Happy 4th Birthday and 2nd Year Anniversary, Frankie!!

Sunday was Frankie's 4th birthday AND his second anniversary of coming home. My how fast the time goes by! Seems just like yesterday that we brought this fat, bald little two year old feller home.

He ain't so bald and fat now let me tell yah! My Frankie is a four year old stocky bundle of hair and, um, er, muscle? Okay, maybe that's a stretch but he's lost some of his baby fat and is growing like a weed! And he does like to show people his muscles. It must be a Y chromosome thing...

A boy and his cat are a beautiful thing

The day started out with scrambled eggs and a little "candle practice" in preparation for the Big Cake later on in the day.

Yes, candles in scrambled eggs makes this boy happy!

Let 'er blow my man, let 'er blow! And he did!

Aw yes, the boy and his cake, complete with the backwards 4 on it. I can't even use dyslexia as an excuse!

The simple frosting on this cake took me an HOUR to make and plaster upon it. Ella helped by placing the candy around the edges (her idea!) but no, a six year old did not decorate the entire thing. As you can see though, Frankie has no great and lofty expectations - he was just happy to have a cake with a couple of horses and his name on it!

Because cooking gas has been harder than hens teeth to find around here and we were almost out, I had to make a special trip on my day off and cook this sucker at the office. But that happy little face made it well worth it!!

Like all good birthday boys worth their salt, Frankie had help take care of the left over frosting

Okay, we had a very special birthday celebration this year, for two reasons. One was that it was my Frankie's fourth birthday and the second year anniversary of bringing him home, and Two, was that our friend Harriet had just brought her baby boy home one week before!! So we got together and celebrated our baby boys together!!

My four year old Frankie and Harriet's eight month old Jason!

Now Harriet has been planning and waiting to bring a baby home for a very long time so to finally see her with a baby of her own was indeed special! Harriet has taken care of countless babies, but always for other people - none of her own!

Jason and his obviously loving big sister Jackie

Oh my, what a SMILER little Jason is! He'd been home for one week and acted like he'd always lived there!

Okay, there were some "interesting," rather "unusual" elements of the party ( to say the very least!), like when Harriet's friend whipped out an accordion and started honking away on it. Yes, you read that right, and accordion.

This was Frank's face when the accordion got started. This look really said it all. Um, Frankie? Your GRANNY plays the accordion my boy, so we'd better work on a little accordion appreciation!

While the other children danced to the, um, accordion, the Birthday Boy laid on the couch and entertained himself by catching his balloon with his feet.

And finally!! The moment he'd been waiting for, for weeks!!! THE BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!

He'd matter of factly stated that morning while he was watching me struggle to frost it, "I'm not four until I eat that birthday cake."

This was the only batch of children that I've met where even the baby and the two year old liked wearing their party hats and didn't try to eat them!

Brothers! This is such a sweet picture of Jacob and his baby brother, Jason

And best of all - FIREWORKS on the cake!!! It does NOT get much more cool than that folks! And it didn't even catch any ones hair or party hat on fire!

In true Ugandan birthday party style, the birthday boy gets to cut the cake. It's usually done with a huge butcher knife but we settled for a smaller one this time. This picture accurately depicts my careful little Frankie. Look at his concentration!

We saved the birthday gifts for when we got home. He received a pair of scissors as a gift which he proceeded to carefully cut open each and every one of his gifts :)

AND, to make a good day even better, we found a cylinder of COOKING GAS on our way home!

Aw Frankie, I love you! You make me want to tear my hair out at times, not because you're naughty but because you're too darn smart and I can't figure out WHAT is going on inside your fuzzy, sensitive little head!

You are a funny little boy too - not the comical, goofy funny that your sister is, but the "WHAT did he just say?" funny. Articulate and straight forward, you matter of factly state the obvious. But you're kind too! Like when we were discussing racial differences and you told me, "Your skin looks bad. But I still like it!" Thank you my kind, straightforward, thoughtful little boy!

Jungle Gym and Friends

We've got a nice mango tree in our yard that makes a great jungle gym. The kids LOVE to climb it and it's one of the most popular "toys" out there now.

Simple, yet affordable (if you happen to live in Africa!)

An enjoyable activity for Frank is to run into the house and get a banana, then climb up the tree to eat it. Too many trips to the zoo for this boy or what?!

Ella is a careful climber (like her outfit? Ella fashion - a turtleneck and shorts :). She's got the longest arms and legs but isn't all that sure of where to put them.

Frank on the other hand... wow! I've never seen a person climb a tree like Frank. He uses his entire body! If his arm or foot doesn't reach a limb he'll actually use the rest of his body to cling to the tree and inch up. He even uses his BUTT to hang himself on something with! He is ALL OVER up there! And as you can see, he does tricks too!

