Little Eyes in Mali

August: Cassave Root

2010-09-06T10:41:00.000-07:00

We had cassava root for a snack in the village. You peel off the bark and eat unil the core. Yumm!

August: School Begins

2010-09-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

I started 2nd grade and C started 4th. -H

I am learning my letters at home with Mommy. -E

August: New House & Visitor

2010-09-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

We move to a new house and saw a peacock in our yard twice. A girl one.

July: Eating With Our Hands

2010-09-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

I put one hand behind my back so I will remember to eat only with my right hand (because your lfet hand is your potty and nose picking hand in Africa). -E

July: Friend

2010-09-06T09:56:00.001-07:00

Playing with my friend cathy in our cortyard. -C

July: Taco Night

2010-09-06T09:56:00.000-07:00

Getting the cheese and tomatos ready. -H

And making our own tortillas! -!

July: Care Package!

2010-09-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

We got a care package from a very nice lady. It had lots of fun things in it! Here are just a few:

Playing jump rope.-C

We love the puzzle. -H

I am doing a puzzle. -H

I love doing this puzzle over and over and over again! -C

Done with a fun puzzle.-C

I love bubbles! -E

Blowing bubble.Yay! -C

Thank you Mrs. Newberry!!!!

July: Skype!

2010-09-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

We got to skype with Nana! We LOVE to skype. Do you have skype? You can sign up for free and talk to us through the computer. The best time to skype with us is between 11am and 4pm EST (it will be between 12pm and 5pm EST after the time change) M-F or anytime on Saturday. This is after we get home from school but before we go to bed. (Daddy & Mommy can skype later then that though.)

July: Doing Laundry

2010-09-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

I like to help my friend Amanda* (or Amelia Bedelia) do cleaning. Our washer wasn't working so she was washing our clothes by hand. I like to play with the water and soap! -E

July: Time in the Village

2010-09-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

Sitting with friends. -C

Eating a bug. eeeeeeew! -C

I love to play in the hammock. -E

In the villge playing. -H

The heat of the day is a great time for a litte nap (but a bit sweaty)! -E

Here I am helping my friend sweep the dirt courtyard. -E

I am eat yummy sweet bread. -H

June: Fun with Friends

2010-09-06T06:12:00.001-07:00

The people our Mommy and Daddy work with got together for a yearly meeting and so we got to see all our friends.

Uuut t9imkfkkjfjkjgfjgfjmbg. (I got to swim in a pool. It was green and a little slimy, but I didn't care!)-E

We did a song and play and it was fun. -H

Signing with my mommy to our favorite song "While I'm Waiting". -C

We had a silent auction and I got a camera with my allowance! Yeah! HaHa! -C

June: In the Village

2010-09-06T06:00:00.001-07:00

doing a word searh in the village. -h

Dokeys fighting and falling in a well.-C

Siting and eating a snack.-C

My best friend in the village, Felicity*, who I love to follow around. -E

June: Jonah Musical

2010-07-13T11:57:00.000-07:00

We were in a school musical at school about Jonah.

I was sailor 6, sailor 3, and boat man 3.

I was the sign person.

June: Staying with Friends

2010-07-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Mommy & Daddy went on an anniversary trip to England and we stayed with Uncle Arnett & Aunt Crystal. I had fun playing with Baby Z and all his toys too!

May: Shamu Outfits!

2010-07-13T11:32:00.001-07:00

Mommy found this fabric in the market for us. Our tailor made these dresses. We like them a lot!

May: Rain!

2010-07-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

It had not rainied in a long time. We got to play in the rain! It was a lot of fun.

May: Allowance!

2010-05-12T07:10:00.000-07:00

We have been checking off our chores list so that we can get allowance.

May: H the monkey!

2010-05-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

I love to climb trees! -H

May: Another Visit to a Village

2010-05-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

E loves mangos.

And she makes freinds wherever she goes.

She likes reading books.

C & H making friends too.

The kids in the village don't have toys so they make toys with whatever they can find. This boy is playing with a old moto tire and a stick.

Baking Fun

2010-05-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

Me and Mommy baking a cake and having alot of fun. I love to cook and bake with my mommy. -C

April: Another Visit to a Village

2010-05-05T01:13:00.000-07:00

Our friends in a village in Mali.

We ate mangoes and Mommy and Daddy ate them like the Africans do. They cut some up for us to eat. They also gave us lots and lots of mangoes to take and eat at home.

E loves to help our friend Nathan's* wife, Felicity* prepare the meals. They are using a mortar and pestal to pound the ingriedients for the sauce. (Like onions, seasoning, etc.)

