Bats

 Have I ever mentioned there are lots of bats on the school campus?  Snakes too, but that is a different conversation for a different day.  Found this poor guy hanging about a foot off the ground in front of the library.  Probably a young one that has lost his way.  Hopefully he finds his family tonight.

And here is that cute little face up close.

1st Sleepover

So this is how we start each day.  I get a nice morning hug from each of my schmugie bugs.  Not usually at the same time though, a nice treat.  Good news too... Theo is getting better at giving hugs with his arms around you neck rather than in your armpits.  Also a nice treat.

Here is Theo napping with Sassy.  They were really both sleeping but the flash did wake the cat.  More good news too.  Sassy has started nipping at Theo.  And while that may not sound like good news it really is.  Theo has been getting really rough with Sassy and you can only tell him so many times to 'be nice or the cat may bite' before Theo stops listening if the cat doesn't step up and actually bite.  So now my words mean something.  Thank you Sassy.

Here is Theo's I just pooped face.  He is SO proud!

Meanwhile Kaia is busy in school.  This is boogie boards in PE.  

And here she is ON STAGE!!  I am so proud of her!!  Last year she was too scared to go up and this year she was so brave.  I didn't get to see the performance myself but Carl said she did a great job with the class and an especially good job in this small group portion where they had to sing a song about shapes like circles and rectangles.  I am SO proud!!!

When we are all together we are spending lots of time with Leandra and Yves.  I am doing my crafty bits with their mother and the kids (mostly) get on so well, especially the girls.

Carl has been super uber supportive and always does a great job of entertaining the kids as soon as he gets off work so that I can get some work done too.  Check out those cute girls in their matching white dresses.  They are starting to look so much alike, especially since Kaia got her hair cut, that I often mess them up from the back.  It doesn't help at all that they love to share clothes.

 

In order to maximize productivity we have started sleeping over so that we can work once the kids go down to sleep.  Last night was the first time the girls slept together so it was Kaia's first official sleepover.  My little girl is growing up! 

Social Weekends

Well, Carl here ... trying to post even a 1/10th quality blog here that PJ usually posts but bear with me ...
So, we had another very nice weekend that was filled up with birthday parties, friend birthday evenings at fancy restaurants, and brunch on Sunday with good friends and GREAT Apple Strudel!  Of course, the weekend all starts though Friday night with some yummmmmy bread that PJ made with our *yet again* fixed oven!

I will confine this blog to Sunday AM's events ... heading over around 11 to their house not 5 min. away really.  A lovely place with a developing/nice garden and just an overall cute and cosy feel to it.  This is their front porch area, nice huh?

Melanie and Stefan are German.  Stefan works here in Arusha as a lawyer at the UN Criminal Tribunal.  Melanie works part time at my school as a Primary French teacher.  They have been here approx. 1 year and just a few months back they moved into this quaint little place.  They have an almost 2 yr. old named 'Clea' who is just a month or so younger than Theo.  Here are the three little monkeys in a wheelbarrow!  *Isn't that a rhyme or a song?*

One of the favorite games of the morning/early afternoon involved Melanie pushing them around the house in the wheelbarrow ... sounds like fun to me if I am a toddler!

Now of course the Daddies had to do something to amuse themselves with all this fun going on around them yes?  Pull out the smartphones!  Google a local hardware store on GoogleMaps on iPhones!  What else?!

Here is the magnificent apple strudel - with generous cafe latte's on the side!  Yumm yumm yummmm!

and of course Theo had to ham things up a bit in his own potty training way ... yes, still potty training even at our friend's house - of course we were outside so that makes things easier.  And maybe easier still going down a slide?  (bare bum and all!)

Well, that's it for now ... just a teaser now of some of the work that PJ has been slaving over ... she is working very hard to prepare for an upcoming Christmas Fair - she is freelancing for a local boutique who wanted to enlist her help/creativity!  I am very proud of her!  She's turning into a creative professional!  or, is that a professional creator?  or ??? well, you get the basic sense yes?  Here are some candles they made recently for the Fair ... nice huh?  and this is just 'the tip of the iceberg' ...

