School's Out

Hi all,

Somehow I've lost what ever shred of irony I used to have in this blog.  I fear it's become a look-at-my-cute-kids site. Not that the grandparents mind this, but I'll see what I can do to keep things interesting.

Adam's up in Angola this week to talk about flu and flu surveillance with folks there. Here's a map to give some context. (I had to look myself.)  He flew, but I plotted by road to show the distance.


View Larger Map

We're doing OK, but miss the guy.  He comes back Thursday night, hopefully in time for me to hand him the kids and tell him to put them to bed.

Pre-K: Been there, Done that

Time-warping back to early June, Lucy had her last day of Pre-Kindergarten.  

 The kids with birthdays over "winter break" (June-July) had parties in June, so we headed back to Lucy's favorite party-place (Jingle Jangle) probably three times in two weeks.  (She never tired of it. I was ready to tell her it burned down and was turned into a dentist's office.)

 Scary Movie Night (Tinkerbell?)

Noah could care less about the movie, but I was able to get him to sit there long enough to take the shot.  He quickly returned to the floor, where it was easier to gnaw on that flip flop.

Photo Shoot - Last Day of School

 

She wore her finest shoes. (Last day...Lady's Choice.)

 Our preemie is all grown up.

Dad, are we done now?

 I think my camera was set to manual, so things are a bit grainy.  (But the ISO says it's 400, so if someone knows what I did to cause this, let me know.)

School's Out!  I spot Lucy and her friend, Asha (Canadian), after the final bell rings.

I think Lucy greeted me with, "Can we have ice cream?"

The Safari partied hearty that night.  xo,
Glenn

Lucy's a Star

Hi all,

Hope you're not sick of us yet. (I'm trying to catch up so you'll see a lot of postings for a bit. I realize the only folks who really want to know all the details are the grandparents, so I'll try to stick with the highlights. No need to share my excitement about buying kumquats yesterday.  (Lucy, "Dad, these things are actually kind of sweet!", as she spits it out on the table.)

The AISJ Star Show
In May, Lucy graduated from Pre-K.  The school puts on an end-of-year show; this year's theme was outer space. 

 Lucy waits for her class to be called up.  (She was beaming with pride, if you can't tell.)

 Given the transience of the community, the principal, Mr. Ben (Weinberg :-) ), does a great job of saying goodbye to the kids who are moving away and hello to new ones who joined the school.

The Pre-K and K classes take the stage to do a rousing performance of You Are My Sunshine. (It evoked Bob Fosse with undertones of Martha Graham.)

A 30-second video

(Click to watch in YouTube.)

 Noah got bored and wandered into Lucy's classroom.  He had some ideas about how to improve the recycling program (starting with tipping over the basket).

 Noah and I came upon this bulletin board.  Of course Lucy focused her question on sweets.

 As a finale, the music teacher led the whole school in a line dance of "Cotton-Eyed Joe". 
(Where's WaldoLucy?)

Lucy and her friend, Elisha

Friday Night Lights

That evening, we hung out at our friends' house (Shawn and Rodney) for our weekly "Wine in the Park", which during winter turned into "Wine in the Living Room."

 Noah the Rock Star

 Noah explores his (possible) Swedish roots with Johanna.

Lucy recreates some of her Star Show performance for those who missed it.

(What happened to my chubby baby?!)

Lucy Rides a Bike

Around this time, Lucy decided she was ready to try biking without training wheels.   Our resident cyclist took her out to the parking area of our compound.  (Our house is in a collection of five houses with a shared driveway, and a lot of dogs.)

 She's ready to start biking with G'ma Judy!
(Watch this short clip on YouTube.)

The Safari speeds onward.  xo,

Glenn

Climb On, Eat Up, Rock Out

Hi, all,

Noah and I hang out together on Fridays, and in May, we started going to this South African thing called Clamber Club.  It was started by an occupational therapist in Johannesburg in the early '90s for kids with special needs and has since expanded into a sensory and motor-skills program for toddlers with franchises around the country.  (Read more.)  Like a lot of South African businesses, the one we go to is in a room added on to the side of someone's house.  My favorite part is that it's all local people -- I'm the only foreigner.  (Well, I recruited my friend Roel, from Holland, but his daughter now goes to "creche" (daycare) so it's back to just me.)   We do exercises and songs with the kids, then they play outside on various obstacle courses, and (the kicker!), it ends with tea and biscuits (cookies).  Picture me and the South African moms catching up over cups of Roobios, talking about where to get the best fish.

Each week is a theme.  This week was a special one... Carnival!
(The teacher doesn't usually dress up. Noah wanted that horn big time.)

Noah grabbed someone's keys and is off and running. 
("Noah, we could play with keys at home. Look at the [damn] clown!")
 

