its all about the training...

pierre shares some info on the detailed training document

we are in the middle of our winter school holiday season at the moment and for our sports outreach team this is normally a time for some much needed rest. however this year we wanted to make the most of the time that we have with our sports mentors, who are all very enthusiastic young people who are still in school, so this was the ideal time to 'up skill' them with some new training and ideas around how we deliver our programme and engage with the local children who attend our daily clubs

some of the team in their new jersey kits and boots!

since starting our sports outreach in 2008 we have based our programmes around the already existing ubabalo soccer programme, which was created for the 2010 world cup, with some tweaks by our volunteers and dutch students over the last few years, however more recently we have been building great relationships with one of the guys who created the original ubabalo sports programme.

therefore it was a true blessing to have pierre and three of his team come up and join us at the elgin country club, which provided a splendid backdrop, to the two days of training and giving us new material which will hone our outreach to the 250 or so children who attend our clubs.

it was all a little daunting for our sports mentors who were encouraged to show off their existing skills on the soccer pitch and deliver a new training session, which we had prepared in the classroom via some team building and interactive video, to the group whilst receiving some 360 degree feed back on the things they did well and those things that they perhaps needed to work on, but they

it was a time for them to bond together as a team, have fun and receive some goodies which we had been saving up for such a time as this. we must thank franny black for the tracksuits which we gave out on the second day as well as lance and travis who will be delighted to know that the soccer boots which they bought over from canada were so well received by the mentors.....thanks guys.

April News

Well, the Children’s Unit has truly been transformed at the hands of the Stuttgart University team. We now have a unit which is big enough to accommodate 15 children, a new kitchen, beautiful spacious day room space as well as a refitted bathroom and much needed treatment room. Although the team achieved a lot in a short space of time they had to leave before much of the final finishing could be done so we have been hard at work trying to maintain momentum in the hope that we can move the children in by the end of the month. It seems a long way off with still such a long snag list to complete but we are thankful that the team left some more funding to assist with this and we have been able to hire a very competent builder to assist.


We have been making the most of having our volunteers too and Shannon and the Littler Family have certainly put in the elbow grease to get the wooden floors looking super shiny! We are so thankful to the Stuttgart students who worked so hard for so long to get as much done as they could and we cannot wait to move in and be able to start filling the rooms up with children!

On top of the new children’s unit we also have some, much needed office space and meeting rooms and our short-term volunteer accommodation (Ukuqala II) which was started by last year’s team is also complete.

With all this change happening we’ve got reduced numbers of children staying with us until we have more space. Although this has been strange – we currently only have 4 children! – it has meant that each of them has been able to receive a lot more 1:1 attention from our house moms. We have really noticed an acceleration in their development, especially in the areas that they were struggling. Now one little girl can walk, a little boy can talk and the other boy and girl have increased a lot in confidence! It is very exciting to see.

Sports

The past month has seen another one of our famous Soccer Saturdays come and go. These days are always a tremendous amount of work but we know how worthwhile they are for the children who attend our weekly sports clubs. 180 children attended and had great fun.

We have also been able to bless all of our sports mentors with a new pair of trainers thanks to our lovely friend from the USA, Helen! Having the right ‘kit’ helps these dedicated guys feel appreciated and also makes it easier for them to do their jobs. Thanks Helen!

The sports mentors continue to develop into upstanding young men and women. We are so proud of them. They have really taken up the challenge and recognise their responsibility. They are a fantastic influence on the children they teach. Please keep these young people in your prayers as they lead their generation forward in this difficult and sometimes disheartening environment.

Other News:
Volunteers -
This month we said goodbye to Jacqui who has served us for the past 6 months here at Village of Hope. She has gone back to Australia and was a great help with our Rainbow Smiles HIV support group for adolescents. We wish her all the best for her next venture.

We were also very happy to say hello to the Littler family, who we mentioned earlier. David, Suzanne, Joel, Toby and Zach are friends of ours from our church back in the UK and were the guinea pigs of the new volunteer accommodation in Ukuqala II! They visited for two weeks and were a breath of fresh air and fun. They also provided us with a long snag list of things we need to sort in the new accommodation! ;-)

Fundraisers-
Congratulations to Andy Gilbert and Dave Bambury who completed the Reading Half marathon in 1h58 – most impressive! They also raised £500 for us. Thanks guys!

