The Wild Hunt

Today’s Elwica’s birthday (I won’t reveal her age, as that will also be revealing my age), so as a birthday treat we again headed for the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park for a day of nature.

We timed our arrival perfectly, right as the gates opened, and were the first car to enter the park that day. This time around we headed for the iMfolozi side of the park and were greeted by a red African sunrise over valleys covered in fog…

On Safari

Last weekend we went on safari. The oldest proclaimed game reserve in Africa, the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, is only about an hour’s drive away from us. We’ve been living here two years, and have never been there. So when my mom came to visit for the minion’s birthday, we decided the time was ripe to give it a visit.

Family

Christmas is a time to be with the ones you love. At least, that’s what all the movies and sentimental WhatsApp messages everyone keeps sending me tell me, so it must be true.

Anyway, my work includes some amount of travel, and every time the hardest part is saying goodbye to the Missus and the Minion. I usually go drop them off at the in-laws, so I know they’re not alone at home and that both sets of grandparents are close by to help out in a crisis.

But it doesn’t change the fact that I miss them like crazy, and that from the moment I wave goodbye to them before going through airport security I’m aching to get back to them.

My trip to Orlando this September was no exception, and was probably worse – how can one not dwell on family if you’re literally across the road from Disney Springs? How can I walk past a Princess Boutique and not want to take my little girl there, or visit Diagon Alley and not wish I could apparate my wife, who is as much a fan as I am, there with me?

Then I found the Lego store in Disney Springs, and decided to find my family…

A Puffin Rock birthday

The Minion is turning two next week! Can you believe it? I can’t. I really can’t.

As one does in these situations, we held a party. One can’t have a party without cake, and this time around the theme was Puffin Rock. Don’t know what that is? It’s the most adorable animated series on Netflix about a little girl puffin and her brother and all their little animal friends. The Minion loves it – we’ve watched the entire series right through twice already – so naturally that was chosen as the theme.

I thought last year’s cake was wonderful, but this time the wife outdid herself. I’ll let the pictures tell the story from here, but I’ll just add that everything was made from scratch, even the rainbow cookies (okay, so we bought some ready-made fondant icing, but when it ran out the wife quickly made some extra from scratch as well – the woman is incredible!)

Let there be cake

Last week we had a birthday in the house, and you know what that means…CAKE!

I’ve sung the wife’s praises many times on the blog in the past, from her illustrations to the bedroom set and mobile she’d made for Elizabeth last year. And true to form, she put in a repeat performance with the Minion’s first birthday.