good time playing and hanging out, the weather has been gorgeous. Only problem is ..it is making the angels really hard to keep from kissing him, and making all of these new freckles.
We unfortunately have been also perfecting our "Goodbye" skills, we bid farewell to Pat's boss and his family this week. They are headed home to The States after being here for two years. They have been instrumental in showing us the ropes here in Port Elizabeth, South Africa; and made a scary move a little easier! Farewell Rick, Diane, Brendan, Austin and Delilah.....Port Elizabeth will never be the same!
We luckily were able to welcome some new guests in our home, two girls from Finland! They were here with their traveling choir, and we were their hosts(scary)! I am sooo glad we did this, it was so fun to have them in our home!
Looking forward to this weekend... Christmas card picture taking(leaving this to the professionals), celebrating one year of being foreigners(not sure what's best...one year closer to going home or one year full of adventures), and Taylor is helping with his classmates First Communion Mass.

Claire is 4!

Where does the time go?

Just yesterday, Claire was a baby! Today she's 4! Of course, she will always be our baby... What a few years it has been! Claire was by far the easiest baby of my three; but unfortunately has also had the most problems! We have been climbing a huge mountain with Claire for over two years now...We have covered a lot of ground, but still have a long ways to go. Claire was labeled "Developmentally Delayed" by a geneticist over a year ago, and our speech therapist labeled her with "Speech Apraxia" about 6 months ago. She has been attending a school this past year where she receives OT, PT, and speech; along with one on one tutoring 1 hour a day. This intense therapy and natural age progression has made a difference. When we moved to South Africa, almost a year ago, Claire was barely speaking and had a minimum of about 10 words that were understandable. Her speech therapist insists that her vocabulary now has caught up with her age, but the speech is still very delayed! Speech Apraxia is a motor planning disorder, of which there is no cure! Some children will overcome, and some will always have issues! I can clearly tell a difference in my baby girl, but know in my heart that we have a long way to go!

We are going to make a huge step this coming year with Claire and move her into a "normal" playschool, she will start with a facilitator who we will keep as long a s we need her. Her facilitator luckily is going to be her teacher, Natasha, that she has had all year...this hopefully will also help with the transition! Only God knows of Claire's plan, and I hope that He has great things planned for her! As a mom, your dream for your children is that they grow happy and healthy; and when something threatens that it is truly the hardest thing in the world!
Besides all of that, Claire can also be a typical little girl! She is very persistent and stubborn, sweet and loving, demanding and happy! Claire has the best memory, she remembers all details of most events! She may not be able to verbalize everything, but ask her to show you and she will mimic anything! Claire loves to ride bikes; she got a huge bike for her birthday and instantly pedaled away(with the assistance of training wheels); she also has started to become interested in princesses, loves any kind of outside activity, loves play dough, enjoys coloring, and the list goes on! Claire is a huge part of our family, and is loved by all! I think that the people that work with her would also say that she holds a very special place in your heart!
I hope that four brings good things for Claire and keeps her healthy and happy!

We had the house ready for our princess when she woke up...

Birthday clothes all ready for the 4 yr old!

And, of course we spoiled...

She even got to ride Cupcake...

By the way, all those "preparations" where washed away by the rain! The Royal Braii was canceled due to a constant unyielding rain. I chose not to have the party be an inside party(too many kids); the good thing was Claire never knew what she missed! So we just celebrated in our own way...with family!

This was the castle cake that took me forever to decorate for the party, between the rain and the wait it withered away...Oh Well!

The Preperations Have Begun...

It is all in the details... I love to decorate for holidays and parties, and I love to plan fun stuff for birthdays! My princess Claire turns 4 on Monday, I can not believe it, and she deserves a party fit for a queen!
My invitations where hand delivered by a very cool knight (Taylor) and a very handsome messenger(Hunter) who announced themselves by saying "Here Yee, Here Yee" "The Royal McCarty family has a message for you" and then they delivered the invitation that looked like a scroll. I have been collecting all kinds of pretties for the decorations....glass slippers (deciding on what to fill them with-flowers or jewels), lots of tulle(for decorating and making tutus), crystals, crowns, wands, and many other royal things! So I am just beginning to decide how I will decorate, I know there will be clear and pink crystals hanging from tulle...more to come. I am also trying to make her birthday outfit-my embroidery machine is not working, so I am making my appliques by hand and then sewing them on!
Oh mom, I wish I had your help! This will be the first birthday you will miss...but as you can see your present will fit in just perfectly!


Still lots more to do...the cake..what kind?

No! Not Me!

