It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood - for a Pack Walk!

The weather as of late (or pretty much always) has been particularly beautiful in the evenings when we take our Pack Walks. We've really enjoyed living in this neighborhood and since we walk so frequently people know us now and don't really stare.

This evening we had along our trusty friend and photographer, Tanya, who snapped a few shots of the Infamous Pack Walk. So come along and join us!

And away we go!

We're marching to Zion - or something! Or onward Christian soldiers? Not sure!  

The Pack - L to R : Ella, Madea, Bridger, me, Sanyu, Ranger, Billy and Frank

Literally, a "behind" shot!

Do we spot a monkey?

Ready, set...

...Action!

Our reluctant Canadian Dog Whisperer and photographer! We will convert her, we will!

The littlest Pack Leader, with Billy. Billy is a big, SLOW dog and it's a little like leading a mule!

I love Frank's eyes in this one. Nice shot of Billy's ridge, too!

Pack Picnic with friends

A couple Fridays ago I had the bright idea to have a picnic in the Gardens. So I called up my friend, Menda, and a picnic was on! I brought my Pack of six dogs, plus the two kids, and Menda brought seven of her eight kids, plus three adults and three more kids! Yep, you've got it - a PARTY! Or a circus, we weren't quite sure which... I know, what kind of idiot brings six dogs to a picnic where kids sitting on the ground with food are involved. Me :) Bill was a bit all over!

This was baby Bill's FIRST time at the beach!

Lots of dogs and lots of kids splashing around out there!

The adults tried to set up camp a safe distance away from the wet dogs and wet kids. Too bad hose wet things are mobile!

Running down the beach in your swimming cap with a stick and your dogs

Ellie is really fitting into our Pack well. She is such an easy, sweet dog. She doesn't actually drink from the water bottle though ;)

Little Bill played and played, hunted up all sorts of bones and crap, and then crashed. In a hole. With his butt up in the air!

While the children, pups and Bridger frolicked and hunted for bones, us "older" gals chilled by the mat. Sanyu because she didn't have a choice and Ellie...

...because she needed to sunbathe.

The kids swam in the Lake non stop for over an hour after our friends left. The benefit of them wearing swim caps is not only to keep their hair dry but it makes them easier to spot, as well!

The Life Guards

Nothing like bobbing amid the algae!

Dang I'm cold - hand me a cucumber please

On the road home after an afternoon swimming :)

I'm really ready to move to our new house but in the mean time, it sure is nice to live so close to the Lake and Gardens!

Easter Fun!

For not thinking about Easter much until Friday night, I'd say we had a pretty good one!

Now I am TERRIBLE at holidays. I never plan for them and hate decorating so basically holidays come and go without a lot of pre planning on my part. I tell the kids that there IS a holiday usually a day or two before, then scramble to tell them what the holiday is about. Like Jesus being born, pilgrims thanking God, Jesus dying and raising from the dead, etc. And this Easter was no different.

I was skyping with my Mom on Friday night after a DREADFUL day (which I won't get into!) and she reminded me about the resurrection eggs that we had (and I'd forgotten about!). So that was a start to our Easter! I got them out and sure enough Ella remembered them from 2009 when we were in Montana with Granny. She still knew the story! It seems like anything about Jesus or the Bible that my kids know their Granny taught them. Sigh. Maybe someday I'll get the hang of it...

Saturday we went to our friends house in the afternoon for an Easter egg hunt - Frankie's first ever! The kids were read the Easter story ( a quick kid version!), they hunted eggs (three times because it was so much fun!), ate their candy, Ella and I showed Abi our resurrection eggs and rambled on about them, then the kids played. Fun!

Sunday morning I got a call at about 9:15am from an American pastor from the East Coast who had just landed at the airport - with a package from Granny! He was a relative of a family friend from, get this, West Virginia!! We have one determined Granny let me tell ya, who does not trust nor forgive the Uganda mail system! Ha! So we met him at the P.O here and picked up our package, then came home and dug into the loot.

