Gotta love weekends. Cape Town is cold and wet, but in true Cape Town style that means plenty of sunshine and blue skies as well…
I have a couple of surprises up my sleeve for you all this week… and about half a dozen pending posts in my draft folder. However the days seem to be screaming past and before I know it I will be winding my way across Africa in a bus… So let me get on and post away and hopefully I will leave you with some interesting snippets to read… Meanwhile you can follow my adventure with the GreenPop gang…
GreenPop in Zambia
Lovely Links from This Week
- Well this… anyone thinking of a quick stopover in London!!! Love this Virtual Field Trip to London, England on Simple Homeschool.
- And I can’t help myself… summer and cooking out… just looks so good from our wintry world… Camping Recipes on Imagine Childhood.
- Wow, food for thought, every now and then we should stop and ask ourselves this question: If You Could be Anything on the art of Simple.
- Well I love Alisa Burke and of course markers… take a peak at Alisa Burke’s Markers.
- So many fab ideas on this post… the sort of post to look back to again and again and again: Nature Walk Fun
- Gotta love how Zen Habits travels… that’s pretty much our style… the less you have to carry, wherever you are, the better.
- And on A Beautiful Mess… this post pure is GOLD: “Our top 12 Posts About Blogging.”
- If you are looking for some outer space fun… dash over to Playing by the Book for some Food from Out of this World!!!
And the se7en + 1th…
Winter Holiday Fun in Cape Town
Schools are out and there are holiday activities everywhere, here are some of our tried and tested ones…
- City SightSeeing and the Red City Bus Tours has a fabulous special over the holidays, (pay for 1 adult and 2 kids under 18 go free). you haven’t done this with your kids it is totally worth it, all ages will really enjoy it.
- During the school holidays Kirstenbosch has free entry for under 18’s. Here’s their Winter Holiday Program.
- Cape Union Mart has Fun events all over the country.
- There is always something going on at the Two Oceans Aquarium.
- The Winter Ice-Slide at Cape Gate, our kids went down there and loved it!!!
- Take in a show: Snow White and the Se7en Dwarfs, the Musical is on at Canal Walk.
- In the great outdoors you just can’t beat: The Company’s Gardens or GreenPoint Park.
- And if you need to get away into the wilds without leaving the city then Rondevlei and Intaka Island are your very best and extremely affordable bets.
A Blast From the Past:
- 2009: One of our most pinned posts ever, Miniature Skateboards in Se7en Steps.
- 2010: Easy Peasy Kids cooking: Crispy Chocolate Crunch in Se7en Steps.
- 2011: Se7en’s Natural Factual Garden Corner.
- 2012: Se7en’s Neighbourhood Walk.
- 2013: Se7en + 1 Take a Mini-Peninsula Tour, thanks to City Sightseeing Tours.
- 2014: Se7en + 1 Go Exploring in Newlands Forest.
Book of the Week
This book was inhaled by Hood #4, along with the rest of the series. I always say that everyone has a book that switches them on to reading… before that book reading is work and kind of stumble as you lurch through a chapter a day because you must. Then you discover your book and you read the whole thing without noticing the chapters fly by, and when you get to the end of it, you kind of wish you hadn’t. Well Bear Gryll’s Mission Survival series have been those books for Hood #4, they electrified his reading. The books are survival books, set all over the world in different circumstances. Each book has a survival theme and a small section at the end of the book teaching essential survival skills.
This is the eighth book in the series and with plenty of good books before it, you are transported to the heart of the Himalayas. The hero of the series, Beck Granger is hiking through the mountains with two friends, who appear to be fairly shady characters, ex-assassins and such like. Surviving in the wilds of the Himalayas, flash floods and wild animals, appears to be mild compared to the people he encounters in the book. Throughout the series there is this underlying mystery regarding Beck’s background. Exciting stuff, of the middle school variety, just above the level of the beginner chapter book reader. Short sharp chapters and easy reading and of course packed with survival tips, for in the wilds. Should you ever need them!
Lair of the Leopard was given to us for review purposes by Penguin books South Africa, we were not paid for this review and the opinions expressed are our own.
That’s us… Hope your weekend has been a fabulous one and we are so looking forward to another week of blogging with you all… not to mention a GiveAway or Two…
So many good links to explore this week! Can’t wait to find out what surprises are in store – and REALLY can’t wait to follow along your trip to Zambia! Have the best week! xo
I honestly believe, like you, that there is a book for every person that triggers the read bug. For a lot of grade 3 kids last year it was Wimpy kid. With A she has just always been a reader – I cant think of a single book. But I do know she was not mad about the first type books – once she hit her first chapter books she was happy. It seem C has hit his = good old Afrikaans Trompie. He is enchanted
I always love exploring your links, and blush when i see one of mine 🙂
What fun! I just checked your weather and realized that your mid winter weather is warmer than my Vermont mid summer today! If you ever see strangers show up on your doorstep, it might be us!
Zoe, You are just the cleverest book person on earth, you have the most fabulous ideas – can’t help myself, I just have to link your posts again and again and again!!!
Hahaha Pamela, I always say that we are winter wimps and I so know that without a shadow of a doubt our winters are pretty feeble. That being said… in a culture that doesn’t believe in winter, that assumes we live in the land of an everlasting summer, we are very ill-prepared. There is no heating, our homes don’t exactly seal shut, if there is electricity then it is a raging price… so most folk don’t tumble dry or have heaters. It is quite common for children to go to school in shorts or skirts and white cotton shirts – with no shoes, the whole year round. We have only recently discovered the power of the fleecy sweater… So it is not so much the bitter cold and the rain, but our bad preparation and the whole “unexpectedness” of it every single year!!! So you are always welcome to pop over and enjoy our beautiful crispy days – but do bring a rain jacket and some wintry clothes with you!!!
Hay Cat, Great minds think alike!!! I totally get that, some of my readers had to get beyond those beginner readers to find the books they were after!!! And good old “Trompie” who would have thought after all these years!!!