Pre-school update, iPhone-ography and cooking with kids

You were all right - clearly I'm not as mysterious as I think I am (ha!). I absolutely told them there's something wrong with the invoice but I was late to a meeting so I didn't carefully word my email and you'll never guess what - they took off even MORE money. Now they've undercharged by R400-odd. When I went today I told them I will send them my spreadsheet (!) and they can send me a proper invoice because they're robbing themselves blind :)

Heather in Scotland - YES it's the same dude! A calmed down version since we had a very serious chat about what I expect from my trainer :)

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It's been 3 weeks since I went to see the third school.

Wait, let me go back a little bit.

Remember the first two schools?

Well, we were put on the waiting list for the one furthest and accepted for the nearer one.

D paid the registration fee (one for both kids - I like that!) and they told us they'll be in touch late November.

Then this 3rd school (my first choice just based on the website and our Christian values) contacted me to say they had two places.

I went on a Tuesday morning exactly 3 weeks ago - it was POURING with rain so all the kids were inside but well behaved :)

The one lady showed me around - it wasn't clear which one was in charge - I got the feeling like they didn't have those issues but this one was more the parent liaison and the other was the money person :) :)

The school is as nice as I imagined (which stuffs everything up, doesn't it?) and the teachers are great. I met the lady who would teach our kids and she reminded me a lot of Nanny V - the same great energy, love of life and total love for the kids.

I did like that they also worked on an 11-month fee structure which is slightly higher but then you buy no supplies and levies for this, that and the other.

I like when there are policies like no sweets, chips, fizzy drinks, biscuits. Suits me down to the ground :) Yes, I'm a control freak.

I also like that they're loving, caring and their themes are Bible-based.

I left with all the forms and a day or two later, the third school also let us know they have space for us.

Crikey.

C & K eating Woolies mini doughnuts under the table one Sunday afternoon!

After much to and fro-ing, I actually calmed down and realised that even though a school is Christian and it's nice to have that back-up, their spiritual upbringing is still up to us. How we live, the values we teach them and what they learn and observe right here at home.

And I think we're doing really well with all of that already. My kids pray for themselves, their siblings and for us. Tonight we also prayed for the people affected by Superstorm Sandy. I'm also working on getting them to listen to God's still small voice inside their hearts (they think it's in their tummy but at least they get the gist of it).

However, the biggest thing is the transport thing.

Everyone I've spoken to (the last one being my wonderful ex-boss) said that location basically trumps almost everything else. And so now all I have to do is politely decline those places. D wants to just check out transport prices (why, I don't know)...

As for money, the furthest two schools are almost exactly equal and the one where they're registered (nearer to my home) is about R4000 cheaper over the whole year. Which is a Sabie holiday, right? :)

In other news, I'm getting really jealous of seriously beautiful iphone pics.

I found a guy I work with on instagram and he has SUCH a good eye. He is a designer so it makes sense that he's good visually but still. He told me when he saw the Newtown pics Jeanette took that it had good "visual tension" because of the very sweet babies with their teddies against that dirty, grungy background. I still laugh when I think of that.

I'm determined to start getting good at using my iphone camera. Look out world!



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Connor and I have started cooking together. By this I mean I'll chop the carrots and he gets to put them all in the pot. Or I'll measure out the rice and he adds it to the pot. He LOVES IT.

D says it's because he likes eating :) When I walk in the door, he says, "Mummy, let's go cook" and so we do.

Tonight we made pizza. I saw something on Pinterest as I was searching for a recipe on one of my boards, it looked easy and so we did it.

The whole experience was very cute but verrrrry messy!

Do you cook with your kids?