Summer Holiday 2019 - UK

We travelled on Monday from Entebbe via Dubai and arrived on Tuesday in London. I must say the kids were so well behaved on both flights and even at 10 hour lay over in Dubai.

Emirates is our airline of choice when we travel with the kids. Its kid friendly although the kids menu leaves a lot to be desired.
Luckily we booked into the DIH at the airport and I must say it was a life saver. don't know how I would have managed with the kids walking around the mall for ten hours.

one of the kids beds in our room at the DIH, we all ended up sleeping in the same bed

We have arrived in stansted and are really having fun. The kids are so excited to see their brother and uncle and aunt. I mean Sarah is attached to her aunt at the hip and if it was up to my sister, Sarah would live with her. they both adore each other and Samuel is his uncle's double. wants to do everything with him.haha
All in all it was a great flight. The kids have been rewarded 50 pounds each for being well behaved and got a treat each at the duty free in Dubai. I'm so proud of them as the flight was so long especially Dubai to stansted. Sarah has always been super when fling and I'm glad Samuel is learning from the best sister in the world.
I love travelling with our kids and watching the world through their eyes. Bring on the summer holidays.

A trip to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary - Uganda

Yesterday was a bank holiday here, can't tell you what is was for but we enjoyed it as a family. Wayne took Monday off so we had a long weekend as a family just chilling. Sarah is done with school she is on her summer break and Samuel is excited about having his sister at home all the time. And I'm thrilled to have my babies home with me all day long. Sarah finished school with a cough and we should have gone to the sanctuary on Monday but she didn't have a good night so we decided to try again yesterday. she had a better night and off we went in the morning. we left home at 8am exactly and it was a three and half hours drive. When we got there the process was easy, we paid our fees and got briefed on safety  and off we went with our guide rhino/Ronald.
We found the rhinos in less than five minutes and were able to spend an hour watching then graze in their natural habitat as we took lots of pictures and observed and absorbed everything.

We were hoping to see pangolins and aardvarks but they are nocturnal animals so we are hoping trip there sometime and spend the night. So we can participate in other activities like bird watching and do the pangolin night trek and also look for leopards.All in all we loved the experience.

Sarah really enjoyed watching the rhinos and also took pictures with her phone as her camera didn't have any more films because I forgot to put it in her Polaroid.

 It was Samuel's first experience and he was excited to see the rhinos.This is the only place where you can rhino track on foot and what an experience.
Ziwa rhino sanctuary is the only place where one can find southern white rhinos in Uganda in the wild. the place is really lovely and well looked after. there are 23 rhinos in total in Uganda and we pray that they continue to reproduce and multiply.

We found a mother with her baby bella and another female rhino called luna. Bella's mother is expecting a baby and as her due date approaches she will chase her big baby away to go and integrate with other rhinos of her age  or a family that will accept her as a part of them.
 Fun facts about southern white rhinos
When born the baby weighs 50kg and over.
They are grazers, they don't eat leaves and tree branches only grass.
They eat upto 150kgs of grass a day and drink 80 liters of water.
They are more active during the night.
They dont interbreed.
They have a gestation period of 16 months.

Life in uganda

We have now been in Uganda for almost three years and believe you me we are just getting settled in. It's finally feeling like home and we have now settled in in our new place. Life in general has been great.  We found the best stables ever and ride there every week,  and have bonded with the ponies and horses. Sarah  loves her school, Wayne is enjoying his job and Samuel and I are pretty much in routine. the animals are doing great. well Magic is loving life and has finally come to terms that the cock is not a play mate and doesn't like to be chased. Chippy on the other hand is not budging from beating up Blackie who belongs to the landlady but has forcefully joined our family. I think chippy has sharing issues so she beats the crap out of Blackie at any opportunity she gets. so I chase chippy trying to get it to her head that there is space for two cats forcefully. Today the day security guard run after me, pleading with me to be careful as I was going to fall as I sprinted with a pair of slippers in my hand to give chippy the hiding of her life.lucky for her, she managed to get away. I have not forgotten though. The  new night security guard thinks I'm nuts as I ran past him last evening chasing chippy shouting you are dead today Chippy! We have a cock called feathers. My aunt sent Sarah  a cock for Easter and we now have him as a pet. He spends most of his day fighting his reflection at the entrance downstairs and crowing the hell out of us. 
This is our life in Uganda.

Our family is growing !

We are excited to be expanding our family.we are having another baby. so cant wait  for this baby  to get here and enjoy life with us. We already love you so much baby cook.

