Farewell South Africa

This will be my last Blog posting from South Africa. We are in preparations to return back to North America, and will be leaving our house tomorrow, leaving Durban for Cape Town on Nov. 27, and leaving Cape Town for Toronto and our holiday travels on Dec. 1. We will post more photos of South Africa though before we're finished with this site ... particularly of Cape Town. We have had the most amazing experience here ... there is so much to say about it, but I'm too tired at the moment from packing all day to even try to put anything sensible into words.

On Saturday, our friends threw us an amazing farewell party (at our house), which included all sorts of festivities ... swimming, rugby watching (go Springboks!), and a Christmas gift exchange. As you can see from the photos above, we all had such a great time, especially the kids. We are really going to miss these friends, but we're hoping to have lots of visits from them in the future!

Mitchell Park

We had a lovely outing this morning with our friends the Elsners (Martin, Lisa, Hannah, Olivia and Christian) at Mitchell park. It's an old, established local park featuring a small zoo, beautiful gardens, a tea garden and a playground.

Safari Day Two

Most of these photos were taken during the morning guided drive I (Judy) took. It was well worth it to start out at 5 am ... especially to see the lions! We observed the male and female lion during their mating ritual -- very interesting!

Safari Day One

The boys were such troopers as we drove around the Hluhluwe-uMfolozi game reserve all day looking for animals. James has discovered a new talent ... taking photographs. He wanted to do it all weekend long!

Hilltop Camp

We just had to see animals one more time before returning to North America, so we spent the weekend at Hilltop Camp in the Hluhluwe-uMfolozi Game Park. These are a few scenes from the camp.

Halloween in South Africa?

Although they don't officially celebrate Halloween in South Africa, we got together for a little Halloween party with some superhero friends from school. We made cupcakes and pizzas and carved pumpkins ... okay so it isn't exactly pumpkin season right now which would explain the greem pumpkins!

Andrew's Batman Costume

Andrew loves his batman costume so much, that he wants to wear it almost every day after school. He never wants to part with it ... not even for washing, so he has devised a clever way to keep an eye on his costume in the wash. Sindi gets a big kick out of this morning ritual with Andrew!

Reunion with the Vats

We met up with long-time friends Nick and Laura Vat and their new baby boy, Hilton on Sunday. The Vats live in London, but are here visiting on holiday. It was our first opportunity to see them since our wedding 7 years ago. We enjoyed a beautiful brunch and a few hours of visiting. Thanks Nick and Laura for a lovely afternoon! We hope it won't be another 7 years before we see you again!

Happy Birthday Sindi!

We celebrated Sindi's birthday on Saturday. Our friend Melissa (also Sindi's employer) and her boys Kirin and Cole helped out and joined in on the festivities. After lunch and cake, Sindi and her friends and family entertained us with beautiful singing!

Fresh Haircuts

The boys visited the barber for the first time and loved it! No more Mommy haircuts ... yea!

Happy Birthday Mark!

Celebrating Mark's birthday with family and friends.

Umgeni River Bird Park

We visited the Umgeni River Bird Park in Durban this weekend. They have hundreds of different species of birds from all over the world. Africa has its share of exotic birds, but South America has by far the most colorful specimens! James' favorite is the Toucan with it's long bright orange beak.

Superman and Batman

School Chums

These are some of James' and Andrew's school buddies. Andrew is pictured with his classmate Epilahle. James is stringing beads with classmate Ethan, and posing with classmate Fumika. James and Andrew are pictured with their good friend Sbu at McDonald's.