Turkey Day at the Beach

It has become a bit of a tradition for us in South Africa to spend our Thanksgiving at the beach in Durban.  I didn't really realize that this was a tradition until Taelyn pointed it out to me the other day.  The beach is what she remembers from Thanksgiving, so we wanted to make sure we continued that tradition this year.

Sadly, the weekend was not a blissful as we had planned.  Justin drove seven hours down to Durban through heavy rains, terrible visibility, and car accidents on the side of the road.  He got us to our rented beach apartment safely late at night on Wednesday, but then I started to not feel very well.  I spent the night with a fever, chills, and a migraine and continued down that path for the next several days.  Bedridden on Thursday morning, it became apparent that Justin was going to have to cook Thanksgiving dinner all on his own.

Justin did a great job getting dinner ready and stepped out for a little while to go for a run.  My only job for the day was to take the pumpkin pie cheesecake out of the oven when the buzzer went off while Justin was gone.  So I got out of bed to complete this task, but as I pulled the rack a bit out of the oven, the pie dishes went flying out and crashed on to the floor.  One of the glass dishes shattered all over the floor while the other pie flipped upside down!  The girls and I just stood there in shock as Kaelia yelled out, "Mom, look at the pies!"  Just then, Justin walked in and saw the disaster.  Aside from the pie episode, dinner was delicious; we even ate the upside down pie even though it looked a lot more like crumble.

For the rest of the trip, I was still sick, but we all managed to get out each day to see some sights.  One day we visited the Durban Aquarium where the girls were fascinated by all of the fish, sharks, and turtles.  Another day, we went to a small water park and enjoyed the water slides and lazy river.  Taelyn absolutely loved the park while Kaelia struggled to stay warm.  She did eventually try out one of the water slides and the lazy river, and she seemed to enjoy it.

Other than some day trips, we spent most of our time at the pool, the playground, and the beach.  The waves on the beach were pretty big - lots of surfers took advantage of them each morning.  They were a little too harsh for the girls to fully swim, but they loved running in and out of the waves and playing with sand toys.

Overall, it was a nice, relaxing weekend with some difficult hiccups to overcome here and there.  I didn't get a whole lot of pictures of the weekend, but here are a few.

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On a side note, Taelyn also had her Thanksgiving feast at school the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  It was a really nice celebration for all of the pre-K students, and they each chose to dress up as either pilgrims or Native Americans.  Taelyn decided on a pigrim girl because she got to wear a skirt.  Here are some pictures of the event.

Little Ballerina

Kaelia has been taking ballet lessons at her school, and the culminating recital is this week.  Unfortunately, she is not able to perform because the recital is during our Thanksgiving break and we will be away.  So her ballet instructor recorded her last ballet session today so that we could see her in action.  Here is a clip from the session.

Kaelia has really enjoyed taking ballet.  She loves to get on her tippy toes and twirl around with her hands in a ballet pose.  She does not tell us much about the sessions, though.  When I ask her what she did in ballet, she usually tells me something like, "Teacher Jenny says not to pick my nose!"  Apparently that's all she really remembers from class.

A Gruffalow? What's a Gruffalow?

Taelyn has been in the spirit of stories and storytelling lately as she learns about this topic in her class.  The Gruffalow has been her favorite story, and she talks about it and recites the book all the time.  Here is one instance where she attempted to recite the entire book.  She forgets a part here and there, and Kaelia jumps in to help her.  It's pretty cute, because Kaelia constantly listens to Taelyn telling the story of the Gruffalow and has memorized herself!

Taelyn's Impression of a Gruffalow

I also received a video from Taelyn's teacher of a class performance of the Billy Goats Gruff.  It's adorable!

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween extravaganza began at the start of this week when we carved a pumpkin as a family.  The girls decided what they wanted the face to look like, and then I attempted to cut out their vision on the pumpkin.  We had to improvize a bit because it was a lot easier said than done when trying to cut a pumpkin with a steak knife.  I'll have to remember to add a pumpkin knife to my packing list for next year!  When we opened the pumpkin, the girls were both really excited to see all of the seeds inside, but they had mixed reviews about actually sticking their hands in there.  Taelyn was all about it and dug right in, helping me take out all the seeds.  Kaelia, however, took one look at the sliminess and decided that she wanted nothing to do with that part, so she just watched.  Afterward, both girls loved turning off the lights and watching the pumpkin glow in the dark.

The next night, Justin and the girls took the pumpkin seeds and fried them up in the kitchen.  Taelyn wanted to do this part all by herself, so Justin gave her free liberty to salt the seeds.  Needless to say, they were a bit too salty (I'm not sure there were any seeds in all that salt!), so I rinsed most of them afterwards to make them edible.  Taelyn made sure to bring plenty to school the next day so she could share with her classmates and teacher.

On Wednesday, Taelyn had her school Halloween celebration.  She dressed up as Princess Jasmine from Aladdin and walked in a little parade around campus where staff members passed out candy along the way.  It was the school's version of trick-or-treating.  Then Taelyn's class headed back to the classroom for a Halloween party.  She had a great time.  Once she got home, she also did a great job sharing her candy with her sister.

Finally, it was time to go trick-or-treating on Saturday night.  We went to a nice housing complex that celebrates Halloween by decorating their houses, creating mazes and activities, and hands out candy to trick-or-treaters.  Kaelia dressed up as a monkey because she wanted to use her costume from her recent school concert.  Before heading over to the complex, we went to a friends house so that she could get her face painted as a monkey.  Then she spent some time crawling around as if she were a monkey.  At the last minute, Taelyn decided to do a quick costume change and put on a Cinderella dress.  She said she didn't want her belly to be cold.  We also joined our friends, and Arianna came dressed as a black cat.