On top of his sporting prowess, Andy also organised a very successful music and comedy revue in Aylesbury . Long time friend of Thembalitsha and singer/songwriter, John Zealey and his band performed an electric and acoustic ser. He was also selling his latest CD with all monies going to Thembalitsha. Between John’s performances award-winning stand-up Andy Kind did a set which was well received.  Andy was also selling his book at a discounted rate. £750 was generated for Thembalitsh UK so thank you to all who were involved.

Cycle To The Sea | Date Set for September 2013 - 
We are going large with our Cycle to the Sea event this year! We will be running an event in UK and South Africa on the same day! Exciting stuff!! The date is set for 14th September so please keep your eyes peeled on the Thembalitsha facebook page for more details as our plans develop.

How You Can Help
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Become a regular monthly giver - Regular givers are like gold dust to us!!!
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise R10000s with enough enthusiasm!
• Pray – need we say more?!

For more information contact us fundraiser@thembalitsha.org.za


Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff here in South Africa. It can be a fantastic way to give (and receive!) However, we do have some criteria you have to meet in order to apply. For more information on volunteering for Thembalitsha please check out our website or email us at volunteer@thembalitsha.org.za

Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

another successful sports saturday...

last saturday morning, into the early afternoon, we held our most recent sports saturday, this time with help from our german students who are busy building the extension to our children's unit acting as managers for the boys soccer and girls netball teams.

trying to get everyone's attention

once again the event was held at the magnificent elgin country club, with the wonderful scenery providing a stunning backdrop to the games being played by over 180 children who were split into 25 teams, playing soccer and netball under the guidance of our dutch student, eric, who did a sterling job in managing the other volunteers and local sports mentors.

heniz the manager of one of the 25 teams!

there isn't much that hasn't been said before about these amazing events (click on these links to see other posts around our sports saturdays, nov 2012, oct 2011, mar 2011) however it must be said that it is one of the longest but most exciting days, the joy on the children's faces as they board the 65 seater coaches for the short journey to the club, the fun that is had by playing sport against other children from the 6 different clubs we run and the 'thank you's' that we receive whilst giving out prizes or for the meal which ends the day are sights and sounds to behold.

the amazing volunteers for the day
(minus a couple of local girls and ladies who
had already left!)

after the children have been safely returned home it has become the custom for sports mentors and the volunteers to play a large soccer match, unfortunately this time there weren't enough german's make up a team, so we played europe verse africa, with a few ringers from the USA and grabouw making up the european team. for once it was nice to be on the winning side especially to come from 0-2 down to beat our wonderful sports mentors (peer educators) who really should have won!

i am hoping to put up a few more photos but i have included a couple that were taken of myself trying to sort the kids as they arrived on the buses and then a team picture, less some local help, of the helpers who made this day possible.

our biggest sports saturday yet!

fun at the huge netball tournament

on saturday we hosted our biggest sports day ever at the elgin country club. our weekly sports outreach clubs have been growing in number over the last 6 months and the investment we have made with our sports mentors being a huge influence on that. as has become custom we like to bring all the children that we work with at the different clubs together for a whole morning of fun and games, based around our soccer (football) and netball teams.

it's a goal!

i hope that i'm not taking anything away from any of the other sports saturday's that we have run by saying that this was not only the biggest, with a total of 198 children attending, around 140 was our previous highest, but also the best organised. as with all things you hope to improve and some of the lessons we have learnt in the past were overcome and even with a smaller team of volunteers compared to the past we were able to host a bigger event which is a real testimony to those who helped.

awaiting the prize giving

a big thank you must be given to the dutch students who are on placements with various projects around grabouw via the HAN university, especially yoram who is our sports intern and who took the main lead in organising the event. our volunteers at the village of hope also helped and were assisted by our wonderful sports mentors (our local 16-20 year old's who assist us at our weekly clubs) in managing teams,  refereeing the games or keeping an overview on the whole day.

the winners!

winning girls receive their funky sportswear

we took a different approach to the way that we ran the soccer tournament  having all ages playing together instead of an under 13 and under 15 tournament, and with boys being split up from their normal weekly clubs to play in mixed teams. this worked really well, uniting teams, old boys caring for the younger ones, and working together as they played. we had a total of 16 soccer teams split into 4 leagues with the winners of each group playing in the semi final and then final.

headbands for all!

