Appomattax Courthouse

Last weekend we took a day trip to Appomattax Courthouse with some of our new friends. This was a really great learning experience for us and our children. They (or maybe we) worked really hard filling out an entire book of information related to the Civil War in order to become Junior Rangers. This was a big deal as they had to say a Ranger Pledge and received a nice certificate, badge, and special cards.

Ezekiel working hard on his book making a map of Appomattax Courthouse.

Waiting around for our tour and working hard on those books.

I can only imagine what these two are discussing. They both have proven to be class clowns and there is always a lot of laughing when they are together.

New friends.

Damaris and her new friend. It has been really fun for Damaris to have so many girls her age here. We had a group of girls over to make bracelets last Sunday. These girls are always doing cartwheels, flips, or hanging upside down from something. 

Didi's reenactment

In the background is the place where the Civil War officially ended. We were able to see the room where Grant and met. We learned about the silent witness, a baby doll, and were able to talk about how this home was different from our own homes.

The road through Appomattox Courthouse.

Heading back to the courthouse, now turned visitor center.

This place was beautiful.

Group photo. For once the girls outnumber the boys.

Mei Mei didn't cry the whole time, in fact I think she had a good time, as long as she had her chips :)

Me and my love. A rare photo together.

Fall Festival

Last weekend our group here at orientation put on a really fun fall festival for all the kids. The festival was a week after Halloween so we were able to find four brand new, fun costumes at Target for 90% percent off!!! That was four new costumes for less than $10!  The kids were super excited and they looked really great in them.  Below are some pictures of Mei Mei in her monkey outfit, complete with banana and all.

Profile pic of Mei Mei to get the full effect. The tail was attached with velcro so everyone kept pulling it off. It spent more time in her hands than attached to her.

Ready to go!

Pumpkin roll. Try to roll the pumpkins into a square taped on the floor. That was not an easy game.

Balloon animals. Dietrich got a turtle to match his ninja turtle costume.

Pin the pumpkin on the pumpkin patch. Our friends graciously ran our game for us so we could follow our little ones around and help them. Do you see Peter Pan in the background? Captain hook and the Tick Tock Crock were there as well. Two of my favorite costumes were three girls dressed up as Rock, Paper, Scissors and a young couple who were Indiana Jones and one of his girlfriends. 

Face painting. Is this what he is going to look like in a few years?

Greek Goddess or Pretty Princess

Always the clown. Tim had some hair painted on his head :)

Halloween Fun

Since we weren't at home for Halloween this year we didn't go trick-or-treating. The kids decided they wanted to decorate our apartment so we went to Hobby Lobby and found some crafty stuff to do. 

Damaris cutting out our Halloween print for our door. We also used this at the Fall Festival for pin the pumpkin on the pumpkin patch.

Zeke coloring his bat.

Didi picked out a pack of these cute bat finger puppets. He even made one named Nana.

Daddy and Didi. I love that Didi is wearing his crown. The boys in his class all made these crowns and they have "Who is your King?" written on them. They all walk around with these crowns on all the time and they will tell you their King is Jesus when you ask them.

Mei Mei and Mommy. More fun with bats.

Happy Halloween from Mei Mei. The "Halloween" on our sign won't stay up so we have just kept the "Happy" banner up. It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings "Happy Monday!"

Preparation

Two weeks ago our family moved north to participate in special training before we move to our new country. It has been a very busy, but a very fruitful time. We are being oriented to our new company but more importantly being equipped for the tasks that lie ahead. We have downsized again :)  We have gone from living in a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house to a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house, and now we are in a three bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment. We are really enjoying our tighter quarters. Our family loves being together so we don't mind being on top of each other. Surprisingly, having only one bathroom has not been that difficult yet. We are all learning a lot of patience and how to be gracious to each other.

Ezekiel working on 7 days of creation story in our new language.

Damaris working on the same assignment.