Long over due

Its been over two years since I blogged. to be honest i just slacked and every time I wanted to blog I felt I had a lot to write/say and ended up just writing them in my   mind.
we have moved and lived in three countries; Kenya, Malawi and Uganda since I last blogged, lost a family member our four legged jiji and gained a puppy magic and a kitty called chocolate chip.
oh and I lost my password to sign into blogger. A lot has happened and i will share some of them after introducing flash back days into my blog. I'm going to use this blog as a family journal and will make it into at the end of the year.
2015 to be honest sacked a little. hoping 2016 will be more appealing. That been said, we had a wonderful Christmas, it was one to remember.  hope you all had a wonderful one. much love,
the cooks

Having fun indoors

The weather has been up and down, its so unbearably hot then it rains there after for like two whole days! it reminded us of the few days before we left to visit. Munchkin is such an outdoor love that when its raining she gets bummed. She doesn't like the rain falling on her, not even the drizzles from the sprinkler but does enjoy playing in her pool. I wish I had packed it.


When it was raining, she unpacked her inflatable pool and tried blowing it. I eventually came to her rescue.


munchkin trying to inflate the pool after seeing what mommy was doing

We had it in the middle of our lounge for a couple of days and nights without and water in it. she would climb into it with her toys and play.

She is copying everything I do which is so sweet but sometimes I cant help but feel like I'm losing my baby, she is growing so fast and keep wondering where time has gone as it still feels like she was born yesterday.

We have woken up and day looks so inviting, if the weather continues like this we might go to the beach today.



Valentines Day

 

Valentines day was fabulous. Sarah and I got a surprise from daddy :). Wayne is in Kenya for three weeks! He bought me my valentines present before he left. I got spoilt with a brand new laptop. I'm loving every bit of it. So I didn't think much of the day, when it got around. We miss him terribly and after our usual phone calls in the morning, checking in on Sarah and I. We hadn't made any plans since we didn't have a car to go around. So being a gorgeous hot day we stayed in doors watched lots of tv and played in the garden.

Then in the early afternoon received a call from the gate there was a delivery for us. He surprised us and ordered the most gorgeous flowers. I love him so much and I'm  the luckiest girl ever to call him my prince charming. I cant wait for him to get home and give him the biggest smooch ever. Not only does he think of me but of munchkin too. We are very blessed spoilt girls.
And aunty Thobe came to play and spoilt us with delicious red velvet cup cakes. It was a wonderful day.

Visiting in Durban

We are in Durban visiting with the good old folks:) for a whole 10 days.

Munchkin with granddad

watching tv with granny

 We are loving it here but as usual there a trip without some kind of drama wouldn't make us the cooks. We missed our flight! We should have been here for 11 days but then it happened. And this time we weren't late for our flight we made it in time.

 Some how in my confidence, I didn't bother to check my wallet the day before or hours before our flight. Im always sure my driver's licence is in my wallet. Well 30 mins to leave for the airoit it was no where to be found. So after searching around the house and emptying the car, there was nothing. Then I decided not to stress because I could still use my passport right? Well the passport was no where to be found, I checked like a thousand times where we usually put them but all I found where Sarah"s and Wayne's passports but not mine. So I called wayne panicking, hoping he would pick up his phone as he was in training in Tanzania but he didn't pick up. He eventually called back and I explained to him my dilemma, this is now like 5 minutes to leave for the airport. He had a solution, a certified copy of my passport and also to go with my expired one just incase. well I pick the only certified copy I could get , sarah's passport and we head off to the airport. We arrived in time and when we got to check in I explained to the friendly lady what had happened, reading her facial expression, for a second it seemed like we were good to go, then she picked up her phone and called her supervisor. well my certified copy was 6 months old and they only accept three months and below. So she referred us to one of their desks saying" go there and talk to them, and they will help you" I was like if you are not able to convince them and you are part of their team how do you suppose I should go about it. Well we trotted back to the desk and the only option was to change our flight again at a fee! By this time the cost of changing tickets would have bought us another return trip!!! I even ask if we could use munchkin's passport to travel, dumb!!!! I know but the thought of going back home and going through the same process was kind of tiring. and telling Wayne we missed our flight and I had to spend more money!!! Anyway he was so calmed and said it was cool and not to worry about it. To check in some places where the passport would be.
Thanks to our chauffer Bonolo after changing the tickets to the following day same time, we headed home. When in an unpleasant situation, I usually laugh with tears streaming down my face but because we were in public and not wanting to upset munchkin, all I did was laugh. Funny thing is on our way to the airport we were talking and laughing about travel incidents/missing flights and history did repeat itself.
As soon as we got home and unloaded the car, I went to my closet and there was a plastic bag and emptied it on the bed, there was my passport smiling back at me.
So we spent the rest of the day chilling and watching tv.
Had to make the disappointing call to mom and dad.
The following morning I repacked our bags and we were good to go, until on arrival at the airport the same lady calls us through and then picks up her phone and makes a call. In my head I was thinking of how rude she was, turns out, the gates had just been closed and she was asking them to open them again. We almost missed our flight! We eventually made it. Munchkin was a trooper, we had about 15 kids on the flight, it was wailing galore! thanks to the descent. But Sarah was good, as soon as we started descending she was uncomfortable  and cried a bit tried to breast feed her but all she wanted was to play and eventually she settle breastfed and lay in my arms for the rest of the trip.
The day before she had fallen and bruised her nose, so much for a grand entrance, granny and granddad were very happy to finally have her with them.

