Monday, January 25, 2010

First Day of School 2010

So the boys started their first day of school here on Jan 19th! Aiden has moved up to the "Lion" class and is in Grade R which is equivalent to Kindergarten. And Evan has moved into the "Zebra" class. They both love school already! Now it is back to the routine with lunches, and sports after school. This term the boys are involved as usual. They are both taking music at school, swimming lessons and now Karate. Aiden is still doing golf lessons and Evan may do a ball skills class at school. Yes they have a full plate but it is fun and it keeps them busy. Happy 2010!

Boys ready to head to school!! Decked out with their new SA Springbok Rugby backpacks.


Evan in his classroom.


Aiden in his classroom.


They have had a great first week. And this week will be just as great! Aiden is turnig 6! WOW! Lots of fun coming up....

A new year...

Well I know I am behind! But we have been quite busy the first month of the year. The boys were still off school until the 19th so we had lots of time to hang out and have fun. We met with friends, had a few jammie days, did some arts and crafts and tried to reorganize the house... fun fun fun! Ok so maybe the last one doesn't sound like much fun but a necessity and still a work in progress!

Here are a couple of pics of the boys painting their own race cars...



Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Christmas 2009

We were home in plenty of time to get things ready for Santa. We made cookies for Santa, and had our Christmas eve tradion of opening one gift. Christmas morning was a lot of fun and we spent the rest of the afternoon flying kites, swimming and headed to friends for a great christmas night braai!

Boys making cookies for Santa....

Opening the traditional christmas eve gift (books)...

Santa's goodies... YUM!!

Evan taking out the food for the reindeer. They get hungry too!

Christmas Morning, checking out the loot.




Out flying kites....


It was a great Christmas! I think the boys got almost everything they asked for except for the puppy Evan keeps asking for..other than that it was a great day! Keep watching for our 2010 adventures..

Cape Town

Well we hit Cape Town and had lots to see and do. We hit Cape Point.. where the Atlantic & Indian oceans meet, the Aquarium to see some cool fish, Table Mountain a great attraction in Cape Town, with gorgeous views of the city, Robben Island for a historical tour and lots of eats, drinks and shopping in between.





Cape Town is such a great city! We have been here twice and still haven't seen everything! Our trip was not over though.. we are heading home and will stop in Knysna for the night and some site seeing. And then we were home for Christmas.. so lots more posts to come and I know I am late!!! Keep checking.:)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Winelands part 2

The next day we headed to another wineland town Stellenbosch (only about 30 minutes from Franschhoek) and stopped at two wineries. The views are as always amazing here as well as the wines!

Spier.. At this winery they have a bird show that show off different types of South African birds. You even get to interact with them, which the boys like...




Then we headed to one of our favorites.. mostly for the atmosphere and gorgeous views.. Ernie Els Winery. We had lunch and got a great tour of the cellar. We got to sit at his special table for a quick pic.




It was a great trip! Always love the winelands! Next Off to Cape Town....

Wine, wine, wine!!!

Well this has got to be one of my favorite places! The wineland are amazing, and we have only really seen a small piece of them. My favorite town is Franschhoek. It is a gorgeous quaint village with the most amazing wineries.. not only the wine but also the scenery and archetecture. We stayed two nights in Franschhoek in a cute little house, but spent most of our time drinking!
Our House...


Here are all of the wineries we visited.

Rickety Bridge


Photo taken by Evan ... pretty good!


La Motte
This winery was very nice! A guy playing the piano during the tasting, the boys got wonderful kids packs and the wine was good!





Moreson - We also ate lunch here and it was very yummy! Another gorgeous winery.




Cabriere - This is an amazing winery with lots of history. They specialize in sparkling wine and it is yummy. We also had dinner here and it was delicious!




Well that ends our Franschhoek tour... now onto Stellenbosch which I will do on a second post! whew....

Touring South Africa's Coast

After our day of relaxation.. we were off again. We were headed to the Cape Wineland and to Cape Town. Along the way we spent the night in Mossel Bay and saw some amazing views. We also stopped at a predator park Jukani to see some wonderful predator cats. The park is mostly to bring awareness about the endangered animals and how amazing they really are...

Mossel Bay view from Hotel


Jukani Predator Park... We saw lots of cats.. cheetah, white lion, leopard, ceracel, Bengal tigers, Siberian tigers, hyena, jackals, and more!

Hyena

Leopard

Tiger being Fed... Still a baby!

The Owner giving his male lion a hug! Unbelievable. Most of the animals have been hand raised by the husband & wife owners.

White Bengal Tiger.


Along our way to the Winelands (Franschhoek) were some amazing views..




Great start to our next adventure!!!

Relaxing...

Well even if it was only for a day we did some relaxing once we got back from Kariega. The boys swam in the pool, we headed to Sardinia beach and ate at one of our favorite outdoor restaurants.. the Pink Fig. Lots of fun...







We need the relaxation... we are off on a whirlwind tour!

Kariega

I know it has been awhile since my last real post... the Holidays have been very busy,and the boys have not gone back to school yet! Anyway... Scott's parents, Frank & Marlene arrived on Dec 11, after a very long flight and overnight stay in Joburg. We let them settle in for the day and then were off on Dec 12th to a local game reserve Kariega (about 2 hours away). We were fortunate enough to be able to stay in the Homestead at Kariega which is an old farm house on the property that has been remodeled and is stunning. Staying there means we are the only ones there... we have the whole place to ourselves, we have our own game ranger and private game drives, a chef that cooks all our meals and the manager Adri, who makes sure everything goes well. She is amazing! Of course, we are there to see the animals.. and we saw lots! Here are just a few.....





Oh .. the Lions! There amazing animals! There were a pride of about 6-7.. The mother lioness was HUGE!! At this point we have seen quite a few lions and this was the biggest lioness I have seen! Also another fact not sure everyone knows.. the male lion's have different color manes.. (don't know about you but I never really thought much about it) but the darker the mane the more testosterone they have making them the more dominant. Something new I have learned! We saw them two days and as usual they were napping. Anyway check out the photos..

This is one of the male cubs which is almost a year old.

The pride..


One very interesting thing that happened.. we came across the adolescent male lion that has been pushed out of pride laying in the grass. Out of a watering hole behind him came 3 rhino. These rhino did not like the lion being in "their" territory.. so as we sat there watching the rhino chased him off and as he got up and headed away he literally was 10 feet from the vehicle we were in and looked right at us!!!



The whole experience was amazing! Our ranger Thomas was great. He was a great tracker and knew soooo much about the animals. And the views were breathtaking! These experiences are ones I never tire of. Wonderful!



Website for the game reserve... http://www.kariega.co.za/