the girls played in their normal weekly groups but with over 60 girls playing it needed to be organised and refereed really well and we want to thank lori and cozi for sorting that with the help of jaqui.

in the past we had used just one bus to transport the children from the various areas around grabouw, with the two sets of farm children arriving via their own transport, but such was the numbers seen on saturday that we had to set up a second bus to ensure that the children had seats. as you can imagine there was such joy as we firstly pick up and then journeyed to the wonderful country club, many of the children visiting for the first time.

thankfully we were blessed with no major injuries but with our system of indemnity and contact forms we are always ready for the worst......the only down side of that system is that some of the children had forgotten or had incomplete forms which meant disappointment for them as we were unable to ensure their safety whilst in our care!

a great day was had by all, with the winning sides being blessed with some amazing sportswear which was donated by our latest american mission team..we hope the photos will show some of that joy!  

the kids enjoyed a russian and chips (pork sausage) before they left and the day culminated in a big braai at the country club for all our helpers, and even the house moms were able to join us with the children in our care from the village of hope. the weather played its part and we thank God for that too.....

.....bring on the next one in 2013....can it become any bigger or better run?

it all comes together with sport

now how did this go together again?!

on saturday morning we held our latest sports saturday at the elgin country club, the event was made possible by our wonderful volunteers, the HAN students and the german architect students who took some time off of their busy building schedule.

we host these sports saturdays for the 7 different groups of children that we work with throughout our daily sports outreach projects in the different communities and farms in grabouw and elgin valley. it was with deep regret that we had to restrict each of the teams to 8 players, meaning that some of the children were unable to attend but due to limited resources, in transportation and kit, we were still able to provide over 150 children with a fantastic morning of sport.

the 'set up team' arrived at the country club under grey sky's with drizzle in the air at 8am and by 9am the two 65 seater coaches provided by our local transport company, gaffley's, were making the trip around the townships to pick up the teams arriving with 129 joyful and expectant children at about 10am!....(it's amazing that we had just one seat left on the buses, only God could provide just what we needed)......the children from our farm outreach were already there waiting with the managers who greeted us from the buses.

finalists of the over 13's football

after introducing the children to their managers we were then set the task of distributing the kits for each of the teams, all the children were so well behaved, they listened to their managers really well and by 10.30 we had opened in prayer and the games began.

as the morning went on the weather improved and we were more worried about sun stroke than waterproofs........the girls played a netball tournament with 5 teams, some had more than the 8 players so they shared the games with substitutions and whilst they were waiting for their games they could also play a game of volleyball......the boys were split into under and over 13 age groups, a total of 10 teams, once again some with more than the 8 players we had wanted, played until a winner was found.

the children played so well, it was great to see some of the skills that we have been working on, both in the netball and soccer games and also in the way that they treated and respected each other.....the lifeskills programme is such a success and an article written by one of the HAN students appeared in the local grabouwer newspaper captures that...maybe click on the image to have a read about his experience?

report about village of hope sports
outreach in the local grabouwer

for record 'site view' beat 'remhoogte' in the final of the under 13's football, a mixed group of girls from 'remhoogte and rooidakke' won the netball and once again the boys from 'waterwerks' informal settlement beat iraq on penalties in the over 13 football tournament.

the day was a huge success and culminated in the guys from the round table providing the children, and helpers, with hot dog rolls and cool drinks.....it was a truly multicultural and international event with our referees from canada and south africa (our local sports mentors), managers from south africa, germany, holland and england...and we even welcomed some norwegians who were showing their support on their visit to grabouw.

the children made their way home at around 2pm and after a long clear up operation the dutch and german students (with a little help from the canadians) had a game of football together, our sports mentors also made up the teams with holland putting last years defeat behind them to over come the german international team 4-1 with 3 goals from michael from our waterwerks sports mentor programme!

it just shows that if we put our differences a side we can all come together and have a fantastic day which benefits everyone on different levels...thanks guys for your help and support and to the children you truly are amazing and demonstrate what a real rainbow nation could look like!

sports saturday on a monday!?

waiting for their awards

sorry for the lack of posts/updates from the village of hope. maz' sister viv and our brother in law mark from the vale of aylesbury vineyard (church, not wine estate) have joined us for a 3 week trip to see what we get up to and at the back end of last week we managed to get away for a few days, enjoying some time of rest and relaxation.....but we are back now and the updates should come through thick and fast again.

