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| For me the biggest milestone of the month was Maria's graduation from Hedgerows Preschool. Here is a picture of her first day (age 2) and her final day (age 4). In those two years she learned to talk, use the toilet, to be a friend and to be independent. We are grateful for the wonderful teachers there and will miss the little yellow school so much. |
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| One of Jagger's most focused hydro sessions- he kept his eyes on the rubber chicken the entire time! |
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| The start of advent calendar season. What fun they are! |
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| The first weekend of December we headed to Sun City with a few of Gio's friends to begin the celebration of his 9th birthday! |
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| Lounging while we waited to check in to our hotel. |
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| Hanging out in our room. Snacks in the bed allowed in hotels! |
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| Huge milkshakes after 8 hours at the water park. |
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| When you tell Maria it is her last day at the water park. Sorry I did not take any pictures but I was too busy on the slides or on the ropes course! |
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| Monday hydro. |
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| Maria made me a cake for my birthday! (well, I made it but she decorated it!!) |
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| Gio's homework assistant |
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| Gio and I share a birthday week (me Dec 4, Gio Dec 6). On his special day he had three furry boys helping to wake him up! |
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| Oscar supervising Maria at her swim lesson. She is very proud of her new jumping skills! |
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| Paolo returned from Swaziland just in time for Gio's birthday dinner (at Ed's Diner, of course!). |
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| Gio's hair has gotten quite out of control. I have kept with my promise to let him grow it from August until Christmas but it is killing me! |
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| One of our last morning drives to school, always with a bowl of cereal and Oscar in her lap. |
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| We have had a lot of rain this month in Pretoria and the dog park has brand new giant ponds which the boys thoroughly enjoy. That is Jagger in the middle of the water with Bruno on the shoreline. Oscar is busy chasing his new friend. |
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| The 7:00 bus is rough for Gio. We are trying all sorts of things to make it less of a fight. |
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| These two are inseparable. It is going to be hard on all of us (well, except for Pepper) when Oscar enters formal training but I think Bruno will be the hardest hit by his absence. |
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| Oscar and I did a visit to a retirement home with other Pretoria-based puppy raisers. The 3 Black Labs (from left: Oslo, Omo & Oscar) are litter-mates. Their mama Faith is the Yellow Lab on the left in the front! |
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Later that day Oscar, Maria & I visited Gio's class to bring birthday cupcakes and to read one of our all-time favorites- A Visitor for Bear! |
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| And the final day arrived. Dec 8th she walked out of Hedgerows for the final time. Jan 10th she will begin at Gio's school- AISJ! |
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| We have a well-loved tradition of having Gio's beloved friend Nico spend the night every year before his birthday party. Gio and Nico have been dear friends since they met each other at age 2 in Kyiv! |
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| 9th Birthday Party- Laser Tag at CryWolf in Irene! |
Gio and Maria having fun on a hot December day....
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| Gio's 3rd grade class. I love how you can see even in this picture that Nico and Gio are best buddies. |
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| Spent a day preparing enough royal icing for each 3rd grader for their class party. |
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| Making houses out of cookies and LOTS of goodies! |
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| Dec 14th and the sad drive to drop all of our animals off for the 3 week holiday. Bruno, Jagger, Salt & Pepper went to Menlyn Kennels. Oscar went to another puppy raiser in Centurion. Here he was just before I dropped him off. Going to miss them all so much! |
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| Once the animals were settled we headed to the airport for our night flight to Europe. Last chance for short-sleeves! |
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| Lounge time. Kids ate tons of pancakes from the very cool automatic pancake machine there. |
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| Off we went... |
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| ...and the next day made it to our house in Italy- coats dusted off and time for the trampoline in the rain! |
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| Last day with long hair. |
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| Gelato while Gio's is at Giovanni's (the barber!) |
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| The kids decorated the tree themselves! |
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| Shots from Oscar's holiday home. Clearly he is feeling relaxed! |
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| Uncle Andrew (my brother) arrived from San Fransisco! |
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| Leave it to Italy to have some rather amusing candy available in their shops! |
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| Dec 23rd was Oscar's 1st birthday! Bianca (his holiday home PR) baked him liver cupcakes and gave him lots of love! |
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| A walk up to Lake Ventasso to play in the snow. |
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| Santa made an appearance! |
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| Santa did a great job but Uncle Andrew brought the best gifts! An American Girl doll for Maria and XBox & a drone for Gio! Gio freaked out about both of those! |
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| A sweet greeting from our kennel- guess which of our pets is NOT enjoying his stay there?! |
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| A visit to the cheese shop with Uncle Andrew- one of our very favorite spots in Italy! |
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| Woke up to snow on Dec 28th! |
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| Sledding on our hill (our house is the white one on the left). |
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| Lugged her around in her "baby sled" for quite a while! |
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| A sad sad lunch. We had just dropped Uncle Andrew at the airport. Maria had taken to her room to cry. Too quiet and dull now without him. |
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| Planting our Christmas tree. |
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| An evening with Willy (Paolo's cousin) and his family. We spent a lot of time studying drones. |
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| New Year's Eve at Angelo's house. |
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| Angelo's son Lorenzo showing off his puzzle skills. |
xox. Clara
