The bosses are done!

After weeks of work and lots of dirt, the bosses have finished the last of the platstering!!! Seems like the worst is over. Now it's just the porch grates, painting, tile, electrical and plumbing to finish. Can't wait! :-)

 Our new door that opens from the existing porch... 

 The new school room! 

 ... and a couple pictures of the window grates. Dad and Lee were able to get all the gates welded in one day, and the next day the ladies painted them! :-)

 These next pictures are the view from our new porch...

 When it's clear we can see the Caribbean Sea! In the winter the sun sets over the water, and it is such a pretty sight!

 My 3 youngest who came out with me in their pj's to take pictures. :-)

And a picture of the porch itself. We already love this new porch!

The blessing of friends...

 MaryAnn from IFM came up to visit the other weekend. I knew her slightly because we went to church together for a few years in the States, but never really learned to know her till that weekend. I so enjoyed those 5 days that she spent here! We found that we have a lot in common, and I think we talked about everything from A to Z including child training, life in Haiti and all its challenges, preemies, etc, etc! :) 

And our babies were both preemies and are only 6 days apart! :)

 Contrary to looks Veronika is actually taller than Weston! :)

Thanks for coming, MaryAnn! You were such an encouragement to me!!!

PS. Weston was sitting on my lap as I was getting ready to post this, and he just loved the picture above... He kept saying over and over just kind of whispering to himself "Mommy and 'Wetin'..." :-)

Weston...

 I haven't done a Weston post for a while, are you all ready for one again?! :)

 The other day it was so rainy and muddy outside,

and Weston found some entertainment on the porch!

 He made the saw his "moto"...

 ...and had a party on it!!!

Looking at pictures before bed with Lor and Leroy. 

Weston just loves following Lee all over the place!

Helicopter Landing...

Here's a video clip from 2 years ago... I wanted to share this one before, but couldn't because of it's size... I finally got it downsized... We needed a generator part urgently and since Samaritan Air was in country at the time, they kindly flew it up for us and landed on our flat roof... It's not fair that it only takes 20 minutes from Port by helicopter, when we spend 5 hours of grueling driving to make the same trip...

Please let a comment and let me know if you can or cannot view the clip... When I tried it told me that an error occurred and I couldn't view it, but I don't know if that is because of my connection or not. If it works out ok, I might post more video clips.

Work project pictures

The bosses are mostly done plastering...

A front view of the porch...

The doors and windows are all in now!

Ever hear of pouring a door? We were all puzzled when we heard them talk about "pouring a door", but after going out to see, it made more sense. Lee poured the cement down the steel door frames between the door and the wall.

Janelle's birthday!

 Janelle was so excited about her birthday! 

She said "Now I'm 4 just like Elaine and Jonathan!"

 It kind of made me feel funny to think that

 I have three 4 year-olds for a few months! :)

 She loved decorating her own cake!

 She did it in the afternoon a while before supper. 

Then she started getting impatient and kept saying,

"Mommy, I'm ready to sing 'Happy Birthday' now!"

 Here's pictures of the table... sometimes the challenge of making do with what you have is really fun! I felt at  loss to know how to make her birthday special without doing all birthdays the same...

 We finally came up with the idea of laying squares of tissue paper on the table. Then we scattered lollipops and some chocolate around votive candles. We hung some balloons on the ceiling, but because we've had so much rain lately, the balloons didn't want to stick because of the moisture!

 The children loved the balloons!

Finally, finally Janelle got to cut and serve her cake

 with help from Lor's younger brother, Leroy.

btw...

For those of you who are interested... the cistern is overflowing!!! :)

We've had around 12 inches of rain in the last 6 weeks...

So thankful for rain, even though it makes so much mud, and makes 

the porch and house so dirty! At least we have water to clean with!!!! :)