A chat with my girl

(Not so) Wordless Wednesday!  Well, technically she doesn't have any real words yet, so maybe it is Wordless Wednesday??

Linking up with the lovely Trish at  My Little Drummer Boys and Twinkle in the eye for Wordless Wednesday

The day I became Mrs D

The new Mrs D

Miss H is very into weddings and 'marrying' at the moment and poor Mr D has had to get down on one knee and propose at least 15 times over the last couple of weeks.  "Again Daddy!" she squeals "Lets do  marrying and you have to be the handsome prince".

It's all come from a combination of watching Cinderella on TV too many times (it's the current favourite movie - and thank god we've moved on from Dora!) and watching Mr D and I tied the knot.  I got our wedding DVD out for her a few weeks ago and she has been memorised by it.  I haven't watched it for a few years now and when I first put it on for her, I ended up bawling my eyes out.  "Why are you crying mummy" Miss H asked me curiously "they're just happy tears honey" I tell her.  She looked a bit confused, but thankfully accepts that and then goes on to say "Mummy, you were a real princess!!" (which of course sets me off again!!)

Planning a wedding is such a huge task and looking back through my photos I can honestly say that it was everything I wanted it to be.

Although I've lived in England for over 20 years,  both Mr D and I were born in South Africa so there was really no doubt that that was where we wanted to get married.  I had my heart set on a place called "Granny Mouse's Country House".  It is just around the corner from where my grandparent still live and I have such vivid memories of playing in the Chapel and marrying my Barbie's there when I was a little girl.

Mr D and I flew out to South Africa to hunt for the 'perfect wedding venue' but I knew all along that it would be at Granny Mouse.  Even Mr D fell in love with it with he saw it.

Granny Mouse's stunning wedding chapel nestled in the middle of the beautiful Natal Midlands countryside

A typical Midlands Sunset

My flowers were an obvious choice too as my Grandpa is a farmer and has a beautiful protea farm just around the corner from Granny Mouse.  The entire colour scheme of the wedding was based around these beautiful flowers.  It was so special knowing that my wedding bouquet were full of grandpa's flowers.

Me and my Grandpa overlooking his Protea Farm

My bouquet with three of Grandpa's stunning protea's in the middle

After  a year of careful planning and several trip back and forth to South Africa from England, our big day finally arrived.  I had told Mr D that the ONE thing I really, really didnt want on our wedding day was rain!  And boy oh boy DID IT RAIN!!!!!!!  Not just any rain, but the biggest and heaviest downpour you can possibly imagine.  The sky went as black as night, there were hailstones bigger than marbles tumbling out the sky and water was rushing down past the Chapel in small rivers.  In fact I believe the Chapel was actually leaking!!

Poor Mr D - he was so worried that I would be totally stressed out by the weather but in fact I couldn't see any of this.  I was tucked away with the my girls and a glass of bubbles - trying to squash down my nerves!!

Our ceremony was due to start at 3pm and of course that is exactly when the thunderstorm arrived!!  (Funny actually as that is the time  Master J finishes school and if its going to rain it will almost always be at 3pm!!).  So I didn't actually arrive at the Chapel until almost 4pm, when the rain disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared.  A typical African thunderstorm!  You would never have guessed that it had been the most spectacular morning of sunshine while we were all getting ready, and luckily I managed to sneak in a few of our photos before the sky turned black.

I'm really not a big fan of my 'self portrait' or 'selfie' as its called these days (I'm too self critical), but I do love this one.  My dress was hand made by a lady in Australia (way before we ever knew we would be living here) and it had to be sent all the way to England, only to be packed away and flown all the way to South Africa.

My two gorgeous flower fairy nieces.  The little one kept whispering to me "Aunty Robs, it's going to rain!  I can see the rain!!  It's coming......" LOL and how right she was!!

I was a bundle of nerves by the time I got to walk down the isle.  My dad whispered "are you ready?" and as I looked over at him to say "Yes" I saw that he had tears streaming down his face!  "OH god, not now, not now, not now"I thought - biting my tongue to stop my own tears from making my mascara run down my face like the rain!  It was one of the hundreds of 'moments' from that day which will stay with me forever.

