April

Second ladies' cooking workshop.

This time Sofia showed us how to make egg rolls. Those sweet, crispy treats.

Lisa, one of the ladies brought a head scarf. Cute little milk maid. :)

Joji playing with his 6th floor buddies.

I was trying to get creative with his papaya and eggs just to make him eat.

Joji preparing for seminary. :)

Just today, we took Joji out again on the bike. He begged to have the training wheels taken off. Maybe next time we'll try.

A rare visit from our neighbors. Cute girls! Wish we could see them more often.

This little girl is a genius. She is a little older than Anna and speaking all sorts of complex sentences.

Out biking in beautiful weather.

On our way to the Starbucks near 101.

:)

We went to a wedding. I see what one person (forget who) meant when they said Joji looked like a school boy. Hm, pants would have been better.

Joji's lady friend. :)

With the drumming friends again.

I forget what the problem was. Just want to show off a first attempt at this shirt pattern.

Joji with his train from Lynn and Debbie.

March

Dear friend Melody Ayi. :)

Joji loves cooking. I forget what we were making that day. (just today he "made" me puffer fish with his choice of seasoning: salt, pepper and cinnamon :P)

Our first ladies cooking class. Sofia taught us how to make coconut bread. Delicious!

At Ken's office. Anna tripped over something (her feet, perhaps) and decided she was more comfortable in that position.

Kid's baking class. Cookies.

This plot of land, right beside 101, is devided into many little gardens. A huge chunk recently got paved over. So sad. Probably a parking lot.

We befriended A-lan, one of the gardeners.

Almost bedtime; Joji's tired.

Joji doing the ABC puzzle he got from Sara Ayi.

Sigh. Remembering thinner days..

:)

Joji can do buttons now! (not then)

Church friends.

After a full morning of play with church buddies. On our way home.

Birthday party on the 6th floor.

We love this little lady!

And this fellow. :)

What would we do without A-m?

February

My new plan to catch up is to post pictures by month. Hopefully I'll be caught up by December. :)

This couple (two in the back) own a squid ink business. After a lovely visit where we recieved a gift of squid ink powder, we went on to plan a ladies baking class. To date we've had about four classes/gab sessions (made choc cake, coconut bread, pizza, something else), and I hope there will be more.

Just a spoonful of squid ink powder added to our yummy goat milk cream cheese (or sour cream?) made a beautiful gray spead for crackers.

Again, just a spoonful of the powder added to bread dough resulted in this:

New Year's outing with two of Ken's brothers, his sister and families.

I'm proud to have captured them standing together (with Ken's brother-in-law in the back). Hope to get a picture of all of them together someday.

Anna with New Hope friends.

Joji had several people help him with those troublesome laces that day.

I managed to capture one of my favorite expressions of Ken's.

A sort of reunion of Ken's friends from different walks of life.

Joji and Anna had fun with the sand, grass and new friends.

These are the kids who faithfully practice drums. They love Joji and Anna. This picture was taken in - of course - February. I can't believe how much they have grown up already!

Ken off to work at his newly started Real Estate Company.

Joji was enthusiastic about "working with Baba." So we went and visited him...not before buying his own brief case full of busy stuff like notepads, colored pencils, erasers, etc.

Joji showing Anna the ropes.

Ken and Joji hanging out with their good friend on the street corner. This man seems to know everything about the community, so Ken enjoys chatting with him.

Joji's Birthday

I can't believe I'm six months behind!

I have God to thank for helping me muddle through party planning. I just haven't had to do this before, so I had a little bit of performance anxiety (Anna's birthday didn't seem as intimidating as Joji's since Anna was only turning one). But everything seemed to go well! The food was good (except for a few mistakes), the cake delicious (in my opinion. Carrot cake. The kids left a lot un-eaten. Maybe too healthful?) and the activities fun. We played two games: pass the parcel and a balloon shooting contest. About 15 or so kids showed up with 6 or 7 adults. Way more than we expected! Yay! This set the stage for our Sunday afternoon cooking fests that we have occasionally. Joji had the time of his life. He loved the attention. He loved the presents. The whole day was perfect for him. Thank you, Lord! I'm thinking, since this is a once a year event, maybe I can cook the exact same food and do the exact same activities next year and get away with it. We'll see.

favorite recent pics

I was just looking through some pictures that Ken transferred to the computer today, and I had to post a few of my favorites:

Here is Joji enjoying a happy reunion with his long lost friend. It has been almost a year since they last saw each other. Anna entertained our drumming buddies and onlookers by dancing the evening away. Wish I knew how to post a video...can't be that hard..

Joji immersed in a bug book. The set of dvds about those bugs are his (and mine :P) favorite thing to watch. Cute little animated clips about the lives of bugs. A French production called Miniscule. Anna hasn't reached the bug fascination stage yet.

Anna loves her newly found freedom - walking. She also loves to make friends. She had just exchanged smiles with the little fellow back there and became overwhelmed by the excitement of it all.

Joji's birthday pics coming before his next birthday...