our 'first day back' was a busy one, not only catching up on emails and all those things we missed last week but running a sports day for the 6 clubs that we run each and every term time afternoon.

i must say a huge thanks to our two new dutch students, stephan and wieke, who along with emily and our local mentors, did a great job of planning and prepping the day, and not to take anything away from any of our previous students they have left an amazing legacy of documentation both physical and electronic which will make our lives a lot easier in the future.

hillside boys with their winning football shirts

the day began with the collection of the children from 5 pick up points in the formal and informal settlements around grabouw, our farm team was transported by their own transport. whilst we picked up the kids, the set up team got busy 'setting up' the pitches and organising the kits that each of the teams would wear. the sports outreach team, mentioned above, were joined by kat, mark, jen and a handful of other dutch students who would be the 'team managers'. we even had a visit from the children we look after at the village of hope, which was really special.

after the 130 children had arrived, prayers were said, kits handed out and the games began, we held a huge netball tournaments for the girls, with 7 teams taking part, and two groups of boys football, an under 14 and an over 14 tournament. made up of a total of 11 teams.

the joy, noise and sportsmanship that surrounded the elgin county club during the morning was amazing, all the children behaved really well, they played hard but fair and the standard of skill that was shown was something to behold, we are very proud of them that they are learning the sports, life and lifestyle skills that we speak to them about each and every week.

we were served a hot dog lunch, with rolls sponsored by the local spar and Vienna's from the roundtable, and after a short presentation/game from some of the other dutch (HAN) students about the need to collect rubbish and recycle the winners of the sports tournaments were announce.

for the record, the rooidakke girls team won the netball from a hard fought hillside team in second place in the league, and for the first time a team from hillside won the under 14 league, they were blessed with an A and B side, and iraq won the over 14 league with our new team from site-view coming a strong second.

the winning teams were presented with a soccer shirt (we wont mention their name on this blog but they come from west london and aren't my favorites (me being a QPR fan!).....but the kids really appreciated the thought and we hope that we will be able to repeat this again very soon.

bruno gone but never forgotten!

our little bruno is missing!

yes that's right our wonderful little jack russell, bruno, has gone missing. a week last saturday he went out on a 'run' with one of our volunteers, and never returned. we think that he followed a bike race which was taking place in the mountains around the village of hope and ended up at the elgin country club, where he was seen on saturday afternoon.

what happened next we don't know, did someone take him home, did he get lost on his way back or did he get into trouble with a snake or a snare?...we have put a 'wanted' article in our local paper but we haven't heard anything since that came out last friday.

whatever it seems like we have seen the last of him, which is a real shame cause he was a real character around the place, the children in the unit loved him and he was the first dog that i had ever owned...and i miss him :-(

sunday at the dam

the long walk to the waters edge

the village of hope is a full time project, the children we care for live with us in our children's unit and are looked after by a dedicated team of local 'house mom's' who work a 12 hour shift rota. other members of the team (including our volunteers) start each day at 8.15 at our morning planning and prayer time and finish their day by around 5pm, sounds simple hey! but as with anything that involves kids, especially those living with HIV, and a project involved in social issues there really isn't a 'clocking off time'...therefore we need ensure that we have 'cover' both overnight and during the weekends...

each of our volunteers take turns doing 'weekend cover' and we are keen for the children to understand that sunday is special and that God loves them, therefore the people on weekend cover either take the children, and house moms, to a local church, or spend sometime singing, reading bible stories or creating an activity around that story.

children playing at the dam, they all got every wet by home time!

last sunday afternoon we (me and maz) took the children down to the local dam, which is looking very empty at the moment. it's always a special time as we show the children new things, spending time travelling in the back of our bakkie (pickup) is a highlight of any trip and the children just love to explore. whilst we were down at the waterside maz asked the children what song we could sing, and without hesitation one of our little 4 year old girls piped up, 'fishing for Jesus'...which was so apt given the surroundings.

please continue to pray for us as we seek to not only provide a 'home' for these precious ones but also show them that even though many of them haven't known the love of a family that God does love them and that they are special to Him.

march 2011 sports saturday...

on saturday we hosted our first 'sports saturday' of 2011 which we feel was our most successful event so far, we have learnt a lot of lessons over the past couple of years, including the work we did during the world cup and we ensured we had larger pitches which encouraged the children to use their football skills and a computer to work out the schedule of play, the weather was also absolutely gorgeous, maybe slightly too hot but no wind which was a blessing.

