It's Friday. We've been at the skating rink today getting the kid's feet ready for hockey season. We've had our pizza from Scooters. We are prepping for movie night, maybe School of Rock. Listening to CBC and Eric Friesen online to get me back to my roots. The car is still not sold, after a deal fell through, but there are options available, we're not in a panic.
Go Bombers.
Katy dove off the 3 meter board yesterday and I couldn't believe it. Up until now it had just been jumping off. That impressed me. She loves to try things and we are very proud of her. When we were out for a fancy supper with Christine at a seafood place, she tried the abalone (google that one) when the others didn't. It is like a huge snail that is poached for it's meat and it's shell.
Henry received the excellency in math award from his teacher, and will be singing carols next week as will Katy at her school.
We tried to get onto Robben Island on Tuesday, but things didn't work out for all of us due to a scheduling issue (they wrote down the wrong time) so Chris and Carla went on their own and I took the kids to Katy's CD release concert (which was great). At any rate, when Chris got back, she found out her flight left in three hours, not after lunch the next day which we had been told earlier in the day. It pays to double check these things, and she easily made her flight, but didn't get to say goodbye to the kids. At any rate, posting might be sparser now as we clean up, and finish our time here, we'll see.
Go Bombers.

Christine is gone! She is off to Amsterdam for a few days before heading to Winnipeg. We really enjoyed her stay with us. There was always something on the go. Yesterday we had planned to go to Robben Island on the ferry. The kids were excited about this venture. We had originally planned to go last Sunday, but due to weather, the trip was cancelled. We rescheduled but when we arrived, they had booked us in for the wrong time and it turned out we had missed our trip. This was hugely disappointing for everyone, but we managed to get Chris and Carla on a later trip. Unfortunately Katy had her CD release for her school choir that we had to attend (which was a great success) and I took the boys to watch, so we didn't get to Robben Island. It seems like there are only three weeks left for us here and we're getting antsy to be back home and see everyone. The kids have 12 days left of school and their concerts are finished, Henry received an excellence in reading award yesterday morning as well. All that is left for me is to sell the car, clean up and pack. The kids have a few parties to attend and we'll go to a concert at Kirstenbosch as well.

What a weekend. We left on Friday afternoon after the kids were done school to Betty's Bay to stay at a cottage. The drive is beautiful. On Saturday we visited Hermanus to see the whales. They did not disappoint. We saw multiple pods of Southern Right Whales breaching, lobtailing, sailing, etc. What a show. With lunch at Wimpy's to add to the experience, everyone had fun. Carla had a little sprain of the ankle as she was too busy watching the whales, and not the path, but hopefully she'll be back to normal soon.

On the way home we stopped in Somerset West at the Monkey Land and then at the Spier winery near Stellenbosch. Today Chris made it up Table Mountain on the tram and then she gladly went to the market to shop. We will miss her when she departs on Wednesday...but will see her in 3 weeks.