An afternoon at the pool!

Saturday we tried out a new, much more affordable swimming pool. We all had a blast! Such a blast in fact that we stayed 3 hours and 45 minutes, and Ella did not take ONE break. Frankie took several and I only swam for an hour but Ella swam the ENTIRE time!



I spent a lot of my time blowing up innumerable swimming flotation devices/toys, a clever ploy I use to ensure that Ella has other kids to play with. Not to worry however as there were three friendly little kids there with their aunt, who played with her anyways. Such a blessing that these kids were there!



Our “new” pool. It’s a tough life being a “missionary” in Entebbe, can’t you tell? The pool overlooks Lake Victoria.

Killer Frankie, after some innocent victims.

Again, it’s a tough life ;)

We really like this pool as Ella can touch in all of it and there are steps which make a great play area for the littler kids, like Frankie, to play and splash on.

Splish splash!

Because we are in Africa after all (it’s easy to forget sometimes!), there is the occasional friendly and very happy hippo in the pool

Frankie with his cute little girlfriend in her cool Nemo arm floaties

Plenty of room for two!

Since Ella actually owned the floatation device, she had the luxury of having her friends push her around in it. Always the princess, my L : )



Ella is awesome when it comes to sharing toys. She enjoys it!



Frankie got a little cold at the end and had to spend some time wrapped up in a couple of towels!



Amazingly enough, there were no melt downs when it was time to go or even later on in the evening– incredible since neither child had had their nap!





The kids were whipped and crashed upon our return home. They watched Mr Beans Holiday (upon request) while I made some Onion Chicken Curry. YUM!!!! To bad it takes so long to make though. I cooked almost the entire time they were watching their movie : (

Friends :)

Ever seen anything like these two pals? Poor Ms Dave thinks that she’s a dog and Sanyu is her favorite! Ms Dave always likes to crash with the dogs.

“I love yah, Ms Dave” Now that, Frankie, is adowable!

Frankie's "Adowable" Monkey

I've never tried to post a video before, due to my rather slow internet, but I thought this was worthy of trying!

We were at the zoo last week and Frankie made this funny comment about the monkey. Not something a typical two year old boy would say, is it?? But then again, that's just my Frankie- nothing typical about him, just his own odd little self!

It is finished!!

We finished the playhouse on Tuesday! All except the ladder to the roof anyways, so in the mean time the kids are safe from breaking an arm or a leg tumbling off.

My trusty cordless drill was invaluable in the entire playhouse building endeavor. I never would have finished it had I been forced to manually pound in nails. You can tell what a dedicated contractor I am ;)

“Welcome to my restaurant”

A table and chairs – one for the proprietress and one for the customer. The friendly rabbit will be served later.

“Let me pour you some tea”

A satisfied customer

Another prospective customer

What the.... ????? Obviously the “No shirt, no shoes, no service” policy needs to be put into place. What is it with some customers and their lack of manners?? I mean, it’s not that kind of restaurant! It’s run by a five year old for pete sakes. What was he thinking? She needs a bouncer to kick ruffians like this out.

They serve a mean rabbit stew however, and pride themselves on serving only the freshest of rabbit. That’s the stove in the background.

The cheerful proprietress carefully stacking her dishes on the shelf

Oddball Frankie was asked to collect all the bamboo pieces and stack them by the wall and this was how he stacked them!! I think he’s going to work for the railroad someday ;)

Crazy bag bunny

We’ve got ourselves a crazy rabbit for sure. Not sure why this surprises me. I mean crazy mom + crazy kids + crazy dogs should = crazy rabbit I guess. But somehow I guess I was hoping that Ms Dave would turn out normal. Silly me!

These two are the best roommates! We actually have a book about a rabbit and a hedgehog who are best friends and it always reminds me of these two. What’s hilarious
is when they take turns inhabiting the little hedgehog house. I can’t believe that Ms Dave can fit herself in it!

“Now what do we have in the dog food bag? I feel something...!”

“Well I’ll be darned – it’s my bunny!”

“Why come here you little long eared devil!”

A kiss for Ms Dave’s little boy. So cute! She is so friendly, climbs all over us and gives us whiskery kisses.