It was a hot day because it is hot season now, but we had a lot of fun.

March: Trip to Burkina Faso

2010-05-05T01:01:00.000-07:00

We went to Burkina Faso and it was really fun. Burkina Faso didn't have as many motos as Mali has. It didn't seem as hot either.

We went swimming that was fun too. So much fun that I stayed in the longest and didn't want to get out. -C

The water was cold! We also want to a store that had a place to play inside and there was a trampoline and a ball pool and a zip line. -H

We stayed with our friend Alice and we went to get some ice cream too. It was very yummy ice cream.

We also stayed with our friends Uncle David and Aunt Cindy. They had two dogs named Nala and Chiara. We liked them a lot.

April: Moto Ride

2010-05-05T00:45:00.000-07:00

Don't worry it was only in our courtyard!

Don't Forget!

2010-05-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

We have posted lots of new posts trying to catch up on this year so make sure you don't miss any! You can see more posts my clicking "older posts" at the bottom of the blog.

March: Day in the Village

2010-05-04T14:06:00.001-07:00

We went to a new village closer to the big city where we live.

We tried a new fruit called a cashew fruit and we didn't like it very much.

I tried to teach the kids how to make faces. -C

They laughed at all my silly faces. -C

It was funny to see them try to do the same faces I showed them. -C

We had fun playing in the village.

March: Visit to a Carnival

2010-05-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

We went with some friends to a carnival at a school here and we had lots of fun. We even got to get our faces painted!

March: E turns 4!

2010-05-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

The Bee day girl.

Lots of friends came to her party and some even dressed like bees for her "Bumble Bee Birthday."

Blowing out the candles!

March: Ice Cream Shoppe!

2010-05-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

Our friends made a pretend ice cream shoppe and we had fun going and getting ice cream.

We had really good ice cream. I had vanilla with blue sprinkles. (H) I had chocolate and vanilla with monster sprinkles. (C) I had chocolate with pink and blue sprinkles. (E)

At the window we gave our order.

We even had menus to look at and pick from.

February: Valentine's & Visit to a Village

2010-05-04T03:59:00.000-07:00

We went to our friends' families village and spent the night. We ate rice and sauce and they gave up spoons even though they eat with their hands. For breakfast we had something called "see-ree" it is kind of like oatmeal or poridge made out of rice. They let us sleep in their school house.

We were watching as they pounded the grain.

In February we did lots of baking.

We made cookies for Valentine's Day.

We took them to our classes.

January: Trip to Kenya!

2010-05-04T03:44:00.000-07:00

We went on a trip to Kenya for our Daddies' class. We even got to go on a safari! We saw lions, girafes, hyeinas, monkeys, (lots and lots of monkeys!), a lepord, rhinos, impalas, cape buffalo, zebras.

We went to a tea farm. We got to feed mokeys. It was so cool! After we went to see how they planted the tea.

We got to feed girafes. It was cool and fun and awesome and great. We also got to go to some movies at the movie theatre while we were in Kenya and they were in English!

We also saw baby elephants and we learned about them and what happened to their parents because they were orphans. We also got to go to some malls and even play putt-putt golf! We got to swim in a swimming pool too. It was a great trip.

January: Waterfall!

2010-05-04T03:06:00.000-07:00

For New Year's we went camping with many friends. One day we went to this waterfall. It was cool. It was the funnest time of my life. So many fun things happened.

The water felt good for a hot day. The water was real cold.

I was sitting on a rock watching for fish but there was none.

I had lots of fun but got really wet and ended up playing in the water in only my underwear.

I was standing on a rock. I had real fun on the camping trip. We had hot chocolate. There were even fireworks. We got to light one! We played frisbe. We saw a movie outside on the side of a house. The movie was Yours, Mine & Ours (the old one). We liked it a lot! We stayed up a long time.

December: Christmas Day

2010-05-04T02:51:00.000-07:00

A really good dress that our tailor made. We each picked out our fabrics. I like mine. We got to open them on Christmas Day. That day I had so much fun. After we opened presents we went to church.

I like my soccer ball a lot. Mommy and Daddy got it for me. I got Polly Pockets from my Nana. I liked Christmas a lot.

I got this doll. Mommy and Daddy let us open one gift on Christmas Eve. We had a great Christmas. We went to dinner with some friends.

December: H Turns 7!

2010-04-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

I woke up my Mom and Dad did it while I was sleeping.

These are my friends at my birthday party. It was a ginger bread birthday party. We were planning run, run fast as you can can't catch me i'm the gingerbread man. It was fun.

