Flashback to Becky's Birthday Party

Becky's birthday party was on December 17th (her birthday is the 25th). We figured we'd better get some pictures on the blog before the boys' birthday arrives the beginning of April. Where does the time go?




Becky shared her fourth birthday party with Jonathan Knipe who turned 3 on December 20th. He is the boy to the left of the picture just behind Becky. He is practicing blowing out his candles. There was a nice group of children ages 2-5 at their party. Jonathan's mom (Auntie Sue) made a cupcake caterpillar, but the kids decided it was a snake instead. No one was allowed to eat the head decorated with candies, since that's where the poison is.

We had fun playing games like relays, pin the nose on the snowman (yes, even in Zambia!) and some with a big parachute.









No matter how many games we organized, the kids loved playing in the sand and dirt the most.

Caleb's New Smile

Tonight, Feb 28th, Caleb pulled out his own tooth. It had been loose for some time now. Daddy started pulling it, but went to get a washcloth. While he was gone, Caleb looked in the mirror and decided to yank it out himself. He was quite proud of himself.

What is it?

Often we find things in our yard that make us say, "What in the world is this?" or simply "Wow!" Here are pictures of three such creatures.

This is a fashionable praying mantis. While the praying mantises do not get as big here as in America (at least not the ones we have seen), they are more interesting to say the least. Caleb found a different one that was dark brown with ruffles on its legs and body making it look like a dead leaf.

After a bit of research on the web, we learned that this is a stick case moth caterpillar. The caterpillar makes this mobile home and drags it around by just coming out a little bit to crawl. When it gets tired and needs a rest, it attaches one end of the stick case to the underside of some leaves and hangs there. I saw one hanging like that, but this one (might be the same one) was found crawling down the sidewalk.

Caleb is holding a large snail. They get rather large here and during the rainy season, they are everywhere in all sizes. We discourage the kids handling them because the snails' slime doesn't wash off easily.

Flowers of our yard

The last week or so the rains had tapered off a bit. However, now they are back with a bit of vengance. One of the students explained they have a Zambian proverb that goes something like "the rains may lessen in March and April, but they are not done until destruction has happened."

In spite of this they have caused much beauty to spring up around the yard due to the regular natural watering that God has provided. Here are some pictures of the flowers around the yard this month.

Pick'n and Grin'n

While some of you are freezing in the winter across America, we are enjoying harvest time here in Zambia. The corn (maize) is being picked and prepared. The kids here are helping Ba Kennedy (the Washer's worker) shuck the corn he picked. They love to help him with this project. The freezer is getting full. However, it is not the same as the sweet corn we enjoy in the States. The first batch we picked was pretty good, but Zambians like their maize more mature (tougher) so they waited a few more weeks to pick the rest.