The Easter bunny arrives in Uganda!

Since we got an Easter box yesterday from my old chum Susan, we broke out the Easter festivities today! And wouldn't you know it but Ms Dave even stood in for the Easter bunny. I think it takes the Easter bunny a little while to get over to Uganda but we were sure glad she made it! And since she did, we decided to throw a little Easter Bunny picnic.

Ms Dave even had her own bowl of carrot and cucumber peels

Ms Dave didn't seem too interested in her food though - a little of Frankie's sandwich here...

...a little of Ella's sandwich there...

... and some of Ella's carrots! Ms Dave's no dummy I tell ya. Would YOU want to eat the carrot and cucumber peels when other food was available?

Every rabbit needs a little girl to put flowers in her ears

The Easter bunny never looked better :)

This little bunny is heading out to hunt some candy and little dog filled eggs!

Going through their loot on the trampoline

No Easter celebration would quite be complete with out PEEPS!!!

A man and his first Peep is a beautiful thing!

It was such a beautiful lazy day that Ella even did her science out on the trampoline :)

These are "chapati rolls"

No, these didn't come out of the back end of an animal - or maybe Uganda has a HUGE Easter bunny!!

This boy loves his rabbit :) He must have sat for 10 minutes brushing her! And she likes her boy too. Animals seem to sense that he means no harm.

The puppies did great with Ms Dave today. I started out by spanking a too interested Ranger with a magazine and that was all it took. He is a major wussy boy and it traumatized him so badly that he slunk in and hid in the house, then was afraid to even look at the bunny for a while :) Madea did great too and only required one or two swats to get the point across. Our half hour Pack Walks five days a week have really made a difference in the dogs, especially the pups. They are much easier to calm down and not as excited/anxious.

Thanks Susan for such a lovely and fun package!

First Grade! (and preschool too ;)

A couple of weeks ago Ella finished her kindergarten workbook, we took a week off, and this week we started 1st Grade! Our Lifepac books came on the 20th, thanks to a fellow who brought them over for us from Montana :).

We have now completed four days and it feels like four weeks. I'm tired! But Ella is doing great, she is more than ready for 1st Grade (which gives her mother a really good feeling!) and the first parts of the curriculum is just review. So we've been able to do several (as in usually two ) lessons a day in each subject because it's still review so far. I'm sure that will change in the future!

Ella finishing her big 1st Grade review workbook with a cold, that we used for kindergarten to PREVIEW the 1st Grade. I'm glad we did it! And amazed at how much actually sunk in....

Silly me thought that I'd hold off on starting Frank on any big preschool workbook until he was four - in October. The fear was that at 3.5 I didn't want to push him unduly. I failed to estimate the "power of Pack peer pressure" despite the fact of being the youngest child myself and learning to read by the time I was four. And I was not particularly a genius. Just highly motivated to be like my older sisters. No younger child wants to be left out and Frankie is no exception!

I know that you should NEVER compare children but, um, his big sister couldn't color this well until she was five.... :) And he makes it look easy to boot!

Our Lifepac books - History/Geography, Science, Language Arts, and Bible

Ella doing a science project with food coloring. She loves all of the activities in first grade! Especially after finishing that darned huge workbook that she just did :)

Little Bro has his own workbook (which he LOVES!) that he can work on too!

This is a favorite position for just about anything, be it coloring or playing. Seems to work for him so why not?

Another "science project", painting an American flag. Yeah, how the American flag relates to science is beyond me but they are reviewing colors and color words so why not. And yes, we DO do work on our table most of the time!

The finished product. Betsy Ross would be proud. Had I thought ahead I would have printed a Ugandan flag out too. Oh well, maybe next time. The problems involved in teaching dual citizens...

And this is exactly how I feel at the end of the day!

We usually start at 6:30am, which isn't as cruel as it sounds as we usually get up at 7am anyways and it's light. We get dressed, do about an hour of school (Language Arts and Bible), and I'm out the door to work at 8am. Once or twice this week the kids had even had their breakfast by the time I left too! But if not Sarah feeds them. We do simple breakfasts around here.

When I get home at around 3:30pm or 4pm we then do History/Geography and Science, which will take an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how involved it is. Then it's time to try to find a spot on the couch for a little rest or make dinner.

After dinner is made we go on a beautiful 30 minute Pack Walk around the block, then feed our Pack (very primal! Ha!). Then I feed the kid Pack, they bathe and get ready for bed and we read books if we have the time. They go to bed usually at 8pm and I then try to see what I need to prepare for for the next day. Lifepacs don't require a whole lot of prep I'm finding and you can do as little or as much or more of the activities as you want to.

I have a great curriculum for math but still need to get the dvd that goes with it from Jinja. I think that once we start Math (which I think Ella will love!) that Sarah will need to either teach it or a different subject as I'm not so sure I could fit into my day!

It's good to know however that my kid is getting a decent education, especially since homeschooling in Uganda is a lot like homeschooling in the States in the 80's! Everyone is a skeptic and thinks I'm being cruel to my children. Sigh. Just wait until MY kids are all smarter than THEIR KIDS who started school at 3 years old!! Nope, I'm not competitive at all.... ;)

Neighbor Goats

Today we went out to play on the little road that goes by our house so the kids could practice riding their bike. Come to find out they were far more interested in petting the goats that were tied up alongside it!


As usual, Ella was the first to pounce on this little kid, while Frankie stood back and watched for a while. He is so much more an observer while Ella is much more hands on! Isn't he looking tall?

Ella's all about making friends and these goats were friendly!

Well, not all of them. This gal was on a tear. Which I probably would be too if I was as preggers as she was! She saw Ella coming and started making angry goat noises and rearing up on her hind legs threatening to butt her. Now, a good mother would a) have thrown herself between the angry goat and her innocent child and b) warn their innocent child to stay away from the goat!