the event was organised by the village of hope sports outreach team, with the help of our three wonderful sports students from the HAN university in holland (djuri, talitha and jasper), who certainly benefited from the support their fellow students gave them.

the day started with the collection of the children around the informal and formal settlements of grabouw, the 65 seater bus to left waterwerks informal settlement at 8.30am and then ventured round to the rest of the areas (hillside, rooidakke and iraq) to collect the children to who arrived in fine spirits at the elgin country club at 9.15am. all of this went to plan and we were met by the children of remhoogte farm (commonly known at remwater by the dutch students!).

as we made our way from the bus we were greeted by the willing team of volunteers from both the HAN university and also the students from the ukuqala team, (stuttgart university), who had been busy setting up the football and netball pitches ready for the games to start at 10.00am.

as we sorted the 90 children into their teams, under 12's and under 16's boys football and 3 netball teams, they were also introduced to their 'managers' for the day (made up of the university students and our sports mentors from our weekly clubs) and given their kits, and after a short talk and prayer the action started.

the standard of football was amazing, the children have developed so much since we start

ed working with them and every team was very evenly matched, their team spirit and team work was something to behold and the overall behaviour of these children is something that our team can be very proud of. some of the poorest and most needy children in our town w

ould put some of the riches and most privileged children (and adults) to shame.....we are so proud of them.

for the record we had 5 teams enter the under 12's tournament, which was won by waterwerks on goal difference from iraq, unfortunately remhoogte didn't win a game but had a bonus of playing against the lovely young ladies from HAN university as their prize!...

..the under 16's tournament was once again a hard fought contest, the 6 teams played some of the best football that we have seen since starting with these children over 3 years ago. a special mention must go to hillside who beat one of the waterwerks teams and held their own in their other games against much stronger and larger opposition. not for the first time arron's rooidakke team won the prize.

and the prize was for the under 12's and under 16's to play a 10 minute game against the german and dutch students, which was a real sight to behold, both children's sides managed to sneak a win which made them very happy.

the netball was also a hard fought competition, to see the girls from very different areas, different races and tongues come together to play sport was wonderful to see, this competition was won by the slightly worrying team called 'the bad girls', who narrowly beat 'frans stars' (that's one for fran black an ex volunteer who started to work with the team last year) to the title.

by 1pm we had presented the prizes to the teams, the best player awards received a new football top, under 12's choose a barcelona kit and the two boys who won the under 16's choose a liverpool shirt and a chelsea top (as a queens park rangers support it slightly guiles me to write that name on the blog, but we are called to love our neighbours and even our enemies as ourselves so i didn't really have a choice!)...each child had a warm cup of soup (not really appropriate for the weather but for them perhaps the only nutritional meal they wound receive that day) which was kindly donated by the rose an

d bull restaurant (who provide us soup each and every friday for one of the nutrition centers in rooidakke).

once the children had been dropped home, the german students were challenged to a football match by the well prepared dutch students, who must have been eyeing this fixture for some weeks as they turned out in their 'orange' baffana baffana tops!.......i (tim) was picked to play for holland, it must have been my silky cruyff skills that sold that one, i was joined by shane (our american volunteer) and arron turned out for the german team (say no more)!.....

.....you wanna know the result....well lets say that history once again repeated itself with the english ref (rob house) awarding a hotly disputed penalty to the german team in the last minute of extra time.....you can guess what happened next......no chris waddle or garreth southgate to miss that one..........sorry holland

open gardens! open hearts?

tomorrow sees the start of the elgin open gardens, this two weekend event is held once a year and enables the general public to view some of the amazing gardens and vineyards that surround grabouw.

this year we have been given the opportunity to promote the work that the village of hope does in the poorer side of the community at two vineyards, iona and elgin ridge and we hope that the poster and leaflets that emily has created will open peoples hearts and eyes to the plight of thousands of children in our town.

we wanted the poster to be blunt and straight to the point, and i think we might have achieve that with the image of the wonderful flowers set against one of our children standing in the rooidakkes township in grabouw.....lets see if it works!

michelin chefs cook up a storm in grabouw

today we have had a wonderful dutch filled day, not only did we have the chance to show the dutch ambassador to south africa, mr rob de vos, around the village of hope but we also were blessed by the visit of some of the top chefs from holland on their culibus, visit their site here.

