November- Cape Town with the McDougals!

I am writing this more than halfway through December- apologies for being far behind. Last month summer arrived in full force.  Gio began swim team practices, we had lots of extra dogs around and we even snuck in a week in Cape Town with dear friends from our Ukraine days...

Oscar loves Gio's school assemblies- a cool concrete floor for sleeping followed by lots and lots belly rubs.

Gio is super proud of this poem.  He wrote it to try to convince his teacher to let him take a school pencil he loves home to use for his homework.

Oscar working very hard on the "watch" command with an enormous distraction of baked goods right at his nose!

Jagger's weekly treadmill workout.

I have a new love in my life- Frisco (left) is a retired Guide Dog who spent time with us this month.  He is being adopted by one of the trainers at Guide Dogs but needed a home while she was away.  

Happiest boy ever.

A retired Guide Dog should be allowed to sleep wherever he wishes!

Got the photos from our shoot back in October.  

My girl.

Gio was in his first tennis tournament!

Got Frisco back for another weekend!

Oscar came along to my hair appointment.  Other than eating some of the hair on the floor he behaved perfectly!

We love our weekend visits to the dog park.  The kids especially love it now that there is a coffee spot in the park where they can get milkshakes!

Twins.

I made liver bread one day (great for training treats for Oscar's classes).  Jagger kept an eye on the oven the entire time.

Guide Dog training outing to Brooklyn Mall.  Brothers Oslo (left) and Oscar.  One of them is NOT in a GDA-approved pose...  

Maria's school photos!

How I walk 4 dogs....

Maria's sweet class with her wonderful teachers Laura & Maggie.

Not sure who is grumpier- Gio or Pepper.  

The Sunday before Thanksgiving the kids and I flew to Cape Town.  We hit the waterfront the first evening to do the ferris wheel.

Monday morning we walked to this amazing delicatessen to await our friends who had flown all the way from San Francisco to spend the week with us!

Our first day we spent touring the cape including this sighting of this herd of baboons....

And, of course, the penguins.  Can never get enough of these!

We ended the day at a vineyard.  While the adults did a wine tasting the kids enjoyed the rolling hills!

Met this sweet fellow outside of Giovanni's (our breakfast place!) on Tuesday morning.  He reminded us so much of dear Enzo.

Tuesday we headed to Magaliesburg for surfing lessons and beach time.

Wednesday morning was a day of vineyard tours.  Here at our first stop (Spier) can you tell which kid is unhappy he is only allowed the juice tasting option??

Beginning to imagine Gio's teenage years....

Maria was braver than I was...I refused to put on the gloves!

Another vineyard, another tasting.  Maria loved her green juice!

Thursday was the big day.  Paolo had flown in the night before and we had moved to this huge villa down the coast at St James with two other families from Pretoria.  Our SF friends joined us for the day along with everyone else we know who was in town.  We ended up with 28 people at the table and 4 turkeys!

Beach day for everyone before the big meal.

Yum!!

Logan in his turkey hat.

The next day we drove with the McDougals to a game reserve so they could see some animals.  The hippos were Maria's favorites!

Back to Pretoria and reunited with our boys.

Waiting in a long line at Woolworths.

Park time.  Jagger turned the giant water bowl at the park coffee shop into his own personal tub.

Worst part of leaving Cape Town was leaving the McDougals.  Hoping to see them in Lake Tahoe in July if we can work it out! Maria is in full pout in this photo as she had fallen hard for Quincy, Xavier & Zoe (she was only an infant when they left Kyiv).

And then it was Monday and on my way to GDA with 6 dogs in the car, I get flat.  Sigh.

Finally made it to GDA and was able to drop off the extra dogs for their training.  Jagger had his hydro and Oscar and I made it to our class.  Then we spent a few hours at a tire shop getting new tires.  Never a dull moment.

Gio's school photo. 

Summer is here with big thunderstorms that create these giant puddles in the dog park.  Extra hydrotherapy for Jagger!

December will bring a trip to Sun City, Gio's 9th birthday and Christmas in Italy with Uncle Andrew.  Check back soon!

xoxo.  Clara