Gardens and Such

Back in April, Todd left for a conference in Kenya. While he was gone, I decided to attack the backyard, which was wonderfully without trees (unlike all of our neighbors). I say that it was great to not have trees because we have wanted to have a garden, especially with kids, for a long while now. So with Todd being gone and having time on my hands, I borrowed a shovel and went to work. Em loves helping Daddy pick the veggies and bringing them into me. She's also become quiet adept at taking the pulled weeds and putting them into the garbage. We had our first real harvest a few days ago. Sadly, we didn't imagine that the zucchini would be ready, and therefore didn't check for a few days (and they have thorns!!!). That led to this...

Yes, that is a Blackberry cell phone and a cook book! Thankfully, I was able to get four loaves of zucchini bread from just this one sprout. We're slightly more diligent about picking them smaller now, but are loving the time spent outside, together, getting dirt under our nails.

Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving in South Africa was wonderful! We shared with 30 or so other Americans. It was a bit odd that all the kids were soaking wet and in their bathing suits, but we still had turkey, green beans and all the rest. Our friends from Centurion came down and the kids had a great time. We were even able to snap a quick picture of all FOUR of us (sad that Cooper is 11 weeks old and we haven't found time for it, but better late than never I guess!). Hope your Turkey Day was a lovely as ours!!!

Turkey Hands

Even though the house is decorated for Christmas already, that doesn't mean we've forgotten about Thanksgiving (even though I thought it was this Thursday, not next Thursday- oops!).
While Coop was taking his morning siesta, Em and I thought we'd do a little arts and crafts for Daddy's office- yeah for turkeys made out of traced hands! We had a lot of fun... so much that Em decided she just had to color on Mommy's paper as well!!

Merry Christmas

Decorating for Christmas was an... event (to say the least!) in our house this past weekend. We decided to go ahead and put up Christmas things for a few reasons. First, so that we could remember that it IS almost Christmas. Being that summer is just beginning for us, it's sometimes hard to keep that in mind with the tank tops, flip flops and shorts coming out of the closet. Secondly, we were looking at the next few weekends and realized that we didn't really have a "lazy" weekend with nothing planned for a long while. We didn't want to wait until halfway through December to decorate, so Saturday was it. It made me think back to what we were doing when Em was 9 weeks, since that's how old Coop is these days. We realized we were in Wisconsin with friends saying "goodbye" because we were off to Kansas City right after that. It also made us think back to last Christmas and our frantic time trying to get in all the "final" to-do's in before leaving for South Africa. Just before Thanksgiving, we were finishing papers, driving to Tennessee, and desperately trying to get everything packed to go.

Well, this year, there was slightly more "decorating" and slightly less packing. Em was the first one to put up (and subsequently tear down) her ornament that she got from Mom and Dad last year from Ten Thousand Villages (amazing store- seriously, check it out!).

We put the Christmas tree up that we received from one of my Bible study gals in Illinois two years ago on top of the trunk we salvaged from missions furniture storage and thought we were pretty ingenious- both for the free tree, the free trunk, AND for managing to get the tree out of Em's arm reach... or so we thought. It wasn't more than 25 seconds without one of us in the room that Em got her rocking chair from GGrampy, moved it in front of the trunk, and pulled off half a dozen ornaments and a string of beads. Cooper seemed more than amused by all the activities and really enjoyed hanging out on the clean, but unfolded, clothes on the couch. Hope you all enjoy the pictures and your chilly festivities wherever you are.

This Week

After a long weekend with both Mommy and Daddy all to herself, it sunk in that school is great and all, but she still misses her parents! There were a few tears Monday morning (teacher Cory said I wasn't back to the car before she was bossing some kid around- out of sight, out of mind I guess!) but she's doing great. There were also some visitors from Kansas City to the regional office, and one brought with him a bouncy chair from Nana and GG (God bless you both!). Cooper is just one of those kids, I guess, who loves to be held for the sake of the movement. I would have gotten one here, but the price tag was more than I could stomach- literally. Em has also been moved from her crib into a "big girl" bed. After a solid week of her waking up from her naps screaming because she's somehow managed to lodge her leg in between the slates, and then couldn't get it out (I had a hard time getting it out also), I figured for the sake of her sleep and safety, it was time. Thankfully, she loves her big bed and sleeps beautifully in it. Afternoons are filled with fun times in the garden and we're harvesting our first batch of zucchini for dinner tonight! I'm not sure what we're having (our one zucchini would probably feed two families easily) but it needs to come off the vine before it gets any bigger! Em still loves playing with the dog and teasing her on the slide while Cooper just hangs out and looks at the clouds to see what they look like. He's really good at it these days!