Oh my. What timely loot it was! Ella got a new Easter dress, Frankie several new shirts (all on sale!), some spaghetti sauce packs and cheese packs for mac n cheese (think EASY prep for nights I don't want to cook!), two candy filled chickens with symbols (so cool!), some "undergarments" for me (I feel SO supported now! ;), books for the kids and last but not least, little veggietale egg wrappers for Easter eggs. So even though I, the children's MOTHER, didn't think of Easter baskets, God, through their Granny and a guy from W. Virginia, provided the kids with some memorable and timely Easter treats. Isn't that COOL? God can totally make up for a mother's inefficiencies!

We went to church - the children in all their finery and me looking, well like a frump (but a fully supported frump!) - then in the afternoon "dressed" our eggs. So easy and they looked GREAT! Which was a good thing because I don't quite have the hang of coloring them yet. Then we were off to yet ANOTHER Easter egg hunt at friends. What fun!

Seriously listening to the Easter story on Saturday

Opening their eggs and eating their candy after the hunt


Proudly showing their new outfits and symbol playing candy filled chickens. Thanks Granny!

All dressed up and ready for church

Toothless L in all of her purple glory!

My little cowboy. I can't believe how long these jeans made his legs look!

After naps we dressed the eggs. So easy and they looked GREAT!

Our egg offerings for the hunt. I exploded a couple eggs boiling them...

The H Huntress going after her prey

Finding one in the bbq

Diving into the pumpkins after an egg

Banana trees are great for hiding eggs!

Proud!

Ella and her friend Abi on the trampoline. These two are quite the pair! Abi is a huge kick in the pants.

All of the hunters convening after the hunt. Telling hunting stories I'm sure ;)

The proud hunters!

And the spread :)

Eatin' with friends up away from the dogs!

The kids had a blast! Frankie started the day just a wee bit cranked but snapped out of it and HAD FUN. It is amazing to watch him now - I'm not sure if it's his age or a result of his working through his trauma issues but he can actually interact and play with a bunch of kids now and not only have fun, but totally hold his own! This mama ain't raisin' no wimp ;)

Great day. Great mom. Great pastor from W. V. Great friends. Great God!

Random pics from the H Fam

It's difficult to blog now since I don't have a computer at home but thought I should try to post something at least once a week anyways!

Thursday was Ella's three year anniversary of coming home :) If I had my puter at home I'd probably post something poetical about that major milestone, but since I don't, I'm not. Three years IS a big deal though, for so many reasons. Now we can get her adoption finalized and do the immigration work for her to become a bonafide U.S citizen and to receive a Montana birth certificate. We're going to wait until November however to see if we can get her and Frankie finalized at the same time. It would be really nice to save on legal fees and to have their adoptions both finalized by the time we go back to the States next year on furlough. I'm so ready for this legal work to end!

We went to the Botanical Gardens on Friday. Here is Ella trying not to drop the neighbor baby.

"Guardians of The Babe"

We made some failed attempts at getting us all (one adult, two kids and four dogs) in a family picture. It didn't work :)

Loved Ella's goofy face in this one!

The dogs are looking every which way but at least the peeps are smiling!

Ella, Frankie and James

The baby looking at me in wonder. This is just the look of Kathryn's babies - it cracks me up!

James, Kathryn and Frankie, bringing up the rear.

Pictures of our building site from Saturday (12th). The foundation is coming right along!

Ella, showin' 'em how it's done... How cool is it that a kid can "help" build her own house?!

The future landlord and landlady - Yikes!

These delicious tomatoes were from our very own tomato plant!

Apparently Piglet likes dressing up in polly pocket clothes. Who knew?

Frank got into a tangle with a fuzzy caterpillar - five minutes after a dose of antihistamine and he was fine!

We visited the rhino's at the zoo a couple of weeks ago. They were happy to see us, you can tell ;)

We gave this fellow a massage with sticks (not pictured) as their skin is really thick! We did have a wild animal injury when Ella's fingers got squished between the pole fence and the rhino. No, we are not going to sue....

Note: Rhino's like to be scratched behind their ears but NOT on their bellies!

Ella marched along carrying her jeweled purse with water in it :)