Sunday, 28 June 2015

Senegal- Part one

We were in Senegal in April to help two Malians get knee surgery that isn't available in Mali. Both work at the hospital in Koutiala. It was really special to spend time with them. 

While Brett was taking them back and forth to appointments and surgery and all, the kids and I got to enjoy the beach. Not a bad deal. :) 

Day one- the boys were out at the water before 8 am. Our house was literally right on the beach so all they had to do was walk out of our porch. Unfortunately, the water was freezing. However, everyone managed to have some fun.


There are pics of Dawson at about 4 running out of the water like this. Somehow it seems like that could have just been yesterday as the actions seem just the same but he is not a little boy anymore.







We played games on the porch for my Momma. :) You would have been so proud of us.




He found charcoal on the beach and made a pencil out of it





Dawson's 10th Birthday

Yes, I'm just a bit behind on posting pictures of Dawson's 10th birthday in March but it's always better late than never I suppose.

This kid is fantastic. A true joy. He is an amazing helper to Brett and me. I feel it when he is gone and am reminded just how much I have come to depend on his helping hands. He has such a sensitive heart and truly cares for his siblings. He can come up with a zillion questions on any topic, just like his father. He is a critical thinker. I love this kid to pieces. He is such a gift to us.




The boys have gotten into Bakugan again so that was the theme of the party.

Trying to spray the tissue paper enough so that the balloon will fall.





There was a game of trying to catch the falling Bakugan cards which worked nicely in our stairwell (above) and then, of course, water balloons because boys love water balloons.


He was super-thrilled to get his own RISK game. He's gotten into it and loves it. Unfortunately he has a hard time getting people to play with him. It's a weekend kind of game...like all weekend. A boy thing that I don't fully understand. :)

Monday, 27 April 2015

Village pictures

The house in the village has provided us with many hours of work. We enjoy it out there as it is incredibly peaceful...if we don't enter the house. :) Little by little we are making improvements.


When we say the place was dirty, I don't think the words are enough. Dirt and bugs were everywhere. I hesitate to say were because I think there is still tons of both that we have yet to find.




The black in the picture below is a mixture of mouse poop and bugs.

What everyone looked like after a good day of cleaning.

 This is an older picture (hard to believe a couple months can change this girl so much) but I feel like I have to included it in the village post because being in the village means being in the car...a lot. Sometimes too long for a little baby (and everyone else) to remain content. So when we are going along slowly (which we often are on bad roads with a roof full of things) Haven sometimes enjoys a little freedom.

But even the freedom from the chair means she is still stuck in a car full of people and things which means happiness is still hard to achieve.


We were carrying new ceiling paneling and hit a bump that was hard to see and all the wood went flying off the roof.

So everyone helps to put it back onto the roof. At least there wasn't any traffic on the road. :)


 The boys refuse to hit their donkey, Jewel, to make her go. So often there is a long process of getting her to go anywhere. :) She isn't the brightest animal in the kingdom.


The mornings often look like this- the boys huddled together to watch a show on an ipod. The extra head here (and above) is a friend from Koutiala. There's also a kitten in the picture (right near Dawson's- blue pajamas- head) which was from someone else's house who came in to watch the show with them. :)

A better look at Jewel. Dawson's getting pretty good at riding her and she's doing better taking him around.

 Here's the living room after a good cleaning and new ceiling panels.

Friday, 13 February 2015

we like fire

Sometimes I stray from being the wise parent that teaches our kids that it's not good to play with fire because, well, fire can be fun....and totally dangerous. So I usually restrain my own enjoyment of playing with fire for the sake of my kids. But one day we decided to build log cabins out of matches. We tried using glue but that didn't work well so we just stacked. It didn't truly matter, though, because our true intention was to light it on fire anyway.


We found the best way to get a big fire and enjoyed watching each of the log cabins (or random assortment of matches) go up in flames. How pretty is that fire?

Ok, I'm done. Back to being responsible.

Kenan's 8th birthday

January 1st was Kenan's 8th birthday. EIGHT. Seems like yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital in France. 

He is a joy and delight. He loves well. He is so in love with his sister. He loves making her laugh and is very good at it. He is funny and very smart. He takes his work seriously. I am now doing some of their schooling so I get to privilege to teach him math and science. I sometimes wonder why I am there-the boy is so quick.  Kenan still marches to the beat of his own drum, could care less if his clothes are on backwards or even inside out. I love this about him. He has a carefree spirit. It is was sets him apart in this family and makes him Kenan. I love it. He is a true joy!

He wanted a skylander party with Spyro on his cake. I'm counting on most of you not knowing who that is so you can think the cake is an adequate depiction of him. The boys really think I'm good at cake decorating. I'm thankful their expectations are low and little things can appease them. :) They'll grow up thinking I'm great at it and look back and realize that wasn't the case. :) 


Kenan wanted scavenger hunt-type games. They had clues to go somewhere to then play/complete a task. This was passing water balloons.

They had to untangle themselves from the web they had created



That web game was really complicated and we couldn't technically finish so we switched to the web arm game.



Then there was trying to pop the balloon that was attached to the foot of another player.


I think this was their favorite game. Trying to hit targets on the ground with water balloons.





There was also small fire crackers that they got to enjoy. 

Then it was off to enjoy cake and ice cream.




We had a couple of photo bombers in the pictures. :)




Happy Birthday, Kenan! We love you so very much!!