Ethan's birthday party

Ethan had a fantastic birthday. It really was a day full of fun and excitement! I felt really bad that the first day of the show coincided with his birthday and tried hard to make sure he was celebrated all day, despite not being able to bake a cake or arrange a party at the time. I did tell him we’d invite some friends over and enjoy some cake together after the show. At bedtime on his birthday I asked if he’d enjoyed his day. He had, he said. But the one bad part was that he hadn’t had any friends or a cake. I knew there and then this was a priority and in my procrastinating kind of way arranged a party for him this past Saturday.

On the Friday morning before, Ryan and I made a hot-milk sponge cake in a rectangular dish. That evening I set to work dying the butter icing as red as possible: I had a fire-station to decorate! I cut the sponge cake in half and stacked the halves on top of other, cutting out 2 ‘parking spaces’ for the fire trucks. We don’t have any firetrucks small enough to fit into my firehouse, so I was very chuffed when Marna offered to look in her boys’ toy box and lend us a couple. The icing didn’t taste so nice with all the red colouring in, but it was the right colour red! The cake was a winner, as always! Dieter had a quick look in our lego box and managed to find a ladder and some grids I used as windows, and a couple of fire extinguishers and a flag. I added a couple Ethan’s little plastic fireman and we had a winner.

Ethan wanted 6 of his friends here to celebrate with him – the perfect number (according to his age) if the gurus are to be believed. Now that I think of it, there were 3 boys and 3 girls! They had a wonderful time playing games together out in the garden while the adults stood around chatting. Jed was great at orchestrating some games which everyone enjoyed playing. Ethan had been adamant that he wanted a football-free party, but one of the first gifts he opened was a set of cones, a mini-ball and a whistle and with great enthusiasm he got a few friends to play. The girls seemed to prefer the trampoline, if not jumping on it, then lying underneath in its shade. Another favourite was the cricket game we played in the driveway – I say we because Marna and I eventually joined in to and had great fun! Ethan had a lovely time!

The adults who did stay for the whole time are other homeschooling parents who have become our friends, and I think I enjoyed the whole event far more than anyone else! It was wonderful to sit and chat and laugh together, just enjoying each other’s company! I couldn’t help think, once again, of how blessed I have been to have made the wonderful, caring, loving friends I have made here – and in such a short time! I try to make a point of taking photos as often as possible; life is short and we don’t know what tomorrow holds! The photo of Walda, Marna and I from Ethan’s party will be one I will treasure! Thank you Lord for special friends!

Kiddie Gourmet re-group

Almost 10 days after the George Show, life has been much quieter for us on the home front. Production has stopped altogether and we’ve quickly regrouped and worked on the next phase of strategy to advertise and get our product ‘out there’. I went to bed very early for the first few nights after the show, barely managing to stay awake much longer than the little ones! I was exhausted! And, in many ways, it was a huge anti-climax to be finished with the show.

We’ve used the time to get ourselves back into our ‘usual routine’ after our break away to the Eastern Cape and the 2 weeks of preparation for the show. It was also wonderful to see my homeschooling friends: a few of them had sent messages while we were away, and it felt strangely odd but very wonderful to be missed after being here for such a short time! We also went to see our designer and printer to get our A3 posters printed and have since spent a few hours every day visiting all the crèches, clinics, pediatricians, hospitals, stores and community notice boards we can find to put up posters and hand out flyers. The response has been wonderfully encouraging and almost everyone we approached was willing to put a poster and get the flyers out.

In the meantime we’ve also designed our contravision (a one-way material that is printed on and stuck onto the back window of our car) and gift vouchers, bringing us to the end of our R25 000 contract sponsored by SEDA. The financial assistance they have given us has helped us greatly to produce marketing materials that look professional and give our product great support! The next step is to develop our new website (www.kiddiegourmet.com) into an online-store/e-shop!

Having a consumable product means that ‘best before’ dates are a huge deadline, which if not met result in ‘dead stock’. We’re encouraged by our first order yesterday, and the second one we received today! People are hearing about us and starting to call – and for the first time in a looooong time, I’m loving the sound of a ringing phone!

