wildflowers

This weekend we ventured out of the city to Darling to catch a glimpse of the wildflowers. We packed a picnic and hoped for a leisurely afternoon in the sun. We didn't quite get that. The flowers were great, but it was BUGGY. A zillion little gnat-like things swarmed us immediately. It was a race to see if we could finish our sandwiches without ingesting a dozen or more of the little suckers. So no lingering among the flowers, but they were lovely to spend a bit of time (and as a consolation prize we went to Groote Post for a wine tasting).

In fashion news, I have two items to report:
1. My darlingest niece is now borrowing my clothes. She only needs about another ten years to fit into them.

2. We babysat our favorite neighbor's super wonderful little girl Juno. We dressed her up like a Mexican. It was awesome.

Hannah turns one

Our wonderful little niece, and my peach of a goddaughter, turned one on the 14th. It has been so special to be around her for the last year and watch her grow from a baby into a running, laughing, smiling little girl.

Hannah's birthday cake was a collaborative family effort and turned out fantastic and mighty delicious.

Hannah definitely agrees with the "delicious" part!

the Northern Hemisphere trip

** Sorry for the technical difficulties- YouTube didn't approve of my original musical accompaniment. It should work now!**

We got back from our epic Northern Hemisphere whirlwind trip about a week and a half ago and we are still glowing from all the fun...and finally not jet-lagged. I had just over three weeks of family time, friend time, birthday time (hello 30!) and treat time with some favorite American delicacies (hush puppies! Carolina BBQ! Reese's peanut butter cups! bagels!). Big B was gone a bit longer what with his trip to Brown University (a total success by the way). Our return wasn't the smoothest- more in a later post- but it is great to back home in Cape Town, enjoying the beautiful weather, catching up with friends and family, and setting our sights on spring.

There was just too much goodness to share conventional blog style so instead here is the under four minute highlight reel! Enjoy!!

birthday party

Our friends Trevor and Jahro have been in Cape Town for the last ten days. You might remember them from the post that went up after we visited them in Canada before our move. Jahro turned three on Tuesday, so we decided to make full use of the election day holiday and throw him a birthday bash. The birthday boy has a beloved hedgehog toy (aptly named Hedgie) so I decided to make him a Hedgie cake.

Hegdie was a delicious almond cake with chocolate frosting and almond sliver spines. Jahro rocked up in a clown suit ready to party with Hedgie.

"Happy birthday" was sung, a wish was made, candles were blown out.

Then it was chow time. Jahro wanted the head. Later he came back to eat Hedgie's bum.

I think he liked it. 

For his birthday, Brendan and I gave Jahro a real South African vuvuzela. People who don't have kids can do such things and vaguely get away with it. We'll see if Trevor and Dale are still on speaking terms with us in a month. 

Happy Birthday Jahro!

Hannahcakes

Our nephews and niece are just the cutest (not that we're biased or anything)! Hannah, or Hannahcakes as I like to call her, is full of smiles and gearing up to crawl. She'll be doing laps around us by the time we return from Nepal.

Friday movies

*sorry for the glitch with the movies- should be all better now!*

It has been a great week! Write Our Future is off the ground and doing well. As of last night we have raised funds to feed 12 schoolchildren for the year, and we trust that that this achievement will only multiply further. Thanks to everyone for their support. To keep up with our progress, go to our website (www.writeourfuture.org). From there you can click to follow us on Facebook and receive email updates- two more great ways to stay connected!

Since it is Friday and since we are off to the movies tonight, I wanted to share a couple of home videos with you. The first is from my family's visit to Cape Town. On New Years Eve we had dinner at an awesome restaurant at Spier wine estate called Moyo. We sat in a treetop table and enjoyed all the fun entertainment...some of us more than others as evidenced by this video.

The other is of our super nephew James having a bit of fun by the pool with Brendan. This might just have to make another appearance with the little fella turns 21!

We are off to see Black Swan tonight. There is a significant delay in the release of movies here as compared to the US, so I hope we can at least get most of the top contenders in before the Oscars roll around. We saw Winter's Bone (good, albeit depressing) on Tuesday, and are off to see The King's Speech next Friday. Do you have any favorite Oscar contenders?

Write Our Future

Brendan and I are very excited to announce the launch of our social impact organization: Write Our Future. It is an organization currently working to support existing programs that provide educational opportunities to under-served children.

Our first outreach initiative is to support the Bulungula Incubator's school feeding program. This rural school feeds 600 children per day, but is in trouble now that the local government has suspended all funding in support of school feeding. Our goal is to raise the $8500 needed to feed 100 children for a year.

To learn more about Write Our Future and the Bulungula school feeding program, visit our website at: www.writeourfuture.org. Donations to support a child can be made directly on our website. To help us achieve this goal, please share the word with friends and family.

happy days

Four years ago today I went on a date with a really handsome guy I met on the first night of tango class. It was an icy sub-zero day in New Haven. We had Thai food. Later that evening we drank rooibos tea and I was introduced to Johnny Clegg. We saw each other the next day, and the next day, and the day after that. It was bliss then and it still is.


Our days of late have been very full and happy in other ways too. We've spent a few glorious days on the beach, my new favorite of which is Llandudno though we've spent a fair bit of time in Fish Hoek too.


We went for a sunset walk along Hout Bay beach, watching the mountain change colors and the clouds roll in.


Afterward we had a drink at a bar on the beach and watched the full moon rise. Our chairs were in the sand and we could kick our feet up and relax.


There has been loads of family time as well. We've had more time with this little cutie and his brother. I have a great video of James and Brendan that I will figure out how to post and get up here soon.



There was a gathering of all the M-B sibs, their partners, and their kiddies (I'm glad Ant & Kate have two so I could have someone to hold!).


