Riya-Ray

How do you decide on a theme for your kids parties? Every year it goes the same way for us.  The girls (whose birthdays are two weeks apart – so…

So we’ve um’ed and ah’ed about getting the girls ears pierced for ages because the truth is, I was terrified of taking them.  I mean, I had no idea how…

Just when we’d gotten our kids into the habit of sleeping late and having to wake Knox up at 9 (when he still hadn’t emerged from his Hulk cave), we…

Oh my dearest big little Riya-Ray You won’t believe how hard it is to sit down and write these letters to you*.  Not because it’s hard to find something to…

They say life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get. I think that the same can be said about having children. When…

If I claimed this to a definitive guide to party packs I’d basically be saying that I’m Martha Stewart.  And we all know that’s about as true as saying Saturday…

Along with Summer comes the much anticipated school holidays and festive season.  It’s possibly my absolute favourite time of the year.  The excitement of being home and able to do…

Our hearts do many things.  Sometimes they feel a deep sadness with an unexpected loss, sometimes a deep and unfaltering love for a partner and sometimes they just want to pop…

I don’t normally post on the weekend, because like, it’s the weekend. But I’m breaking bad just once to share more of the pictures of Knoxs Shaun the Sheep party…

I’ve always wanted a reason to have a Shaun The Sheep party. In case you’ve never experienced the awesomeness of Shaun The Sheep – let me educate you quickly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43OWPI-Ychs…

If I can give you any advice about going to do a skin allergy test is that you shouldn’t do it. The second bit of advice is that if you’re…

If you are Cape Town (like me), you are looking around and wondering what the heck happened to that brief period of sun we had just a couple of days…

You know when something really trivial happens and no one else notices, but to you it kind of feels like the World has stopped until you process those thoughts and feelings?…

Aaaah, the great outdoors.  With the sun heating up cold bones, birds and squirrels bustling around in the trees over head, the sound of children laughing and the view of…

Despite how hectic planning a party can be, I am kind of sad that the girls party is over. So let’s quickly relive it through pictures, OK? In case you…

Apparently the older your kids get, the more you are supposed to “do” at a party. It’s no longer about just getting together to have fun, you actually have to…

I have totally given up trying to get the girls to wear the clothing that I wish they wore. You know the kind that if it was just a little…

It was just another day for us. Me clutching both girls by the hand, reigning both of them from trying to hop into the road while trying desperately to miss…

Beauty. It’s so subjective.  And yet the World has formalised it somehow. In order to be “beautiful” you need to have checked all these boxes – striking facial features, radiant skin,…

Sometimes doing things for the first time can be really scary. But flying a kite is not even close to that at all. If you get it right, it can…

I should probably give you a heads up – if you should happen to see anyone of the Alfino clan roaming the streets looking like a zombie, this is your…

I always thought that everyone who ever said, “This too shall pass” to me, were right. Was it helpful at the time?  Maybe not so much, because I was still dealing…

There’s this place called Oude Molen Eco Village. From the outside it appears to be the kind of place that you don’t ever want to see the inside of.  So…