Lil' Ernie Els...maybe

Kendall loves to play golf and Easton is learning how to swing the club and hit the ball pretty well. He had another lesson with Daddy this week and Lauren was his "caddy" and helped him fetch his ball each time that he hit it.

Easton and his caddy

The coach and the caddy

Oldies But Goodies!!

Saturday was a day of fun and games at our house. I was a Recreation Management major in college and was a recreation director for youth and children camps in the summer, so recreation and games runs THICK in my blood. The kids are finally getting to the age where they can play simple games that are so fun for people of all ages! Friday night, I decided that while Kendall was gone we were going to have a game marathon from breakfast until lunch, if the kids could make it that long. We had so much fun playing games that I used to LOVE when I was a kid! The pictures below tell the stories of our fun time of playing games with each other!

Lauren watched in amazement as Kendall jumped rope. We were playing "Jump The Creek" and the kids wanted to see Daddy jump rope when he got home from teaching. I remember playing "Jump The Creek" every day at recess when I was in the 4th and 5th Grade at Bethesda Elementary! Those were the days!

Easton enjoyed a snack and loved the entertainment as well!

Lily LOVES to jump on our trampoline and she loved it when I asked her to jump so I could take her picture!

Chillin' with an apple and some sweet tea...

Can you tell what goody the kids found in their trunk of treats from their Aunt Theresa?

MR. POTATO HEAD!!!

Lily got a Princess Spud accessory kit and Easton got a Safari Spud! Fun times!

Playing Hi-Ho Cherry O! with Lauren around is not an easy feat. Everytime we would get our trees full of cherries, she would take them off the tree and put them in the bucket without spinning! Needless to say, we had to stop playing and wait for her to take a nap, but Lily really loved playing this game!

What a great game. Loved playing with Lily.

We also played Memory...not easy with Lauren around. We would get it all set up and then she thought we had a mess so she would "clean up" the mess we had made!

We finished our marathon with a good ol' game of hopscotch. Then the wind was blowing pretty good so we decided to blow wind bubbles and have our bubbles race. It was so fun to see all of the bubbles in our yard! The people outside of our wall that saw them probably were wondering what was going on!

It was fun to be a kid with my kids and I am loving each and everyday that they grow up and we are able to communicate more and play together more and more!

Conversations from the Heart

I love talking to my kids. I am amazed at some of the things that they say and ask. This week was full of awesome conversations. I had to share some of the things that were shared.

Lily's questions and conversations...

Saturday night before we said her bedtime prayers she asked me, "Mama, where are we going to church tomorrow?" I replied, "We are going to Ukhose, the place we went last week." She said, "Why are we going there again?" "Well Lily, the people at Ukhose just now learned about Jesus and invited them into their hearts." "Mama, why did they just NOW know about Jesus?" "Lily, no one had told them about Jesus and Daddy told them and they followed Him." "Why had no one told them before Daddy?" "Well, I guess no one loved them enough to tell them, so we have to show them Jesus' love." "Okay Mama, I want to help them know how to love Jesus."

Mama: Lily if you could be any animal in the world, what would you be?

Lily: giraffe

Mama: Why?

Lily: Because they have beautiful brown spots

Mama: What color would you be?

Lily: Pink

Mama: Why?

Lily: Because I like pink shirts, teddy bears, curtains, and skirts.

The Questions of Easton

He peered around the corner of the house with big brown eyes and freshly buzzed hair and said to me," Mama, where is Amerita?" "Well, it is far away." "How do we get there?" "We get there by airplane." "Mama, can we just drive there now?" "No baby, there is a big ocean we have to cross." "Is there an airplane waiting for us now in Wusaka?" "No baby." "Mama, I want to call Mamie to see what she is doing in Amerita and what the kids in Amerita are doing too." "Okay sweet boy."

(We called my mom and he told her all about how he wants to see Amerita. He does not really have any recollection of it, so next year will be a fun time for him!)

NEW DISCOVERY IN THE HELGREN HOUSEHOLD THIS WEEK

It's brown and white and cold.

You can buy it made or make it yourself.

Kids love it and so do their parents.

Can you guess???

CHOCOLATE MILK!!!

I know my kids are sheltered, but they had chocolate milk for the first time and the love it! It was so much better because we had FRESH milk and American chocolate syrup! What a fun treat for all of us! Easton loves to see his milk turn white to chocolaty!!!

Rooster or a Chicken?

Our guard, Rabson (his friends call him Rabby), gave us a gift one night. The gift was a chicken! The kids were so happy and so were we! What a great surprise this chicken was! Then the discussion began.

Joy: Well, do you want to eat the chicken or keep it?

Kendall: I don't know, I would like to have some chickens.

Joy: What do you think about the dogs?

Kendall: My dogs got used to our chickens. We can keep it, what do you want to do?