And now we have B's cousin Kate and her husband James here. On Sunday we packed a picnic and parked off at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens for one of their summer concerts.



Sadly the Nepal training has been a bit back-burnered because of my broken toe. I think it is nearly better enough to start hiking and we will hopefully recommence soon. In the mean time, Brendan has been harassing me (I think he would say he is strongly encouraging me) to do wall squats to increase leg strength. I decided that I would do them when Parker did.


While his form leaves something to be desired, I guess this means I need to start doing wall squats. Dang.

a teaser

Keep watching this space, all you loyal readers. Brendan and I will have some exciting news to share about our social impact work within a week! We are nearly ready to launch and we hope that all of you will get involved in our debut project.

cuties

Not only were we lucky enough to have my entire family here for the holidays, but Ant, Kate, James & Matt also came to Cape Town for a visit. We were thrilled to get quite a bit of catch up time with them. It was particularly fantastic to see our newest nephew Matt again. He was only 7 weeks old when we first met, and was largely sleeping/feeding/pooping in those fresh-out-of-the-oven days. Now he is a proper little boy full of smiles and hugs (although he is still known to sleep, eat, and poop).

We went out for milkshakes on one of the swelteringly hot days last week and James seemed to particularly enjoy his.

On another of the hot evenings during last week's heat wave we took a picnic dinner to Camps Bay beach. It was our first sunset on the beach for 2011 and it was lovely. Matt had a particularly good time with his carob rice cake.

Can you handle the cuteness? I can't. I love these boys.

santa's shoebox project

Whether you buy Funny Money or The Big Issue from a roadside vendor, volunteer time at one of the city's innumerable non-profits, buy crafts that come from a social upliftment program, or donate goods or services to said non-profits, there are a multitude of ways to get involved in helping others in Cape Town. I love this daily push to be a more aware, more thoughtful, more kind human being.

Halloween isn't the huge hoo-ha here that it is in the States, and Thanksgiving doesn't exist, so we are zeroing in on the December holidays. This means charities are focusing on the festive season as well. A few weeks back I was invited to participate in the Santa's Shoebox Project. Individuals sign up to prepare a Christmas gift for a disadvantaged child. Upon receiving his/her name, age, and gender, you prepare an appropriate gift for a child who might not otherwise receive anything. Gifts are packaged in shoeboxes, with the top and bottom separately wrapped so that the child can keep it as a treasure box, while also minimizing the amount of waste paper created. Boxes are to include a toy, something educational, something for hygiene, an article of clothing, and something to eat. The organization has grown from delivering 180 shoeboxes in 2006 to 160,000 in 2009. It now operates throughout South Africa, as well as in Namibia and Botswana.

Brendan and I did two boxes, each for a four year old boy living in Khayelitsha (the fastest growing township in South Africa on the outskirts of Cape Town; for more information click here).

To read more about the Santa's Shoebox Project check out their website. For information about donations, email donation@santashoebox.co.za. I suspect you might just enjoy your holiday a little more knowing that you made it very special for a child in need.

african shirts

Before Bluebell came into my life and freed me to roam the streets of Cape Town, I spent some of my free time making shirts of a whole bunch of people I love. Spoiler alert for my aunt Cathi: don't show this to the kiddos because their shirts are still en route.

I made one for Brendan

One for Hannah

One for Wyatt and one for Cassidy (in their favorite color schemes)

And a matching set for each of my favorite little meerkittens, James and Matthew

I also made one ages ago for my cousin Nolan, but I forget to get a picture of it...doh!

They are made using this stuff called fusible webbing, which crafty people like my friend Krissy use for making appliques and the like. It irons on for a permanent transfer and is machine washable and dry-able. I am clearly embracing my new homeland, at least when it comes to attire!

lately

Here's a smattering of what we've been up to lately. I must admit that I've forgotten my camera (gasp!) or forgotten to take pictures (double gasp!) of many things. The moral of this story: our life is even more fun than these pictures convey.

Last week I developed a new obsession- Miya's sushi restaurant in New Haven. I had lunch there with two of my nearly-former Peer Health Educators and it has changed my life (mostly because now I want to eat there every day).

I look weird in this picture because I'm trying to hug two people who are a little too far away from me. But they look great. 

Miya's will get its own post later this week. I am also considering going back for some additional research. 

Last week also brought an abundance of pie, which is never a bad thing. My lovely co-workers held a little going away gathering for me feature 6 varieties of my favorite food group.

Naturally, I needed to eat a slice of each.

I have been lucky enough to work with some of the most intelligent, inspiring, fun, fabulous people for the last nearly-four years at Yale. This Thursday (my last day) is going to be a toughie. 

And then, because six pieces of pie on a Friday isn't enough of a treat, we went to Miya's for dinner. Swoon.

We spent Saturday with our friends Krissy and Tim and their ridiculously cute girls. 

Krissy made me the *MOST* lovely apron as a going away gift. It's made of this soft flannel, has corset-style lacing in the back, a tea cup applique on the pocket, and the daintiest ruffles around the edges. I adore it so much, and now am even further convinced that she needs to hurry up and start a business so I can buy every last thing she puts her needle to.

Krissy also makes really cute children, but she won't be selling them in her shop. 

Ella and I played outside for a bit while the food was grilling. 

We had some great salads with our meal. I made a mango slaw and Tim made an orzo salad with sultanas and pine nuts. I'm going to strong arm him into giving me the recipe. 

After sups there was birthday cake for the Krissy. Happy summery times.

In more recent news:

As part of the never-ending stream of work to be done so I can be employed in South Africa, I found out this morning that I needed a full criminal record check and to be fingerprinted. Thankfully I had a friend in the Yale Police Department who could help me out. Now if only I had a friend who really like completing paperwork...