Goodbye training wheels! Ella's growing up!

This week the oldest H tot achieved the high and lofty goal of riding the bike without any training wheels!!! YEAH!!!! I am SO proud of her! Truly, I am. Ella is NOT one that particularly wants to try something and fail, much less get hurt. But I knew she was ready - not to mention the fact that she's almost seven years old - so off came the training wheels yesterday and the lessons began!

It took her more time to build up her courage than it actually did on how to ride the bike. For as spastic as she is she is an extremely coordinated kid, thanks to the trampoline and jump roping. Today she was riding up and down the big paved street above our house all by herself! While I of course sat on my butt in the shade and watched :). Wonderful!

She planned ahead and wore two pairs of pants and a jacket, just in case she fell. Which surprisingly she didn't!

I think she only ran into one person :)

We are very much going to miss this neighborhood when we move. We've really enjoyed living here!

She can even handle the speed bumps!

So while riding the bike was all fine and dandy for L, this is what Ranger thought of it after a while...

This is what little brothers do while they're waiting. Sit and catch dragon flies!

And give a little "love" to the dog

And more love to the dog...

... and even a bit more love to the dog!

The bike doesn't have a kick stand but Billy works just fine

I think Bridger has the right idea to get a little extra protien added to his meal

Little Pink Riding Hood!

He cracked us up when we were at a friends house. He came happily bursting out of the house after a gaggle of older girls, in a Snow White dress! He makes a very pretty little Snow White too :)

Billy also likes to be fashionable. Here he is in Ella's headband. He is an awesome dog for only being 9 months old. Very calm, low energy and submissive.

Family time :)

Madea, enjoying a rare moment on the furniture, and her cat

Lucy

Dinner at the H's!! Won't you join us? It's possible we could even find you your own plate!

Bizarre Crafts

The following post is an attempt to prove to the world, and most importantly to myself, that I am indeed a wonderful parent. And also because my friend Amber dared me to post the results ;)

Knowing that Christmas was just around the corner, that I had done absolutely ZILCH with the kids to prepare for it, and that I had a few days off to take before Christmas, I looked on the Internet for some simple crafts to do with the kids. Found a great sight in the process http://www.enchantedlearning.com/ and gleaned a few simple projects that didn’t require a) any fancy materials and b) a lot of skill. You see, I HATE crafts. I am NOT a crafty type person and crafts are not on my fun list. But I just happened to have a daughter on whose fun list crafts seem to be near the top. Crap.

The set up. Look how nice and tidy everything is. I made the kids help me clean the house before we started :)

Bulky me, wrestling with the top of a Christmas tree. 30 has not treated me very kindly, physique wise. My head shrunk! I have a tiny head now, which makes everything else look really big ;)

The "3D" Christmas trees. Frankie said they were "super beautiful."

Frankie posing with Ella's Christmas tree. Yes, I got the wrong tree with the wrong kid. Oh well!

Ella, with Frankie's Christmas tree

I put the star on the top of L's tree :)

On to decorating stars. You have NO idea how many attempts it took me to get these stars to turn out!

Frankie decorating his Santa star. This was beginning with the children's fetish over cotton.

Wooo! Ella's fuzzy Santa. My how L loved that cotton!

Ella struggling to hang up her Santa star

After a long struggle (she didn't want any help), mission accomplished!

Needless to say, poor old Santa lost a bit of fuzz during the hanging up experience! Not quite as fuzzy as when he started, that's for sure...

Frank's finished Santa star. Not quite as fuzzy as L's!

Ella observantly stated, "Frankie is really focused." The vocabularly that young children aquire after watching three series of The Dog Whisperer - more than once! 

Ah... and the fuzz continues!

The little hands reaching for the big pile of cotton in the middle of the table got me inspired....

Grab a glue stick and first... a moustache!

Well, as you can see, one thing led to another...

...Until finally - hello Father Christmas!

The now Father Christmas/Old Saint Nick/Santa Claus, still focused on his project

Ella hanging up her fuzzy star in the kitchen

In all it's stunning glory

So pleased! She calls this "decorating"

Santa, still focused on chopping bits of construction paper

After these pictures of more "controlled" crafting, the children went free style. Basically lots of cotton cut up and pasted onto bits of construction paper and placed ALL over the house and compound. I have to wonder what the guards thought to find a construction paper and cotton decoration hanging on the gate. And imagine my surprise to find one of these little decorations placed carefully on the toilet seat! Ha ha!

Ella was thrilled that the house is now "decorated for Christmas!" What I thought would be several hours of controlled fun turned into an entire day long marathon of H craftiness :) I've a feeling we haven't seen the end of it either!

Singing (and dancing and playing) in the rain

We took a long overdue Pack walk in the Garden's today and got in on a little rain storm. Something a little out of the usual to try to break up our rather mundane lives. Which we are grateful for - I wouldn't want to trade it for life in Kampala any day.

Watching a storm roll in off the Lake from Tanzania

I just love storms when you're in the great out of doors, so I made the decision to wait for this one. It was just so cool to see it coming, feel the wind and watch the waves get bigger.

There was no one else on the beach (having all wisely fled to safety) so Sanyu laid there practicing a "psychological exercise" of laying down and staying while the rest of the Pack was tearing around. She's not much of a water dog but she IS a hunting dog who likes to chase birds and hunt around for old bones and crap, as well as the usual human target.

We were lucky enough to find half of a jerry can (the bottom half!) that we used as a boat. It was fun to see how the wind carried it away so quickly (no one even cried!).

I put my camera on "sunset" setting, trying to catch the rainstorm. It didn't really but it did make the colors more clear and vibrant - more the way they really are here.

Madea having a sit in the water. Yeah, whatever.

Here she blows! The rain was starting over the flower farm and coming our way.

Getting caught in the rain really excites some people

And makes them dance. Wildly.

Getting drenched is fun

Well, not for everyone. Others are party poopers. I think she might have been praying for the rain to stop? You know, being a "MD" (Missionary Dog) and all.

The party poopers sat with their eyes firmly squeezed close. If you can't see the rain, maybe you can't feel the rain?

Ella "roasting" something in a campfire. Her and Bridger were by far the most enthusiastic. Frankie and Sanyu were somewhat more moderate, with the pups sitting around with their eyes squeezed tightly closed.

WET (and just a tad bit crazy?)

We made it safely home, without getting struck by lighting as we were running down the beach in the rain. Boy would that ever have been dumb! I had fun showing off my great knowledge of nature and the elements as I expounded on trees and their ability to keep you dry. It sounds dumb but you really need to experience standing under some of those big old trees in the pouring down rain and only being lightly sprinkled! The kids were duely impressed and like "WOW!" I love it that they still think I'm smart :)

And, bless their little wet hearts, we made it home still in good spirits without a bunch of whining or complaining. We were all soaked - clear down to our undies! Warm clothes, lunch and a movie fixed everything. Well, at least for us. I forgot that the dogs couldnt' take off thier wet clothes and replace them so it took them a little longer to dry out. On the porch, since they well, stunk!