The kids are all in school from about 9-3 everyday. They are all enjoying going to school and learning about the different places they and their friends are going. The teachers here are wonderful and are doing a great job opening our kids's minds to the seeing that different things and different people in the world are just that- different, not bad. 

Our kids are loving the fact that they are living right next door to so many of their new friends. They are constantly asking to go to the gym or the playground or over to someone's house. We also eat in a cafeteria here and it has been fun for them to have dinner with their buddies regularly, and fun for me not to have to meal plan for my family of six :)

Our company encourages us to try new things, which we should all be doing since EVERYTHING will be new soon. I am surprised how compliant the kids have been with this. Damaris has officially learned how to use a squatty potty! If you don't know what that is check google images.  She was very proactive in learning this skill. Way to go girl!

Beach Trip

I can't believe it has been almost a month already since we were swimming in the ocean, outdoor pool, lazy river, and kayaking on the intracoastal waterway with our extended family. Below are a few pictures of our time in North Myrtle Beach. This was our last vacation with our family before our big move.

Four generations: Me, Damaris, my mom, and my grandmother. Love these ladies and hope I am as active and thoughtful as they are when I am their age. 

Daddy and Mei Mei on a boat ride.

Mei Mei and Ezekiel. They really do love each other a lot.

Sweet Didi. He always has a great smile.

I don't think this picture needs a caption. It speaks for itself.

It only took Mei Mei four or five days to warm up to the water and waves.

Fun playing bocce ball with the cousins. This picture of them celebrating pretty much sums up the whole week. They had a great time playing together and always wanted to be doing what their cousins were doing. 

We really enjoyed our time with family during this week. God blessed us with amazing weather again this year. It was such a blessing to be able to spend time with my sis and her family, my parents, and grandparents before we leave.

Field Day

The kids finally finished school last week!!! I think Tim and I were happier than they were. Ezekiel was still doing homework the night before his last day of school. He had a ton of homework all year long.  Ezekiel and Damaris both worked really hard this year and learned so much. We are so proud of them and thankful that God has given them the grace to learn and be diligent in their studies. The last week of school was full of fun. Tim volunteered for field day and the kids were so happy to have him there. Ezekiel was so thoughtful to bring him water so he wouldn't get to hot while he was running one of the games. 

Before field day. I didn't get a picture afterwards but needless to say they were worn out and wet.

While the big kids had field day the little ones had their own. We rode bikes and cars, played on the swing set at our friends' house, and made up our own games.

Still more fun to be had once field day was over. The kids wanted to be sprayed with the water hose so Tim obliged.

Mei Mei kept wanting to put her "bathing soup" on as she calls it, but when Tim sprayed her with the water hose she got mad at him. She did not like it. Instead this is how she spent her time outside, eating grapes.

Have to remember those cute curls.

Moving Day

We may be back to the blogging world, not that we were ever really here that much anyway. But this is my attempt to help our family and friends, who are literally scattered all over the world, keep up with us. We too will be scattered around the world, moving to the "Island" in Asia in December. That's what Didi likes to call it.  He keeps asking when we are moving to that "Island." Moving day was crazy and sad to say the least. We are so thankful to God for 5 1/2 wonderful years of enjoying this great house in a great neighborhood with amazing neighbors. You know you are loved when your neighbors repeatedly threaten to take down your for sale sign. We already miss them even though it's only been a couple weeks. Tim has already dropped by for a visit with our 93 year old neighbor with whom he shares a love for gardening. Here are a couple pictures of moving day. 

The kiddos in the backyard being silly, so they won't be sad. We will miss everything about this backyard except the mosquitoes!

Thanking God for the good gift of this house for several years.

Everybody tackle daddy so we don't get sad! Of course no one ever really needs a reason to tackle daddy. He's fair game if he's anywhere close to the floor.

We do miss our home a lot but are so thankful for how the Lord has provided for us in so many ways already. We moved out of our home two weeks earlier than we thought and there has been a house ready for us to go to every single day. We are so thankful for our church family who has graciously opened their homes to us until we move in to our temporary housing here.