About to walk down the isle

The ceremony it's-self will always make us laugh!!  It was comedy to the core (unintentionally I might add).  The minister that I had prepared everything with pulled out at the last minute and sent a replacement on the day (who neither of us had met before).  We only found out when he arrived that morning so there was really very little we could have done about it.  It was only the second wedding he had ever performed and he clearly didn't have a clue!  When repeating my vows (which just seemed to go on and on and on and on and on) he said "Will you promise to make Mr D his breakfast every day for the rest of his life".  SILENCE!!  I didn't answer because I thought he was trying to make some kind of joke (I could also hear my bridesmaids sniggering behind me, making it very hard for me to keep a straight face).  After what felt like a looooong silence, I realised that he actually wasn't joking!!  So one of my (many) vows was to make Mr D his breakfast every day.  Unfortunately (for Mr D) I have just not managed to keep this one - Ooops!!

He then finished off by saying "With the power invested in me, and in God and in Jacob Zuma (the South African president)  I now pronounce you husband and wife.  I kid you not!!  There were several other classic's that he threw in there too, but those stories can wait for another day.

How amazing is that window with the VIEW??

A little cheesy but we had SO much fun!

So that, in a nutshell, is how I became Mrs D.  D for de Beer and D for diamonds (a girl can dream can't she???).

There is not a single thing I would change about our wedding day, making it truly perfect.  It wasn't just the day that was perfect but the people that came too!  I can honestly say that our wedding party were AMAZING and I will be eternally grateful to them all (especially my mum and my girls).

To top it all off we were featured in the UK Magazine "Wedding Flowers" under their real life wedding feature.

What do you remember most about your wedding day??

Traffic Light Brownies

This is another idea that I saw somewhere - Pinterest I think, but I just can't remember exactly where it was!!  Anyway I thought it was a great idea - and I'm very sorry for not crediting it's original source.

I've decided to use a lovely Nigella Lawson recipe for the brownies (which I altered ever so slightly for the thermomix), so if you're on any form of diet - look away now!!

A quick trip to woolies for the ingredients with two very enthusiastic little helpers!

Ingredients

150g chocolate (I used dark chocolate)

150g butter

3 eggs

280-300g sugar (I used the lesser)

1 tsp vanilla essence

25g cocoa powder

130g plain flour

A large bag of smarties (or M&M's)

Prep and Method

• Set the oven to preheat at 160 degrees (NOT 180 degrees as I did without thinking and then had to wait for it to cool a bit).

• Line a 20cm baking tin with baking paper.

• Chop the butter and chocolate for 5 seconds on speed 5.  Scrape down the sides with a spatula.  

• Melt the chocolate and butter for 2 mins at 60 degrees on speed 1.   Don't worry if there are still bits of solid chocolate in there - as Nigella says "there is nothing better than finding a sneaky lump of chocolate in your brownie".

• Add the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence and mix if 5 seconds on speed 4.

• Add the flour and cocoa and mix again for 5 seconds on speed 4.

• Pour the mixture evenly into the tin (trying not to eat it in the process).

• Finally get your 'enthusiastic' helper to sort out all the Smarites into traffic light colours ready to decorate!  Bonus points if they can tell you what the colours mean!!

• Pop your beautiful brownie tray into the oven and bake it for 50mins.  Nigella says to take them out the oven 10 minutes early if you want your brownies to be a little bit gooey in the middle.  Which we did and they were DELICIOUS!!

The green Smarties seemed to turn yellow in the over - but no one seemed to notice!!

• Once cooled, cut up and serve (and again try not to eat them all at once).

The last week of January in pictures. Love Instagram!

I'm a bit late with this post, I'm afraid.  I was due to write it yesterday but forgot that we had to spend the day in the city having full medical checks for our permanent residency application for Australia!!  What a process that was!!  But I am happy to report that we are all fit and healthy with no hidden tropical diseases.  We're almost there now - SO exciting.

This week has welcomed back ROUTINE!!!  YEE HA!!  As much as I have really loved having the kids home for the holidays, I was starting to really crave routine again.  The summer school holiday really is a long one.

The last few days of our holidays were a bit of a wash out after what seemed like a years worth of rain decided to fall in a couple of days.  (My heart really does go out to all those poor families in Queensland that have been so badly affected by the rain, with some horrendous flooding).  We were lucky in Sydney to just have a few flash floods.  However living on the coast, the Ocean has given us some spectacular displays with some of the biggest waves I've EVER seen.  It was mesmerising just watching them.  Even the local surfers weren't brave enough to venture out.

