Surprise!!! Auntie Janice brought a "perishable package" to my Dad for his birthday (Herself!) Cue shock, tears, and a lot of hugging...

On the other side of the Atlantic, there were a couple of small children who were very, very jealous and missing their Auntie. We followed her adventures by text and twitter with new pictures every bedtime until finally Auntie Janice made it to Africa. We were interested to discover that Facetime was MUCH more reliable than Skype - it seems to cope better with the difficult conditions. Auntie Janice stays up later than Grandpa and Grandma, so we got to connect nearly every day just around bedtime.

Elizabeth and Matthew had a hard time sharing the video session, mostly because Matthew just wanted to hug, kiss and generally cuddle "Auntie Janice" and "Grandma". At dinner time he offered pieces of his food to the screen. For the record, I do NOT encourage licking my phone - I've heard horror stories about toddlers causing the camera to stop working due to drool damage and I have no desire to test this.

I didn't take pictures of Elizabeth taking her own turn because she usually took the phone far away and holed up with it so as to have a Matthew-free chat! There were many virtual hugs.