Life in the Harvett Household

We have not blogged for a while, so thought it is a good idea to catch up a little. The 2011 school year is coming to an end and there are several class concerts and award ceremonies to be attended. Both boys are happy in their respective schools, which is good - because next year they will both be going to the same schools as where they were this year. Zack has taken a liking to reading comic books just like his older brother. He can't read yet, but likes to have Aiden read for him or just looking at the pictures. Their latest favorite is Supa Strikas! One evening we rescued a little bird that had fallen from it's nest. There is a new cousin, Elizabeth, who was born a few weeks ago. The boys believe that they are growing so fast because they eat all their breakfast cereal.

Kagga Kama

For as long weekend in early November we visited Kagga Kamma private game reserve about 1 hour north of Ceres in the "Koue Bokkeveld" area of the Western Cape. It is a stunningly beautiful place with the most amazing rock formations. Being out of season there were very few other people there and it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Aiden and Zack along with their two cousins Johan and Albert thoroughly enjoyed climbing the rocks and it is a small miracle that none of them got hurt. The weather was chilly but gorgeous to be out in nature. These are just a small sample of the photos that we took.

Da-Big-Five!

It's officially only tomorrow (Sep 12th), but we've been celebrating Aiden's 5th birthday the entire weekend. It started with a "boys only" Wii party for a handful of Aiden's school buddies here at our home on Saturday. This was followed by a BIG rugby game... South Africa vs Wales on Sunday morning (this was SA's opening match in the 2011 Rugby world Cup... they narrowly won 17-16). Lots of family and friends came over for the game and then stayed for a braai - many of us proudly wearing the green-and-gold. Christina baked another stunning cake and Aiden thoroughly enjoyed all the attention. There was also time for a spirited soccer game in the garden.

Random things

Winter is winding down and things are pretty much normal lately, which is great! The weather allows us to partake in one of our favorite family outings... ice cream on the beach. We can often still not believe that we live only 10 minutes from a spectacular beach with loads of wide open space. Aiden and Zack enjoy playing with their shovels and just running! We got some silk worms from a friend of a friend and the boys call them "the fellas". The fellas (in the Prince shoe box being watched by Aiden) are growing really fast and it is nice to know that some things are still the way they were when we were kids. Next weekend is Aiden's 5th birthday party, so we will be posting some photos here soon afterward.

Zack is 3!

We had two days of celebrating Zack's birthday. On Friday, we had a party at Zack's school with all his class friends. On Saturday, we had all the relatives who live in Cape Town over for lunch. I could not ask for a more beautiful day. We BBQ'd fish, while the cousins played outside with all the cool new toys. Being able to celebrate birthdays with the family is what makes moving back to South Africa all the sweeter. Having a little bit of summer in the middle of winter was just the cherry on top! Zack is so proud to be 3 and I cannot believe my baby is 3 already! He loves school, drawing and jumping off things. He still loves his two blankets and drives his brother insane when he mixes the letters while singing the ABC song. Guess some things never change!

The way we like Winter :-)

The weather this past weekend was absolutely perfect and exactly the way we like to do winter… 24 degrees C and sunny. We visited the Stellenbosch Botanical Gardens on Saturday afternoon followed by the boys' highlight of the weekend - CARS 2! This was only the second time that that all 4 Harvetts went to the movies together. It is a fantastic movie and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. On Sunday Christina and Zack were not feeling too well, so they spent most of the day at home. Gavin and Aiden went on a bit of an adventure… A hike in the Silver Boom Kloof Nature reserve, followed by a game of Battleship on the beach in Gordon's Bay, followed by lunch at the Spur in Gordon's Bay and then grocery shopping for the week.

Quad bikes and Olive oil

It's been a relaxing winter weekend with lots of good sport on TV to keep us occupied, including Djokovik's first Wimbledon victory. We left the house only twice... once to go shopping for beds for the Harvett Boys (where we were sidetracked by 2 quad bikes outside the furniture store!) and once to go buy coffee and do some wine tasting. Our favorite coffee roastery is on the property of the Lourensford wine estate. It was rainy and sunny at the same time with a beautiful rainbow over the mountains. We also went to Morgenster wine estate where we tasted some of their amazing wines and Christina did an olive oil tasting. It was very cosy... next to a fire place... Aiden was reading and Zack was sniffing olive oils and eating olives with his Mommy.

Winter Activities

Winter is in full swing in the Cape and Friday was the last day of the school term. Most days are rainy and cold, so we are confined to indoor activities. No problem. Aiden and Zack have discovered that hide and seek is super fun (even though Zack's hiding places are not always that genius :-). Aiden really loves reading and occasionally Zack can sit still for long enough that Aiden can actually read a story to him. These times are precious for Mom and Dad as it gives us a nice break.

We had Paul and Lezinda Ras and their sons Darrian and Divan over for dinner tonight. Paul is one of Gavin's oldest friends as they go back to 2nd grade. It was the first time in almost 9 years that we got together and we simply had to take a picture of all the boys. It was a fun night.

The Boxer

Aiden's been wanting a boxing bag for some time now, so when we found a shop floor tarnished one for cheap we snagged it and suspended it from the roof in the lapa. So far it is getting good use as both boys enjoy putting on the boxing gloves (actually karate mittens) and having a good old punch-up on the bag. Hey - it sure beats them punching up on each other.

It was a stunning weekend in the Cape Town area and we made good use of the summer-like conditions with several visits to parks and also the beach. Aiden is starting to show more signs of an interest in soccer these days, so we may look at signing him up for some soccer classes again soon.




The second week of school went MUCH better than the first. Zack now runs to his classroom in the morning, takes his nap on schedule, and is still a happy camper when we pick him up from school in the afternoon. Let's hope it continues this way.

Zack's first day of school!

Friday marked the day when both Harvett Boys attended a full day of school for the first time. Zack started school for the very first time and Aiden went from half day to full day. They both did very well, so hopefully it continues that way next week. The photo below is from Aiden's "Green class" at school. All kids 4 or 5 years old. Aiden is in the front row in the middle.

We spent a quiet weekend at home. Grandma and Grandpa were visiting from Durban and the weather was cold and dreary. Fortunately there was a lot of sport to watch on TV :-). The kids had to play indoors most of the time, so we broke out some puzzles and other old toys that have not been played with in a while.