The learning curves have been huge, and we’re still learning! But I can’t deny how exciting this journey has been!

Ethan turns 6!

Our youngest son is 6! It seems like just a short while ago that we landed in Cyprus just weeks before Ethan's birth! Time really does fly! Ethan is the most adventurous and intriguing little guy I know. He has an incredible sense of imagination and can play for hours in his dress-ups. His perseverance and inquisitiveness are 2 characteristics I really admire about him! He’s not push-over! I love the things he builds and makes and try so hard not to stifle his creativity.

His 6^th birthday coincided with the first day of the George Show where we launched our Kiddie Gourmet products. I knew I wouldn’t have any time before the show to bake him a cake or have a party, so we discussed with him that we’d do that sometime after the show. We still wanted to make his day a special celebration …. And this is how we did it:

We were all up just after 6am – a VERY early start for our family! Ryan and Jed were in the kitchen and cooking up a storm short after waking up so that I could have a quick shower and get ready for the day. I helped them finish off the cooking and breakfast was served around 7am. Ethan’s wish had been to have a ‘Wimpy-style breakfast’ … fried eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans and toast. And we gave him just that. Ouma sat him at the head of the table on a chair decorated like a throne. She then decorated a tall sandwich with chocolate flakes and put some candles in so he could blow them out (even though we didn’t have a cake!). We ate like kings, and it was yummy! Ryan and Jed did a great job!

After breakfast we all gave Ethan his birthday presents which he was thrilled to receive. Gifts are definitely his love-language! What impressed me was the excitement with which he opened very single gift and card, he was genuinely thrilled! He loved his gifts!

Dieter and I rushed off soon after breakfast, leaving Ethan and Aimee to watch his new Fireman Sam DVD from Nana. Ryan and Jed helped Oupa and Ouma tidy up after breakfast. Coffee time is a ritual in our home and Ethan and I had chosen special biscuits and chips for him and his siblings to enjoy outside over a tea-time picnic. After their picnic they all got in the car with Oupa and Ouma to redeem Ethan’s birthday voucher for an overall. (Ethan had outgrown and left his old overall behind in Cyprus, he was thrilled to get another RED one!) He was too big for a 8-year old overall but fits into the 12 year-old overall with room to grow. Now his fireman outfit is complete again!

Ouma and Oupa then bought them all to the show for a few hours. Ethan and his siblings mostly wandered around enjoying the rides and agricultural displays by themselves, but Dieter and I did venture out with them now and again. After a yummy lunch of cheeseburgers and crisps, they took one more walk outside to the rides before heading home with Oupa and Ouma for an hour or so. Their timing was great as the wind began to pick up, the sun disappeared behind dark clouds and it began to drizzle. It was bitterly cold.

Ouma and Oupa cooked a delicious evening meal of fish, chips and salad and it was the perfect ending to a wonderful day. Ethan had a great time at football practice too and all-in-all it was a great day! When I asked him how his day was he said he really enjoyed it but was looking forward to celebrating with the handful of friends he’s made. I have in mind to make him a fire-station birthday cake, am sure he’ll love that!

The the show begin!

As a child I remember going with my parents to the Pretoria Show, an annual celebration marked by halls of displays and stalls and amusement rides! I remember walking through the halls and seeing the displays but my fondest memories are of the rides. As a young adult I lost any desire to be pushed around by crowds at shows and haven’t been to one in years.

A few months ago a fellow entrepreneur mentioned that she was part of an exhibition that was planned for the upcoming George Show. I thought it would be a great place to showcase our new baby food products and as it turned out we chose to launch our products at the show. We were hoped that many farmers and their families from the neighbouring districts would also attend the show and our products would be advertised far and wide.

In preparation we spent weeks preparing food from early till late each day and were helped on the sidelines with our stall décor by Ouma, who sewed up the beige sides for the gazebo someone from church lent us, and a friend from our homegroup who made curtains of circles for us from coloured fibre optic cables – both of which took lots of time that we definitely didn’t have to spare. The gazebo we were lent was an aquamarine blue and the bright coloured circles against the beige side drops looked great. (The coloured circles were a huge hit with children and they assumed we were selling toys!) The 2+ meter pull-up banner we had made was a perfect attention-getter and looked great outside our stall.

