We'd no sooner arrived home from our Botswana/Zimbabwe adventure, when we were invited to meet my cousin and his family at Cape Agulhas for a weekend. Believe it or not, it was our first ever trip to the Southern most tip of Africa. It's only 2 1/2 hours away from home, which felt like such a short drive after our long-distance driving in Bots/Zim.
We did a little self-guided tour of the lighthouse - it's surprisingly steep going up...
It was worth the climb - here's Jake with my cousin, Glenn and his 3 lovely kids - Aidan at the back, Emma in the middle and little Julia in the front. What a lovely family and it was so good for us to have some time to enjoy being with them...
Oh gosh, this kid melts his mother's heart. I have so much love for him...
Our group outside the entrance to the lighthouse...
From the lighthouse, it's quite a walk down to the actual point, but what an awesome feeling...
Jake with his second cousins...
And Jake and me...
Boys will be boys - exploring the nearby rock pools...
There's a beautiful sculpture of the African continent at the point too. It's built to scale and it was loads of fun exploring and looking for landmarks. Jake's pointing out the Okavango Delta here...
And here he's got his finger in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. It's high on our future holiday list...
The walkway is nicely laid out and well maintained. Plus, there's some wildlife and you might be lucky (like us) to see something special...
A sweet little buck who really wasn't bothered by us at all...
Before we headed home, we went down to the beach - I think Jake was wishing he'd packed his fishing rod...
What a stunning beach and it was so quiet. The water was also much warmer than what we are used to in Cape Town...
Jake, Julia and Emma. Emma is 2 months older than Jake...
In other news, we celebrated Jake's 14th birthday in May as well. We did a combined birthday/mother's day braai at my in-laws. Jake adores being with Abi (lighting candles with her dad) and Becky...
They really fuss over him and make him feel very special...
Hahaha - sharing a laugh because Becky burned her fingers on the candle wax...
Jake has always looked so tiny next to Abi and Becky, but he's catching them quickly these days. He's quite a bit taller than me now too. I must show off a little about these beautiful girls too. We don't see enough of them, but we are super proud of their hard work and dedication to their swimming. Both girls have been chosen to represent South Africa at the Fina World Junior Open Water Champs in Israel later this year. Becky has also been chosen to go to Monaco and Venice next week, where she'll complete in 2 international galas and participate in a training camp. What superstars, we can't wait to see how they do and hope that they have an absolutely amazing experience...
Jake and his granny...
Finally, blowing out the candles - one girlfriend! Must be me...
On his birthday, Gareth, Rosie and Rylee popped in for a quick supper. It's so difficult having a birthday in the middle of the week, just before exams, so neither of us really did much. Jake's making sure that Rylee doesn't blow his candles out...
One girlfriend again! Whoo-hoo, I'm a lucky mom!!
Jake did let Rylee blow out the last candle...
I love this pic - they're so sweet together...
Next up was Bi's party. Jo always makes it special. They did have a mini cake disaster - the one she'd ordered for the party collapsed overnight and they had to get another one made up at the last minute...
It was really pretty...
Some of the yummy snacks...
The full food table...
And pretty flowers and party bags...
This year, they had a fairy house-building party at a local nursery. Each child could chose a house to decorate...
Houses designed by the organisers...
Stinky looked so pretty in her beautiful birthday dress...
She chose a pink house to decorate...
Our big girl - 7!! She's half way to Jake's age...
The boys also got to build a pixie house. It was lots of fun and their houses were so different to the girls pretty houses. Here's Rylee hard at work...
Even Jake made one - what a good sport...
Connor too...
All the little girls hard at work...
Jake's selection of decorations...
Bi enjoying being the lady of the moment...
I love how creative the kids were. Every house was so different...
The concentration...
My mom and dad were there to enjoy the morning with all their grandchildren too. They've had a tough couple of weeks with my dad's health again. He landed up in hospital after getting cellulitis in the soft tissue in his left foot. He's had a sore on his big toe from about September that just hasn't wanted to heal and he's had problems with sore feet due to poor circulation for a while. He's had stents put in both legs to help with circulation, but the toe still wouldn't heal. He has since had his big toe amputated and the wound seems to be healing well. For the last week, mom and I have been dressing the wound and running up and down, because he's had to keep his foot up all the time...
Bi with her finished fairy house...
Long after the girls were done, the boys were still putting finishing touches on their pixie houses...
Rylee had such a wonderful time...
This photo pretty much sums Bi up. She's a little bit crazy, a little bit silly, but loves with her whole heart and is so kind and caring. I love sharing my birthday with her and I think that we have a very special bond. She's a real treasure to us all and as the only little girl in the family, very spoiled. She has her dad totally wrapped around his little finger. She calls me her twinnie, although her favourite colour is pink and mine is yellow - she always makes a special effort to include both colours when we're together. We have matching crystal necklaces that we usually wear when we know we're going to see each other. I love her so much and I love watching her grow into a little lady (not such a lady, but you know what I mean)...
Oh and I didn't mention that she loves the stage. She recently performed a violin solo in assembly and included the most amazing bow at the end. She loves her ballet too...
Time for candles and singing...
All the pretty girls...
The boys houses - quite impressive, I think...
At the end of last year, Jake's Junior Rangers came to an end. The program sadly ran out of funding. The organiser has subsequently resigned from the national park and has started up a new program, called Cape Town Rangers. The meetings are usually held at Cape Point National Park and parents have to get the kids through. We also pay a small quarterly fee for the lessons. Also, we're allowed to stay and join in the program, which is great. We did a little hike 10 days ago on a beautiful Saturday morning - what a beautiful view...
The kids were exploring a recently burnt area and the new growth, as well as erosion from the rain, it was very interesting...
Very disorganised me - this is us at our picnic stop, without any food.... whoops, better preparation next time. Thankfully Jake wasn't hungry and I did have a naartjie for him. And someone gave him some water. Whoops. I love this t-shirt that Jake was given at a friend's party...
Besides that, the last 4 weeks have seen me trying to get fit. I've signed up for a 40 day boot camp challenge at Jake's school. It's so unbelievably tough, but I can't believe the change to my energy levels or my fitness. We meet every evening Monday to Friday from 6 - 7pm for a serious work out. I am loving it.
And that's about it from us. We're starting to look forward to our Kruger holiday next month!!
Sending love,
Sue xxx
