E - Vida

Late on this Friday night I thought I'd share some of the most recent additions to the duP dictionary - come phrase book: "Whatsa ma-rra?" Ethan's one question that he can pull off in a fancy American accent. "Bam! What?!" Used whenever Jorja deems it appropriate - like after she's tied her shoe laces, or correctly formed a letter in her school practice book. She treats it as a verbal pat on the back. "Oh my skunk!" P-J reacting with shock to some or other creature crossing the dark road on our drive home. Usually, it is a skunk. "In the pocket" Ethan's phrase for when he swallows something tasty or sees someone sink a basketball in the hoop. "You are disappointing me" When Jorja needs some quiet time and means to use the word disturbing. "Elsa p-eye na Anna" (Elsa finds Anna) Ethan's code for asking me to put the movie Frozen on. "Ow! Ow! Ow! My tummy is sore" Ethan's way...

I'll admit that the blog has been a bit bland without photos, so I've made an extra effort to post some today!  Since Wednesday's downpour, the weather has been much kinder to us - even though it isn't too hot, it has stopped raining. It's probably proven that the weather affects our mood, so you can imagine what the tone is like when we're doing school work! Fortunately, P-J is super creative about it and isn't one to shy away from incentive learning. In this equation, the banana was up for grabs The look of this fridge is just exciting - farm fresh vegetables, hand picked eggs and aromatic herbs. How can you not eat well? Jorja's favourite time of learning to date is when she can help her Dad in the kitchen. Here she is rolling out pasta dough for dinner. He feeds and she rolls... Get ready to roll! Pretty chuffed with herself  The finished product was handmade pasta with homemade tomato, garlic and basil sauce toppe...

The rain came down today, all day. But that didn’t keep us cooped up indoors – even though it probably should have! Just around lunch time we head North on Interstate 91 to King Arthur Flour baking campus. This place is truly a tasty tourist attraction and a gold mine for bakers! Besides their pretty supply store with every baking tool you can think of and personalised gift baskets, there’s a deli serving up freshly baked goods, bakers working their magic behind the viewing windows and then the actual baking school where you could sign up to learn some nifty tricks. We had a good time walking around and exploring as much as possible with a sleeping Ethan and a hungry Jorja. Note to self: Do not take hungry kid onto a baking campus! Feeling inspired despite the constant and heavy downpour, we drove on to Bridgewater – pretty sure that we’d finally timed it right. Jorja napped on the way there and Ethan continued sleeping until we arrived at the highly acclaimed Bridgewa...

Today Farmer and DD celebrated their 40- somethingth wedding anniversary! Back home, we Hendricks' enjoy making a party out of everything, but I realised that it's a little different on this side of the world... Instead of a noisy gathering like we do in Cape Town (for as many different celebratory days as possible), they enjoyed their day by going about it as usual - office work, grandkid babysitting duties and mowing the lawn until late into the night! As young as Jorja is, it took some explaining to her that we weren't going to visit for cake - apparently something that she's well used to now. Due to the unfortunate weather forecast, we decided not to go down to the Dartmouth University's pre-season game - something that I was looking forward to since we learnt about it last week. But just thinking about being lost in the rain with the kids was enough to soothe that disappointment. Instead, we went down to West Lebanon for some baking supplies and then up t...

Sometimes, things are not as instantly satisfying as we'd like them to be. Sometimes, despite having 10 different internet tabs open at one time, telling you how to be more patient with your kids and more at ease with the state of your house, you still feel a lot on edge! Sometimes, a crispy red apple that you managed to savour for breakfast is the best part about the last 5 hours combined... Yesterday, we visited the Lake after an early nap. What's a double whammy? Well, this would be the opposite of that. We took well rested kids to swim for an hour and everyone was smiling. Jorja even made two friends while we were there - Katherine and Sebastian. She was a little sad when Katherine went home without saying goodbye but otherwise thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon out. She sat on a hill at Home Meadow Farm later in the afternoon, with her curly light-brown locks hanging over her shoulders and deep in thought - notebook and pen in hand. She looked so grown up! I was sorry th...

We've just returned to White River Junction after 12 hours in the mountains... Well, up in the higher mountains! After our morning oats, baking a batch of peanut butter cookies and doing our first load of laundry in the Apartment, the house was smelling good and we were all set for the weekend.When P-J returned from the farm, we decided to go and overnight at Camp in Plymouth. Some Saturday school work  We packed 1 bag (in total) in record speed. We were almost all set to go when Ethan called out that he couldn't find his toy sheep. Only once we found the sheep, did we eventually leave. The drive up to Camp was as beautiful as always, and being a Saturday, included the sights, sounds and smells of the Woodstock street market. It reminded us a bit of Buenos Aires! We arrived in good time and P-J soon regretted not packing in any shorts for the trip. Well, what's a wife for, if not to be there to turn your jean pant into a shorts?! Feeling much better suited, he...

We had a little drainage problem in the bath/shower of the Apartment but it was no biggie - we just caravan camp styled it over the grass for a shower in the comfort of our old bathroom! Looks fun, but not necessary yet! Turns out we may enjoy a lot more time outside now. While the kids napped in the new house, I could catch up online by sitting on the porch of the old house - giving me enough internet signal and keeping me close enough to Jorja and Ethan in case they woke. On our travels yesterday, Jorja scored a pair of $1 slip slops... ...That Ethan promptly hijacked! Best we go and look for a 'spare pair' when we're out the on the road again because they're having a fight over them right now!