I've added this pic of the Frieslaar and Hugo children taking a dip in the Indian ocean, cos maybe it'll prompt you to come and see our beautiful part of the world for yourselves.
We had a ball, some of the time the 3 kids from the farm next door joined us. This outing we drove down to the Tugela river with Lungi, Kyle and Jarod. Pray for these 3 prescious people.
Kara and her little guinea pig, Marble. This little rodent is perhaps the cutest ever. And, certainly gets a lot more attention than many people in the world. Mark also created the best double story cage for her. So on nice days we put her on the grass and she climbs down the ladder. And, at night or during rainy times we pull up the ladder and she's on the veranda safe and dry. We didn't realise how vocal guinea's are...
JJ and Mark were very excited to find a remote control airplan strip and school just 15 minutes drive away in Mandini. Someone has even offered to teach them how to fly. Mark has a trainer plane and is building another. But note, he has been building it since he was in standard 7 tho. JJ gets him at it more often, tho not often enough for JJ. The plane in this pic with JJ is not ours tho.
Mark folks came to visit us in May. It was their first visit to Sunbury, so its nice to know they 'know' where we are. They had a good rest and we loved having them. They had just put Marks sister and their other grandchild, Candice on the plane to New Zealand. So we are all still getting used to them not being close anymore.
Kara's 7 year birthday celebration was held amidst Rock Stars (as seen above) with much noise, crafts, tea and cake, pizza and a guitar cake.
We also had J's birthday party at Sunbury this year. Hot wheel racing car cake, fear factor candy and a flour and water bomb fight with the dads being the fun of the day. The families of Sunbury finished it off with a braai by the pool.
School continues. As evidenced in this photo, we can see that Kara learns best in color. All their skills are progressing nicely. J continues his judo and Kara continues her rhythmical gymnastics. 
The sugar cane farms around us have been cutting cane. Before they do so, they burn it first. The fires around Sunbury have been unbelievable. Up to 3 stories high just about right up to our electric fence. But it all seemed so well controlled that the animals didn't even seem concerned. 
We have painted the walls of our lounge (sitting room). Its our first time ventureing away from white.
Sadly, Barbs dad, George Engler, died suddenly a week after recieving a leukemia diagnosis. We all miss him dreadfully and are struggling thru figuring out life without him here. But, we are thankful for the many blessings he brought into our lives. 
Mark and the kids sitting on the step of our back veranda. Its so good to be settleing and making the place home. Working on the house, getting the garden cleaned up and expanded etc. Barb is actually loving working on and off all over the Sunbury gardens. She is very spoilt in that most of the hard work is done by the maintenance team. But its fun to see things growing. Things grow really well.... especially the weeds. The back of our house looks out over toward the indian ocean the the Tugela river mouth (on a clear day Mark can see it, Barb imagines it). The other side looks toward the Drakensburg once you caste your eyes over the pool, fence and sugar cane farms outside. Both are glorious views. We are so blessed.
If this pic doesn't entice a feeling of want ot visit SA, then.... The zebra was 2 m away from me as I took rather a few pics similar to this. Pretty amazing. We camped near this river (which Mark told me afterward, still sometimes gets sharks or crocs) and the zebra roamed around freely. They took to sleeping around our caravan. We saw reed buck, nag apies, mudskippers, a variety of different crabs and the kids caught shrimp with little kiddies nets. It was pretty fun. Good to get away and hang just us for a while. 
THE SUNBURY KIDS. The Seelhammers joined us at Sunbury in Dec. They expanded the kid population by 4. The little brown haired chap is Kyle, who belongs to the Seghers. Swimming forms a big part of their lives during the summer.
One of the fun things about watching ones kiddo's start sport, is seeing just how adorable they look in their outfits. I just love this pic of our little judo guy, who is now proudly sporting a half yellow belt.
Kara loves her rythmical gymnastics. she has mastered spinning the hoop on her finger on each hand. Practise time meant mom diving for cover at the drop of a hat as the hoop came speeding straight at her head sometimes
JJ and Kyle with their judo instructor, uncle John. The lessons are held at Kyles school about 40 min drive away.
Our miss flexible.
