I Just Want To Be A Sheep.... BAA! BAA!!!!

These are a little blurry, but these pictures contain Annalise, Sarah and various classmates in their Christmas Program. They reenacted the Christmas Story. Anna and Sarah were sheep. Sarah was desperately shy and did NOT want to go up there. Mostly she just didn't want to be a sheep. But she survived - and honestly was one of the cutest little sheep you have ever seen! Anna on the other hand was MORE than happy to be up there - and she looked like a sheep that could have used a dose of Ridalin... she was SUPER excited and bouncy. :)

December Bride

This creative girl has gone from designing and building paper airplanes and boats to designing wedding dresses. She asked if she could use some white fabric that I had to make a dress. Out came the scissors and the Swingline (stapler, of course) and she cut, cut, cut. It was similar to the part in The Grinch where he cuts out a rough shape of a santa suit. Then she cut out sleeves, puffed ones, which she then attached with the stapler. She squeezed herself into the dress and we finished it off with a few more staples.

When she was finished she worked on the veil, which is a combination of white cotton fabric, Swingline staples, and scrap paper.

Orders can be placed on our blog site for other clothing items as well.

Simple and sweet.

Green Eggs and Ham

I just want to take a moment to thank Dr.Seuss for being the ONE who wrote the book that my daughter would first read in its entirety. Thank you for being the rhyme King and making a fun and nonsensical story for my daughter to enjoy and build confidence in reading.

Sarah, well done reading this WHOLE book in ONE sitting and not even taking a break! You are amazing me EVERYDAY with how much you are learning and growing... feel free to slow down!!!

St. Lucia Day

This year we began a new celebration in our house. It is St.Lucia Day from Sweden. We adapted this holiday from the same book "Celebrating the Christian Year" by Martha Zimmerman. The oldest daughter is supposed to rise early, dress like St. Lucia (which means "Queen of Light") and serve the family breakfast in bed with a candle crown.

While Anna didn't have an actual candle in her crown, she DID make a crown and delivered breakfast in bed with a candle on the tray.

Then she told each family member the story of St.Lucia.

"There was once a girl. Her name was Lucia. Back in those days there wasn't allowed to be any Christians, but Lucia's mom taught her what it meant to be a Christian and to love God. When it was time for Lucia to get married, she wanted to give her dowry to the poor instead of to her husband. So she asked her mom and she said it was okay. When her husband heard about this, he told the governor, and the governor decided to have her killed on December 13th. Her name means Queen of Light. Lucia was a good example of loving God with all that she had. "
Anna kept the secret about celebrating this holiday all week before December 13th. Each day she listened to me read the story and then she secretly worked on her crown. Toward the end of the week she practiced retelling the story from memory so that she could tell it to Jeff and Sarah on Saturday morning.
She was SOOOO excited to do this and put on my white robe, her crown, and prepared a breakfast of fresh buns, fruit, and apple juice to deliver to each family member. She then told the story as I have transcribed it above. She definitely surprised Jeff, Sarah and Ben with this treat. It will probably be the first of many times that we remember this precious girl and how much she loved her Lord.

Father and Son Fun!

I know this may seem odd and out of sequence to be posting pics of Ben in little swimmies. However, things are heating up around these parts, and so just to give you a little taste of what it is like for us as we gear up for our fourth Christmas as a family in Tanzania...

Peek - a - BOO!

Can you BELIEVE how TALL I am?!?

The fun is just getting started...Let the games begin!
These are the funny faces I make when daddy is pouring cold water over my head!!!

Happy St.Nicholas Day! (December 6th)

For the last several years we have celebrated St.Nicholas Day at our house. We tell the story of a man, Nicholas, who was born in A.D.280 in Myra. (modern day Turkey) He was born to wealthy Christian parents who died when he was 9. He then grew up in the home of his uncle who was also a Christian.

As an adult, one of his friends (a rich shipping merchant) lost all of his ships and cargo in a violent seastorm. He had three daughters that were approaching marrying age - and would need to provide a dowry for them. Nicholas wanted to help his friend, but knew that his friend would not want to receive "charity."

One night, Nicholas dropped a bag of gold coins through the open window of one of the daughter's rooms. Some fell into a stocking that was drying, some on the floor, and some in shoes. Then he quickly and quietly returned to his home.

He enjoyed the experience so much that for the rest of his life he sought out ways he could show Jesus' love by helping the poor. He provided some jobs, clothing, food, and wooden toys for the poor. The only thing he required is that his identity be kept a secret. He died around A.D.343 on December 6th.

(Story paraphrased and adapted from our book: "Celebrating the Christian Year" by Martha Zimmerman)

Some of our celebrations of the day include:

Making gingerbread men for our friends and other children who live near us.

Jeff and the girls have snuck around our neighborhood for the last three years secretly delivering little bags of gingerbread men that they have made. It has caused quite a ruckus in the community - and the girls LOVE it.

On Saturday the stockings were full of little treasures...

Some Tanzanian shillings - to remember the gold coins St.Nicholas dropped in the window.

