Ideas and Events
I love celebrating events, especially birthdays, because I really think you should be grateful that you or someone you love has survived another year. (Sometimes we take it for granted.) But ordinary events and small wins should be celebrated too!
I hope by sharing these ideas and events it may spark some ideas so that you can add more fun and joy to your life and those of others. 😊
Some memorable events we have organized: Bob Ross Paint Party, Myers-briggs-birthday-party, Birthday Drive-in, Teddy Bear Picnic Party.
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My Fair Lady at MonteCasino
Repeat after me: “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain. “ Oumie, Carol, Linley and I joined the Kosmos Toere group to watch My Fair Lady at MonteCasino this weekend, and…
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YOU can Plant a Tree
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. They say: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second…
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One Step at a Time – Zuikerkop 2024
“My advice for a race is the same as it is for life: Take it one step at a time.” Every year, Zuikerkop hosts a fantastic running and cycling event, and it’s one…
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SpongeBob Party
The cake was a Chocolate and Vanilla Cake with Cream cheese icing. The SpongeBob figurines are “fishtank figurines” and are not edible. The Krusty Krab is made from melted chocolate. This is the…
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If You Don’t Rest, You Rust
Resting rebuilds, restores and refreshes! They say if you rest, you rust… I think it should rather be: If You Don’t Rest, You Rust! This morning, while brushing my teeth, I was randomly…
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Happy Minecraft Birthday
Minecraft- A World where anything is possible. We had fun celebrating Leo’s birthday with a small party on Friday and a Spur outing today! It was a busy weekend with the Dino-Expo and …
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Dinos and Legendary Rugby in Bloem
“Beer and rugby are more or less synonyms.” There was a lot happening in Bloemfontein this weekend! We went to the Dino-Expo at the Show Grounds. It was interesting, but there were a…
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Knysna Half Marathon 2024
Did you hear about that ‘oyster’ joke? I laughed so hard I almost pulled a mussel. Many muscles are sore and stiff from yesterday’s race! But, I think most of us agree, that…
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Run For Fun
“Run. Because zombies will eat the untrained ones first.” – From the Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide I wasn’t always into running. I wouldn’t have considered running fun, not at all! Alma told me the other…
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Carol’s 60th Birthday Celebration: a Fairytale at Biljoni’s
“Why did the 60-year-old woman bring a ladder to her birthday party? Because it’s all about reaching new heights at this age!” This was the event we were looking forward to for quite…
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Carol’s 60th Mimosa Breakfast at Little Rock
P-A-R-T-why? Because we gotta! We’ve been celebrating Carol’s 60th trip around the sun since last year, but now that it was her official birthday we went big! Because 60 is a big deal!…
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Clarens Craft Beer Festival 2024
Don’t Worry, Beer Happy! 😜🍻 It was the perfect weekend for Clarens Beer Festival! The weather was really hot, but luckily the beer was cold! We stayed at Clarens Retreat Guesthouse which is…
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Unleash the Dragon for Natey’s 5th Birthday
The day after Natey’s ninja party last year he told me for his birthday next year he wants a dragon party. He stuck to this idea and this year we celebrated his birthday…
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Cluedo – Playing Live
The Milner Mansion Murder Mystery Event Linley organized an incredibly fun event at her house for the family. I thought it was such a cool idea! Loadshedding was right on schedule and benefitted…
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Meow You Have a Happy Birthday
A little birdie told me it’s your birthday… So I ate it! – A Cat somewhere Since he was born, Leo has liked cats! We’ve never had a cat. We’re not particularly fond…
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Clarens Beer Festival 2023
You better not pout, just have a stout, You better not cry, try a beer dry, You better not frown… Because…Craft Breweries are coming to town! It was the Clarens Craft Beer Festival…
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Natey’s Ninja Party
Ichi, ni, san, yon! One, two, three, four! It was Natey’s Ninja party this weekend. He has been so excited counting down the days for this event! And the day finally arrived! The…
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Lionel’s Birthday Robot
Why did the robot cross the road? Because he was programmed by a chicken. A few months ago Leo told me he would like a robot party. I asked him, if he could…
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Our Oumie’s 80th Birthday
“A life well lived is the most exquisite work of art.” – Erwin McManus “One must have compassion for one’s fellow man. (‘n Mens moet deernis hê vir jou medemens.)” – Oumie’s life…
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Clarens Craft Beer Festival 2022
“Wish you were beer with us!” It was the long awaited Clarens Craft Beer Festival this weekend! The last festival was just before lockdown in February 2020… What a lot has happened since…
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Celebrating Dakkie’s Birthday with Good Food and Great People
