Sunday, May 30, 2021

May 2021: Back to School...Again!

May brought a return to in person school, white water rafting and more antics with our dog pack. 

Riding lesson with her favorite teacher Isaac.

Maria spent a lot of time this month with her best friend Amelie.  It has been bittersweet as this has been a long goodbye- Amelie moves to NYC over the summer.

Marshmallow roasting with best friends.

What could go wrong when you combine 12-year-old boys and fire?

Paolo's birthday present- framed photos of each of our pack for his office wall.

Two days after Paolo's birthday Gioia turned 2...with a peanut butter-applesauce cake, of course!

Maria's (hopefully!) final Zoom class of 2nd grade was art. 

I was so excited for school to reopen that I had all of their bags packed 3 days early!


Winston meets the water truck.  We had a month with no city water so we needed these trucks to come to fill our tanks.

Waiting for the bus at last!


Some puppy antics.  Gioia loves to clean Winston's ears which is quite a project!



Winston attends puppy class every Saturday.  He loves the playtime part and eagerly plays with all of his classmates.  This is what he does during the actual instruction part of the class....


One weekend Paolo took both children rafting.  I will very happy to stay home with the dogs...

Maria was invited on the first (easier) day.  Paolo's expression here is because he was worried she would panic...
...she did not!
The second day Maria stayed at the camp and the others did a more difficult part of the river. They capsized once, had to leave the river at one point and carry the raft to avoid a hippo and her baby and had a terrific time!

Salt has a new favorite perch.

One our very short walks around the neighborhood (Winston can manage about 10 minutes of walking), we often have to stop at his best friend's house hoping Kobe will come out to play.

                     A typical scene in our garden these days....



A wild Saturday night at home.  Ear cleaning has become a daily ritual.

Next month will bring a lot of excitement as we travel to the USA, 3 of us get our first Pfizer shots and Maria begins summer camp in Maine! Stay tuned...

xoxo.  Clara

                     



Saturday, May 15, 2021

April 2021: Lockdown Again

I am very late on this post.  Apologies! Another full month of lockdown, online school and the dogs who make it all tolerable....

Gio loves online school for one reason....

Greeting our neighbor- an enormous Boerboel who is very sweet.  

Doing an art Zoom class with a friend before they head off to gymnastics and riding.

Our biggest challenge with Winston is getting him to walk.  This was taken just after we left our gate.  He made it 3 feet....

Got her very first pair of  Converse! Just like Mama now.

Another high energy start to an online school day.

April-May is the "long rains" season in Nairobi. Here we are on one of our daily morning walks in Karura Forest.  

Another day, another "walk"...

April 28th was Ragu's adoption day.  We have had him  a year now. Since we only know his birth year (2008) we declared this his birthday.  Happy 13th!
On many days Maria had a 3 hour break between morning and afternoon classes- we took advantage to sneak in some rides, this one at Karura Forest.

Weekend fun!

Remains of a day online...

Online classes are exhausting.

Their evening ritual patrolling for the Hadidas (who come to the pool to drink around 5PM every day).

Lunch bunch (the class eats and chats).

Saturday swim training.

Gioia got spayed and came home with the world's biggest cone.

Best friends.

We switched Gioia to a neck pillow which was much better!

I ate  a bee.  Learning nothing.

Waiting for the children to come home from playdates...


Late in the month I arranged a photo shoot for the dogs as part of a birthday present for Paolo next month. The photographer is a friend of mine. She takes no funds herself but asks her clients to donate to our local animal rescue organization (where we got Ragu) instead.  I am thrilled with the images she captured....























May (which is actually already half over as I write this- oops!) will bring a return to real school, a white water rafting trip, puppy classes and two birthdays- Paolo's and Gioia's.

xoxo.  Clara