hats

We may be heading towards warmer weather (I repeat may)but over in South Africa where our daughter and her family live, they are heading for their winter season. I know it rarely gets really cold in SA but where our family live, on the farm in the more rural area of Kwa Zulu Natal, it does get a little chilly at times. So knitted hats were requested and my daughter put this link on pinterest (such a clever site) for me to download and make for our grandsons and Angel.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/slouchy-beanies

I went through my yarn stash and chose lovely bright colours. The pattern is really easy to understand but I found that when I got to decreasing stitches to shape the top all went well until the number of stitches I had on the needle that was suggested (40cm long) were so stretched that I couldn't knit them. So at that point I cut the yarn and threaded it through the remaining stitches, pulled tight and secured. I also found when I wanted to make the smaller size that again the needle was too long to knit the stitches comfortably and so I made the larger size and finished it sooner than requested.

But all in all, with a bit of fiddling around I managed 3 different sized hats, one for Joe, one for Jesse and one for Angel who comes to stay regularly. Hopefully I will get a photo to show you when they arrive in SA.

my grandsons

I don't get many photo's of my grandsons to share with you, just the occasional snap via whatsapp.

This one was taken by their Dad while they were fishing near by where they live in South Africa. 

For those of you who don't read my blog regularly, Joseph and Jesse were adopted. 

Joe was found when he was just born and placed in a lovely little orphanage where my daughter and son in law met him and adopted him at 2 months old. Jesse was also found the day he was born and placed in a foster family, they adopted Jesse when he was 5 months old. Joe is now 7 and Jesse 6. They are the most beautiful boys, we love and miss them very much.

look what we found!

I miss these little guys so much, haven't seen them for 20 months. So when I received these photo's today I thought I would share them. They found this 'pet' in the garden as they were out playing in the sunshine...which we don't have here in the UK at the moment. 

Joe wasn't quite as brave as his younger brother Jesse, as the chameleon was hissing:)They watched him turn brown as he was on the branch and then turn back to green when they placed him back on the leaves. I always say you can teach the whole curriculum out doors!

Joseph's Gotcha Day

Today is a special day.....six years ago this beautiful baby boy came home to live with his Mummy & Daddy. The top two photo's were taken a few weeks later on his first trip to visit his family in the UK...that first photo is him with his very proud Grandma. They call this day Joseph's 'Gotcha Day' Joseph had been wrapped in a blanket and left on a bench at Durban railway station on the day he was born, he was found and taken to a lovely orphanage. When my daughter and her husband called the orphanage to see how they were to go about adoption they were put in touch with a social worker. The orphanage and social worker we all Christians. Within a couple of days they received a call to say that a baby boy was available for adoption and would they like to go and meet him. When they arrived at the orphanage they were asked to wait for the owner to come and speak to them. During this time they looked at and played with all the little babies is the play room. My daughter said she just knew that none of these babies was 'her baby', they had prayed before hand that God would make it clear if the baby they were going to meet was the baby He wanted them to have. When the lady came to speak with them she told them that the baby she wanted them to meet wasn't in the play room but still in his cot. They went through to meet him and knew instantly that this was 'their baby'. Thirteen days later Joseph Ukheta Downs came home. Back then we didn't have Blackerry phones with instant messages and photo's. They didn't have very good internet connection and we had to wait two weeks before we saw a photo of Joe....that was a long two weeks. When we saw him although there are some pretty obvious differences, he was instantly our Grandson. And when we got our first sight of him in the flesh at Heathrow Airport we could hardly contain ourselves. We thank God for the amazing blessing that Joseph is to us!

How Cute are these Little Fellas?

Just had to post this photo of my beautiful grandsons, Jesse on the left and Joseph on the right (with the carrot!) Cute eh?

Birthday Boy!

Today is my Grandson Jesse's 4th Birthday, we have been so blessed since he came into our lives when he was 5 months old. Below is a birthday photo of the whole family. Joseph will celebrate his birthday next month.

Grandsons

My daughter, SIL and grandsons are on their way back to South Africa, we had a great time with the boys staying, their mum & dad arrived back from USA this morning and then they all flew out to SA this evening...they will be tired. We had a trip into London and met up with Uncle Ben, visited Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace and St James' Park. We arrived home with 2 very tired boys. We also went out to Ivinghoe Beacon one afternoon, took a picnic and the kites. This was a real hit and the Ordnance Survey pillar served as a great place to sit and hold onto the kites, I think Joe could have sat there all day!!

We have these munchkins staying at the moment, they were all supposed to be on route to USA to meet up with Daddy before they all travelled back to South Africa...however it looks like it will just be Mummy going because they haven't been able to get USA visas for the boys (they have SA passports at the moment) so they will stay here in the UK with Grandma & Grandpa!! Yeah!!

This post is for Joseph & Jesse

When Grandma and Grandpa were away in our caravan we went and visited the Imperial War Museum and saw these 'planes. The top picture is the Tiger Moth that Grandpa went up in, he took over the controls and flew it for a few minutes. He really enjoyed his trip and when we come to visit you in South Africa in the summer I will show you the video clips on my laptop.

We love you!

Where The Wild Things Are

A couple of weeks ago my daughter in South Africa asked if I would make her boys a Max costume each. Max is a the boy from the book 'Where The Wild Things Are' who likes to wear a wolf costume. Well I have never made a wolf costume and couldnt find a pattern. So I copied a pattern for an all in one suit from my pattern book, 'Little Clothes for Little People' and bought some grey fleece and zips. We will have to wait and see what they turn out like. I have added a photo of the boys with their Daddy at a butterfly farm where there was also some little monkeys. The boys were told by the man not to touch so as you can see Daddy is holding Jesse's hands and Joe has put his behind his back to stop himself from being tempted!