We spent Wednesday morning and an hour or so in the afternoon putting it all together and after a potjie dinner for exhibitors on Wednesday night we were rearing to go. We arrived just before 8am and spent most of the day getting to know fellow exhibitors in our passage while waiting for show visitors. It was a loooong day, a boring day! I don’t think we saw more than 50 visitors the entire day but we hoped it would get busier as the weekend arrived. The weather didn’t really help either – it was windy and bitterly cold outdoors, I’d have also been home if I’d chosen otherwise! Dieter and I decided that, given the quietness, we didn’t both need to be at the stall so we took turns to have a break. Dieter went home for an afternoon nap and I had a break over dinnertime to fetch the boys from football and put the little ones to bed. When I got back to the stall with some warm dinner for Dieter he was the 2^nd last person left at the stalls and was packed and ready to head home.

Friday was almost just as quiet and while there were a few younger visitors and the odd family or two, we didn’t notice any moms with prams. I realised how specific our target market is. We needed to wait for moms with babies. I took some time out in the afternoon and Dieter took some time off over dinner time, but 8pm couldn’t have come soon enough, it was the end of another loooong quiet day.

The sun shone beautifully on Saturday and the car park was almost full, but the traffic indoors was only slightly better. Lots of people were outdoors enjoying the rides, agricultural activities and foodstalls. We did see many more families with prams and although we only sold 11 meals in the 3 days (most of them on the Saturday!), we were able to hand out about 200 flyers to prospective customers. Quite a few exhibitors around us began packing up from lunch time on Saturday, forfeiting their R200-00 deposits by leaving before 8pm. The standing around waiting for nothing just wasn’t worth it to them. We started packing up just after 6pm when Dieter arrived with the trailer and were done by 8pm when we could collect our deposits.

While we didn’t sell much of the stock that is filling nearly 2 and a half freezers we did manage to get our brand ‘out there’ and people are aware we’re around! One lady actually admitted to starting something very similar to what we’re doing about 8 years ago but she didn’t continue with the concept for some reason. A lot of people were very chuffed to see us and hear about what we’re doing, the response from almost everyone was very positive.

We worked with some wonderful people at the show, all with very interesting stories and have learnt a few lessons already! Not sure that we’ll be rushing off to another show to soon, we now need to go chase our target market in their comfort zones. We aren’t discouraged, we’re taking time to regroup and strategise about the next step!

Its been 2 days since the George Agricultural Show ended and I still need another early night. And I’m listening to my body! I’ve been in bed before 8pm for 3 nights in a row now! Standing for long hours wasn’t that easy and I’m so grateful I can blog from the comfort of my bed! As I’ve said before ….. watch this space!

Working hard for our money!

We’ve spent the last week cooking up a storm! We came home and took one day to recooperate before getting on with what we need to do in preparation for the show this Thursday. On Monday we met with the designer at Jetline and finalised our packaging and marketing designs that must be printed. On Tuesday morning we proof-read them and made final changes before commissioning the printing. Working with them hasn’t been the most amazing experience but we’ve worked with what they’ve given us and its all coming together. The printing should all be ready just before the show.

On Monday Dieter and I took the older boys with us to our local veggie shop. We took the trailer into town and first stopped at the wholesale section before stocking up on smaller things at the retail section. We came home with a trailor FULL of veggies: pockets and boxes of butternut, sweet potato, onions, potato, carrots, apples, pears and an array of veggies. On Monday afternoon we started cooking and have spent every day since working on making meals. We’ve been on our feet from early in the morning till long after sunset every day and have managed to fill our new 270l freezer, a borrowed 130l freezer and have now started filling up a neighbour’s freezer as we endeavour to make 100 of each dish to sell at the show.

We’ve learnt that we’re definitely going to need some more freezer space if we’re to sell our target of 500 dishes a month and are looking at ways to do that once the show is over. We don’t have any more space in this house, but will look at storing a freezer (or two!) in a neighbour’s garage across the road.