P-P-P-P-Potty Training!!

Finally!!

I have to be honest, we are far from potty trained.  But Teo can hang naked all day and only pee in the potty.  Way better than diapers all day.  Today I even put him down for a nap on a diaper rather than in one.  I have the finish line in sight.

 And here is the picture Kaia came home with from school.  It is a picture of me calling for her.  Ha ha.  I guess I call for her often.  At first I was SO impressed that she could spell my name!!  But it turns out the teacher spelled it for her. Uh oh.  I am going to try not to worry about that :)  Her letters are sure coming along nicely.

I actually drove the carpool tonight.  1.5 grueling hours. The afternoon heat on that end of town can be brutal.  I have decided we either have to fix the window that won't go down OR the air conditioning.  Carl's choice.  I was so hot by the time I got home that I treated everyone to ice cream.  Only then the rains came and by the time we ate it we were shivering on the front porch.  Funny how life works out.  Didn't hear anyone complaining though.

Oh, yeah.  It's raining again.  How great is that!!

Burnt Fingers

Two complete days off with no work obligations whatsoever.  Awesome!!

 We had a little barbecue and camped out in the yard.  Only Kaia and I actually made it the whole night but it was SO nice!!  This new tent has huge windows on all 4 sides and the top is open air.  We bring out the couch cushions and our warmest sleeping bags and it is almost as comfy as any bed.  We had dogs and fire roasted veggies followed by roasted marshmallows (not nearly as good as the ones back at home though).  Then we watched the stars and awoke to the beautiful garden surrounded by flowers and the sounds of chickens scuttling about.

Incidentally Teo hadn't been finding eggs for the past few days and yesterday we found a pile of them in Kaia's toy kitchen!!  Too funny.  Today we couldn't find Leg's egg.  Going to have to search the garden for it tomorrow.  These chickens keep us on our toes!

 Today we decided to make a fancy egg lunch... since the chickens have been laying so much.  Sadly we have 2 electric burners on the stove and Teo touched the hot one just after we had taken off the eggs.  It was a terrible day.  He will definitely have blisters on the top pads of his first 3 fingers.  Since I burned myself so badly this summer on our camping trip I was able to put my experience to good use. 

 It happened just before nap time.  The only relief for him was keeping it in cold water but eventually the pain died down enough that he was able to sleep with his hand suspended in the water.

And by dinner time we were able to remove it from the water altogether and wrap it.  And after bath he was back to normal.  Thankfully he can get a good night sleep.

Collecting Eggs

Our current morning routine after Kaia and Daddy have left for school.

Halloween

I don't know how many of you remember this but Traveling Loves first entry ever was for Halloween 2010.  So this marks our 1st Anniversary blogging.  I hope you have enjoyed our story.

So what did we do this year?  Honestly I was feeling a little lazy and preoccupied with the garden so when Amy jestfully offered to host a party at my house I jumped at the offer.  I did help of coarse.

 Our lovely hosts.

 Teo was a Maasai warrior this year.  

 Kaia insisted on being a princess which was easy schmeezy for me.  But when it came time to get dressed she was sad she didn't have something new to wear.  I felt terrible.  Pray just HAD to be Green Lantern.  Supermom Amy made him the costume by hand.  Her first sewing experience.  I am so proud.

 We did the donut game again since it was such a huge hit last year. This time Teo was old enough to play too.

 But he is only one after all.

 Pray caught himself an apple 2 years in a row.  This time the stems were much shorter though and he had to WORK for that apple!!  We finally found a technique of taking a deep breath, pushing the apple to the bottom of the bucket, and biting hard.  Awesome kid, he did it!

 Pumpkin brownies this year.  I did these and am pretty proud.  Big hit too.

 

Teo was pretty excited about them.

 

 

And on Halloween day Kaia and I carved a pumpkin.  The flowers in the hair was my idea, a blast my own youth, but the large petals as ears and a tongue was all her.  Go Kaia.