 

 

well we made it and we are having a cool time in Durban, enjoying every bit of the complex weather.

Hanging out at the park

Often when Wayne leaves for work to another country, I get so emotional especially on the day he leaves. So after saying our good byes, we had lunch and Sarah had her afternoon nap. We packed up our bag with Sarah's favourite park friendly toy; her ball and had fudge in tow. To kill time till as she loves the outdoors and also to tire munchkin out, as the first three nights are horrible. She wakes up literally every 15 minutes looking for her daddy. So when she is tired she sleeps better but not perfect. And I will take anything I can get besides the fifteen minute alarm clock!

 

 It was lovely to be out. Unfortunate for us the park had quite a number of other animals and fudge is not very friendly with other dogs. So we couldn't let him roam around the park without his leash. He kept close by Sarah and every time someone came close by his back hairs stood up. He is so protective over his little sister. Even when she is moaning or crying, he gets up and walks to the room to check and make sure she is ok and will sometimes hang around till she keeps quiet. Fudge is a very laid back!!!   He is excited to get out of the house but wont run after a ball or any toys for that matter whether at the park or home. And this counts as exercise too for him.

He just walks about sniffing and peeing on everything. Well he loves it and Sarah loves it too. It was great taking a stroll around and playing ball with Sarah and fudge. And nothing beats having some fresh air outdoors.

We miss him

Wayne left on Sunday for East Africa. Basically he is doing work in all the three countries and will be back in three weeks. Yikes!!! It doesn't feel right at home, we miss him dearly and the impact is clearly taking a toll on fudge, Sarah and I. I miss having him next to me the cuddles and watching him play his part with fudge and Sarah.

with daddy just before he left for the airport. we always take pics of her with daddy before he leaves for  his trips

It gets particularly difficult in the evenings after she has had her dinner and bath , then bed time. Wayne's usual time to get home is between 6 and 6.30pm so before her dinner she runs to the gate yelling "dada". And it breaks my heart because I can see the confusion going on of him not being around.
And after she is dressed up and ready for bed, we usually sit on the carpet in her room. She then chooses a book for him to read and she sits on my lap listening to him as I breastfeed her. We then say our family prayers and the good night kisses are exchange, then daddy leaves the room for me to settle her into bed. Hearing their giggles and hearty laughs when I leave the room, as I prepare her drinking water and allergy medicines before we settle down is music to my ears. I love these two to bits.

Yup , she does love brushing her teeth and after her bath she grabs onto the tooth brush.

See my teeth all sparkly and white

Daddy will you share my tooth brush too. Its yummy!!

I look forward to this time of day and its quite difficult when he is not around because Sarah keeps looking at the door for him to come through.

Having fun before being tucked in

And with fudge, he does not eat for the first two days after he is gone and wont sleep in his bed instead he sleeps by the door waiting for him to return. I end up taking his bed to the door way.
The first three days have been horrible because the Internet connection in Uganda is slow that we cant Skype, but tonight we were able to Skype thanks to the Internet connection in Tanzania which is faster than Uganda. We can't wait for him to get to Kenya because its even better than the connection we have at home. We were able to chat to him and Sarah and fudge were so happy. Fudge kept on wagging his tail and Sarah couldn't stop kissing his face on the ipad, she kept on carrying close to her chest.
So I'm glad she got to say night nightie to daddy and he read to her a story.
THANKS TO TECHNOLOGY!!! our darling princess went to bed happy. And when baby is happy , mommy is happy too.

Story time- I love these two. They are so adorable together

As I type this out there is one huge storm that has started, I hope the thunder doesn't wake her up. As she needs some rest. We fly to urban tomorrow for 11 days to spend time with the folks while Wayne is out of town. So I'm kind of anxious flying just the two of us. She is always good when we fly but we have done it as a family with daddy around. so we shall see how that goes. And as usual I haven't packed. So much to do, I need to sleep now and wake up early to sort every thing out before munchkin wakes up.