After one night to sleep on it, we decided to keep the chicken. It was fun watching our dogs get used to it running around the yard. Then Lily wanted to give the chicken a name, I thought, "welp, we will never be able to eat this chicken, it is about to have a name." Lily said, "LUCY!!" We thought Lucy was a perfect name since Kendall said that it was a female. I am lacking in the farm animal department and dont know the difference really, I mean if it is big and crows in the morning, then I know but other than that...I don't! So a week went by and I asked Paul if he knew anyone that had a rooster for sale because we would like to have some eggs (because they are expensive here). Paul replied, "mama, that one is a rooster!" I told Kendall that we had a rooster and he couldnt believe it, he ran outside to further inspect the biology of the chicken. When all was said and done we realized that the chicken had to have a name change because it was a boy...so we proudly introduce our newest family member, Jeremy! He roosts in the orange tree to sleep, he likes to eat the dog food, drinks the dog's water, he is not afraid of the dogs, and everytime he is near Lauren says "doot doot!" Can't wait to get a chicken so we can have some eggs! We are slowly turning into the Walton's...or I guess you could say that we are "Little House in the Nyimba Valley"! I am slowly learning about agriculture it is a world I am not too familiar with but like it!

Miss Mischief

Nothing surprises me anymore...some of Lauren's favorite things are: blowing zerberts on my back to wake me up in the morning, climbing onto tall furniture items when no one is looking, eating the toothpaste, running away with the Sharpie markers, leaving greasy fingerprints on semi-important papers and books, leaving her signature in Bibles and other reading materials, playing in the dogs water, and many other things. Well, these two instances top the favorite things to do list in my opinion.

So I know what you are thinking..."are there knives where she can get hurt?" "how did she get up there?" "were you there watching her?" The answers are no, herself, and yes!

I was in the kitchen eating my breakfast when all of the sudden Miss M (we will keep the names anonymous to protect the guilty) was carrying a stool. She quickly put the stool down in front of the kitchen sink and began to hike her chubby little legs up on the stool. "OH BROTHER!", I thought to myself, "what is she up to now!?" She then grabbed the Palmolive dish soap, sponge, and a dirty bowl and began to wash the dishes. After about 20 seconds of that, she decided that she couldn't really do her job well without getting into the sink. So she hiked that little leg right up onto the counter, sat on the edge, removed the dishes from one side of the sink into the other and sat in the sink in order to "wash" the dishes. Welcome to my life...never a dull moment.

ON ANOTHER DAY....

She decided that the nutritional health of the dogs was lacking fat, so Lauren decided to get them butter for breakfast one morning. Don't worry, she has learned the art of sharing, she distributed the butter evenly between the three dogs allowing them all about 10 seconds of licking per turn.

Catchin' Up

Its been quite a while since I posted anything about the kids. Here are some random things that just remind me of the fun it is to be a parent of 3 children under the age of 5!

Kids do say very funny things. In the past few days, Lily has said some pretty funny things. Two of them that I will not forget are:

"Mama, how did she get that necklace on? Because her head is too big!"

While we were watching the Brady Bunch, Marsha was digging a hole and Lily said, "Why in the world is she burying the ground?!"

I have finally stepped out of my comfort zone and left the toothbrushes and toothpaste on their sink for them to brush their own teeth! They love it and look forward to brushing 2 times a day...and some times a few more times!

Lauren is a climber. I was in the closet cleaning out some old clothes. I walked out of the closet, leaving Lauren there for approximately 2 minutes, only to return to find her on TOP of our dresser. She had found the stool and pulled the drawers out (5 of them) and used the drawers as a ladder! She is a dare devil...so far in her life she has had 3 black eyes, 4 badly bruised foreheads, and about 10 busted lips.

She loves the swing..can you tell?

Lauren got into our closet and found Kendall's ski mask. I was cracking up when she came into the living room wearing this headdress! Love it!

Easton LOVES to take pictures. It is always fun to turn on the camera and find all of these little surprise pictures that I didnt know existed! His perspective is great...eye level with knees and dogs. He is very sneaky about finding and snatching the camera before I can get a hold of him.

Easton's photography of my flowers

Easton is ready for the rainy season...don'tcha just love the rain boots?!

My little boy...LOVES trains and trucks, he will line up his trucks in a perfect line and pushes them one by one down the "road" that he has created.

Here are some recent pictures of fun and mischief that our little darlings have been a part of!

Easton got mad at me because he got put in time out...next thing I know, he has painted the floor and the containers in the closet...NICE.

Living Life with Lauren

Lauren loves Zeria so much!

The third child really can get neglected in regards to documentation of growth, fun stories, etc. I have really tried to keep up with little Lauren, but she is growing so fast and the days just fly by! She is Miss Personality to the max! She is always into something...like coloring the walls with Sharpies, taking lids off of sippy cups and dumping them on the floor, etc etc. She is jibber jabbering like crazy now and it is so fun! I cannot even begin to spell the words that she says! She loves Zeria and Paul so much and basically if either of them are here...Mom and Dad are obsolete...I love it and they do to! She loves Easton so much and when he is sad and crying she goes to him and pats him on the back until he is finished being sad. She loves to sit with Lily and color with her in her coloring books. Some Zambian children at a local church named her "Melody", Kendall and I have to agree that it is an excellent name for her because she dances and claps everytime she hears music. I cannot believe that our little girl is 17 months old! Where has the time gone? Praise the Lord for this beautiful little girl that He has blessed us with, may I, as a mother, never fail to cherish these awesome, yet sometime nerve wracking experiences!

When Zeria was away helping at Chilufiya's house, Lauren only wanted to be with Paul. Paul was so kind to carry her on his back as he worked in the yard!

Lauren giving her sassy face...for those of you who know this face...classic.