It’s quite lucky when your birthday is on a weekend, but especially lucky when your birthday is on an extra long long weekend! This weekend we celebrated Carol’s birthday with a dinner party,…
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Cherry Festival 2021 and Sandstone Estate Train Ride
Eat a cherry and be merry! It was the Cherry Festival this weekend at Ionia Cherry Farm near Ficksburg. We camped at Ionia on Friday and Saturday night. They had a theme park…
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Little Rock Birthday Camping
“Life’s better when you add fresh air, trees, good friends and a braai.” Why travel far when there is a perfect camping venue right on your doorstep!? Little Rock Resort in Ladybrand pleasantly…
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Tommy’s Dinosaur Party
“Hold him a little longer, play with him a little more, tell him another story, let him make the dinos roar. Let him sleep on your shoulder, appreciate every smile, he will only…
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Hulk Smash Party
We had a Hulk Smash Party for Natey’s 3rd birthday this year. It was a fun theme and we all enjoyed it. On the 1st of September a little Hulk toy came to…
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8 Week Creativity Challenge
Are you ready to get creative? 1 theme/topic every week for 8 weeks. Interpret and depict the topic by drawing, painting, writing, taking a photo or creating something. Share your creation/thoughts on our…
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A Super Superhero Party
Cake, balloons, a few fun friends and a superhero family… Those are the ingredients for a super awesome party! We couldn’t invite many people and we were fortunate that the sun was shining…
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Our First 5 Days of Covid Isolation
Can everyone even remember life before Covid? Before every teller at Spar had a screen up in front of her? When the birthday girl or boy could blow out their candles without everyone…
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Encouraging Creativity
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe Creativity is something so uniquely human. Creativity sparks new ideas, new inventions, artwork, literature and feeds the soul… …
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Gqeberha.. . For Me, Always PE
Gqeberha is the new name of Port Elizabeth… I haven’t met anyone yet who is enthusiastic about this. It is apparently originally a khoisan word, now written in Xhosa… But they say it…
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Geetha’s Broad Bean Curry
Marc has been holding the fort at home while my siblings and I have been in the middle of South Africa’s Covid hotspot trying to help my dad fight the virus. Granny Geets…
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Natey’s 2nd Birthday Party
“You are 2! 2 cute and 2 adorable!(with a few 2 terrible screams in between)” Natey wanted a blue party and I wanted a train party… So we had a blue train party!…
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Will you Marry Me Next Week?
Here’s the story about Peter, my brother, and his wife, Imke’s engagement and how they planned their wedding in less than one week! The whole family was excited to go down to Port…
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Let’s Eat Local
Where does your food come from? (Before you buy it from Shoprite or Spar) What are the ingredients of the sauce you’re eating? Do you know what E270 and E260 are!? I thought…
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Teddy Bear Picnic Party
If you go down to the woods today, you’re in for a big surprise… Almost a year ago, before we knew about things like Corona and lockdown, we celebrated Natey’s first birthday by…
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Solar System Birthday
“My world revolves around you!” Leo chose to have a solar system birthday this year… He decided this like 2 weeks after he turned 3! And he didn’t change his mind. He also…
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Birthday Drive-In
2020…what a weird year! I love celebrating birthdays and this year we had to really think out of the box because social gatherings are not permitted (unless it’s a church function.) So… we…
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Coronas on the Shelf
When Lockdown was announced, I thought of doing something everyday to entertain the kids (and myself)… That’s why I came up with”Coronas on the Shelf”. It works similar to “Elf on the Shelf”…
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Myers Briggs Birthday Party
Last year I also had a very enjoyable and interesting birthday party… A Myers Briggs Birthday Party! I’ve been wanting to post it on here but haven’t gotten around to it. (Typical INTP…
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Bob Ross Paint Party
We don’t make mistakes, just happy, little accidents. Bob Ross Marc’s “Bob Ross” party exceeded my expectations! It was really lots of fun and I was so impressed with how everyone’s painting looked.…
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1,2,3 Let’s Blaze Birthday Party
1,2,3 Leeet’s Blaze! That was the theme of Leo’s 3rd Birthday Party we held this year. I made a Blaze chocolate mud cake which you saw on the previous post. When he saw…
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Our Templehof Lion Encounter
Leo and I enjoyed an outing with the Dixies to Tempelhof Guest and Game Farm today. The farm is near Ficksburg so it wasn’t too far to drive and Chantal bought lekker snacks…
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Jane’s 50th Parkrun
There are no shortcuts. Work hard. Be patient. Be consistent. Be persistent. And never give up! Well done to my mom for completing her 50th Parkrun this weekend! She even ran in the…
