April 5, 2025
We had a slow day to recover from yesterday’s all day birthday extravaganza. The boys fell asleep right around 10pm last night but were still up before 7am this morning. Ollie was roaring to practice rugby again while Len requested some Paw Patrol time. We leave Cape Town on Monday and are really going to miss this backyard.
We eventually lost the rugby ball over the wall a few times. The first time we were able to retrieve it with the pool skimmer. But on the second offense, we had to wait for a neighbor to return it hours later. That felt like a natural segue to then start a homeschool session. We took the day off yesterday to try and check off everything on Ollie’s birthday list. Today it took a while for all of us to get into the groove, but eventually Lenny worked on his sight words and Ollie wrote a letter to his Missouri pen pal from Ms. Alyssa’s class.
It was a hot day and we considered going to the beach but instead decided to lay low at the house. We were interested in visiting a tidal pool with a slide at Miller’s point, but its distance from the house, nearly 90 minutes, fizzled the boys’ interest. While heating up during homeschool, Kyle let the boys dip just their heads in the pool to cool off a few times before then returning to finish the session.
I was still feeling exhausted from yesterday so I snuck away for a nap while the boys played in the pool. When I woke up, we practiced rugby inbounds plays and more soccer shootouts. Len is into sports for the physicality and competition aspects, but Ollie is obsessed. He’s already asked to bring his rugby ball to school when we’re home so he can teach his classmates rugby during recess. We’ll see if this infatuation lasts another 9+ months.
We then picked more lemons for another round of lemonade. The lemon that Lenny picked produced 10 centiliters of juice- a new record! Ollie was a close second with 9.5 centiliters.
We went to an early dinner at Mantra Cafe in Camps Bay to try and catch a sunset. The restaurant had some semi-nude art on the walls that captured the boys’ attention. There were multiple comments about the butts in particular. “Mommy, your and daddy’s butts look like that!” came from Ollie which we took as a compliment.
We had been lucky to avoid bug bites for most of our stay in Cape Town but they finally found Len this week. His skeeter syndrome makes his reactions to mosquito bites more severe than most and they get bright red, inflamed and scabbed over. Only a few so far but hoping we can keep him protected from here on out.
It was overcast for most of the afternoon but were happy to see the sun sneak through just in time for sunset. Most at the restaurant stood up from their tables to walk over to the ledge to get a better picture which helped us feel less overtly touristy. Like most things, the pictures barely do the sunset justice.
The boys each ordered a ‘fun’ drink for dinner and both drank only a few sips. Len had a mango juice which we were sure would be a hit but was probably too thick for his liking. Ollie ordered a lemonade which ended up being sparkling and he hasn’t yet acquired a taste for “spicy drinks”. They shared an order of mussels for dinner with each getting their own order of fries (‘chips’ in SA). Their tastebuds haven’t really been challenged so far in South Africa with the abundance of pizza, fries, nuggets and pasta available. Both were also highly interested in the flaky sea salt dish on the table.
Kyle ordered a steak and I had a fish dinner (Cape Gurnard I think?) and our entrees were only ~$15 USD each. We’re grateful for the strong US dollar for now…
