Christmas 2012

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Emma and Dylan really start to understand all about Christmas. They have learnt a lot about baby Jesus and now know exactly who Marry and Joseph are. They were very good and never opened any of the Christmas presents that were under the tree.

On Christmas Eve they were keen to unwrap their presents and played with them very nicely.

On Christmas day I cooked the usual Christmas lunch of Fillet with Klöße (Thanks to Feli again for the recipe).

Dylan took some pictures with the LeapPad that he got for Christmas. I have included in them in the pictures.

As you can see from the pictures we were all spoilt rotten.

Click here for more pictures

Videos from Christmas:

Emma and Dylan helping to decorate the Christmas tree

Dylan and Emma opening their gifts

Dylan drawing on his Whiteboard he got from Udette.

Holiday fun: kids on rides

The kids finally finished their year at school. They have been on holiday since the 7 December. This has allowed them plenty of time to recover from all the school runny noses and the like. Initially they missed their class mates from school. We have had a busy holiday since I went on leave. We have been out with the kids most mornings apart from the days that we had to catch up on house chores.

While a year ago the kids were scared of rides that moved, they are now very eager riders and hence the collection of videos here of the various rides they have been on in the last week.

 

Emma and Dylan riding on the bugs in the Dora play area created for Christmas at Sandton City: (best in HD 720p or 1080p)

 

Emma on the swing at the Monte Casino Bird Park. She loved the flamingos.

 

Emma and Dylan riding on a helicopter at a play area known as Serendipity.

 

Emma and Dylan riding on the mini carousel at Cresta’s ride on play area for Christmas.

The kids first School Play

After many weeks of practice the big day arrived last week Tuesday that the kids finally got to be in their school play. The hall was full and everyone was very eager to see the play.
Mary and Joseph where played by older kids in a bigger class. There are three classes in Emma and Dylan’s grade 0000. The other two classes got to perform first.
Emma, who was a Village girl, got to perform first when the Village girls, got up on stage and danced for the first song. Then Dylan,who was one of three camels, came on stage together with the three wise men. They all then performed their rendition of “Alice the camel” (look at the Video). In the Video you will see that Dylan stood dead still for the whole song and refused to sing. This despite the fact that both Emma and Dylan practised this song many times in the bath and at home. They new it backwards. Dylan also refused to do his moves. That is just how he is. Emma did sing a bit and got more into it as the song went on. Then they went off the stage and then all the kids came back onto the stage together.
We were sitting on the side of the audience in the front row. Dylan only saw us when he came onto the stage for the second time. He was a lot happier when he knew where we were.
We left after having a couple of snacks as very proud parents. All the kids in the concert did really well and nobody cried or made a fuss. The school and some of the mothers really put in a huge effort to decorate the stage and dress the children. After that we collected the kids and they got to go home early.
See Pictures from the Concert

Alice the camel

Emma on stage:

Dylan the camel on stage:

Emma and Dylan go to a party

The last term of the year is in full swing. The kids have already both been sick once, but are both better again. Uncle Wolfi came to visit and we went for a nice ride on the Gautrain from Johannesburg Park Station to Hatfield.
Today the kids went to one of their class mates party. It was mainly a girls party but Dylan was also invited. They really enjoyed themselves.
See more pictures
Emma at the party:

Dylan and Emma on the Seesaw:

Family reunion in Siegen 2012

We finally made it to make our first trip to Europe with the kids. The flight over went remarkably well. We ate dinner at the airport and then climbed onto our plane. We had the four middle seats. Dylan slept quite well on my lap. Emma unfortunately as she put it “could not find peace” and was up most of the night and so was Mommy as a result.

The next morning we set off to Müssen where we stayed in lovely A-frame log cabin in the forest. We met up with Wolfi at the log cabin and later Emma and Dylan finally got to meet Omi and Opi for the first time. After lunch we all needed a good nap to recovery from the long journey.

The next day we went to visit Omi and Opi at their apartment. In the evening we all got together at Wolfi’s place where the kids got to see the new rabbits. Emma and Jenny played together very nicely and Dylan loved playing with Jenny’s Playmobil Jeep and horse box.

The next day Feli, Tom, Melody and Olivia arrived from America. Later in the afternoon Deya arrived on his train from Berlin. Feli and family stayed in a log cabin near ours in the forest, so we all got together at her cabin for a bit of dinner.

The next day we all headed off to the Kindelsberg Rasthaus, in the forest near the log cabins, for lunch. Emma played nicely again with her cousins. In the afternoon Gunter and Heidrun came round to Feli’s cabin and we all got together there. In the evening we all went out for Pizza in Siegen. Dylan fell asleep before his pizza arrived.

The next day was the big reunion Sunday lunch. It was at the Keller restaurant. We had a whole area of the restaurant to ourselves. The restaurant while it didn’t have a play area, had a box of toys that kept Emma and Dylan amused for the entire lunch. Everyone was there and we all had a great time. That evening we got together at Wolfi’s place.

The next day we went with Feli and family and Omi and Opi and Deya to IKEA. The kids had a wail of time playing there. We went for lunch afterwards at IKEA which the kids also enjoyed. In the evening we went to the restaurant at Stahlberg Hotel, where Deya was staying to say farewell to Feli and Family.

The next day Emma was sick so she stayed home with Mommy. Dylan and Deya and I went shopping with Omi and Opi for their weekly shopping. After that we went to the Nordsee fish restaurant. We had wanted to go to Wolfi’s in the evening but Emma was too sick so we stayed home.

Then it was time to pack and get ready for the long trip home. We still had a farewell lunch with Omi and Opi at Schneider’s restaurant again and then we set off.