You can guess what I did. Pulled out my camera and told my kid to try to pet the goat again :) . Terrible, I know. But I could tell that fat old goat was bluffing!

What made this situation even funnier was that the kids actually thought that the goat was friendly, liked them and was dancing and "doing tricks" for them. Ha! This led them to the logical conclusion that she was a circus goat!

Stand off. The kids are saying, "Will you dance?" The goat is saying, "No, not in a million years. I'll knock your blocks off!"

Peace agreement

Forget it. These kids just aren't getting it.

Oh yeah, and they did a little bit of bike riding too.

But not much. The goats were way more interesting

My "Bad Ass Pack" Ha!!!!

The dogs were undergoing a "psychological exercise" of staying and being calm outside of the gate. I'm trying to get this Pack balanced but it's hard! I don't exercise them enough :(. And their brains and bodies need it!

Bowling!

Saturday was a first - bowling! We had been planning a bowling trip with our friends, Amber and Terrill, who we spent Christmas with, for a while and on Saturday finally got to do it!

Being as we'd been discussing it for several months (Amber and Terrill live WAY far away in the farthest north east corner of Uganda and just don't get down to these parts that often) Ella did her research and was READY. I had forgotten that when we were in the States 1.5 years ago we did some "bowling" on a friends Wii, so she wasn't completely clueless about the concept. Then she did some further research and was able to find some pictures of bowling in her school books. As in, she could match a bowling ball with the pins :)

And Frank of course is always ready to follow his sissy. Into anything. Anywhere. Especially if he has his mom along.


We started out by stuffing our faces at one of our favorite joints in town, Spurs. Spurs has the best American food in the country, as well as trampolines that the kids can jump on. Perfect for me who wanted to stuff my face and catch up with adult friends without, well, competing with Ella the entire time. And perfect for the kids who wanted to jump (like we don't have a trampoline at home, but hey!) and stuff thier little faces too.

Frankie picked out his own bowling balls depending on colors. Both kids were quite enamored with the ball cage thing and it was a miracle that we made it out without any smashed fingers.

To be honest, Frank kind of reminds me of a little bowling ball himself - all round!


Amber is actually quite a bowling pro and was kind enough to give us some good demonstrations and coaching. Me? Not so much. I threw some pretty consistant gutter balls before they put the kid rails up!

They provided this little "chute" for the kids to use. And, in usual Ugandan form, things are done in a group :) Even the helpful bowling employee had to be involved!

I think I had as much fun watching Amber giving instructions than I did actually watching the kids bowl :)

A little different than Wii bowling but obviously just as fun!

I think that Terrill has benefited from Ambers careful training :)

Yeah! He hit some pins! Frankie bowls a lot like his mother - even with the rails on :).

Amber could actually get the ball to go down the middle of the lane, the entire way down, without bouncing off the kid rail guards. Weird, I know! I think it was because the bowling ball matched her shirt. At least, that's what I suspect.

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"Will it make it?"

Nothing like relaxing. My kids are like little goats, constantly climbing on and jumping off of things!

Frank had his perch too

Which he liked to stand on and jump from

So, I'd say the kids first bowling experience was a great success and definitly an activity that we'll be doing again! Especially since the bowling alley is located so close to Spurs... A fun activity to do with friends! Especially ones that we don't see a whole lot.

Singing (and dancing and playing) in the rain

We took a long overdue Pack walk in the Garden's today and got in on a little rain storm. Something a little out of the usual to try to break up our rather mundane lives. Which we are grateful for - I wouldn't want to trade it for life in Kampala any day.

Watching a storm roll in off the Lake from Tanzania

I just love storms when you're in the great out of doors, so I made the decision to wait for this one. It was just so cool to see it coming, feel the wind and watch the waves get bigger.

There was no one else on the beach (having all wisely fled to safety) so Sanyu laid there practicing a "psychological exercise" of laying down and staying while the rest of the Pack was tearing around. She's not much of a water dog but she IS a hunting dog who likes to chase birds and hunt around for old bones and crap, as well as the usual human target.

We were lucky enough to find half of a jerry can (the bottom half!) that we used as a boat. It was fun to see how the wind carried it away so quickly (no one even cried!).

I put my camera on "sunset" setting, trying to catch the rainstorm. It didn't really but it did make the colors more clear and vibrant - more the way they really are here.

Madea having a sit in the water. Yeah, whatever.

Here she blows! The rain was starting over the flower farm and coming our way.

Getting caught in the rain really excites some people

And makes them dance. Wildly.

Getting drenched is fun

Well, not for everyone. Others are party poopers. I think she might have been praying for the rain to stop? You know, being a "MD" (Missionary Dog) and all.

The party poopers sat with their eyes firmly squeezed close. If you can't see the rain, maybe you can't feel the rain?

Ella "roasting" something in a campfire. Her and Bridger were by far the most enthusiastic. Frankie and Sanyu were somewhat more moderate, with the pups sitting around with their eyes squeezed tightly closed.

WET (and just a tad bit crazy?)

We made it safely home, without getting struck by lighting as we were running down the beach in the rain. Boy would that ever have been dumb! I had fun showing off my great knowledge of nature and the elements as I expounded on trees and their ability to keep you dry. It sounds dumb but you really need to experience standing under some of those big old trees in the pouring down rain and only being lightly sprinkled! The kids were duely impressed and like "WOW!" I love it that they still think I'm smart :)

And, bless their little wet hearts, we made it home still in good spirits without a bunch of whining or complaining. We were all soaked - clear down to our undies! Warm clothes, lunch and a movie fixed everything. Well, at least for us. I forgot that the dogs couldnt' take off thier wet clothes and replace them so it took them a little longer to dry out. On the porch, since they well, stunk!