We’ve put the gazebo up a couple of times this weekend to measure and sort out our décor for the show too. Ouma is helping us make the curtains that need to hang on 3 sides of the gazebo while a friend from homegroup is making a collage of plastic coloured circles from optic fibre cabling to hang in front of the curtains. On Tuesday we’ll pick up a collapsible table from church, together with a peach coloured table cloth and plastic cover. Oupa is organising our cash float for us and Diet is organising stock sheets so we can record what we sell. Now we just need a kettle and some stocks for tea-breaks and we’re ready for the show!

Diet and I have been really tired at night, and even after taking the day off today to rest I am ready to go to bed when the children do! I’m poega! We’ve discovered muscles in our shoulders and backs we haven’t used in ages after standing cutting and cooking veggies all day – its been a huge learning curve!

I’m looking forward to Thursday, Diet and I really believe that this baby food business has huge potential and can’t wait to prove the skeptics wrong! We’re hoping to sell ALL the meals we’ve made this week (and will make in the days ahead before the show!) and to come away with a long list of orders from clients we meet at the show. Watch this space!

PS: We met someone today who has a family member in the Cape who sells the machinery to do pouch-packaging. This is a real God-send! We’re keen on looking into pouch-packaging but have not known where to start looking for the guys who sell the machinery! God has sent them to us!  Also, I saw an ad last week for pureed food that was being sold to babies and the aged. A neighbour confirmed the idea yesterday saying that she’d recently cared for a dying lady who needed pureed food and that we should see how we can fill the need for food for the aged and ill. Hmmmm …… another interesting idea, hey?

Ryan and Jed turn 11

We spent Ryan and Jed’s birthday in East London this year. We’d planned to be back in George just in time to celebrate with Oupa and Ouma, but because they also wanted to stop over in East London we agreed to meet there.

Our time in East London was actually rather stressful because Jetline hadn’t really done anything in our first week away. By the time they had anything ready we didn’t have internet access and had to drive 35km into East London each day to make sure we got to an internet café and action their mails. We found the driving in and around East London exhausting. We stayed in East London especially to meet up with Hle and Onx and her little boys. Hlehle is also in South Africa for the northern hemisphere Summer Holidays and it was lovely to see her again (she visited us in Cyprus over Christmas). Onx is Hle’s older sister and she has 2 little boys who are both younger than Aimee. They are gorgeous! Hle and Onx drove through to spend the evening with us on the first 2 evenings after Onx was finished with work. Those were incredibly special, and very late nights! On our first day in East London we vegged with Hle at Onx’s flat before heading out to the cute little holiday house we’d rented at Christmas Rock. On the 2^nd day we met up with Onx for lunch and feasted together at KFC, just like in the old days in Butterworth, making the most of every minute together. Its so special when, after years apart, we can carry on ‘where we left off’ without much catching up at all.

Our 3^rd day in East London was on the 3^rd of August. Ryan and Jed’s 11^th Birthday. We’re so incredibly blessed with these 2 special boys who love life and live it large! After a breakfast of chocolate oaties we gave them the presents we’d all bought for them and headed into town for a game of Mini Golf. (Beacon Bay has a new course and its by far the best course I’ve ever played on!) It was a huge highlight in our day and loads of fun! The course was very challenging which made for great fun! We then met with Oupa and Ouma at Nahoon Beach for a picnic lunch. We bought some fresh rolls, roasted chickens, salad veggies and some chips and made our own chicken mayo salad rolls. It was very windy but we had a lovely little spot on an island of grass and had a lovely meal together. The children made sure they had a play on the beach when the meal was over, but we didn’t linger long as we were meeting with some old friends from Butterworth. It was lovely to see Kathy and James again after about 15 years and for them to meet our children. We visited them in their lovely home that borders on the Buffalo River and Kathy treated us to tea and special tarts on their balcony, which has the most amazing view of the river and surrounding areas.

We headed home to Christmas Rock closer to 5pm and the children were so glad we did because they could play in the park with friends they’d made the previous day. Afterwards the 3 boys went with their friends to the Friday night youth meeting and had a wonderful time playing games and chatting. When we went to fetch the children Ethan and Ryan were both playing on the drum set (one at a time ofcourse!). It was the first time I’d seen either of my boys play a set of drums and they both played so well I was speechless. There definitely is a hidden talent that must be nurtured!

