And just like that we have another 4 year old in the house! We celebrated Judah’s 4th birthday with a pirate party based on one of his favourite books, ‘Pirates Love Underpants’. We kept it simple by inviting five friends from school (plus a few siblings), doing a quick obstacle course and treasure hunt in the sandpit, having some soft play fun and making party packs that were the kids’ snacks for the morning. Continue Reading
When I think about how times have changed, I get sad that my kids won’t experience many of the freedoms that I had growing up. My childhood was awesome, largely thanks to a neighbourhood bike gang. We had the best time – riding our bikes around the block and picnicking down at the canal; asking neighbours with seemingly suitable big trees if we could build a treehouse in their garden (they politely declined); selling bunches of daisies to polite neighbours (who had their own daisy bushes out front) so that we could buy a packet of chips from Sportsmans Warehouse to share. My favourite memory, though, was cycling down the street on Peace Day with Michael Jackson’s ‘Heal the World’ blasting from a battery operated tape player travelling in the front basket of one of our bikes and then ringing neighbour’s doorbells and playing them the chorus of the song over the intercom when they answered. Those were the days, but gone are those days. Continue Reading
In our home we’re gently trying to fight gender stereotypes by showing our kids that dad also cooks and does the laundry (actually Dad does ALL the laundry!) and mom also drives the family car when Dad is around and (occasionally) takes the bins out. It seems to be working in that despite Kira gravitating towards all things pink and sparkly, she can flip between rough and tumbling on the trampoline to a fairy princess dressed to the nines with her ‘clip clops without even batting her eyelids. Judah loves the colour pink and Ilan can spend hours playing with Barbie and Ken and their superhero buddies.Continue Reading
We’re parents to two young Zulu boys which means that we’ve done the flight from Cape Town International Airport to King Shaka International Airport twice as a family because our adoption journey meant flying across the country to meet our boys and bring them home. So when Travelstart asked me to share my experience of flying with kids, I could confidently say ‘been there, done that, got the giant sized Durban avo’.Continue Reading
Marleen and I met over Instagram and connected over the fact that we’re both raising young South African kids thanks to transracial adoption. Although there are many stories of unethical international adoptions hitting the news these days, I have all the time in the world for parents who adopt internationally when its the best match for the kids involved and when the parents truly make an effort to expose their kids to their South African culture. This July they’re coming over for a holiday with their full extended family, so say please give them a friendly welcome if you see them. Thank you for sharing your story, Fleerackers family! Continue Reading