We just got outside of Siegen when we got stuck in a massive traffic jam on the highway. Turned out the highway was closed so we were stuck. The kids were initially sleeping in the car but when we didn’t move for a long time they woke up and were very upset that we couldn’t drive. Eventually we got off the highway and had to struggle on through the country roads that were overloaded with all the traffic. We phoned SAA who told us that we had missed the flight. We were therefore on our way to the airport to find out when it was that we could fly. We eventually arrived at the airport 1 hour before the departure of our flight. I parked the car in the normal parking since we were sure we weren’t going to fly. At the check-in counter, however, they told us that we could still make the flight. This was great news but we were ill prepared for this. I had to run back and forth to the car 3 times to get all the suitcases to the check-in counter. Then I had to make a plan with car rental as there was not enough time to get the car back to the car rental returns. I had to run to Avis who were on the other end of the airport. They grudgingly allowed me to give them the key and the parking ticket to get the car themselves. Then it was onto the security check-in. That went well as we were allowed to use the business class security check-in. We had no trouble with the passport control either. However the “run” to gate was too much for Emma. She was very tired and still sick. She said she could not run anymore so we had to slow down. She screamed at the top of her lungs. Eventually we made it to the gate. They were waiting for us, the last passengers to board. We made it in the nick of time. Just after we got on the plane it pulled off, perfectly on time. Emma was still beside herself and continued to scream. I convinced the stewardesses to make Emma some warm milk and peace was finally restored just before we took off. It was an ordeal we don’t want to repeat.

At home everything is back to normal. Sadly both Emma and Dylan are sick. Emma has now been diagnosed with acute sinusitis and needs to go into hospital next week Thursday to have her sinuses cleaned out under full aesthetic. Dylan has picked up a stomach bug and has been throwing up a bit and is running a high temperature.

We really enjoyed out trip to Germany.

More pictures from our trip to Germany

Videos:

Reunion lunch at the Keller, courtesy of Tom taken on his iPad

Kids playing at the log cabin

Kids playing at IKEA

Kids playing at Stahlberg hotel

Weekend in Lutzville

Due to Anina’s dad’s poor health we decided to go all the way to Lutzville for a long weekend. We left on the public holiday (Thursday) and came back on the Monday. The flight down was delayed, as it always is when we fly on holiday (the exact same flight that I fly regularly on business is never delayed when I travel on business). We stopped off for lunch at our usual Spur on the road trip from Cape Town to Lutzville. See the video below.

In Lutzville the weather was nice when we arrived, but extremely cold for the remainder of the weekend. It even hailed on the Saturday which is uncharacteristic for the desert and caused the farmers in the area some damage to their tunnels.

Anina’s Dad is suffering from severe depression and therefore goes through phases where is just fine and others where he cannot get out of bed.

On the Sunday the kids and I drove down to Strandfontein because they wanted to go to the sea. As you can see from the video, they had a great time and as it happened the weather at the sea was quite sunny but still very cold. The sea was extremely high and rough after all the storms.

The journey back was a little rough as the kids got cranky just before we got to the airport forcing us to stop for lunch at the Wimpy. After lunch we made it on time to the airport only to learn that our flight was over an hour late. I paid extra to have the whole family visit the business class lounge, so that we could recover. The flight home was uneventful and we got home safely.

See more pictures from the trip.

Videos:

Dylan on the slide at the Spur

Dylan and Emma on the swinging bench

Emma and Dylan playing in the sand

Kid’s are now 3

It’s been a long time since I got to the blog. With my back op, everything came to a stand still. My back is now much better and the kids Birthday and mine are becoming a distant memory.

So here are some recent pictures of the kids. There was Father’s day event at their school where all the over achieving Dad’s eagerly participated in the sports. Emma and Dylan only partook in those events that involved eating.

On Father’s day the kids and I took a ride on the Gautrain to the newly opened Park Station.

Sadly we had to say goodbye to our au pair Petra who went back to Germany. Emma and Dylan miss you.

Last Sunday we took a drive out near Magaliesburg to a Restaurant called the Goblin’s Cove. Emma was very keen so see fairies and they did have a couple. Dylan preferred the Goblins. He called them Goblims. We all had fun.

See pictures of the kids at 37 Months

Videos

Video of the kids on the Goblin’s cove sandpit/play area

Emma and Dylan playing in the play area. Dylan crawled through the tube.

Petra’s last day:

Kids ready for bed:

First Day at Play School

The big day came last week Wednesday. After much preparing and discussing, last week Wednesday was finally the first day at school. Emma was confident going into it but this is pretty normal for her. When she gets to doing the thing she is confident about she is always less sure. Dylan was pretty much petrified of his first day at school. He had decided a week before already that he didn’t want to go to school and that he didn’t need or want to meet any new friends. So he was very nervous.

Our kids were some of the last to join the class, since they started them off in a staggered fashion so that they didn’t have too many crying kids in one go. Well not long into their first day, Anina got the phone call from the school that she needed to collect Emma and Dylan at 10:00 as they were not settling down. So their first day at school was short. They are still on the short programme. Emma was more confident the second day. On the third day Dylan had already picked up a mighty cold and couldn’t go to school. He was pretty disappointed when Emma went and he had to stay home. Emma did very well on the third day and according to her she didn’t cry for the whole time that she was at school. She was pretty independent and did not have a concern about going to school by herself.

Emma already went to her first school Birthday party on Saturday. Only the girls in the class were invited. Dylan was very sad that he couldn’t go because Anina has taken the kids to that venue many times and Dylan loves the place. So does Emma. Emma had a wale of time.

More photos from the first day

Pictures before and on the first day at school: