Off to a Promising Start

School started today for my 3..the beginning of a new academic year and the beginning of this....

These guys were ready for the big day...


Blake started Grade 3. He is my easy goin', get along with everyone so I wasn't concerned about him. I was actually more concerned for his teacher when I found out there are only 4 girls in his entire class.


Tori headed off to her class with an aura of confidence which was wonderful to see from my shy girl. She was happy to see some familiar faces from last year...and one of her absolute favorites, little Miss Amanda (African girl to the left).

My Sky was the most uptight. She has 2 really great best friends and they so hoped to be together. Such a relief when she checked her class list and saw all 3 of them would be....not to mention a sigh of relief from Mama.

Rich and I drove off leaving behind 3 very happy children. Looking forward to a good year ahead.

Franzenfam Christmas- African Style

As a family we had a wonderful opportunity to spread some Christmas cheer to a handful of kids in Diepsloot...

Returning home we were enveloped with the aroma of cinnamon and easily consumed these..

There were plenty of smiles throughout the day








A delicious picnic...even my food is monochromatic. :)


Thanks to technology we were able to celebrate with both sides of family Stateside.


Our precious niece Ella made sure we were a special part of the NY Franzenfam gift opening.


We retired after an amazing day of celebrating our Saviour, embracing sweet memories and new soft presents from Christmas Day.


Time to start making out my Christmas list for next year as it will be here before we know it!

Waking Up in Style

I know I haven't blogged much and the posts I've managed to get out all seem to be about celebrating my Tori. I guess that is because she has been one celebrated little girl as of late.

With her birthday (Dec 17) falling in the South African summer the celebrating started early...in November in fact.

She was celebrated at school last month with a special honoring ceremony...


Then in beginning of Dec. she partied "Under the Sea" with some of her classmates..


So when it came to her actual birthday it was a family event with our little Franzenfam traditions. On a Franzenfam birthday the birthday member begins their day with breakfast in bed. Tori enjoyed this tradition but it was extra special than in years past. This year she was served breakfast in her brand new room..


We changed our home office into a little girl's room, pink and all....


Grandma sent all the bedding from America...so pretty...


Thank you PBC for bringing it all over for us!

We had an old ugly wardrobe in our garage I used for storage. We stripped it, painted it and changed the hardware. Being the room was originally designed to be an office it has no closet so the wardrobe worked out perfectly and the cost saving was a bonus!

It has been a wonderful month of celebrating a wonderful girl, one that we love dearly and is a special part of the Franzenfam......one that is now waking up in style!

A Recipe for One Happy Girl

Take one medium size pool



Add a "water slide"



Stir in 50 water balloons, squirt guns and over-sized, blow-up balls



Add Special Friends (13 to be exact)



Mix in some fun games



Perhaps even a homemade pinata


(any guesses as to what it is supposed to be?)

Gather lots of sweets



Add a dolphin cake



...ice cream of course



Combine all ingredients and let stand (run, play) for 2 hours. Take a look at the finished product...



One happy girl, who happens to be turning 6!

A Walk in the Park

Our life isn't a walk in the park but it sure is nice to go for one every once in a while especially with a park like this just a few minutes drive...



Our last walk was on my birthday...I'm a bit behind in my blogging since that was nearly a month ago..


You know your getting older when a walk in the park with the fam is your entertainment of choice...


It was a gorgeous day, we walked, we enjoyed a picnic, we even did a bit of hiking.



And of course took lots of pictures...


Being it was my birthday we ended the way any birthday should....with cake!


Hopefully I won't have to wait a year to go for another walk in the park!

An Answer and Lots of Words

Okay you know it has been a looong time since the last post when one receives and email from her mother with a reminder to answer my bloggers questions and post more than one word. I feel the pressure.

The question: What happened to Skyler's arm? The Answer: She was running and fell on it awkwardly fracturing her wrist. She will be in a cast until the beg. of Dec.

A few more words to add:

November here is a lot like December in the States in terms of "busyness". With the school year coming to a close and "summer break" right around the corner November becomes the month for parties, concerts, plays, honorings, teas, etc.

Having 3 children of 3 different ages we had 3 school "concerts" to attend. Each evening consists of the students being recognized for academic and sport achievements as well as being honored for the fruit of the spirit most recognized in them during the year. After which there is some type of concert or play performed by the corresponding grade levels.

Tori started us off and was honored for love and goodness. To borrow a statement from my friend...."It describes Tori to a "T". I've actually added it to her list of "names" I call her. Example: "Hey, love and goodness, how was school today?" And one wonders why my children think I am weird.

Here she is with her teacher...whom we both adore! Teacher Hilary ROCKS!


Her Concert was probably my favorite..shhhh don't tell my older two. The content that is not the performances...my 3 are all shaping up to be quite the Stage Hams.

Her concert had a World Cup theme and was very clever. Tori played the "Pap and Nyama" part. Pap is the main African starch and Nyama is Chicken. Pap and Chicken are typical African staples. The picture is horrible but you'll see the baby wrapped on her back and the girls carrying the packet of Pap on their heads. They portrayed "African Mamas" and it was too cute.


A week later we headed to Skyler's big night...

She was honored for patience and self-control. The first I will refrain from comment....hee. Her retort when I complimented her on self-control.."Well, it isn't too hard with my class". Apparently it has been a tough year for her teacher with some wild childs.


Three different grade levels were present at her honoring evening and each grade performed a clip from a book they read during the year. The Grade 5's book enactment was from Danny the Champion of the World. There are no girls as main characters in the story so guess who got to portray a boy?


My Sky as Danny. She played the part very well. Our very own Yentel.

And one week later we landed back at the school for Blake's big evening.

Bay was honored for Faith and Joy....the latter is code for great enthusiasm and energy.


He too landed a starring role in his play; one which posed no problems for my boy....he was a soccer player.


The busyness of the past few weeks made us all a little crazy....




but also very grateful for a great year, with great teachers and some great friends....




So there you have it the Franzenfam latest with lots of words.

One Word Wednesday

Ouch!