five!

Dylan has been waiting for this day for over a month now. He has been planning his 5th birthday party and giving us request lists since the day after Christmas. Everything to do with Cars, all Lego and all Playmobil was what it pretty much boiled down to. He wasn't disappointed!

the birthday boy opening presents, early, on Sunday morning

 

I'm 5!

come on Papa!

Travis lends a helping hand at Dylan's party

admiring himself in his new fireman suit

Cars race track

Dylan still gets shy when everyone sings for him but when it came to blowing out the candles...

he forgot about being the centre of attention and huffed and puffed!

and then the eating of course!

yum!

the pool

The pool was another highlight of the holiday and the boys were in and out all day.

Diving!?

Jumping

Playing with Grandpa

and with Papa

Making tea

Swimming, all on his own, across the pool!

Relaxing

Pushing Pam in the water,

that was funny!

Examining the local wildlife...

Drying off

Smile!

Christmas morning

Presents, family, smiles, Christmas carols, chocolate and sunshine! What's not to like!?

monkey business

After every busy, fun-filled holiday I find it very difficult to sort through the hundreds of holiday photos, to choose just a few, then to sort them into separate posts and then to decide in what order to post them... This time around it was easy to decide where to start. Besides playing, swimming and getting totally spoilt, we also visited Bambelela. It's a Vervet monkey rehabilitation and conservation farm a couple of hours north of Jozi.  Here the boys got to interact with the monkeys and they absolutely loved it!

They are as inquisitive as little children and come and check you out, look in your pockets, take your glasses, pull your hair, examine your watch etc.

Cuddle me!

Hanging out

The monkeys LOVED Travis's tummy and he got his belly button tickled and licked by all of them! He loved the attention so kept pulling up his shirt to encourage them...

They were also raising a baby warthog,

and have a resident Kudu called 'Sissy',

who likes to make herself at home.

Sissy kindly left us a present one morning,

which was promptly carried away by this helpfull fellow.

We braaied (a lot),

and so did the monkeys!

The peacocks were an absolute pain because they make an awful noise ALL night!

There was time for football,

and zebra watching

and we even fitted in a visit to the nearby crocodile farm.