Weekend wandering .....

It’s 3pm in the afternoon and is dark and grey outside as the clouds have darkened with the promise of rain. Thunder rumbling in surround sound confirms something is going to happen soon. We’ve had a lovely day out and I’m glad we’re home and indoors before the heavens open. Dieter was up early this morning and went for an 8km bike ride with a friend in the forest nearby before we had breakfast. After we had eaten breakfast and were all showered and ready for the day we headed out on a well-planned mission. We stopped first to stock up on picnic supplies for lunch, buy a birthday gift for a little friend who is celebrating his 4^th birthday on Monday and look at some cricket bats. Then we stopped at the Outeniqua Farmer’s Market to say hi to a little friend who runs his own games stall there. We bought a smoothie or a hot drink each and some little tartlets, a selection of cheese cake and apple crumble, and found a bench near the kiddies play area and spent our time there chatting with a couple of homeschooling families. Ethan and Aimee tried their hand at a couple of the games at the ‘games stall’ and came away very happy with their ‘prizes’.

We then popped into the mall with a couple of purchases on our agenda. The first was for Jed who has now purchased his first camera, a little Nikon AX500. After doing research on cameras, both new and 2^nd hand, this special was perfect for his budget and needs. He is very keen on photography and can’t wait to experiment with his new toy. The next huge priority was a birthday gift for a pre-teen girl who is celebrating next weekend and loves all things arty. We managed to find her something we think is really nice and hope she will get hours of fun out of! There were a couple of other stores we went into before rushing across town to get Ryan and Ethan to their football match.

Dieter, Jed, Aimee and I had something small to eat while the boys warmed up for their game and then we went out to stand next to the field and watch them in action. Ryan offered to play goalie for the u15 team as both their goalies didn’t arrive. It was a very hard game with the opposing team dominating and attempting to score often. Ryan had to work very hard in the bigger goal box. Twice one of his team mates tried to avert a goal and almost scored an own-goal. It was a nail-biting affair! They ended the game 7-0 down. Ethan played for his usual team, but there were only 6 children on each side and neither team had a goalie. I’m sure it will be considered a friendly. Ethan worked very hard running across the big field for most of the game. He was exhausted when the game was over, but had great fun! The games ended just as the drizzle turned into hard drops of rain and we were very glad to get in to the warm car!

So, we’re all indoors while the rain pelts down. Dieter has the tent up in the garden to test if it is waterproof and is busy pumping up mattresses so that he can spend the night in the tent with some of the children. I think Jed and I will stay indoors – he still has a really rough cough and didn’t have a good night’s sleep last night because he was coughing so much. Who knows what the rest of the weekend holds in store, but it has started busily!

PS:  Yesterday afternoon we went down to Victoria Bay so that we could have a swim and the boys could use the boogie-boards. Dieter and Aimee tried to swim in the tidal pool but after seeing many jelly-fish decided to rather swim in the sea. Ethan and Ryan spent a lot of time together boogie-boarding on the waves and had so much fun. Jed and I relaxed on the grass, sitting comfortably in our little wooden chairs. We also played some cricket together with the little ones and the sons of another homeschooling family we have met who were sitting close-by. It was such a fun afternoon. Just after 6pm we packed up and treated ourselves to some KFC before heading home and turning in for the evening. What a great start to the weekend!