A good cake. We played tag too. My presents were cool. I had a great birthday.

2009-11-28T01:23:00.000-08:00

"We had a fantastic time and it was a real feast. We went to our friend's house and we got to play with our friends while our parents talked to the adults. In the morning before we went we baked cookies and got ready to go. My favorite food that we had there was the cookies that we made and the pumkin pie with whipped cream someone else brought. That night we talked to our family on skype. I had a good time talking to our family." -C

"We had a real turkey. We had a good feast. My favorite was the rolls Aunt Crystal made and the turkey. My favorite part of the day was talking to our family on skype. I hope you had a great feast too!" -H

E enjoyed "helping" with the cookies (mostly the eating) and playing with her friends. She also enjoyed trying to get in front of the camera and wish everyone a "Happy Tanksgiving!" while we were skyping.

Afternoon in the village

2009-11-23T13:32:00.001-08:00

"The village very unusual place then what we are used to. They keep baby goats in little houses. My favorite thing was to see the cotton field. I sat under a big tree with the kids and I got to take lots of pictures of them. They don't get their picture taken very much. I think they liked it. They smiled a lot." -C
"The village was very nice. It had nice people. The cotton was very pretty. The African kids were very nice and friendly. A lot of the girls had their brothers and sisters on their backs. I was really glad they gave us some peanuts to take home and make boiled peanuts. My favorite thing was getting to see the fields and animals." -H
E spent the afternoon entertaining the kids and chasing the animals. She had a ball!

E

2009-11-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

Me just being me; the ham that I am. :)

H

2009-11-09T07:51:00.001-08:00

C

2009-11-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

We had a Character day at school. It was fun. I dressed up as Nancy Drew.

Our Wish Lists

2009-10-25T13:23:00.001-07:00

Some of you have asked what we want for bdays and Christmas and so Mommy let us make online wish lists. You can see them in the right hand column. Click the link to our Walmart and Target wish lists. Remember the key word is "wish"...Mommy let us go pretty crazy. ;)

If you have any questions you can email Daddy & Mommy. Also, if you get anything form the lists either have the cashier scan the registry or tell Daddy & Mommy so they can update the list and there are no duplicates.

Silly E

2009-10-23T14:05:00.000-07:00

I like to help Mommy in the kitchen. I helped her wash and fill our new canisters.

I got this funky thing on my arm. It started out as a bug bite or scratch and I kept scratching it. The doctor thought it was a fungus. It is finally starting to get better but please pray that it will continue healing and that Mommy & Daddy can keep me from scratching it.

I'm a silly head. After C got her bday morning picture taken I wanted my picture taken too.

I love care packages! Ponies and yummy popcorn; yay!

Koolaid; I am addicted to koolaid! And of course some sunscreen. We can't have too much sunscreen around here! Thank you Miller family!

Here I am being a ham on my new sheets. Thank you Aunt Lisa and Uncle Phil!!!

Here I am ready to go have some fun at the Fall Festival at C & H's school.

Here I am helping out another team because they had some watermelon to eat first! I love me some watermelon!!!

Exciting Stuff with H

2009-10-23T13:56:00.001-07:00

We got a wonderful package with koolaid, dressing, and real bacon bits! The strawberry koolaid tastes real good and grape and strawberry and lemonade are my favorites!

I like the crayons from the Millers. They made it all the way to Africa and didn't melt! And I liked eating the popcorn on family movie night!

I like my new pink and polka dotted shees and pillowcases from Aunt Lisa.

I played our families' game at the Fall Festival. I threw Johnah in the mouth of the whale. There were lots of games and I really liked the cake walk. I ate lots of cupcakes!

I was on team USA South and we carved a watermelon. It was very fun and we got te eat watermelon too!

I have a cold and my ears are hurting (Mommy & Daddy are going to take me to the doctor tomorrow) so please pray that I would feel better.

Love, H

C's Awesome Birthday!

2009-10-23T13:35:00.001-07:00

This is my picture for my party invitation.

I had the best brithday ever!

This is my Brithday cake.

We got a package and I got a present. What I got was a movie that was called Hannah Montana!

And I got a little giraffe. It was COOL!

I got some new sheets they are COOL.

I went to a fall festival at school. It was awsome!

So cute!

2009-09-18T15:04:00.000-07:00

We want to win this adorable apron! Check it out; super cute!!! :)

More From E

2009-09-13T13:30:00.001-07:00

We got a new dog named Aslan and I like him a lot!

