Leo's Birthday Weekend at Mbuluzi Game Reserve

In late June, our dear friends Jinty and Benoit organized a great weekend to celebrate their son Leo's birthday at Mbuluzi Game Reserve, about two hours away from Mbabane.

Jinty did a fabulous organizing nature walk / scavenger hunts for the kids.  Each one received an adorable "nature bag", which Jinty had made in Maputo, along with a little notebook and colored pencils for sketching or jotting down observations.

The troops had a great time, finding animal droppings, various bones, and bird feathers.  It was probably the only time they got adults to willingly discuss excrement.

Meanwhile, Peter taught Franklin how to eat ribs.

Just because I don't have teeth doesn't mean I can't eat ribs!

Well, Franklin didn't need that much instruction.

 Each kid got to choose from a basket of goodies (candy!)

The lodge where the party took place was right on the river.  No crocs sighted, though.



 We finished off the weekend with birthday cake and singing.

Aviva and Emil compared sketches

Franklin braved the stairs

That's not my underwear, it's a onesie!

Happy Birthday, Leo!  We hope to celebrate with you again in the future.

Pine Valley Garden Concert

Our friend Ben hosted a lovely concert on the lawn outside his home in Pine Valley.  There was a local blues band, and also a group visiting from the Netherlands.  It was warm enough in the sunshine, but got quite chilly when the sun set.

Baby with beer bottle

Franklin and Callista go for a stroll

Babies Franklin and Jonah discuss the music

As the evening got colder, Aviva and her buddy Antonin snuggled under a blanket together.  I included three shots of them below, as I love their expressions.  (What is she giggling about?)

You may have noticed that Aviva seems to be wearing the same dress (the infamous Chinatown dress) in many of these photos.  What kind of parents would let their child wear the exact same dress every single day?  (Sideways glance.)

Bushfire 2014

One of the best weekends every year in Swaziland is the Bushfire music festival, held in late May.  For the last two (or three?) years, we've met up with our good friends, the Kickerts, and this year was no exception.  This year, I (Callista), however, went without Peter, who was on a short trip to the US. Phetsile kindly agreed to work that day, so I wasn't completely on my own.  

The sun was bright, the music was excellent, and the friends were wonderful.  We missed Peter, but we had a great time.