When poor little Franks mom is in need of a laugh, she does crazy things like tuck in his shirt and hike up his pants, then laughs at him while he prances around. Note his faithful bunny parked in front of the refrigerator door. She’s no dummy! She knows where the vegetables are kept! She also knows that a certain little two year old boy (who wears his shorts funny) is a sucker for feeding them to her : )

Yup, L’s a perfectly normal child : ) No worries there. She appears to be developing normally...

"The Project"

This weekend the kids and I (and our night guard, Charles) started a “project” as Ella calls it. Building a bamboo playhouse!

I have long been thinking of what to put in the area where our banana trees used to be and this weekend it dawned on me – a playhouse! The neighbors across the wall have a TON of bamboo that hang over our house, and we are constantly getting them trimmed so that they don’t scrape on our roof, so what’s easier and more affordable than a playhouse made out of bamboo? I can’t think of anything!

We lucked out (except that I know it wasn’t “luck!”) in that our night guard, Charles, had swapped shifts with our part time, weekend, young and less motivated guard, and worked together with us. I must admit, I thought that I could easily build a bamboo playhouse by myself but Charles’ help was invaluable! He and Ella negotiated with the neighbors for the bamboo (Ella LOVED going over to the neighbors, who we don’t know, and snooping around through their yard), he cut it down, sawed, and helped screw the bamboo onto to the frame and the roof. It was so much easier having another adult to work with! Not that Ella, Frankie, Ms Dave, Bridger and Sanyu aren’t helpful, but, um, well....

Everybody got in on the action and the kids thought that the tools were in fact, toys. No better way to learn about tools I guess, then to play with real (sharp!) ones!

Then came the axe...

....yikes!! A two year with an axe is a rather frightening thing. Even I, whose theory is, “they’ll learn after they get hurt,” eventually confiscated the axe from the enthusiastic two year old!

The bigger the bandage, the better your finger feels when you’re a five year old!

Surprisingly, this was the only wound that drew a lot of blood all day, and it came from the measuring tape. By the end of the day this child was covered with dirt and blood –the signs of a good day- and I had to put her clothes in bleach!

The men, working on the roof

We spent all of Saturday (in addition to our weekly market and store shopping) just working on collecting the bamboo from the neighbors and putting together the frame and the roof. Sunday we were able to finish the roof and split and put up some of the bamboo for the walls, before we ran out of screws.

The completed roof!

I knew that I wanted to try to make it so that the kids could use the roof as a play area, since they are a bit like little goats and like to climb and get up on things, not to mention the fact that Ella is a major snoop and it would enable them to see over the walls into the Botanical gardens and the neighbors yard.

In addition to spying on the neighbors, it also makes a nice dance platform! We’re going to add a ladder so they can climb up and down by themselves.

It looks like L’s grabbing herself here, but really she wasn’t! Not sure if you can see it, but I liked Frankie’s face in this one.

I’m taking bets on which child goes tumbling off first ;)

You’re never too young, clumsy or inexperienced to be put to work in this household! The kids had the job of gathering up all the bamboo ends when we were done. Good thing we own a dump truck!
Ella, like a typical Ugandan, has already moved right in to her partially completed house! This was how far we’d gotten Sunday evening, after we’d ran out of screws and bamboo.

Setting up shop

Of course we had plenty of help from the dogs and rabbit. Ms Dave was a bit of a pain actually, always hopping around underfoot and having several close calls with falling bamboo. I worried about her getting cracked on the head a lot more than I did the kids!

Ms Dave had the good fortune of finding some greenbeans that were “cooking” in the sandpit, and helped herself.

Bridger was fairly ridiculous over the whole bamboo cutting episodes. He goes BALLISTIC, barking wildly, trying to scramble up the wall, snapping and snarling at the bamboo or the person who is trying to sit on the wall and cut the bamboo. He then savagely attacks it, even after it’s been cut and we’re trying to screw it to the frame! I remember several years (yes, that’s YEARS) ago when he attacked someone in the gardens and they beat him off with a piece of bamboo, which is the only reason I can think of why he hates bamboo so much. Hopefully he doesn’t tear down the bamboo playhouse when it’s done!!!!