I call every meal breakfast (no matter how many times Mommy corrects me) and I really love to eat. Especially breakfast! Here I am with a yummy bowl of oatmeal.

I had my secong dentist check-up (my first was in the States before we left) when a volunteer team came and did dental clinics in some villages. I wasn't crazy about the idea at first, but once I sat in Daddy's lap I was fine. :)

We got new African clothes. The tailor is the one who gave me my African name and he asks about me everytime Mommy goes there. Don't I look cute?!

My sisters have started going to school. I miss them when they are gone but am doing pretty well at playing by myself. At least I have Aslan now too!

We went to an island in Senegal before we left and after we took a tour of the island ate at a restaurant. I ate shrimp; look at the size of it!

This was our guide. (Please pray for him.) I was his little tag-a-long. I'm pretty sure I've never met a stranger. I make friends wherever I go!

When we got off the ferry to the island I lost my flip flop in the water! They were able to move it to the front of the boat away from the dock and a boy swam out and got it for me!

Love, E

Fun in Mali

2009-09-13T10:55:00.001-07:00

This is our new dog named Aslan. C decorated his collar with flowers. I like Aslan because he is a good dog. Today we gave him a bath!

We were making chocolate chip cookies and a vanilla cake. I picked pink food coloring to make the cake pink. C picked green food coloring to make the icing green. It tasted yummy!

We went to a village with our new friends M & E. M is my age and E is C's age!

These are some movies our Mimi sent us!

These are our new African clothes. I picked out the fabric and what it would look like and the tailor made it for me.

We went to a place called Steak House. I like the steak and mashed potatoes!

These are some of our new African friends. We like to play in our courtyard. We are sweeping the sidewalk with an African broom.

I like helping Mommy cook. (We are in our new kitchen in Mali.)

We have a room in Mali and it is pink. I share it with E.

We went to N'ice cream before we eft Senegal and the ice cream we good!

We went to an island in Senegal and we got to play in the water at the beach.

I got to do a sand painting and it was fun! They had lots of different colors of sand from all over Africa.

We got to sit on a cannon!

Our guide gave me this flower.

By, H

Happy Days in Mali!

2009-09-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

We got a dog! his name is Aslan. he is fun.

My Mimi sent us Books. I love to read.

I got some Afrcain clothes. I love Afrca!

We went to an isiand. We went to a restaurant a man came. he askd me my name and then he sang a song about me.

And when we were there we went to a sand painters shop. and me & H got to sand paint. it was fun.

We got a big new desk. cool Huh! HA HA!

Our Aunt sent a PACKAGE! and she sent kool-aid!

This is Mail wood!

We went to Broadway and we got a milk shake!

It was delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By, C

Life With E

2009-07-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

When we go to the Super Marche I like to look at the French coloring books and play on the boxes and cases of beer while Mommy & Daddy get our groceries and practice their french with the workers. I also like to hold a basket and help carry our things.

Tuesday Toe Day: The day where we cut our toe nails and get them painted. (This way I don't bite them!)

One of my chores is to fold the washclothes. I'm getting really good at it.

We ate african food at a restraunt with our french teacher. I really liked it and ate alot, but look at this HUGE plate of food they gave me for less than $2 USD. I liked the cabbage. The owner of the restraunt really liked me and called me his wife. I liked all the attention. He did something similar to "this little piggy" to me with my hand. It made me laugh.

We went to a village about an hour away from where we live to meet our french teachers' family and spend time with some new friends. Ms.E's family was very nice and I had a great time playing with her nephews. One of them was just my size and age and a ham just like me! We had a great time together. While we waited for lunch to be prepared we ate peanuts for a snack.

We also spent some time with new friends. We ate pizza for dinner at their house and I got to use this Barbie cup. I wanted Mommy to take a picture of it. We played and had lots of fun at their house and even got to spend the night.

Love, E

The Mystery of H

2009-07-12T07:12:00.000-07:00

(She came up with that title on her own.)

One of my chores is to fold the towels.

We had our first african food. It was good but a little bit spicy. I always had to take a sip of water when it got spicy.

We went to our french teacher Ms. E's house in a village about an hour away. We met her family. This is her nephew. While we were waiting for lunch to be prepared we played with some of her nephews.

We had some pizza and spent the night at some new friends house. The pizza was really good. We played games and watched Bambi the first and second movies.

We played outside a lot when we were there and it was fun. We jumped on a big trampoline and played boxcar children on the roof and swam in their pool on the roof too.

Love, H

Some more Silly Times With C

2009-07-12T04:36:00.001-07:00

Fatayas are yummy. it has meat inside.

