She Makes Us Laugh

Some of my favorite family moments are when Kaelia gets really silly and makes the rest of us laugh.  Just this past week, for example, I got out the shower to find my two girls cracking up on my bed.  Taelyn was singing a song from preschool and trying to teach Kaelia the words, but she was stuck in silly mode and wanted to make us laugh.  The scene went a little like this:

Taelyn: Harry, Harry, drive the fire truck. [Then she looked at Kaelia for her to repeat the words back.]
Kaelia: Harry, Harry, drive the bicycle.

Taelyn thought this was hysterical and kept trying to over and over again to teach Kaelia the correct words.  Kaelia would respond with "drive the car," then "airplane," blanket," "cereal," etc.  She of course knew the correct words all along, but just wanted to be silly.  Finally, in the end, she said "fire truck" and we all cheered for her.  Little funny moments like this happen at least once a week!

Easter Weekend

The girls write a letter to the Easter bunny

Our Easter weekend began on Friday when we all decorated Easter eggs in preparation for Sunday.  Then before we went to bed on Saturday, the girls put their decorated eggs in the baskets and left the Easter bunny a little note, asking him to hide the eggs at Arianna's house.  The next morning, they found out that their eggs were gone and their baskets were hidden somewhere in the house.  So they searched around until they found the baskets - and they were full of small presents!  They got things like stickers, chocolate, fancy tights, cozy socks, and robes.

Special treats from the Easter Bunny

Next, we headed over to our good friends' house where the girls got together with their best friends, Arianna and Rafi for their Easter egg hunt.  They loved hunting throughout the yard to find eggs - especially when they found some that they had decorated themselves.  To top the event, we ended with an Easter feast and some NCAA basketball.  It was a great day!

Family Fun Day

Today was our school's annual Family Fun Day.  Family Fun Day is very similar to a small carnival, and this was the first year that the girls were really old enough to take full advantage of it.  They got to play on the playground and several bouncy castles, and they got to ride a few rides.  They really liked the big trampoline, and Kaelia loved the swings.  She cried for a bit after it was done because she wanted to keep going.  One of the highlights for Taelyn was an enormous bouncy castle water slide.  She really wanted to go on it but wanted to make sure it wasn't going to be too fast.  So we watched other kids go down it at a very slow pace until Taelyn decided that she wanted to try it.  Apparently little, little bodies go down at a different speed, though, because she flew down the slide and in to the air about half way through!  It was definitely not something that she wanted to repeat, but she loved that she tried it.

Kaelia on the trampoline

The girls on the swings

Taelyn's Waterslide Experience

Running & Wine

This weekend was the big Two Oceans ultra-marathon where Justin and the girls all had races in Capetown. So we flew there for a nice weekend trip.  It was actually Easter weekend, but we will celebrate Easter next weekend when we are back at home.

To begin our Capetown trip, we visited a couple of our favorite sites there.  First we went to Bolder's Beach to see the penguins on the beach.  We have been here before, but love coming back.  The girls love how close they can get to the penguins.  They even tried to imitate the penguins by walking like them as they followed them around.

Then we headed over to the race site where the girls each had their own races; Kaelia was in the 56m Nappy Dash, and Taelyn was in the 300m Toddler Trot.  Taelyn was so excited for her race - she even chose to do a warm-up run without any prompting on our part!  Kaelia race was first, though, so Taelyn diverted some of that energy trying to get Kaelia pumped up.  Unfortunately, Kaelia was having a 2 year-old moment at the time and decided that she didn't want to run a race.  I brought her over to the starting line, hoping that she would lighten up when she saw all the other boys and girls.  But she insisted that she wanted to anything other than race: "I want my daddy," "I want my pie," I want my jacket," etc.  Finally she said she would do the race, but she WOULD NOT run it.  So the gun went off and I tried to get her to jog with me, and she would only walk.  When we crossed the finish line, she got a medal and a track bag full of toys and treats.  She was NOT happy about this.  She asked me why she got and medal and a bag, and I told her because she ran the race.  With her angriest voice, she said, "I didn't run the race; I walked!"  It was pretty funny that her defiance even continued when she got those special prizes.

Post-Race Pose

After Kaelia's race, Taelyn ran up to her, congratulating her and telling her that she did so well.  Taelyn was so excited about the entire racing situation.  Then Justin took her over to her starting line to prepare for the Toddler Trot.  We really weren't sure if she was going to be able to make it the whole 300m, but she surprised us.  When her race started, she shot out and started pumping the arms.  She slowed a bit shortly after but kept going and going and never once complained.  She made it all the way to the finish with a smile on her face.  We are so proud of her.

Next, we went to the aquarium to see various sea life.  Kaelia especially liked the starfish and was thrilled that she got to touch one!  Taelyn's most memorable tank was the sting rays where the top was completely open and at waist level.  She thought it was fun to run away when the sting rays got close to her.  We all really liked the shark tank as well.

The next day was Justin's 56k race.  He got up very early in incredibly strong winds to take on the hilly, difficult, yet beautiful course.  The girls and I showed up at the finish line and waited for daddy to run in and get his big medal.  Justin had a fantastic run, going much faster than he planned - so fast that we actually missed him finish.  Taelyn was really upset by this, but Justin's great excitement after his run cheered her up.

Justin actually felt so well that we immediately hopped in the car and headed out to Stellenbosch - one of South Africa's most famous wine lands.  There we met up with a friend and started touring different vineyards while taking advantage of the wine tasting.  The wine lands were gorgeous, and the wine was tasty.  One of the wine companies even had face painting, an Easter bunny and an Easter egg hunt for all the kids that were visiting.  It was a wonderful end to a busy and fulfilling weekend.

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