Malaria

Holiday is AWESOME!!  6 wonderful days already finished and still 2 more weeks to enjoy!!

 Poor Amy has caught herself a small case of malaria.  Single parenting is hard enough even when you are healthy but with malaria it is darn near impossible.  So Amy is resting up here and Kaia and Pray couldn't be happier.  Easiest guests ever.  This was taken yesterday after they got out of the pool.  I don't know what they are talking about but it looks serious.  It might have something to do with Theo's outfit, or maybe what he is doing with his hands.

I included her blog address in my Link's List to the right.  She just updated her blog today with the story of how she met and fell in love with Pray.  Read with caution... it is a tearjerker.

 Happy Birthday Bibi!!  Amy's mom turned 60 today and we were lucky enough to be included in the festivities.  Glitter cupcakes!!  Not the best celebration though, after all Amy was hoping to spend the day with her mother.  A long skype date is a good compromise.

 In playgroup today we made Easter Baskets out of old milk cartons.  We planted grass in each one and are hoping it grows in 2 weeks.  Kaia is getting into a good crafting age... definitely interested, increasing attention span, developing some skills so she can do more and more herself.

 Super cute end results.

Incidentally it was Easter 2 years ago that I found out I was pregnant with Theo.  I took the test early before Carl and Kaia woke up.  Later that day we hid eggs around the house and had a little Easter Egg Hunt.  I also hid the test.  When she found it, and obviously didn't know what it was, she took it to Daddy to ask.  And whalaa... even without words Kaia 'told' Carl about the baby on the way.  (Wow, was it only 2 years ago that Kaia could hardly talk at all?!?  She sure has made up for lost time!!)

And the day we have all been waiting for... our chickens came home today.  3 girls and 1 boy.  Now we can sit around and argue about their names.  We ended up buying ours from a man down the street who knows Saidi our night guard (left).  We love him to pieces and are happy the money is going to a good person.  Moses spend 15 minutes last night explaining to me how to buy a good chicken, basically...

• Don't buy them in the market, most of them have traveled very far to get there and are tired or sick. 
• Buy from a man with a house where the chickens are able to run around.
• Always buy from the man AT his home so you can see HOW it moves around
• Don't buy the ones that run slowly or wobbly, they are old (he will demonstrate)
• Buy ones that have a strong voice, they are young and ready to lay eggs (he can impersonate)
• But above all... never bring a mzungu (foreigner) with you to make the purchase, you will never get a good price.

 I was really surprised at how gentle they are.  They are easy to hold and seem to enjoy being pet.  They don't peck at you at all.  They settled into the coop nicely and were sleeping by the time Carl went to check on them at night.  

Even Kaia held one for a little bit.  Then she helped put them in the coop, gave them water, and scattered food for them.  It was really sweet, I think she will enjoy taking care of them.

I forgot to get an overall of the coop today, I will try to remember tomorrow.  We all worked on it at some point and Carl loved it!!  I think our minds are all entertaining visions of tree houses...