We hope to get this “project” finished this week. After the bamboo is cut and split it should be relatively quick to get them screwed up for the walls. The kids are loving it and so am I : -)

New Threads!

We got our clothes back from the tailors last week so were able to proudly wear them to church on Sunday. I picked these styles because not only are they African, but they’re adult styles, too, which really makes the kids look like miniature adults and cracks me up. They turned out awesome! I have a skirt and top out of the same material, but with more of a western style.

The fabulous foursome, dressed in their finery

Sarah and I agree that Frankie looks like a little Nigerian man in his outfit!! One thing that Frankie has up on his grandpa is that he now owns a pair of purple pants. How many guys do you know that can boast of having such an possession? Not many in Montana, trust me! I think Frankie will be leaving these home when we go visit though.... ;)

Ella’s outfit also cracks me up. She looks like a miniature West African woman! I seriously want to start calling her “Madame” when she wears this, and let her yell at me and order me about. Yes, I get over it fast! : -)

Many of the kids from Ella’s babies home, if they weren’t adopted (which percentage wise, few were), were sent to a huge, mega institution, where they have VILLAGES chock full of orphans. To help raise money they dress the kids much like this, coach them to sing and dance, and take them on world tours. Needless to say, Ella would have been a prize money maker. So, although I enjoy dressing my children like this, I’m not coaching them on their singing or dancing, nor am I booking any tours! While cute, I don’t plan on making any money off them ;)

Sis and Bro : -) Truly my pride and joy!

Budding Zoologists’ : )

We had some problems renewing our zoo pass, our last one having expired in March. As of yesterday we have officially sorted it out (although I’m not holding my breath!) so we should be good to go at the zoo now without a constant hassle or paying exorbitant amounts of money . Hooray!!! The camels continue to call me...

Even if we’re not at the zoo, the kids still like to get up close and personal with any little animal or insect that they can find.

The other rainy day I found this ENORMOUS snail at the office and brought it home for the kids. They loved it! (they don't have snails like this in Montana, which is why I thought it was so super cool!)

She’s her mothers daughter, that’s for sure.... ;)

We also had this ginormous spider who took up residence over our porch. He spun a really huge web with some really tough strings attached to it and generally just minded his own business and caught bugs (and us occasionally!). Sarah however got tired of always getting caught by a spider string and sprayed the poor fellow : ( Frank was quick to find the spiders dead little corpse and he and L proceeded to poke, examine and play with it.

Ella started poking and jabbing at him with her bare hands!

Two heads are better than one. Frank finally gave her a stick to use, to inspect the spider with!

Looks like she’s been fishing! Luckily I stopped her just in time before she used it as a slingshot...

And, because no post would be complete without a picture of this little guy, here’s a picture of the baby camel at the zoo!

And, because I think she’s gorgeous, the Mama Camel!

The camels at the zoo....ah, what to say about the camels? That I'm absolutely in love and infatuated by them? Glad that I have two small children to use as an excuse to ride them? That I can't stop smiling when I'm on top of one, to the point that my face starts hurting? Frankie is my little camel buddy. He is so much like me it's scary and not only did he ride them TWICE with me yesterday, but he thinks about them when he's at home. A lot. He talks about how they eat, their big teeth, and pretends to either be a camel or pretends that his sister is a camel and that he is the trainer. He yells at things to "LAY DOWN" a lot now :)

Yesterday at the zoo Frank and I were actually left in charge of the large four legged beasts, for about 15 minutes while the trainer ran off to do something. He asked us to watch them and to keep feeding them leaves so they wouldn't wander off. Okay, no problem said I, thinking that he'd only be gone for a minute. The kids and I happily fed them all the leaves, Ella ran off to play on the playground with some other kids, and Frank and I were left with two restless camels. Um, okay! I grabbed the reigns of the big one while Frankie looked around for stray leaves, and the second camel just hung around, not wanting to leave his buddy. It was pretty funny though to find myself and my two year old son babysitting camels! Of all the crazy circumstances I've found myself in! Hilarious!