Michael’s 5th Birthday

On the 29th of January was Michael’s 5th birthday! Our little baby brother is already 5 years old. I can’t believe it!

In the Lues house, if your under the age of 8, you get to pick a theme for your birthday cake. 

A couple of weeks ago the older family members (That is my parents, and the 4 older children) started watching the Star Wars Trilogy. We put the little ones in bed  and then watch a ‘big people’ movie.  

Danika then started telling the little boys all about the cool starships and robots. They also saw them in the Lego catalog. So much that Michael asked if he could please have an R2D2 (One of the little robots) birthday cake! 

CJ and I volunteered to make the cake this time. It is definitely more colourful than the original! 

CJ was the one adding all the sweets (different buttons and lights), while I decorated with the little roses. 

Michael loves the beach, so we decided to take him to the beautiful Camps Bay Beach for his birthday party. It was a wonderful wind still sunny day with friends at the crystal clear sea. 

Under the shade we blew the candles. The little boys enjoyed eating cake and playing on the beach so much!

 I hope you enjoyed this post, I’ll be back soon!

Tour To America and Special Times with My Mother Part #3

Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing well! I’ve written part #3 of our America tour! Click here for Part #1 and Part #2.

So after we spend two weeks in Madison Wisconsin, my mom and I flew out to Nashville, Tennessee to spend a week with Mr. and Mrs. Campbell from Above Rubies. 

In what a beautiful place, in the woods where they live! 

Rashida Johnson had her 18th Birthday- and Graduation party the Sunday evening. The theme was The Fifties.

Setting up the party tables, from left to right - Madison Lilly (A.R. helper), me, Meadow Barrett  (Pearl Barrett’s daughter) and Callie Back (Former A.R. helper now working for Trim Healthy Mama) 

Pretty Girls - Tiveria Johnson and Autumn Barrett  

Newspaper boys - Arden Allison and Crusoe Johnson. 

Callie Beck and Abbie Segovia (A.R. Helper) 

Mrs. Campbell, my mom and I. 

Callie and me! 

Real fifties look - Rocky Barrett. 

There were so many little people - I really started missing my siblings. 

Pearl Barrett, Evangeline Johnson and Serene Allison.

Pearl and Meadow Barrett. 

Serene and Sam Allison, and Pearl and Charlie Barrett.  

Rashida’s birthday cake! 

Mom gave Madison a hand in the Above Rubies office! 

The Family Meal Table!!

I spend every single afternoon/evening with the Campbell grandchildren.

I went to karate with the Johnson Family. I went to a Way of the Master bible study.

One morning Mr. Campbell took my mother and I to downtown Dixon where we had lots of fun walking through the streets and the beautiful shops.

It was absolutely beautiful and the shops were so pretty!

 The boys wanted me to show them the bow I shoot, so everyone had a turn.

Even Mrs. Campbell had a turn!

On the last night the girls took me on a Good-Bye dinner.  We had lots of fun, we also stopped at Walmart on the way back and then took some pictures - Yes I was very tired so I don't look on my best here!

On the Friday Morning we headed back to the airport - back home.

After a 24 hour flight we arrived home at 11pm. We really missed our family and they brought us flowers and chocolates!

When I got home that evening my parents arranged for a friend to bake me a archery cake as a late birthday cake! 

I love traveling and can’t wait to go on my next trip!

Hope you enjoyed my Tour posts!

Tour To America and Special Times with My Mother Part #2

Hi everyone, I hope all is well! I’ve written Part #2 of my tour to America as promised! Here is part one if you haven’t seen it yet.

After we received our NASP National colours on the Friday, the next morning was our first competition which was the NASP World Tournament where anyone could take part individually. There were more than 2000 archers from America, Canada and South Africa. 

These were some of the South African (target shirts) and Canadian archers. We met a lot of great people there and I am still in touch with some of them! 

After the shooting, while we were waiting for the scores we did the “monkey dance” with all the archers. It was a lot of fun! South Africa did really excellent at the Tournament.

The hotel where we stayed, had a small kitchen and my mother and I made hamburgers and watched a movie on the TV. I didn’t even know what channel to watch (since we don’t have a TV at home!) but we found a really nice movie and enjoyed the time together so much!

 The next day the American’s took us to the Mount Olympus water and theme park! 

We took a bus and drove for about an hour to the park. We were all very excited as you can see! 

Before we headed out they took us for a drive around the State Capital, so we could see all the sides. 

Apparently this is the only capitol in America with a women statue on top.

 We drove past a lot of corn fields on our way. It was beautiful and I loved the red barns!!   

Ready to ride the biggest roller-coaster, first! It goes under a parking lot (pitch dark!) and comes out the other side and back. It is also one of the biggest wooden roller-coasters in the world!

I just had to do this! It’s like a huge swing, I am in the right seat.

This was the water slide!! 

Pure enjoyment! 

They even had indoor slides for children, it made me miss my little brothers!

I also made some penny Souvenirs!  

The next day was the All Stars Championships with the top 16 archers of each country. It was between USA, Canada and South Africa. Here are some of us, kind of nervous before we start shooting. 

Watch out for South Africa!  

Our first shoot, the guy shooting with me was the Worlds Champion. I didn’t recognise him until after the shoot when my mom told me! 

Scoring some neat arrows.

The All Stars has different rules than a normal tournament.

The 16 archers from each team gets divided into 4 teams of 4 archers, group #1, 2, 3 and 4.

Loooooong story short the groups need to shoot out against each other to see which country wins. My group ended up shooting 5 flights that day! We were exhausted that evening! 

After the shooting the next day I took a new target and asked the 3 countries’ teams to sign it for me! 

I had it laminated and it’s now hanging in my room! 

South Africa got second place (Silver) , winning Canada.   

We were all so happy to have been able to take part and do really well!  

The supporters/couches also got a medal!

We had a couple more days to spend in Madison before the rest of the team headed home and my mother and I headed to Nashville 

Tennessee. 

So one afternoon we went walking in the town streets and found Sugar……..  

It’s like the ultimate sweet shop!! 

Yes, I bought some fancy sweets for my brothers there!

We also went to watched a baseball game!  

 We had some real unhealthy hamburgers and candy floss too!

We stopped at the fire department - where the firemen and women proudly drove out their fire trucks for us to see.

I think my mother will drive the trucks pretty good!  

They even lifted the ladder for us to see! 

There was also this soap shop. That sold some amazing pretty and creative soaps!

We loved Subway! Their sandwiches were really good - and you could put on whatever you liked!

 My little brothers love the movie Alvin and The Chipmunks. They know the movie was made in America and so they asked us to say hi to the chipmunks from them! We actually spotted a chipmunk and they were so happy when they saw this picture!

  

My mother and I at the Capital!

Watch this space for Part #3 - our time in Nashville Tennessee.

Thanks for reading I’ll be posting again soon!