Some new pajamas to remember the clothes he gave to the poor...

And a BIG wooden toy for the whole family to enjoy!

This is a set of wooden blocks and wooden ramps to be constructed into a downhill path for a marble or rubber ball.

Or to stack as HIGH as you can!

Happy St.Nicholas Day!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!!!

Tree mission: ACCOMPLISHED!

Benjamin enjoying the first Christmas tree he can remember.

Anna, the anticipator, showing off her hard labor of spreading each of the fake branches out on our tree.

Jeff stringing the lights in his "Grinch" t-shirt from Joy Osborne, but with the most UNLIKE Grinch face you have ever seen.... Doesn't he have such a great smile?!?Sarah putting the Nativity puzzle together from Gramma and PopPop Holcomb
- but WHERE is BABY JESUS?!?
He will be found!

Have I mentioned how out-of-control excited Anna was about decorating for Christmas?!? This is her celebratory Egyptian dance... one of the many routines we saw in this two hour event!

Carefully putting on Precious Moments ornaments from Gramma and PopPop Osborne.

The girls were in awe and adoration of the beautiful little ornaments that "belong to ME?!?" said with incredulous voices.

Yes, even Jeff and I have Precious Moments ornaments.
But he lets me put them on.

Mmmmmm....Tastes Like..... BLACK!

WHERE is this child's MOTHER?!?

For The Sake of Argument...

This morning, as Sarah was getting ready to head out the door, I noticed that Sarah's backpack was quite full. Then I remembered that since she stayed home to rest yesterday it was still full of her "Monday stuff" (ie. swimming stuff, library books, etc...). So, as I started to take things out Sarah pleaded with me to just leave those things in her bag because she wanted to get stronger. Then I asked her who usually bikes her backpack to school. "Daddy." she replied. I continued to take things out, but she was clearly unhappy. When I finished I said, "Here you go! Much lighter!" She looked at the ground and mumbled,"But I wanted it darker."

Material Girls

Anna and Sarah just completed a unit on Materials. They worked with, learned about, and created all kinds of things out of various materials.

Here are Anna and Sarah trying to weigh the VERY heavy plasticene (or clay) models they made. It took a LOT of wooden counters to get them off the ground.

Sarah has just completed a circuit and her little light bulb was shining - but not as much as she was when it finally worked!


Anna, and her friend Marie, made a model of a person out of fabric:

Sarah, and her friend Malaika, made a model person out of rubber materials:




A close-up of little rubber man:

Here is the man made out of metal materials:

Anna and Sarah put on a class performance where they shared a song and play about their unit.

Anna is dressed up as "Paper Man". She bravely stood tall in front of all the elementary students, teachers and parents, and spoke loudly and clearly:

"I am a light and flat Paper Man.

Pens and pencils write on me.

I have tissues for my hair,

And I'll pack your groceries."

Well done, girls!

Lord Of Catan

The official title given to the one who conquers this game board in any given evening. This was a special version of Settlers of Catan and has become entertainment on Friday or Saturday evenings in our house with friends. Jeff clobbered us and enjoyed every second of it.

As you can see!

He would be a kind and compassionate leader if he ever did rule a little place like this.

I'm glad.

Uh Oh! Spaghetti - O!

This is what happens when you are so busy eating your own food that you aren't paying attention to the quiet little boy in the chair next to you.

Yummy!

Here we are getting ready to eat our fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes (white), squash, green beans and cranberry sauce (paid $5 for the imported can). Delicious! We also had a newly married American couple, who are volunteering in Moshi, come to join us.

The girls have an American student teacher in their classroom who helped them make construction paper turkeys which you can see on their plates.

That was a fun and yummy day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are thankful for many things this year:

our fun family,

our dear family and friends in the U.S.,

the warm weather here,

fried chicken (which we are eating in lieu of turkey),

and God's continued care, provision and direction for our family.

We are very blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

up, Up, UP, and AWAY!!!!

This is one of Anna's most recent (but not the latest) creations.

She was VERY into making paper airplanes earlier this week. So after two days of tripping over lots of smaller paper aircrafts, she brilliantly created a giant version of her dream airplane.

To be honest, it has had trouble in its flight tests, but the design is truly remarkable.

She is so proud.
And so are we.

Here is another important piece of information that is indirectly linked to this picture.

We have decided to not sign another two year contract with International School Moshi.

So, when we get on the plane at Kilimanjaro International Airport in June, we will be saying goodbye to Tanzania.

We aren't sure where we will be next but we look forward to whatever it might be.

We would appreciate your prayers for us as we look ahead. :)

Tagged.

Here it is. Meredith tagged me and here is the fourth picture in the fourth album on our computer. This is Ben last November and he is trying to look like his daddy here with a rather orange goatee.

I would like to tag Kiley, Liana, Bec, Sarah T, Sarah L, Johanna, and Susanna. Have fun!

Here's Looking At You!

Here it is!

The very first picture taken of Ben where he is looking directly at the camera and smiling.

What a cutie.

Not sure about the open collar look, but definitely a cutie.