Last year was of course horrible for the vast majority of people all around the world, thanks to the ongoing COVID pandemic, and obviously this includes the children as well, with disruptions in schooling, the taking away of physical contact and play with friends, and of course just the lockdown rules in general. Bearing that in mind, we did decide to have a small birthday celebration for Jessica’s 10th birthday, gathering a sprinkling of friends and family for a small, mostly outdoor celebration spread over two days.
For the first part we invited fellow complex kids Cara and Shaelyn as well as bestie Lisa to join us for a refreshing stroll and look about for baboons around the always quiet dirt roads of Rooi Els (which probably isn’t the bit that they enjoyed, but hey, at least we were outside!), followed by a waffles and ice cream from La Galerie in Pringle Bay, a little cafe that Jessica has certainly become well acquainted with! The idea was then to follow all of this up with some putt putt back at Strand, but unfortunately (as you can tell from the sky in the photos) the weather didn’t play nicely with us and so this fun little leg of the celebrations had to sadly be called off.
Sunday however the skies cleared and part two of the 10 years celebration took the form of a lazy family picnic in the shade of the trees overlooking the lawns at the Helderberg Nature Reserve in Somerset West. The grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins were all there, and a lot of idle chat (with snacks) among kids running around and having fun was had.
So perhaps not the most birthday of birthday celebrations in the end, but I don’t think that it was all that bad. In any event, it was a lot better than poor old Emily’s upcoming birthday as she was stuck with us out on holiday in Swellendam when her special day rolled along!
Rooi Els, Pringle Bay, and Helderberg Nature Reserve. Shame, given that this year is looking a lot like last year, this may just be the scenery for Jessica’s upcoming birthday as well! :P
Related Link: Rooi Els | La Galerie | Helderberg Nature Reserve