Our cat Bronco - fully recovered from a killer case of mange and the cow treatment that followed! It almost killed him and majorly stunted his growth but he is getting fat now, doesn't stink and doesn't yowl and meow all the time. He's actually a great pet! And no, I didn't bbq him up on the grill :)

Went to the Gardens and Lake the other day with our friend, Abi. She's about 8 months older than Frankie and he practically towers over her :)

The pups enjoyed their first encounter with the Lake! With a little work it looks like Madea will be our next water dog :)

Harriet and Co came over last weekend and the kids all had a blast!

Jumping

Swinging

Fun at our friend Harriets!

Saturday the family and I loaded into our car (with it's AWESOME new shocks!) and headed to Harriet's for an afternoon of fun!

Every time I'm with Harriet I have fun, am convicted, challenged and blessed. I have fun simply being with Harriet and her funny kids (Harriet and her family are as crazy as mine! Truly! And I love that), I'm convicted of my lack of faith in God, I am challenged to rely on Him more, and I'm blessed to see how He cares for His faithful followers.

I was especially blessed to be able to take my parent's to Harriet's house this time. My mom has been "the reluctant salesman" on the other end in the States, who God has used as an instrument to sell all of Harriet's darned beads (and other craft projects! Some have flopped, some have not). Now, my Mom HATES this kind of stuff but has sold, and dispersed to others to sell, THOUSANDS of beads and thousands of dollars worth of beads over the last 2 + years. It is a CHORE and not much fun but ol' Mom faithfully keeps at it and wiring the money back to Harriet. WAY TO GO MOM! So last Saturday she was able to see how God has used her labor in conjunction with Harriet's faith and hard work (because from the start Mom and I have been skeptical of how this all would work - isn't it hilarious who God uses?!).

It seems that I didn't get any pictures of my dad because he was always standing there right beside me taking them too with his camera! But he was there and he did have a lot of fun!

The house even has a nice little "yard" in front now - I love that!

The last time we'd been at Harriet's was last fall, before Frankie came home. Since then Harriet has put a wall up to the kitchen, tiled the kitchen, put a NICE counter and sink in, tiled the bathroom and installed a nice toilet (still waiting for the water to be hooked up), and put up a wall to her bedroom, complete with a nice door.

Granny, ever the life of the party, brought along the paint for face painting which is always a hit with the kids! Note that in each and every Jackie is leaning over Grannies shoulder watching. By the end of the day she actually went and found her own child to paint!! That is just so Jackie!

Jackie's turn

Jacob's turn

Granny painting, the kids watching Tarzan

Ella's picture of Harriet and me

The painted hooligans watching a movie :)

While the "big" kids were watching their movie, the rest of us took a walk around Harriet's "neighborhood". There is a LOT of construction going on and we stopped to have a good look at this brick baker. Being as construction and electricity are my dad's specialty, he was really interested in looking at how things were built and wired.

So great to see "the reluctant salesman" sitting with Harriet on her porch!

It was such a beautiful day that the kids were torn away from their movie and romped around outside on the small dirt road that goes down in front of Harriet's house. All you need is a ball, a couple of jump ropes and a little plastic "bike" and friends to have fun!

Our girls :) They look really sweet but WATCH OUT!

Jacob is one of the kindest boys I know. Here he is giving Frankie a few driving lessons :)

See ya later, Fwank! He came home at the end of the day covered in this red dirt!

You gotta love the hard working neighbors hauling water amongst our wildly playing kids! They ran and skipped up and down this road for ever!

Jackie really just had to show Frank how it was done. A terror on wheels is that little Jackie!

Not to be outdone, Ella had to give it a try too.

Freinds :) Ella has known Jackie and Jacob her entire life. It makes me happy that throughout ALL of the losses that she has experienced, that she didn't have to loose these friends.

Jackie leading the cheering squad

I have such deep gratitude for this woman and for the HUGE and important role in my daughters life that she has played. She worked at Ella's babies home and from the start, took Ella under her wing showering her with extra attention and love (read that, "Ella was one of her favorites"). It was SO much easier for Ella to learn to trust and attach to me because of this and she has far fewer emotional scars because of it.

Granny painting a little neighbor kid's face. By the end of the day there were a lot of little kitties and tigers running around the neighborhood!

Not to be outdone by Granny, Jackie went and found a face to pain herself!

Our friends :)

Taking my kids to Harriet's always reminds me of what city kids I have :( I can hardly believe that I am raising city kids, but alas, it's true! On our walk I had to continually remind Frankie not to tear up the random vegitation because um, well, that's people's food! Here in Entebbe it's no problem to uproot a random bush nor defoliate a tree in search of a good stick (to shoot lions with usually) but out in the country it could be someones dinner that you're destroying!

You can also tell that the little citified H children have visited the long drop toilet becuase, um, they leave their mark :). A little splashy shall we say! On the other hand, they are only five and two years old so maybe they'll get the hang of it eventually! Them trying to use a long drop just cracks me up sometimes, especially since it's such a commonly used type of toilet!