Bethany and Elaine's Birthdays

Elaine and Bethany had a blast decorating their own cake for their 4th and 9th birthdays!

 The the fun of pictures with the decorated cake,

 the party - what fun to eat all those animal crackers, and candies sprinkled on the table!

 They cut the cake together and served it. :)

... And ended the day reading a story together... I love scenes like this!!! :)

Thank you!

 Many dear friends blessed me with a surprise card shower for my birthday. 

Over 60 cards!!!

Many thanks to those of you who sent birthday wishes via email and comments, as well!

 My children tried so hard to make my day a special one, even sending a special delegation to tell me, "Mommy, we want you to have a really happy birthday, so we're going to try really hard to be good and kind to each other and not fight!" The thought was sweet even if they weren't entirely successful in their endeavors on that end! :)

Rose and Lor went all out in making a special supper and decorating the table. We spent the evening playing "Uno" with the littles while the older children cleaned up dishes, and then doing Shrinky Dinks with the older children after the littles went to bed... I am so richly blessed!!!

Birthday Humor

Here's some of my children's interesting thoughts on my birthday. :-)

Bethany: "Mommy, I thought you would stay in bed all day today."

Mommy: "Why?"

B: "Because you're getting older!"

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From one of  'em:  "It's not Mommy's birthday till she has a cake!! " :-)

 

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Michael to the other children: "When Mommy gets really, really old, are we going to wail at her funeral?" (!!!!)

In their minds I'm getting quite ancient!!! :-)

Too young????

This morning Kenneth was proudly showing off his loose teeth. Losing teeth is a major milestone around here! But what made us smile was the little brother that showed up beside Kenneth showing off HIS "loose teeth"!!!! "Ummm... Wes, don't you think 20 months is a little young to be losing teeth?!!!"

Home is where the heart is...

So glad to be home again with my 11! :)

Aren't you convinced that Haiti is beautiful?! :)

Some of the views from our area...

This is our view of the Caribbean Sea. Sometimes when we have a really clear day, we can see the ocean on both sides of us. :)

Meet Alyssa Jeanette

This is our neighbor's (fence cutter :) ) baby. The parents gave Lyndon the honor of naming her.

One Sunday afternoon some of the young ones hiked over to Yeye's house.

Rose and Yeye posed for this picture there.

Pouring the roof...

 Almost finished with the forming up...

 Of course, no job ought to be accomplished without some fun... :)

 The bucket brigade. They would pass the bucket from on to the next up the ladder to be emptied on the roof.

 See that guy hanging on the rope? That's how they would send the empty buckets down... Pretty neat, eh?! :)

 Here's what it looked like up on the roof...

 Mme Antonio cooking food for all the workers...

 Rose enjoyed hauling water for the concrete. :)

 Here you can see how it's all supported underneath the concrete/forms...

 getting there...

 But it got dark before they were finished... I love these silhouettes... :)

*Photo credits go to Cherise! Thanks so much!*