Big month here with someone turning 5!!
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| Just like last year Maria got to spend her birthday on an airplane. She fell asleep on the overnight flight as a 4-year-old.... |
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| ...and woke up as a 5-year-old! |
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| As a special treat the flight attendants took her to visit the cockpit (no grown-ups allowed, so no picture!) where the pilots sang to her and gave her a flower! |
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| Back home and time for presents! |
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| And the very next morning it was time to start the 2018-2019 school year! Maria in EC (combined 4-6 year olds) again and Gio in Grade 4. They will finish this school year in Nairobi but very happy to start at AISJ. |
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| And off they go.... |
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| Meanwhile our poor Alaska continues to struggle at Guide Dogs with a wound on her leg that is proving difficult to heal. The incision to remove a growth on her leg keeps splitting as it is on a part of her leg where the skin is very tight. Here she is coming back from the vet after a 3rd set of stitches. She is such a clever girl that she figured out how to remove her cone in the short ride back to kennels. Now 3 weeks at Guide Dogs under close supervision and hopefully this time the incision will seal properly! |
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| As the children enjoyed their first day at school I took Jagger on a therapy dog visit. This boy had a fear of dogs that did not last long after Jagger leapt into bed with him! |
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| Maria's class! |
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| 4th grade (two classes). Gio front and center, naturally.... |
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| Gio's teacher (far right) Ms. Rachel is from Montana. Gio is very happy with many great friends in his class and his teacher he liked immediately! |
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| Not wanting to stay put for long we headed off to spend our first weekend back in SA at our favorite getaway in Magaliesburg- Stone Hill. Tricky to pack the car with room for the 4 of us and 3 dogs! (Savannah in the middle here stays with us on weekends while she trains to be a guide dog). |
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| Well, we did it, with Jagger in my lap for the hour long ride! Savannah was at my feet and Bruno in Gio's lap.... |
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| A first walk on the 5K trail just as the sun was setting. |
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| A brush fire had burned half of the trail the week before. The dogs loved it as there were many interesting smells. |
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| Our cabin had daily visits from the resident ponies. Good thing we had 10kgs of carrots for them! (This was our 3rd visit to Stone Hill so we know the ropes by now!) |
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| Back in Pretoria in time for a movie night. |
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| Ready to start week #2 of school. |
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| I was finally allowed to visit Alaska (I stayed away the first week to avoid too much excitement that might burst her stitches). |
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| I gave her a break from her cone during my visit. She was so happy to see me after 5 weeks. How I missed her. |
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| I brought home Sally, a 9-year-old Guide Dog, who had retired the day before. I volunteered to foster her until a forever home could be found. |
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| And now the big birthday party! Maria celebrated with her best friend Emilia (also turned 5 over the break) along with many of their classmates. |
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| The birthday girls! |
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| Painting pottery. Maria chose a unicorn (shocking, I know). |
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| While the girls painted, the older brothers found something else to do.... |
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| Back home after the party. I needed an assistant dog walker! |
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| Gio has spent the last two weekends catching up with his friends with many playdates and sleepovers. |
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| Cuddles. |
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| The unicorn returns to school.... |
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| Hair chalk was a fun birthday gift! |
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| Gio has become engrossed in the Percy Jackson series. We are having fun reading them together (we each have our own copy and we try to read the same number of pages each day). It is fun to revisit the Greek myths after so many years teaching them to 5th graders. |
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| Dog naps in the sun (from left: Kelsey, a working guide dog in for retraining after her first person emigrated, Savannah, guide dog in training, Sally, retired guide dog and Jagger, professional ball chaser. Bruno is around by avoids photos! |
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| And just last Monday I was finally allowed to bring Alaska home after 13 weeks away (8 week season/heat and then 5 weeks recovering from the growth removal on her leg). |
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| Maria's first tennis lesson. She chose the attire. Channeling Serena, I believe. |
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| Working on ball distraction with Alaska... |
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| An after school playdate with Maria's newest friend. |
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| Night night, all.
In September I will travel with some girlfriends to Rwanda & Uganda to do gorilla trekking. And later in the month we will fly to Nairobi to start a search for a house. Paolo will begin working full-time there at the end of the month.
Happy early autumn to my friends to the north and enjoy the spring to all of my friends here.
xoxo. Clara
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