the chefs are touring around south africa following the dutch football team and are visiting projects like the village of hope, where they are providing a five star meal made from local produce, ours were provided by elgin learning foundation who we are working with on our food gardens.

the local and dutch press were also present and we were able to take them and the chefs up to the village of hope as we had to base the bus at the elgin country club as the access road to our project was much to unstable to take the 1million euro bus!

please keep your eyes out for publicity at the following site www.zuidafrika2010.net, which klaas deknatel has been running for the buildup and duration of the world cup.

to cap a busy day we were also visited by wings of support from klm who came to have a look at our project.....

...roll on saturday!, oh no its another sports saturday so no peace for the wicked, that's us by the way!...

(photos show the size and extent of the bus and one of the chefs, onno kokmeijer, with one of the boys that the village of hope has successfully placed back into the community).

latest sports saturday

last saturday morning we held our latest sports saturday, this is an event organised by daz under the sports outreach and run by village of hope for the children that attend our soccer and netball outreach in the town, we hold it at the elgin country club which is a world away from the communities where these children live.

once again we had over 100 children attend, split into 8 soccer teams, 4 under 15 and 4 under 13, and 4 netball sides......iraq boys won both the u13's and u15's soccer and a team of girls from elgin timbers won the netball....we want to thank our norwiegen volunteer (trondor and gretta) for providing the funds for us to run this event, which included a cool drink and a hot dog to end with...as well as prizes for the winning teams and best player awards.

we thought that you might like to see a couple of photos, one shows arron with his rooidakke team, another some girls playing netball and the last one some of our under 13's boys.

trondors take on the soccer saturday

we have a wonderful norwegian couple working with us at the moment and as i have highlighted before trondor, the gentleman, has his own blog, in norwegian, but you can get google to translate for us!, anyway he has posted a blog about the soccer saturday, pls visit his blog here to read the post and gain his insight into the work we are doing in the community.

birthdays and soccer saturday!

i can't believe its nearly been a week since i last posted, things just seem to be rushing away with us at the village of hope at the minute.....and we didn't really have any time off over the weekend as we ran our latest soccer saturday in the morning and held a birthday party for two of our children, along with their families at the village of hope in the afternoon.

well lets start with the soccer saturday, once again we bought together the children that we work with in the 4 different areas of grabouw, each area providing 2 soccer teams (under 12 and under 15) of 7 boys and one team of girls for netball...all in all we had over 120 children playing sport between 9am and 1pm which was fantastic.

i picked my boys up from the squatter camp called iraq, at 8.30 in the morning and took this photo of the boys next to our training post and in front of the squatter camp before we left, as you will see in the following photo the pitches we played on and the setting of those pitches were a little different to the area where these boys live.......such is the contrast between the have and have nots in this country.

trondor and the two dutch students who are working with us, lars and denis, refereed the soccer matches, which were organised by daz, lisa sorted the netball which seemed to be played in a wonderful spirit, such a lot of noise coming from the girls supporting from the sidelines.

for the record, arron's rooidakke team once again won the under 12 age group, but he couldn't repeat his whitewash as last time with my team from iraq winning the under 15 age group on a penalty shoot out after the teams finished level in the group stage.....the iraq boys where singing all the way home in the back of my pick up (bakkie) and were warmly welcomed by the members of the squatter area with shouts of joy..elgin timbers won the netball again with much joy and excitement.

overall everyone had a wonderful time, each child received a fresh drink and a packet of crisps, which made their day, and the kids were so excited to travel to the country club in a bus as well...see photo below of the wonderful surroundings we played in.

ok then on saturday afternoon, after a short nap, we welcomed the family of one of our children who was celebrating his second birthday, the other boy wasn't so blessed as we have no contact with his family, however he enjoyed opening his presents, and feeding on the wonderful feast that maz, lisa and jess had arranged to celebrate his third birthday.

we played parcel the parcel with the children, which was more of a hit with the adults who were visiting, by their reaction i think that might have been the first time that they had ever played the game, which allowed everyone to unwrap a piece of the parcel and win a prize, it was like everyone was celebrating their birthdays!....

i will try to upload some further photos of the soccer day and the party onto my flickr account later, that's if i have enough upload gigs, please visit later for more photos.