We ended off the day with a braai with Oupa, Ouma, Jeff, Tania and Tania’s parents. Tania’s parents live in Christmas Rock too and very kindly hosted our dinner, sharing their indoor braai with us. It was a very special evening and Ryan and Jed enjoyed it very much. We had a lovely braai meal with salads and ended the evening with the boys’ request for cake this year: Peppermint Crisp Tart. (We hadn’t been able to find caramel the day before, it must always be made the day before!, so I boiled up 2 tins of condensed milk. Dieter then made the tart by himself – and it was the best one I’ve ever eaten, for sure!)

Ryan and Jed were really spoiled with so many messages, phone calls (including many from abroad!), gifts and special moments in the day. This is the first year in many that they haven’t had a party with friends but being with family made it wonderful regardless. These are special boys, and we love them so very much!

Holiday Bliss!

We are living in a really beautiful country! We had a great opportunity to see some more of our country when we recently traveled into the Eastern Cape and across the Great Kei River to spend a week in Butterworth with our precious friends, the Addisons.

The road trip was very stretching for us as a family – we aren’t used to traveling for long periods of time. For the past 5 and a half years whenever we traveled around in Cyprus, we never spent more than an hour and half in the car getting to the next stop. We cancelled our trip to Pretoria because Dieter didn’t feel he could cope with the long drive or have the energy necessary to cope with 4 busy children in the car.

I came up with a practical action plan for our trip: Dieter did all the driving. I sat in the middle row of the car with Ethan and Aimee, reading to them and playing games with them. Ryan and Jed took turns alternating between the front passenger seat and the very rear seat in the back. It worked like a charm!

We were to leave on Monday 23^rd of July but had to postpone because SEDA hadn’t finalised our marketing project. We eventually left just after lunch on Tuesday 24^th, having met with the designer at Jetline and giving him all the specs he needed. Ouma and Jed had put together a packed lunch for us and we stopped off in Wildernis to enjoy it before heading along the Garden Route towards Jeffery’s Bay.

We arrived in Jeffery’s Bay just before 5pm and met with Tersia and Daleen for a cuppa at the Mall. Tersia and Daleen are friends of ours from Dubai/Sharjah and it was lovely to see them again after many years! There’s just something so wonderful about relaxing with people who really know you. We spent a quick hour together and then headed to Oom Chris’s house where we had arranged to stay overnight in the holiday flat he has built above his garage. We spent a very comfortable night in the 2-bedroom flat and were up early the next morning to continue on our journey after a breakfast of boiled eggs, fruit and fresh milk.

We left Jeffery’s Bay just after 8am and only stopped twice on our way to Butterworth. We stopped at Colchester to fill up with petrol and get some snacks and took the coastal road towards East London. We stopped very briefly in Port Alfred to pick up some rolls and fillings for lunch and to meet Michelle, an old colleague from our Butterworth teaching days, at Port Alfred Primary. We met up with her in the same spot 6 years ago when we last traveled through Port Alfred and she hasn’t changed a bit! It was great for her to meet Ethan and Aimee too and she was flabbergasted at how much Ryan and Jed have grown. We literally had five minutes together and took a quick photo to have proof of the moment before heading on towards Butterworth. We didn’t stop at all after that and only arrived in Butteworth just after 4pm, it was a loooooong day on the road and we were all so glad to get out the car and not have to drive anywhere for a whole week!

It was absolutely heartwarming to be home with the Addisons again. Tony and Naomi are like a 3^rd set of parents to Dieter and I and have been special friends since we taught in Butterworth 17 years ago. They have 5 adult children who are also very special to us, 4 of  whom have visited either in Sharjah or Cyprus. Anthea is enjoying the northern hemisphere Summer Holidays and is back in SA for 2 months, so we planned our visit to coincide with her leave and it was very special to be together again. It is also wonderful that M-A is home for a season and we got to spend time with him too. It really was like going home and having a family reunion! Our time together was incredibly relaxing and rejuvenating and every day was a memory making moment spent together.

