Back Online!

We are back on line after almost 6 months. Yea!!
We will be trying to catch up on e-mail and blogging. Our connection is slow, so we appreciate your patience.

Bandana Pants & Skirt

Isabelle's skirt and Caleb's pants were each made from 2 bandannas. My idea was to put 2 of the same color, but they wanted one red and one blue.
These were super simple to make. The skirt is 2 bandannas sewn together, with the top folded over for elastic.
The pants were copied from this pattern.
I should have made these before the 4th of July!

Isabelle turns 7!

Isabelle's birthday was July 15, but we had too much celebrating to fit into one day. She started partying Monday evening. Midhuna was leaving the next day, so we had her come over for cookies.
Wednesday evening we have our team meeting and celebrated with cinnamon rolls, pineapple upside down cake, peanut butter cookies, and brownies. After the meeting the Harveys and the Marshes stayed for supper. One of Isabelle's favorite present was some clothes from Isabelle Harvey that she had outgrown.

Of course, we had to have another little party on her actual birthday with some neighbors. Isabelle decided she wanted her birthday to last all year, but we had to draw the line somewhere!

4th of July

I wasn't planning to do anything special for the 4th of July, but Isabelle really wanted to have a party. We invited some of our neighbors to come over for lunch after church.
The food was different than any 4th of July celebration that I have attended.
We had the following:
mango juice
curry chicken (Midhuna made this Indian dish for us)
rice
homemade bread
spam and egg salad (canned "ham," boiled eggs, and mayo)
fried plantains
chips (a rare treat- you can't buy them here, they have to be made from scratch)
banana yogurt (also made from scratch)
brownies

We enjoyed the food and the time with friends.

Kelly

Isabelle was glad to see Kelly back.

Package

We love getting mail and today we had another fun mail day! May 26 we received 3 packages. We were so excited- can you tell? They were mailed at different times: January 14, February 6, and March 17. It's funny that they all came on the same day.
We got stickers, candy, books, stamps and more. Some of it was geared for Valentine's Day and Easter, but we enjoyed it just the same. :)
Thanks to Cut Bank Community Bible Church (especially Lowell and Bonnie), Paul & Doris, and Sarah for the mail.
After receiving those packages, we didn't get anymore mail until yesterday. On Thursday Stephen received a slip saying that we had a package at the post office. The kids and I went to pick it up today. They had mail for some of the other missionaries as well, so we got to deliver it. It's fun to see the excitement on everyone's faces when they find out they have mail.
We received a card my mom mailed in December, and a package she mailed July 3. It's crazy the way different things take different amounts of time. Sometimes the same person can mail things weeks apart, and we will get the second thing first. It's just another way that life here stays interesting.
Ian also got a small package from the Orts, and all the kids had a card from their cousins Jack and Joy Beth.
Thanks so much everyone for helping to make our day special!

Animals in the Road

When we moved from Balitmore to Montana, we invented a game to keep Ian occupied during the long days of driving. We called it "Animals in the Road." We would pretend there was and animal in our way, and describe it to him. He would try to guess what type of animal.

I was reminded of that today while we were out biking. We've seen a variety of animals in the road. There are always various insects, lizards, and a few snakes. There are usually a variety of goats, sheep, ducks, chicken, and dogs. Occasionally, we will see some cows in the road. Today was the first time we saw pigs in the road. I wish I had the camera with me!

Between the trucks, cars, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, wheelbarrows, pushcarts, pedestrians, and animals driving or bicycling here is like an obstacle course.

We finished our last day of school yesterday. (Yay!) We should have more of a chance to be out and about now.

Today we rode bikes down to the mission to pick up the newest addition to our household- a white male kitten. The kids have named him "Blizzard." I'll put picture of him up when I have a chance.