October 2012

Well, October in South Africa is a bit different than October in America. First of all, there are no fall leaves. It is actually spring here now and the Jacarandas are blooming in radiant PURPLE. You will also not find any pumpkin patches here. In fact, orange pumpkins are very uncommon here. They generally grow white pumpkins. So we have learned to improvise and painted ours just as we did last year. This year we actually lucked out and found some orange "Halloween" pumpkins to carve at Woolworths. Unfortunately, they rotten to the ground and were infested with fruit flies within four days due to the heat. Halloween is not a holiday in South Africa, but luckily with so many Americans where we live I believe we have started a trend.Our estate did do a Trick or Treating night and we noticed a BIG increase versus last year. Us Americans also held our own "Trunk or Treat", which is an excellent way to celebrate. We all had a great time decorating our cars and getting into the Halloween spirit. So just as always, we are just trying to make best out of what we have :)

Puppy!

Well, we have been discussing getting a new dog for months now and just couldn't seem to make up our minds on what breed to get. We have been calling, emailing and visiting pet places around every weekend. Then this morning, I took the girls out to have a look and we met this little guy and just could not leave without him! He is a Yellow Lab, 7 weeks old and our first dog that we have bought as a family! We couldn't be more excited! Now if we can all just agree on a name :)

South Africa's New Notes

This week South Africa has issued the new notes (money) for the country. The notes use to have pictures of animals, particularly the "Big 5" game on them. They have now been replaced with Nelson Madela's photo and here are some samples of the old & new. The new notes still have animals on the back.

Tiger of the Week

Congratulations to our Gianna, who was chosen as "Tiger of the Week" today at school! We are two very proud parents!!!

Welcome to our New Family Blog

Welcome to our family blog. We will try and use this blog to keep our family and friends updated on our adventures over here in Africa.

Hopefully this will make it easier than Facebook ;)

Groenkloof Game and Nature Reserve, South Africa

This is one of favorite places to spend a weekend afternoon. This reserve has hiking, biking and 4x4 trails. Along with braii facilities and horseback riding. We usually make a day of it and pack for an all day picnic and braii. We go biking on the MTB trails along with giraffes and zebras, which is so cool! This is a great place to take the kids to get dirty and have fun! There is also, from what I hear and amazing restaurant next door called Moyo, which we have yet to visit. These photos are from our American Labor Day celebration at Groenkloof.

 

 

 Braiing home made Italian sausage, YUM!

 dirty face = fun time

 Home made Italian sausage and pasta salad.

 playing in the creek

 

 frog hunting

 FOUND ONE!

 

 time for a bike ride

 Elin

 feeding the horses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 zebra spotting

 

 

 There is a giraffe behind us.

 

 What a fun day...

A great day that ends with another beautiful African sunset!

SNOW IN SOUTH AFRICA!

Apparently this is the first time it has snowed in Pretoria in thirty years. I could not believe my eyes when I looked outside and saw it. We moved here thinking that snow is something we would never see. The girls were so excited and it was very to cool to see the people here pulling over their cars and hopping out to take photos of the flurries. Most of them have never seen snow. They got a lot more in Joburg than Pretoria and people were dumbfounded by it.

 Of course as soon as we see snow, we light a fire and make hot cocoa.