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Corporate Iron Man in Port Elizabeth 2017
Jy’s my batman, superman, IRONMAN…. I did it! I got the medal! Marc, Pete and I took part in the Port Elizabeth Corporate Ironman 2017. It’s a tenth of the big Ironman… It…
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Clarens Craft Beer Festival 2017
“If you’re hoppy and you know it drink craft beer!” It was the 7th annual Clarens Craft Beer festival this weekend, the 5th one we’ve been to. And the beer just seems to…
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Kiara Lodge Getaway
When I was younger I pictured heaven as a place high up in the mountains with soft, fluffy clouds, pretty pastel colours and bunny rabbits everywhere… After this weekend I realized I was…
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Wedding in Kaapschehoop
Edit “Two lives, two hearts, two souls become one.” South Africa really has a lot of interesting places! Like this little village, Kaapschehoop, near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga…which I found out afterwards is where…
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The Fork & Pot -A New and Unique Local Restaurant
“I’m so very fondue of you.”😝 Yay! A new restaurant in the area…35km from Ladybrand…We had to go check it out… This brand new restaurant has a very interesting decor with a Western/Klein…
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Clarens Beer Festival 2016 & Home-Brew Tasting
Beer, beer and more beer! There’s always something happening around beer! And there always seems to be beer around us! 😜 The 2016 Clarens Beer Festival was very festive and most enjoyable. Here’s…
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Harry Potter & the Little Treasure -Baby Shower
We were supposedly going to braai at Nobis and Danie’s place on Saturday evening… Meanwhile, our family and friends sneakily organized a surprise baby shower for us! I read all the Harry Potter…
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Ironman 2016 in Port Elizabeth
Ironman is next level tough! I was exhausted after just being a supporter at this year’s Ironman in Nelson Mandela Bay. Well done to my lil’ bro, Pete, who completed the extremely challenging…
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Camping at Korannaberg
“There is a treasure hidden in every moment. The joy of life is finding it.” -Katrina Meyer 🌻 It’s so nice when one discovers a beautiful place close to home. We will definitely…
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Skiing in Africa
“The important thing is to take that first step. Bravely overcoming one small fear gives you the courage to take on the next.”– Ikeda It was our 3rd time together at Afriski…
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NAMPO 2015
“In winter’s chill or summer’s heat farmers work so that we can all eat.” Do you ever think about where your food comes from (before you buy it from a shop) or how…
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Clarens Craft Beer Festival 2015
“Beer is not the answer. Beer is the question. ‘Yes’ is the answer!!😄” It was the long-awaited Clarens Craft Beer Festival last weekend… Craft Beer Breweries from all over South Africa were there…
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Xanthe’s Wedding in Port Elizabeth
“Take care of your mind it will help your body look good. Take care of your body it will make your mind feel good.”- JMF Some call it the friendly city, most call…
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Rhinos at Emoya’s Voetspoor Fees
There were white paw-prints painted on Bloemfontein’s roads yesterday… We followed them and they lead us to Emoya Estate’s 2014 Voetspoor Fees! The paw-prints were really there but actually we heard about the…
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Family Time in the Eastern Free State
We had one day to show my parents the Eastern Free State. It was one jam-packed day but I think we did a pretty good job. Thanks to Lionel for being the tour…
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Bloemskou 2014
It’s that time of the year again that all South Africans have been waiting for…. Hmmm, well, maybe that time of the year all Bloemfonteiners have been waiting for… Okay, maybe just that…
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Clarens Beer Festival
We went to Clarens this weekend for their 4th annual beer tasting festival. Many of South Africa’s top micro-breweries were there with their best home brews. A lot of people were at the…
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Watermelon Cake
I decided to make a healthy cake for Marc ‘s birthday. This fruit cake is not quite your traditional fruit cake! It’s just fresh watermelon and cream decorated with a variety of fresh…
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Broccolli & Condensed Milk Salad
This salad is too delicious to be called a salad and should actually rather be called broccoli pudding. When you are tired of your January diet this is a good way to indulge…
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Appreciating Family Christmas in the Eastern Cape
After William and Charnè’s beautiful wedding at the Blue Lagoon Hotel in East London, we drove to my parents place in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan, just outside Uitenhage on the way to Jeffrey’s…
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Once upon a time in Egypt
Once upon a time before the hectic political problems and warnings against traveling to Egypt there was an unsuspecting intern planning her trip to see the Great Pyramids of Giza… In your internship…
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Trekking in Mauritius
I thought I’d write a bit about past travel vacations- it’s nice for me to reminisce and maybe I can give you ideas for where you would want to go. Sun, white sand…