I could totally do this all day! That one looks like Einstein's hair... yep, definately the hair.

Em, sporting her "smiley eyes," just like Mommy's... and Nana's... and Great Nana's...

First Day!!!

Em was ready with her new backpack, new shirt, and new lunch pail. She loves putting on her backpack, so any excuse is a good one to her. Todd went into the office a bit late so that he and I could walk her down to school. It was really precious having Cooper in the stroller, Em holding our hands as she walked between Todd and I. Thankfully, she had a bit of concern in her look when we left (hey, no mom wants to feel THAT replaceable!) before heading into praise and worship with gusto. Teacher Cory said she did beautifully, but passed out on the floor about 20 minutes before it was pick-up time. We'll be working on the new nap time, but for the moment, she's making friends and talking to all the staff (shocker), who have all taken a liking to her (another shocker!). I loved that the school had a sign to welcome her on her first day, AND that her name was spelled correctly!! Woohoo!!!

Happy Hearts

Em will be 1 1/2 years old in a few days. She's grown so much, and she is such a social creature. Everywhere we go, she is saying hello to random dogs or "correcting" people who do things that aren't allowed at home (she has no trouble telling them, with finger wagging, "No, No, NO!" - They say imitation is the best form of flattery, but I'm not so sure I agree right now.) Todd and I have been agonizing for months over how little interaction she gets with kids her own age. Our church doesn't have a "nursery" and while we love that she plays so well with the older girls in the neighborhood, we were still wanting something for our little 'social butterfly'. Some of the missionaries who were here before us sent their son to the Methodist pre-school just behind our complex. It is really cute and I really liked what I saw when we first got here, but I was hoping that Em would be fine here at home until she was 3 or 4. It has become glaringly obvious, however, that my little girl needs friends besides Mommy and Lani. So, I went to check out the school with Em. She not only marched herself straight into the classroom of twelve 18-36 month-old kids and started talking to one little girl, but started bossing around a little boy who tried to kiss her on the cheek! No hesitation, no grabbing onto moms legs, no nervous looks... while I was a bit sad at the whole situation (come on now, every mom wants their kids to have a little hesitation) I was also extremely excited for all the fun I know she'll have.

As soon as the decision to TRY out pre-school for just a few hours a week was made, my immediate thoughts went to the practical. We needed to get a backpack, a lunch pail (for snack) and something cute to wear for the "first day of pre-school" pictures (it's all about the pictures, isn't it?). I also realized that she'll be in school during her normal nap time, so we went to work on that as well. Being the penny-pincher that I am, I started looking around the house for a bag that Em could carry to and from school. When all of ours ended up being too large for her to handle, I took to the mall. Now I am fully resigned to the fact that she will some day really enjoy Dora and Barbie and maybe even Hannah Montana (if she's still around), but if she doesn't know who they are yet, I'm not going to be the one to introduce her to them. So when the only options for bags her size had these people on them, the question turned to price, and after checking out the tag, I figured that since I didn't really care for them anyways, I'd use that same money on a little project to make something that I do like. Here's the finished product.. and the best part: Em LOVES it!

Now on to the cute top for pictures. We went grocery shoping at Pick-N-Pay (think Wal-Mart grocery store), for groceries for the week. I've been needing capri pants since the weather has been warming up. I wandered over to the kids section and found these great little tank tops for about $2. I got a package from Auntie Em with a bunch of ribbon (a girl needs ribbon and Cooper needed a pacifier leash) so I picked out one I thought would work with some of the ribbon colors. I sewed on the ribbon, added a bow and I think it looks pretty stinkin' cute! First day of school pictures will follow because my little girl is now READY!!!