So, I thought I would try this out- Every Monday a blog I follow writes a post called "Not Me! Monday!" She posts things that she does "not" do and would "not" do; her mistakes, mishaps or even thoughts- making light of our everyday mistakes. She asks her readers to do the same.
Here goes mine...
I most certainly did not let my three year old run around with mascara covering both eyes for two hours, so that I could capture it all in pictures! It did not take me that long to discover that the camera battery that I was looking for has been misplaced(lost)! Because, I certainly do not misplace such important things! After finally giving up the search, I certainly did not start to wash her face and think she actually is really pretty with a LITTLE makeup! And we for sure, did not go out to dinner with a three year old wearing mascara(could not wash it all off), in a tutu, and sequin tank! Oh no, I would never give the impression to others that we are truly white trash at heart!
After being out of school for over a week, I did not take my three year old late to school on the first day back; because I was enjoying talking to a friend instead! Nope, not me..school always comes first and I would never partake in socialness...Ever!
I absolutely did not miss the heck out of my two boys when they Both got invited to sleep over at a friend's house, not me!
I also certainly did not secretly hate the idea that our school break was over, and that I had to send all my babies back to school!
Last but not least, it really did not take all my will power not to buy and give my littlest her birthday present early! No, I would never not be able to hold a surprise in, just to see a big smile and make her happy!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Hello Normal!

Normalcy begins tomorrow as we wrap up another school holiday!
We spent our last day in Cape Town visiting the Aquarium. Kids had a ball, we were there for a very long time. It's funny how at all ages something like that can be awesome. Claire loved seeing "Nemo", an Octopus, and would sit forever just checking out the different fish. They also had an interactive area, which Hunter loved along with a huge kiddie area. Claire made crafts and watched a show, while Taylor could not get enough of all of the scientific and factual stuff! Hunter was somewhere in between.
Read caption...

Claire going from one exhibit to the next, artwork in hand...

Hunter in "Nemo" tank...

Taylor pointing out large Sting Ray....

After the aquarium, of course we had to hit the Waterfront mall-we are very deprived of shopping here in Port Elizabeth! There are no TJ Maxx, Targets, but there is some shopping in Cape Town; so we shopped! We found a Build A Bear, not a biggy to you, but we thought Claire would like it. It took her forever to pick which animal, finally a monkey, and then she wanted the Spider man clothes to go with! Oh yeah, my girl picks the ugliest costume for the monkey! Hunter also had fun making a cheetah, dressed in rugby clothes(funny how a year can change someone-we pick the African animals and African sports). Oh well, several dollars or Rands later we take three very exhausted babies back to our hotel to crash!

Claire, out cold!

Next day, monkey is tired of spider man costume(yeah!)

Lovely artwork in room!

On our way home, we stopped off at a winery to visit the cheetah exhibit. We let the boys hang with some baby cheetahs, before being in the car for seven hours! They loved all three cheetahs, one of which was a King Cheetah. There are only 80 to 100 King Cheetahs in the world.





We spent the rest of our holiday at home; we went to the beach, went to the elephant park, saw a movie, participated in a sports camp, went to the driving range and had some sleepovers with friends! Pat and I even had a chance to go out to breakfast, at our favorite restaurant, with some of our South African friends. Afterwards, they took us and showed us some interesting things about PE! My plan is to do a big post on our One Year Anniversary-October 25th, show you what we see everyday!

Our favorite beach(where we can be seen almost every Sunday!)...

Elephant park...

Taylor doing what he loves...golf and bossing his brother!

The kiddos have been on "spring" break this week, and we have tried very hard to keep busy! We headed up the West Coast of South Africa to do some more exploring....
Our first stop was Cango Caves in Oudtshoorn, South Africa. The tour of the caves began with a brief history of when and who discovered the caves, they demonstrated by turning all lights off and showing the caves with just one small light-much like a small fire light. It resembled what it would have been like to be among the first explorers of the caves, pretty cool! We went through the first five chambers of the cave, each one getting smaller and hotter!



After viewing the caves we went to an ostrich farm! Oudtshoorn is famous for the number of ostrich farms here, ostrich is a very yummy lean meat! We thought we would check one out- We got to pet, hold, hug, kiss, sit and ride on an ostrich! Never thought I would do that in my lifetime, but now I can say we did! You will notice in the pictures of the kids riding and sitting on the birds, they are hooded, this is to keep them calm and not freak them out.

Claire with female ostrich...

Claire with baby ostrich...

Taylor getting a "hug" from the ostrich...

Hunter getting ready to take a ride...

Taylor riding...

Claire sitting on the ostrich, covered in feathers...

Getting ready for the big kiss, note food in mouth....

After shock of a big peck on the mouth...
After a very long first day, all in all we drove almost eight hours, we headed to a gorgeous hotel on the beach in Mossel Bay! We all got a good night sleep and woke up to another day filled with adventure. On our way up the West Coast we came across the cutest "Farm Stall"; had a little lunch, let the kiddos play, and oohed and awed at the views! We again loaded up and made our way to Cape Town, we first stopped at a winery outside of town. Needed to refuel our cars and the parents!

View from hotel room...

View while eating at a local Farm Stall...

Claire getting a push from dad...

This is my view when I turned around in the car, Claire was being mean-what's new :)!


We finally make it to our hotel in Cape Town, only to check in and have a hospital visit! The friends we were traveling with, their oldest, fell and needed stitches! Never a dull moment when traveling with kids!

Will post the rest of our visit in future post!