We really were able to just relax and make ourselves at home, which was wonderful! We were also thoroughly spoiled, thoroughly!

We got to see firsthand how Tony and Naomi run the primary school that operates from the house next door. They were up early every morning and busy till late each day administering an amazing school! Ethan and Aimee particularly enjoyed the company of the many little children at break times and Ryan even played football with a small group on the last day we were there. Fortunately, our children only felt comfortable enough to spend their money at the daily tuckshop on the last day we were in Butterworth or we might have been bankrupted!

I am very grateful for the experience our children have had in the process: Butterworth is a very small little town with very few of the city landmarks and brands we have come to recognise. The streets are crowded with people and cars alike and one really has to have your eyes and ears open at all times to be able to get around safely. We even gave the children a new outlook on street crossings as we dodged traffic despite having right of way to walk! On the Monday morning we ventured down town with Anthea to browse the products of the various street vendors and pop into Spargs, a family-owned store which has been in the town for as long as anyone can remember. It was an amazing experience! Spargs has been revamped numerous times as fashions have changed, but the current revamp makes for a comfortable shopping experience. I remember a time when the isles were so narrow I didn’t even think of shopping with a trolley! Ryan, in particular LOVED our 3-hour shopping experience during which we bought some 2^nd hand winter jackets for Ethan and Jed, a warm top for Ryan, some soccer socks for the soccer dudes in our house and some denim material to make aprons for Dieter and I. It was great fun.

There are very, very few white people living in the area and the obviously don’t walk around town much. As people walked past us they made loud, and obviously surprised, remarks about seeing white people in town. We couldn’t understand them as they spoke in their native Xhosa but were fortunate that Anthea speaks the lingo and could translate. We aren’t a family who likes the limelight much but it was a laughing matter for us too!

Anthea treated us to the most amazing cuisine, some of which was very foreign to us. It was the first time we ate ‘samp and beans’, a corn and speckled bean staple for many of the indigenous people of our country – and it was delicious! Another first were the gourmet ‘bunny chows’ she made us: a half-loaf of hollowed bread filled with beef curry and topped with grated carrots and slivers of onion which we ate as a picnic meal down at the Butterworth Dam one lunch time with Mark Anthony. She also cooked us a deliciously spicy curry and the rest of the family was shocked to see how much our children enjoy spicy food. Tony cooked sheep’s liver on the fire for us, covered in intestinal membrane and insisted we ate it hot-off-the-fire with our fingers and it was so yummy! Our meal times together were festive occasions, continual celebrations of our friendship and special times together.

We also got to share in worship together with the Addisons on Sunday morning. It was a bitterly cold morning and the congregation bravely wrapped up warm as they met together in a panel beater’s workshop (that is meticulously cleaned out before each meeting!) Tony and Naomi are part of the team that leads the church and they asked us to share with the congregation. Dieter preached through the life of Joseph and encouraged the church to continue to be led by God as they fulfil the purpose for which He has placed them in Butterworth as they continue to lead many to Christ and disciple them. It was a special time together and a real privilege to be together with them.

There are so many highlights of our time together with the Addisons, catch phrases and jokes that will remind us of this time together. One last highlight I’d like to mention here is the opening of the London Olympic Games, which we watched together. It started just after 10.30pm and we didn’t get to bed before 2am. For the most part the opening games were very entertaining and well done. The British are well know for the ‘pomp and ceremony’ with which they celebrate life, but the opening of these games was very honouring. Honouring of the history of the nation, honouring of its authors, musicians, inventors and honouring of its previous Olympians. We also noticed that they made a point of including everyone in their ceremony regardless of race, age, shape or ability. It was incredibly refreshing!

Leaving the Addisons was very hard. Even as I type this (almost 10 days later!), I feel heartsore that our time together is over. I couldn’t hold back the tears as we hugged one another and gave our heartfelt greetings. These are incredibly special people, more than friends, family! Thank God for the gift He gave us in the Addison family and that our friendship has grown over the years. We love and appreciate you all so very much!