I had fun moping. my dad helped me.

I got my hair done by an african.

On thursday our teacher showed us a restaurant it was a lot of food it was good.

I rode my friends bike it was a lot of fun.

My friend has a trampoline it is a lot of fun. I learned how to do a bum war.

Love, C

More E Happenings

2009-06-27T13:12:00.001-07:00

Sometimes at "Siesta" time during the day (the hottest part of the day around 1:00-4:00 when life around Africa slows down) I end up falling asleep even though I usually don't take naps anymore.

I got this hippo after my first hippo turned my hands purple becasue it was dyed instead of being made out of dark wood. This one is the real thing made out of dark wood.

I love going to the bakery. This is my favorite. A yummy doughnut the size of my head!!! What more could a girl ask for?!

One night we had hamburgers for dinner. I decided to put my zucchini on my burger instead of on the side like everybody else. Mabye I am a future chef?

Today we went to the outdoor Market and I got a pair of flip-flops. (Mine got left in the US.) I kept saying, "Thank you, Mommy, Daddy, my new flip-flops." (Daddy got a new pair too. His got left behind too.)

Love, E

More from H

2009-06-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

Having fun doing school with Daddy. Daddy does school with us when Mommy is having her French lessons.

I love my new turtle. Mommy and Daddy bought it for me from an African boutique. I picked it out.

We also got new African clothes. Mine looks like seashells and crab hands. It is brown and black and white. I picked it out. It is pretty.

Love, H

Fun with C

2009-06-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

My Mom and Dad got me a pretend Elephant.

Ms. E is Teaching me French and this is some of what she taught me:

pomme, mangue, bonjour, and rouge.

it rained for the first time while we are here.

it does not rain very much in Africa.

by C

All Those Secrets of the World by, Jane Yolen

2009-06-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

This week for homeschool our unit was on this book. It is a book about a little girl whose father goes off to fight during World War II. We had lots of fun this week with lots of neat activities. Here are a few of the things we learned:

We learned about a first person point of view, we studied a little geography, we learned about tubas and sycamore trees, we studied some new vocab, we learned about forshadowing, and about times of war in history.

We also learned about:

*Illustration mediums and did some watercoloring (like the illustraions in this book).

*We did some science and history learning about horizons and myths. (Is the world round or flat?)

*We learned about viewpoints in art and did some drawings to practice what we learned.

Daddy helping H:

C and her drawing of me:

*We learned about oil and water and did an experiement to see if we could get them to mix.

*We learned about shadowing in artwork and practiced this too. (They chose penguins because they love 'em just like their Mimi!)

Here are just a few more pics:

E doing school too.

Daddy working with the girls on some math.

E finds lots of ways to entertain herself while we do school. Here she hijacked the camera and hid in her hiding place under the kitchen table and got a picture of me doing reading with H.

*Guest Post by the Mommy of the house. :)

My Life in Senegal

2009-06-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

So far I am really enjoying Senegal. My favorite thing about Senegal so far is talking to friends and family on skype. Everytime I go by the computer I say, "Talka ______!" And I fill in all the names of the people I have talked to on skpe.

Here is a little about my daily life here...

I enjoy getting as dirty as I possibly can. (But still being a princess while doing it!)

Here is my favorite hiding spot. It's just my size and I entertain myself here often.

Whenever Mommy goes out to hang up or take down clothes I am right there tagging along. Sometimes I "help" other times I just explore in the yard or stomp on ants.

There are lots of seashells here and i like to entertain others by pretending to be a pirate with a seashell in my eye.

I wanted to show you a picture of "my room!"

I like to go to this restaurant so that I can play with the toys and the server knows me by name. I like the french fries.

I love to go searching for seashells at the beach and make Mommy hold them all. Every itty bitty one I find. I do not really like the sand in my shoes, but I am getting used to it.

Love, E

i love the beach

2009-06-14T09:37:00.001-07:00

My favorite thing about senegal so far is the beach beacuse we get to go to the beach. And it's real fun.

I like my new bathing suit. And I love my new shoes.

I love my Daddy & my sisters. I like looking for sea shells at the beach.

The wind feels good because it is so hot.

I love my DS. I played with it on the plane.

I love helping my Momma cook. It is fun. I learned how to make tortillas.

Love, H

haveing a sily time

2009-06-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

My favorit thing in Senagal so far is going to the Beach.
I like to colect seashels.

unusual things at the Beach a sea snake.

in finding Nemo the blowfish s is name is Bloat. We got to see a real one.

Triing a new drink. It tastes sweet.

By C