Lizard eggs

These are not on the breakfast menu.

While cleaning our window screens I found quite a few lizard eggs sheltered in the window casings. We are watching some of them to see if they will hatch or if they are duds. If any of them do hatch, I will try to get picts of the baby lizards before Caleb makes their tails fall off by handling them too much. What a welcome that will be into their new world!

What's that sound?

The past couple weeks we have heard what sounds like a distant chainsaw from our backyard. It actually was a multitude of bees and other flying insects feasting at the avocado tree. It is covered with tiny blossoms.

It's too bad that our family doesn't really like avocados. Quacamole is ok once in a while. We know plenty of people who willingly take our abundance. And the dogs eat the soft ones too.

By the time I figured out how to run John's high-tech camera, most of the blossoms were gone along with many of the insects, but I was able to catch (with the camera that is) this bee on the first try! Our simple point and shoot camera is out of batteries and we haven't invested in more yet.

Happy Father's Day

Got Lemons?

The fruit on one of our lemon trees is ripe right now. We are drinking lots of lemonade, freezing juice, making lemon desserts, and giving away lemons to anyone who dares to come into our yard. I even used lemons to barter with the man who sells fruits and vegetables from his bicycle. Unfortunately, there isn't much of a market for lemons right now with everyone's trees ripe.

Butterfly ring

Becky loves butterflies. She tries to catch them, but isn't too successful most of the time. Caleb goes after them for her with a stick. He catches them, but they are usually in pieces. This one faired a little better than most. By the time Becky was done enjoying it though, this butterfly was extremely tattered too. There are plenty more outside where it came from.

Becky's first lost tooth!

Becky has been wiggling one of her front bottom teeth for quite a while now. She was scared and reluctant to have it pulled out, but was very excited when it did come out! She went screaming with joy to show her brothers and Daddy.

The boys have been losing teeth right and left it seems like. Caleb's count is five and Joshua is at four lost. With three kids losing teeth at the same time, we are glad we decided not to do the "tooth fairy" thing. In Zambia, the tradition is the throw your tooth on the rooftop. We haven't done that either. We just put them in little bottles. Not sure why - but both our parents did that.

Gone Bananas

We just ate some bananas off our first bunch here at our new house today. It reminded me that I had taken pictures of bananas developing when we were living at the Hafler's home. That bunch was harvested and eaten shortly before we moved out. I had never seen bananas growing before moving to Africa, so I thought it was interesting watching how they develop. Good eating too!

August 4 - A purple flower comes up from the center of the stalk.

August 6 - The petals start opening one by one revealing tiny bunches (hands) of bananas.

August 11 - A few more petals have opened.

August 17 - While more petals open, the first bananas start plumping up.

August 29 - Full tree perspective.

October 2 - The lower petals just fall off along with dud bananas.

January 16 - Yes, four months later - the bananas are cut off when they just start turning a bit yellow. We were able to share them with our two employees.

January 19 - After a few days, they ripen and are eaten. These bananas are called lady's fingers because they are small and sweet. The kids (and parents) love them and couldn't get enough of them. It is normal for them to eat 3 each in one sitting. One afternoon, while John and I were gone and the kids were home with a sitter, the kids ate all the rest of the bananas! We were going to save some bananas for the Haflers who were coming home soon. The kids received a scolding for being so greedy. I guess its better to feast on bananas than candy, though.