April 4, 2025
Ollie’s birthday arrived and he was very ready for it, up at 5:45AM. Lucky for us he did not notice his presents in the dark when migrating to our room so we got to sleep for another hour.
He eventually forced us to get up when Lenny arrived in our room closer to 7AM. We started the day with his gifts much to his delight. From Lenny he got a Springbok (SA National Team) hat and soccer goalie gloves. He liked it so much there was even a brotherly hug!
From Kayleen and I he got his much talked about rugby ball, a travel hand pump to inflate/deflate it, and some sour gummy worms for today’s movie. Hopefully his excitement to play with it outside continues for weeks to come.
After a few rugby tosses in the backyard we were off to start Ollie’s birthday extravaganza. Another benefit of home school is that it can easily be cancelled for important events, like a birthday. First stop was Oswald’s to fuel up for the day. 2 sourdough cinnamon twisties, 2 chocolate buns, an almond croissant, hibiscus kombucha, large cappuccino and red Cappa all for ~$13. Unreal.
Then we headed to St.James tidal pool in Muizenberg on the False Bay. Since this beach is on other side of peninsula it gets the agulhas current which brings down warm water from the Indian Ocean and makes the water ~10 degrees warmer. It did not feel MUCH warmer.
The tidal pools are pretty great though. No waves, clean/clear water, rocks to explore for creatures, and walls to jump off of into the water. We tossed around the rugby, hunted for shells and creatures, played in the ocean, and had snacks. The beach had these brightly colored huts that could be used to change in for free which was great.
After the beach we grabbed a quick lunch at Folk which was right off the beach and had a playscape for the boys. They climbed and played on the swings until our food came.
Things move a bit slower at restaurants here so we had to switch our plans to a later movie showing. Ollie was unfazed as that meant straight to the arcade, Wonderland, at the mall where the movie was. I made about 3 wrong turns on the way to the mall even with Google Maps in my face, impressive navigation.
I asked for 500 Rand of tokens when we arrived, roughly $26, only to watch them pour out of the dispenser for a full minute. We were handed tiny plastic bags which took Kayleen and I another few minutes to slowly fill up with tokens. What a deal compared to Dave and Busters!
We played all types of classic arcade games, driving games, air hockey, shooting games, and various ticket dispensing games until we ran out of time to make the movie. We were left with uncashed tickets, thank god, and a few sacks of tokens. We plan to offer them to Martha to take her kids there when we see her before leaving Cape Town Monday.
Night of the Zoopocalypse! What a film it was but right up both our boys alley, animals and zombies. Lenny seemed to get scared at a few points but Ollie was not phased.
Ollie ate his sour gummy worms and the boys shared some starburst to go with popcorn. When I bought the popcorn I was asked if I wanted butter and salt to which the obvious answer was YES. Then I was handed some packets of powder and instantly disappointed. Ollie kept asking me why the popcorn tasted weird and saying he didn’t like it only to devour nearly the whole bucket. Lenny also nearly ate the whole bucket though I don’t believe he made one comment on the taste.
We headed to The Lawns for dinner in Camps Bay. We heard good things from a few people and it had space to let the kids run wild outside. Boy did it deliver on running wild. There was a bouncy house, playscape, and countless pool noodles waiting. The pool noodles only purpose was for kids to beat the living crap out of each other with them. Lenny was happy to oblige.
The boys joined a group of other kids as soon as we sat down. We had a table close enough that we could see what was happening but far enough that we were never once asked to come play. The highlights were:
Lenny collecting half the available noodles in his arms only to ram into others at full speed with them and his entire body
Ollie and another boy drop the noodles and square up like an MMA fight, fists ready to fly. We intervened at this point which Ollie explained his karate teachers would not have approved of since he was about to fiercely defend himself.
Each brother seemingly coming to one another’s aid when one was out numbered or in distress. When they were alone at times they would be attacking each other but in a larger group, from afar, it seemed they knew who their ally was.
The birthday boy loved his cheesecake desert selection and didn’t leave any behind. He had a great day and really enjoyed all the birthday messages and videos from family, friends, and his class at Elysian. You can see his delight when we were watching them on my phone during desert.
We got home late from dinner but the boys were so gross we had to bath them. Kayleen took on that final birthday task. The only thing that helped was we had the final animal pills that turn into sponges left. The boys were asleep as soon as they got into their bed.
