Venice

After learning about Venice in school, Isabelle and Caleb pretended our yard was Venice. The grass was the water, and the dirt was the land.

No cook, no problem

Our cook quit rather abruptly last week. (Sept 26) She showed up for work and said, "I'm leaving this afternoon.  I'll be on the boat to Brazzaville ready to leave early tomorrow morning."

Since then, it's been "all hands on deck" for meal prep and clean up time.  But we've managed to have some fun doing the work together.

Not quite so much fun that we don't want another cook, though.  We interviewed one on this past Wednesday, and she starts Monday.  We're all hoping she'll work out.

I decided to use the time between cooks to reorganize the pantry- again.

Caleb making bread.

Caleb making faces.

Green beans!  One of everyone's favorite veggies, and not always available here.

Ian requested mashed potatoes, so guess what his job was?

Isabelle set up a sewing spot in her room.

Picnic on the porch: This was on a school day, and we kept the blanket out to do our afternoon reading.

 

Isabelle is getting a head start on her school work at 7AM.  That's dedication.

Playing at the soccer field

The tiny orange speck in the distance is Caleb.  He was trying to see how many steps it would take to cross the soccer field.   It took 124.

This may look like a grumpy face.  She's not upset.  People tend to pose for pictures with a serious expression.

Rainy Day Fun

When it finally stops raining, the kids can play outside.

Act natural, pretend like you don't know I'm taking your picture.

Ian in the "swamp."

School Work

We started school at the end of July, and we've completed seven weeks. We're planning to finish the first semester early to give us time to prepare for our transition back to the US.

We're doubling up on a few of our subjects in order to have less to do in our second half of the year.  The kids have been doing very well this year.

Our "classroom"

Caleb is playing an addition game with the UNO cards.

7th grade math is tough!

Nice desk, Isabelle!

Same cards, subtraction game.

Playtime