What a beautiful country and a wonderful trip! Although I'll have many blogs about the trip, I thought I'd sum it up with two pictures to start it off... breathtaking beaches around every turn and spectacular sunsets by night.

Did you know my husband is an excellent photographer? I think so anyway.

I've been back for a couple days now but it took a while to recover from the 3 flights which took 29 hours to get back home!

More to come...

Twas the night before I leave on vacation... I am excitedly running about packing my bags. I secretly brought some pictures of the kids so I wouldn't miss them so much. This is the longest time we've been gone, although they are in capable hands -spoiled rotten by their grandparents - both sets! As everyone has told me, I will miss them leaving the house and then out of sight out of mind. (I don't believe it's that easy!)

I am excited about meeting everyone at Bug Zoo and am disheartened that I won't be able to meet Hooligans after all. Another time perhaps...

Until I return then... with adventurous tales of South Africa!

Now that you've seen pics of my youngest daughter, did you notice anything funny about her hair? My daughters played hair salon (not on my watch!) and it seems my youngest sat through getting a full hair cut, about 1 1/2 to 2 inches all the way around her head. I must say, I am proud to say that my oldest did a pretty good job as she went evenly around, except for the scalped section in the front by her part. I believe that was her first cut and then she realized her mistake and started working much more evenly around her head.

Everyone is commenting on how cute the short hair looks on her. I'll admit I like it too (although we had just started pulling it all back in one ponytail), but my daughter is still not allowed alone with scissors!

The girls and I had a photo shoot today. They had a great time, running around being prissy and such. I just kept snapping away. It's funny watching the little one try to do the same poses as her older sister. I noticed a maturity in my older daughter's poses I've never seen before! (pic at left) It reminded me that she is growing up way too fast. Now my other darling daughter has finally taken to the camera and is a natural I am finding. (pic on right) She's a ham and she knows it! Check out more picks on the Kaboodle Kids website. The new spring lines are in from Bug Zoo. I am running around trying to do so much. Today was a good day, although it started out with me feeling so overwhelmed with what needed to be done. I finally just dug in and was able to accomplish everything on the list today. I did my cold sales calls today and am setting out locally to two boutiques in the local area, one just opened up within the last few weeks. I may have found the answer to my SEO problems! I just hired Website Pros to help me. They work with small businesses to improve web sales and the price is right! I wish I had found them last year... and I'd like to say I found them but they called me! I'll keep you posted on how well they work out. What I like is that all changes will be made by me, which means I am learning everything I need to manage going forward. I like that. Isn't this upgrade great? I can post pictures now. I am giggling with excitement at how easy it was!

Bear with me, I am trying to revamp my blog site... give it a fresh look. I recently upgraded and am still learning so this will take a while. I was up until 1 am and didn't get far, but I didn't start until late either. For some reason I couldn't sleep and I kept going to the refrigerator for a snack. I slept well though with a full stomach! I woke up refreshed even with less than 6 hours sleep.

My first business trip is quite an exciting one! I am going to South Africa! Fortunately, my hubby has a business trip there in March so we'll be traveling together. I am excited to meet both my suppliers and hopefully a Feed The Children office will be in the local area for me to visit as well. It would be nice to see and hear first hand what they are doing to help the children there... really understand where our contributions are going to. I haven't yet met my suppliers and can't wait to meet them, considering we've been doing business for a year now. I'll get lots of pictures.

We've even added on a safari trip. I believe we will be eating lunch with elephants and flying a helicopter over the sharks! Sounds like an adventure to me. I can't wait!

It's been a while since I last posted. I am starting year two of Kaboodle Kids and I was just asked a very important question... where do you see Kaboodle Kids going from here (forget being realistic)? It's funny, but as a mom, I always feel like I am surviving and getting through the day. Kaboodle Kids was formed out of a similar need for survival from the rat race of raising two girls while maintaining a full time job. You'd think I have that time now, but it gets shuffled around like all the other day to day tasks do.

My dream idea is very simplistic... I want others to love these clothes as much as I do. When my husband brought them back for our girls from his business trips, I wondered why I couldn't find them on the net to purchase them myself. I like the way the Naartjie fan club of moms stay loyal and true to the brand and hope that one day Kaboodle Kids has the same type of following. Getting people aware on a large scale is hard to do. I hope that is something I can accomplish this year.