April 9, 2025
We were bummed to wake up to another cloudy and drizzly day but the forecast looked like it would clear by early afternoon. One the way to breakfast, we found a path through the brush that we had previously missed. The “secret path” lifted the boys’ moods. Ollie and Lenny also point out the orange “Lion’s Ear” flowers on the path; the one thing they remembered from the Kirstenbosch botanical garden. Before we went to breakfast, we stopped at the inflatable slip and slide to check it out. With the weather meant to clear later on, we planned to give the slide a try later in the day.
We then went back to our cottage for a homeschool session. Ollie wrote a letter to our neighbor, and one of his best buddies, Dean. He also read and did some math problems on the iPad. Len had a good homeschool session and then helped Kyle finish a workout. We gave the boys a snack of yesterday’s lunch leftovers and then headed to the lagoon.
We then took a few kayaks out onto the water. Lenny kept calling it “KEY-ack-ing” for the remainder of the afternoon. Its hard to discern typical 4 year old misunderstanding from some of Lenny’s intentional troll-like behaviors.
We kayaked for a few hours in the lagoon; Kyle with Len and me with Ollie. It was drizzling and a bit foggy so views weren’t great. We did see thousands of tiny holes in the shallow water and were told these were due to the many crabs in the lagoon. Kyle was able to nab a crab to show the boys before releasing it back into the shallows. We also saw many jellyfish as we were paddling which concerns us a bit for our planned boating adventure tomorrow. We made mental notes to ask the activity directors about wetsuits and if the jellyfish are the stinging type.
We learned the lagoon used to be connected to the ocean but was recently blocked off due to erosion from farmers’ topsoil. We had tried to paddle to see the erosion-created wall, but we were at risk of missing lunch at the clubhouse so turned around before we got to see it.
We did end up missing lunch, but the staff snuck in an order for us. We were all pretty damp and a bit chilly after our kayak adventure, so we walked home to eat lunch at the cottage instead of the clubhouse. The boys got hot chocolates for the walk to warm up.
We pushed back our dinner to ~7:30pm due to our late lunch and regretted this decision early on in the evening. Len was clearly pretty tired before we even left for dinner. If we had had food at the cottage, I would have stayed back with him so he could rest, but onto the clubhouse we went.
Ollie wore an all white shirt to dinner. We bet him that he couldn’t keep his shirt white for the entire meal…
One of Ollie’s new obsessions is drinking baby-ccinos; essentially frothed and steamed milk sprinkled w cocoa to look fancy. He absolutely loves it. “Look at me with my cappuccino! I have so much energy now!” All in what sounds like a rough French accent.
He ordered a “kiddie-ccino” with dinner tonight because he doesn’t like the sound of the word ‘baby’ in the original drink. Our made up “kiddie-ccino” name confused our server and she brought him a real cappuccino before dinner. He took a sip and spit it out on himself. We then clarified with the server and he then got the true baby-ccino. Though spitting out the cappuccino and dirtying himself was not entirely his fault, dribbling ketchup all over his shirt later in the meal was all him. No bet winnings for Ollie tonight.
Len was pretty sleepy so he and I left early and walked back to the cottage. We walked back by flashlight and kept our eyes peeled for critters. We saw just one on our stroll home, a teeny tiny frog.
Kyle stayed at the clubhouse with Ollie and finished dinner. Kyle gave Ollie the car keys and asked him to go outside in the dark and get 200 Rand from the glove box to give a tip for dinner. He doubted that Ollie would do it but he did! Ollie said he didn’t get scared and run but just told himself over and over “nothing is going to eat me.”
They went upstairs at the clubhouse to play ping pong and foosball after eating. They called Uncle AJ to say Hi and Ollie wanted to talk to him about foosball since he knows Uncle AJ is quite good at the game.
Our cottage has a wood door that splits so you can open just the top or just the bottom. Kyle told the boys that reminded him of his Uncle Joe’s house when he was a kid. He explained to Ollie that his Uncle Joe was like Ollie’s Uncle AJ. Perhaps another reason Uncle AJ was top of his mind for a call.
Tomorrow’s forecast finally calls for sunshine and we’re hoping to spend much of the day outside and on the water!
