Galinda

Last night, we had an unusual and awesome surprise in Nyimba...RAIN! It is quite unusual to have rain this time of year but it was awesome! After the rains stopped, the bugs came out! This morning when we woke up and looked out onto our back porch, we saw the most beautiful moth we had ever seen. "She" was green, purple, and pink! She was still alive, so Lily decided that she needed to adopt her for the day! She carried "Galinda" around all day long. When it was time for school she put her inside a little lamp that we have that is in the shape of a house so that Galinda could take a nap! After school, she took her back outside to "play". As I was working on our newsletter, Lily came and and put Galinda on my arm and I about wigged out! It was hilarious! Oh the joys of having an abundance of random wildlife in our yard and the memories that come with it!

Dress Up...

After watching "Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses" they decided to be a prince and princesses and dance around the house!

 

I love the dirt on Lauren's face it just really adds something to the picture?! No picture is complete in our family without a smudge of something on their faces!

Bus Station Picnic

 

Kendall traveled to Mozambique today and I knew that we needed to get out of the house for a little fun! Our town, Nyimba, has a nice new bus station! The kids are always wanting to get out and walk so we took a little "field trip". We got ready and walked to the bus station that is about a kilometer from our house. When we got to the bus station we bought sausage, chicken, french fries, and our favorite "softies" (Apple Max and Hubbly Bubbly a.k.a. "Bubble Gum Flavored") We found a nice bench under a shade tree and had a picnic at the bus station! I am sure people thought that we were nuts because we went to have picnic there instead of waiting for the bus! Who cares, we had a great time and on the way home we got chocolate lollipops!

"PICNIC!!!!", Easton yelled!!

 "A Max and Cheetun!", Lauren said!

"Cheese!", Lily said!

What a fun lunch!

 

On the way home, I looked over and Lauren had her chocolate lolly in her mouth, with Easton's hat on just as happy as a lark! She loved it!

Oh Gee....

As I am preparing a scrumptious Mexican dinner from scratch with my good friend Kim, I am interupted by the sound of my son saying, "Mama wook what YewWee did to me!" Just then I turned to see a little boy that looked like he had been painted up to join the circus or join the mime troup! As I peer down the hallway I see two more faces and Lily saying, "Mama! We did it to each other!" Was I mad, yes, probably because I had just told them not to go in my room because I had suntan lotion out and old diaper rash cream! I was mad because they disobeyed. I went to the office to inform my sweet husband of the goings on in the den. When Easton came into the office for Kendall to see him, all Kendall could do was cover his face and laugh. His response was, "I am trying not to laugh, but you HAVE to take a picture of that!" Then we both busted out laughing. Some things will be, I guess and we can't win 'em all!

Yeah, that is Desitin (diaper rash cream) all over my little "mimes"!

Easton Braving the Flying Fox

Lily Braving the Flying Fox

Lauren and her Sweeties

"Hot Candee, Mom...Hot Candy!" This was Lauren with her cotton candy at the Last Saturday Market. It was as big as she was!!

Lauren with iced "Toffee" (coffee) in Livingstone!

She LOVES her toffee!!!

Our Amazing Time with Kayla...

We are so blessed to have had 10 days to spend with Kayla in Zambia! We did so many things that I could blog for a day about all of our adventures! The pictures below will tell the story of Kayla's first trip to Africa and what an awesome time we had! We are so blessed to have a cousin that loves the Lord and feels called to serve Him as a missionary one day! Praise the Lord for the blessing of family and GREAT times together!

She cooked a traditional Zambian meal of nshima and Chinese rape!

And she baked cinnamon rolls complete with icing!

She ate sugar cane with Mr. Henry Chipanga.

She ate nshima and pork at Daisy and Henry Chipanga's house!

After lunch, we picked cotton in the Chipanga's field. 

Then we helped the Chipanga's shuck corn!

We said goodbye to the Chipanga's and they sent her away with groundnuts!

 

Our next stop on our day in the village was to visit Kawere Village where our dear friend, Bertha lives! Kayla wanted to carry water on her head, and I knew that Bertha was the perfect teacher, because she taught me!

Kayla was awesome and didn't spill one drop!

We said goodbye to Bertha and Cynthia and headed back home after a long but fun day in Petauke!

Our kids love Kayla and she was so sweet to spend time reading them their favorite books!

The next day, we visited one of our Peace Corps friends, Tabatha, at her home at Ndake. Tabatha works with the Ndake Basic School. We got to meet the head teacher and visit with a few of the 700 students.

We went to Tabatha's home and met her Zambian family that takes great care of her!

Then we headed to Lusaka where she met several missionary families that live and serve in Zambia! We had a birthday cookout for a missionary kid, Abby!

We went to the Last Saturday Market and ate burritos and other yummy food!

On Sunday, we began our journey to Victoria Falls. We arrived, ate lunch, and went right to the Falls for our Zambezi River Bath!

 

Ellen, Lily, Kayla, and Lauren explored the scene with David Livingstone!

 

This was Kayla's face when she first saw the Falls! It was awesome to be with her, she was so excited!

 

We got really wet!

The next day we had an adrenaline filled day! It began with Abseil...

Then the flying fox...

And the grand finale was the gorge swing!!!

 A free fall of 53 meters or 57 yards before ever feeling the jerk of the rope!

 

We saw animals, like this crocodile named "Brainless". He has eaten three people and was brought to this crocodile farm!

And she held a crocodile!

A mama giraffe washing her baby!

Impala

And the sun beginning to set over the Zambezi River.

Lauren was Kayla's buddy the whole time!

Before she left we had to see the Falls one more time! This time we had a beautiful rainbow and awesome views of the river and the falls!

We all enjoyed having Kayla here, especially her second cousin, Kendall!

COME BACK REALLY SOON, KAYLA!!!