Tom lost his first tooth...

...while we were out on Friday. It has been wobbly for weeks and finally came out when eating chocolate. He didn't notice that it had come out so we can only assume he swallowed it with the chocolate so we didn't have to decide anything about the tooth fairy yet!!

 Nanny -here is the evidence!

tidal pool bath

Last week after church we headed to the beach in Ballito where there is a paddling pool. It is one of the nearest towns to us, about an hour away by car. We put our feet in the Indian Ocean for the first time and played in the rock pools - Josh seemed to enjoy it as much as the bath.

 This is the beach - when we arrived the sand shark was there, then the man made the dolphin and then later a snake appeared as well!

Grade One Blog

Toms class have started a blog, check it out here!

Tom's picture is the one of the boy riding a scooter down the ramp near C block, complete with cape!

I'll add it to our links should you wish to follow the Grade One Class adventures. 

crocodiles and Zulu village life

The one thing Tom wanted to do in South Africa was to see crocodiles and to eat crocodile meat. Josh wants to see lions which might be more tricky (or at least significantly more expensive). Around here there are a few crocodile farms so we choose one that had crocodile on the menu and went for a visit. It was in the area of the Valley of 1000 Hills, about 90 minutes from where we are living, a beautiful area as long as you don't get car sick. And Josh confirmed that he really does. Anyway, we finally made it to a place called Phe-Zulu, a place that combines a crocodile and snake park with a zulu village experience. Despite being a little touristy we were suprised how good the Zulu village was, the first hut we were taken into was very dark and they made the men and women sit on different sides as they talked about the mens role in protecting the women! The boys loved seeing all the weapons!

Then they did a display of dancing, taking us through different dances and traditions that were part of an engagement and then a wedding. We got most of the ideas I think, despite it being in Zulu, that the woman gives the man her necklace as a sign that she will marry him, and then instead of a wedding ring he gives her a beaded belt that goes around the headpiece she was wearing!

The scenery was spectacular too! We went into another hut where they showed us how they would cook and make beer.

 And then the boys got to meet some of the dancers and try a bit of dancing.

They certainly had a lot of sleeping crocodiles and snakes which weren't all that interesting in comparison with the dancing, even when they were fed they didn't seem overly bothered about getting the food. Oh and they didn't have any crocodile on the menu that day so we'll have an excuse to try one of the other crocodile places another day!

Tick count

So for the first three weeks of living here...here are our tick counts...

Tommy - 1 (leg)
Josh - 1 (back)
Tom - 2 (shoulder, neck/hairline)
Sarah - 3 (leg, arm, stomach)

....fun times...or maybe not...