A stunning display at Narrabeen Beach

Some rainy day play.  Miss H managed to stay in her PJ's the WHOLE day!  (Ahh remember those days.......)

On Wednesday morning Master J started Year 1!  They mixed up all the classes from last year so not only did he have a new teacher but a whole new class too.  He came out after his first day looking a little shell shocked, but apparently he'd had a very good day.  I had about 50 questions I wanted to ask about his day and had to be very restrained, keeping it to about 5!  Or maybe 10?  "Who was your new teacher?  Was she nice?  Who is in your class?  Who did you sit next to?  Did you recognise anyone from last year??........."  "MUM!!!  Will you just stop with all the questions - why do you HAVE to ask so many???????"  Typical boy - leaving me almost begging for information!!

First day of year 1.  He handled it like a pro

A quick swim after school.  I'm going to miss these days when the winter starts to creep in on us.

Sleeping beauty

Since Master J and Miss H have gone back to school and Kindy I've really enjoyed having my little bubs all to myself.  I'm really going to make a conscious effort to make the most it as I know it'll be gone in a blink!

Caught in a down pour after school!  Why does it always rain at EXACTLY 10 past 3?????

Poor Miss L was less than impressed at being caught in the rain.  By the time we got to the car she was actually sitting in a huge puddle of water!

Fed up of being indoors, Master J decided to brave the angry clouds take a chance of being drenched again to practice his skateboarding.

Miss H's first sleepover over.  Such good little cuties they were.

She is just so kissable!

Routine means my early morning fitness classes have resumed.  Those beautiful sunrises make all the blood, sweat and tears worthwhile!

Ouchie!!

Somebody decided to start crawling this week!  With her very first expedition just when I wasn't looking!!  Typical!!!  I popped her down on a grassy patch next to car while I opened the boot to get her pushchair out, when suddenly I heard the most awful scream!  You know the kind that starts with silence.........  I whizzed round to see that she had tried to crawl off the edge of the kerb and landed head first!  Poor bunny - I think we both had tears.  Fortunately it looked far worse than it actually was!

Did you notice that I have finally got around to getting my photos watermarked??  What do you think??    I have been using an app on my iphone called "PhotoMarkr", which lets me insert my own image as well as txt onto a watermark.  It's really good, although it would be a lot less time consuming if there was an application I could use directly in iphoto on my computer.  Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Last week! Love Instagram!

I don't know about you, but each week on the run up to Christmas seems to be getting busier and busier!  There are just so many end of year parties, picnics, get-togethers and lunches that it's nearly impossible to find a spare minute anywhere in the almost the whole of December!  Not to mention the Christmas card writing, shopping, cooking and Santa visiting to name a few other things to squeeze in.  Phew!!!! Makes me exhausted just thinking about it.  However there is just something magical about this time of year that puts everyone in such a good mood!  I love it.

It is funny though, how we are all so busy during the 11 months that run up to Christmas that we hardly have time for all these fabulous social get-togethers and then suddenly December arrives and we try to fit EVERYTHING into one month!!

Miss L has started teething this week and the poor little bunny has not been happy at all!  All red eyed and miserable and she still managed a little smile for mummy.

Late night cuddles with Daddy.

We had some pretty hot days last week and I just LOVE LOVE how easily I can whip up some fresh, delicious ice-cream in the thermomix for the kids in just a couple of minutes.  (I always have to remember to fill my ice trays with milk as well as water now)

Miss H and her little buddy enjoying the strawberry and kiwi ice-cream that they just helped me make.

An afternoon on the beach after school.  We are all really hanging out for the school holidays now.  I am so over the daily pick up and drop offs!!  Bring on the summer holidays.

Candy Bows and I have been very busy at the local Christmas Markets over the last couple of weekends.  Mr D has been rushing around with the big kids while I've had my little Market Hippy as company.  We've had an awesome time.

Little Market buddy

I had to take a picture of this little fella at Saturday's Market!  Fabulous Christmas spirit!

Mmmmmmmm Candy Floss ( or Fairy Floss, depending on where you're from).  I dread to think what it does to their teeth!!  He had to eat it so quickly as it melted quicker than ice-cream in the heat!

I was very proud of this home-made garlic and herb bread - pretty awesome if I say so myself.  Thanks thermi!!

You wouldn't believe that the hugest storm EVER hit this beach about 15 minutes after I took this picture.

Such little darlings xxxxx