A perfect outing on a miserable day in Cape Town

One of our favourite things to do as a family is visit the Cape Town Aquarium.  Its such a great place to take the kids, at any age really and I find it really calming to just sit admiring the fish swimming in the water.

We do go often so this time we decided it made more sense to get annual memberships.  A annual membership is equivalent to two visits.  I'm pretty sure we will be making good use of them, especially with the girls learning about the ocean at school.

There is also a kids area on the ground floor with a sand pit, crafts area and at scheduled times puppet shows.  This is also the area where they have birthday parties.

In past visits we have always skipped the Microscope section of the Aquarium but this Sienna took an interest,  She was very curious and fascinated as to how these microscopic beings looked on the big screen.  Here Sienna is watching how the Strawberry Anemone feeds itself.

No this shouldn't be done but because touching the Stingrays in the Durban Aquarium is okay Dad thought he would pat these curious little ones too.  They are just the most gentle creatures, YES alright apart from the tip of the tail.  The girls were very brave too and gave the Stingrays a little friendly pat as they popped their heads out the water.  

This really is an amazing place and they have sleepovers on special days which I think must be an amazing experience that can't be missed.  Cant wait to do that!!

Here are some more pictures of what you can expect to see, excuse the reflections on the glass and the quality of some!!

Moroccan Inspired - Little girls bedroom

I have never been a fan of decorating children's bedroom with cartoon or Disney characters.  For one kids are always changing their minds of who their favourite is for the week and they make better birthday themes anyway...

So I have come up with this design.  A Moroccan inspired girls bedroom which is full of bright colours.  My girls love sparkles and what better way to introduce it in the cushions and lighting.

I just love this upholstered headboard, such a stunning design. With something so simple but eye-catching it can completely transform a room.

Moroccan Inspired - Little girls bedroom by lovemakesthehome featuring colored lights

Having fun during winter break in Cape Town & Durban

Three weeks of school holidays can drive a ONE insane but keeping the kids busy is key.  In Cape Town, as I'm sure in the rest of the country there are quite a lot of fun activities available. Schools do also offer holiday care but I can't justify it being a stay at home mom!  Sure, after the holidays I'm ready to take them back to school but I'm also very fortunate to be able to have this time with them.

Having lived in Algarve for so long and not having the amount of activities available I do get very excited that there is such a variety here and I like the girls to try different things.

Unfortunatly, all the activities I had planned they weren't able to do, only because Dad surprised us with a trip to Durban but we will defiantly try them next time.

So what, where how?
Every month the parents are given a magazine called the CHILD magazine for the area of Cape Town.  This is a free magazine and it cover practically everything regarding kids and their needs. About two weeks before the holidays I grabbed my calendar and the mag and scheduled a couple of activities I thought they might enjoy.

The activities available for their age group were from Building a Snowman at the Grand West Casino, cooking and baking lessons, sports activities for appropriate ages, pottery classes, theatre, dance classes, a visit to a chocolate factory and making your own chocolate and cupcake icing and a few more.

The girls especially enjoyed the pottery class. Sienna loved building a snowman with Dad and the sports activities. Lia loved icing the cupcakes but most of all eating them!

Our trip to Durban was just amazing. We spent a week in an area called Ballito Bay, only about 30min form the airport on the north coast.  The weather was great, a nice break from the cold in Cape Town.
Traveling with kids you are always searching for the most convenient place to stay and Mario found the perfect place.  He is great with things like that! We stayed at the Fairmount Hotel in this fantastic resort called Zambali. This resort isn't short of pools, there is a supervised play area for kids from the age of 4 at a daily or hourly fee and on an evening they offer a movie and craft nights for kids. They are supervised for two hours while parents enjoy time together, this at no extra charge. These nights came in handy!
The Resort have a few lovely restaurants, we particularly enjoyed the Thandi, a restaurant specialising in curry dishes located at the Fairmount Lodge.

Whilst in Durban we had to visit the uShaka sea world.  If you ever go you have to spend the day there because there is so much to do and see, from the shows to the amazing aquarium within an old ship.  There are plenty of restaurants and a water park too.  They loved seeing the dolphins show,  Lia was so excited, her face just lit up as they jumped out the water.

We also visited the Crocodile creek in Ballito and what really impressed us was the Flag Farm.  This is quite a big farm that takes in orphan and abused animals.  You can feed the horses and ponies or go for a ride on them.  The goats, pigs, chickens ducks and bunnies are running around, if you are brave enough you may pat the pigs and hug a calf.  Kids just love it there, oh and its really muddy and dusty which is just how they like it!!!

Fun times and good memories!......