The backyard has different obstacle courses each week.  Even though Noah climbs everything at home (see Noah Climbs %^$&# Everything), he's still fairly tentative on these. 

 

Noah hangs out in the ball tower.

Busy guy.

 Tea time!  Noah focuses on the task at hand.

South African Cowboy

(He could have sat on that thing all day.)

Eat up!

One Sunday afternoon, our friends Dafydd and Renaud (who have since moved back to the States... such is the ex-pat life, but it's sad to see folks go) had us all over for lunch.  

 At one point, I came back out to the patio to find just Noah and Kovas still at the table.   

They had polished off a bottle of Pinot Grigio and were discussing rugby.

Sibs, hanging out back at the ranch.

Rock on!

Another weekend in May we decided to explore the Pretoria Botanical Gardens. (We needed to report back to Uncle Josh.)   Lo and behold, they were holding an afternoon concert.   Noah rocked out.

What kind of music?  Here's a 40 second video clip.  (Watch for Noah at the end.)

 

Click to watch the clip on YouTube

Noah takes a breather and enjoys some of Adam's ice cream. 

 The kids jump around at a play area in the back. 

 Wrestle Fest.  I forgot that Lucy managed to find the face-painting booth. (Never misses it!)

Everything but The (other) Dad.

We had a good time at the show and then walked around the gardens for a bit (A "Garden Safari"!) before heading home.  Happy Monday.  xo,

Glenn

Oh, it's you again!

Hey all,

Voice of Africa, here.  I kind of fell off the Blog wagon ("Blagon," Tozer?), but am ready to hop back on. We had a great visit to the States... loved seeing everyone, sad we missed seeing the rest of you, craving Mexican food as I type this.  Now we're back in South Africa, recovered from a few fun bouts of flu, and feeling ready for spring.

Running with the Zebras
In May, Adam was off for a SA public holiday, but Lucy had school, so the boyz headed out to explore.  Our friend, Daffyd, recommended the Tswaing Crater, which is about 20 minutes outside of Pretoria.  

 The day started so promising...

Signs told us the meteorite hit the ground here a zillion years ago (the Pleistocene era?!).  Tswaing is a Tswana word (the primary local language in this area) and means "Place of Salt". 

 Apparently this could be a future World Cup site.

Run, don't walk
What made this hike one I won't forget is what we noticed when we pulled into the parking lot.  Mosquitoes!   We had been amazed that Pretoria really had very few, which is great because our windows lack screens.  But there must be something about the salty crater water (well, it is free-standing...) because the place was literally TEEMING with mosquitoes.  The morning was cool so thankfully I had put Noah in long pants and shirt and the same for me, but Dr Hiker insisted on shorts.  We had no idea so had no bug spray.  I've camped in northern Ontario in August so I know mosquitoes and this was beyond the pale (skin of a relocated American).  I was ready to turn home, but Adam convinced me they wouldn't get us if we kept moving.  (Ha! Show me the literature, Mr. Epi.)  Move we did.  We literally jogged the whole trail, swatting as we went. (Apparently the mosquitoes are not always this bad at the crater but I promise you we can skip this part when you come.)  

 I somehow managed to get my camera out while running and snapped this pic. 
It doesn't convey the pace; we were really flying.

What about the zebras?  
The trail descended down to the crater, circled around it and then headed back up.  After we completed that part, we thought the worst was behind us and slowed down as we followed a different trail back to the parking log.  We spotted a few monkeys near some ruins and then came out to a field, where the mosquitoes had opened up a satellite office and were flying in full force.  Enough was enough.  We literally started running as fast as we could, with Little Noah bouncing up and down on Ad's back.  But the signs weren't well marked and we ended up in the middle of the bush.  After coming up over a small hill, we came upon a herd of zebras.  They looked at us. We looked at them. But the mosquitoes were after us and we kept running. I swear the zebras were laughing.  Finally we made it to a dirt road, which we recognized and eventually took us back to our car.  Adam's forehead was bloody from bites.  Somehow Noah managed to not have too many, and probably thought the whole thing was fun.  We flung ourselves into the car and zoomed away. It was quite beautiful, the blur I saw of it, but not something we need to repeat (unless G'ma Judy insists).

A different kind of bite
Away from the bog, we treated ourselves to lunch at a cute, if a bit "Afrikaaner Ladies Who Lunch" place that people recommended, call Isabella's.

 Noah wanted to recreate the hike by circling the patio furniture as fast as he could.

A neighboring table offered to take our picture.  Apparently I was (demonically) happy to be free of mosquitoes and to be eating at a place which served sparking water in wine glasses.

Adam's forehead healed quickly. Lucy had fun at school. And I really should stick a bottle of OFF in the"boot" of the car.

The safari is back. Thanks for sticking with.  xo,
Glenn