Trick-or-treating was fun, but we definitely had to walk a bit to earn candy.  The houses that participated were a little spread out; after about 1.5 hours, the girls had walked around 2.5-3 miles!  They were a little tired at the end, but they thought it was worth it (and they don't really have anything else to compare it to).  Their favorite house was one of the last ones that we went to where the girls had to walk in to a small, pitch-black garage that had neon lights inside.  They couldn't really see anything, and to all of our surprises, they came out with full ice cream cones!  That was a nice way for them to make the walk back to the car and call it a night.

We had a great Halloween week this year - especially considering that we got to celebrate when it is not really a South African holiday.  The girls still came home with plenty of candy, and they didn't mind sharing with us!

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Fall Break in the Mountains

Last week was our fall break, so we took a nice family vacation within South Africa.  We were looking for something relaxing and fairly low-key since we have been going strong for a couple of months now, and we definitely did not relax on our long weekend to Munich a month ago.  So we headed to the mountains and enjoyed two of our favorite South African destinations: Clarens and Drakensburg.

Clarens is a cute little touristy town that has great restaurants and an art, wine, and beer focused down town with lots of hiking nearby.  We took the girls on a small day hike to start, and they did incredibly well.  They loved following the trail and heading up the mountain.  Justin and I also took advantage of the many running trails that ran along the mountains and streams alongside of town.  Before we left, I made sure to get a nice massage at my favorite spa, and Justin went golfing for one morning.

Next, we went to Drakensburg where we stayed in a nice little cabin at a great camp resort called Dragon Peaks.  We had a great back porch that overlooked a lake and the mountains in the background.  It was beautiful.  The girls had a great time here because there was a lot of activities for them to do.  They went horse-back riding a couple of times on the property as well as a kids' zip-line.  Taelyn particularly liked the horses and became rather close with a small, brown horse that she named Brownie.  Each time we went to the stables, she made sure to pet Brownie and get plenty of hay for all of the horses to have to breakfast.  Kaelia was a star on the zip-lining.  She loved the experience and spent most of her time hanging upside down from the cord.

We also went on another hike in Drakensburg, but this one was significantly longer than in Clarens.  We made our way through trails at Monks Cowl Sanctuary until we found a beautiful waterfall.  It took us 1:20 just to get there, and the same amount of time to get back, making our journey a total of 2:40 on foot.  The girls were champs during this hike.  They complained about being tired from time to time, but for the most party, they were champs.

For most of the trip, the weather was a bit cool which was great for hiking and running.  By the last two days, however, it got a little warmer, and the girls were able to swim at Dragon Peaks.  There was a fantastic kids' pool with a waterfall, and a couple of water slides in the larger pool.  The girls had a great time splashing around for a while on those days.

Our trip to the mountains was the perfect getaway to relax and still enjoy the outdoors.  Take a look at the link below for some pictures and videos.

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Dale's Birthday Party

After Kaelia's concert today, we also went to a special birthday party.  Taelyn's little boyfriend, Dale, celebrated his 5th birthday.  Taelyn was quite adamant about what she wanted to get him as a gift: a Power Ranger because the two of them always play Power Rangers at recess together.  Then she spent a good hour making him a card last night.  It contained some Power Rangers, Taelyn and Dale together, and lots and lots of hearts.  She wasn't quite finished when dinner started, so she brought her card to the table, took a bite, and then added another heart, took a bite, added a heart, etc.  I have never seen her work so diligently on a drawing before.

This is the outside of her card.  The left is Taelyn and Dale together, and the right is the pink Power Ranger, Mirage (that's why there is an M on the head).

This is the inside.  It is full of hearts, a flower, another pink Power Ranger, and Taelyn's name.






When we got to the party, all of the kids enjoyed some entertainment by a group that puts together shows and obstacle courses.  Taelyn was, of course, seated next to Dale throughout the entire event.  Eventually when the entertainment portion was over, though, Dale wanted to get away from the big party and play with his closest friends.  So he asked Taelyn and his brother to play Power Rangers with him in the back yard, and that is where they spent most of the rest of the party.

It was really cute to see how well Taelyn and Dale play together, and I got a few nice pictures.  Here are a couple to recap the party.

Kaelia's School Concert

This morning was Kaelia's first school performance - a little concert centered around an African safari theme.  Kaelia's class, the Puffertrains, were monkeys and performed two songs: 10 Little Monkeys, and the Chimpanzee Song.  We didn't know quite what to expect from Kaelia because whenever we asked her about the songs over the last couple of weeks, she wouldn't tell us anything.  We assumed she knew the songs and routines, but we didn't really know for sure.  But at the concert, Kaelia was a star!  She did a great job with the songs and motions.  We could tell that she really liked seeing us in the crowd as well, and she waved to Taelyn quite a bit.  We are so proud of Kaelia because she is rather young compared to the rest of her class but clearly fits right in despite her age.

At the end of the concert, Kaelia took a bow with the other kids, stepped off stage, and ran right toward me.  Once she got to me, though, she gave me a hug and just started bawling.  She said she wasn't sad or hurt, so I think she just got a little emotional about the whole performance in front of a big audience.  It was so sweet.  She quickly recovered once she saw her closest friend, Arianna, who came to the concert to watch her, and we all celebrated Kaelia's performance by going out to lunch at a restaurant with a great playground and bouncy castle.  Kaelia kept her monkey costume on the entire time!