Elayna turns 6

After returning to Africa, we celebrated Elayna's 6th birthday a few weeks ago with her friend, Eliza. They share the same birthday and are good buddies. The last two years, they've asked to do their parties together. This year, the decided to have a tea party and sported their matching dresses. We call them the twins. Eliza's mom made this beautiful cake.


The girls made little dolls at the party and had a dress up relay.

Being the only boy at the tea party, Silas' job was to be the butler. He took his role seriously, holding the door for the girls and escorting each one to the table.


Elayna got this doll for her birthday. She'd been waiting several years to buy the doll with her money. Being a nicer doll, we told each of our girls they could buy one themselves when they turned 6, so they are old enough to take care of it and feel more responsibility having paid for it themselves. Elayna had watched her sisters each get one and greatly anticipated her turn.

Wayside Inn and Mary Had a Little Lamb

We returned to MA for our last week in the States before returning to Africa. On the way there we spent a few days in Maryland again with my sister, Amy, and her family. We got to watch one of my nephew's play soccer as well as test out the snow cones (water ice) at the shop where my other nephew works. I'm all for eating ice cream to show support to our family. We also spent a day at a local farm picking blueberries, blackberries, and nectarines.

Back in MA, two of Krista's friends (Joyce and Lisa) flew in to visit us for a few days. We enjoyed reconnecting with them and showing them some of our favorite places in MA. High on that list is the Wayside Inn, which is a historic colonial inn. Eating there with my dad and Grandma is always on our "to do" list while we're in the States.


After feasting on the great food at the Wayside Inn, we headed over to the Little Red School house on the property. This school house was moved to the property by Henry Ford. It's the school house of the famed song, "Mary had a little lamb."


Silas is showing he's king of the rock in the school yard.


Kira testing out the school supplies and desks.

Brynn drawing Mary's lamb.

Family Times

The day after the wedding, we enjoyed a relaxing day at a park with all of Krista's family. Bethany and Jacob joined us before heading off on their honeymoon. It was nice to enjoy hanging out together without having to take care of wedding plans. Here's a picture of Krista with her brother and sisters.
We were blessed to stay in a house owned by Krista's home church during our time in NC. Aside from being a great place to stay, it also gave us room to host family and friends. My brother, Drew, and his family drove up from Atlanta to visit us our last weekend in NC. Here's Elayna with her cousin, Rayna, who is the same age. We're very thankful for Jacob's family who let us crash their homestead for day to hang out and swim with my brother's family.

Wedding Bells

Krista's sister, Bethany, married Jacob while we were in NC. Here they are with all of their nieces and nephews plus Jacob's younger brother.


Silas and the other boys looked quite dapper.


We thought it was a good opportunity to try to get a family picture. Now you see the behind the scenes glimpse of how most of our family picture attempts turn out. There always seems to be one turkey in the crowd doing something silly that makes the picture unusable. Elayna was the turkey in this shot covering her face with the bouquet.


And here is everyone looking beautiful with their wedding outfits and hairdos.

Who Are You?

We have two nieces who were born while we were in Africa. Anyone who knows my wife knows that she loves babies. That could be the understatement of the year. She couldn't wait to get her hands on these sweet little girls... and they are sweet. This is Amanda's (Krista's sister) daughter.

Here's our other niece, Ben's (Krista's brother) daughter, who we met in NC as well. She entertained us greatly. My personal favorite was the day she started chanting, "I need candy. I need candy. I need candy...."

Our kids adore spending time with their cousins, aunts and uncles. Here's Silas meeting his cousin for the first time.

On our way back from our time in New Hampshire, we stopped at a 1950's style diner. Outside the diner we captured this picture of the kids with Grandpa and Papa. It was special spending a week with both of them at the same time.

Kira's Party

We have Kira's birthday party around her 1/2 birthday since her real birthday is so close to Christmas. This year, she chose to celebrate her birthday with some of her cousins at Chuck E Cheese.

Getting tickets from playing the games and then turning them in for prizes at the end was some serious motivation. They also thought the tubes up in the air by the ceiling were a blast.

Beach Days

All of Krista's family converged on North Carolina for her sister's wedding. We spent 3 weeks there. Naturally, we had to fit in a quick 2 day trip over to the beach. While we have lots of sand in Africa, we don't have much water where we are so the ocean is a special treat. All of Krista's family made it to the beach for some great times in the sun. Silas loved taking on the waves. Here he is preparing himself for the next "monster" wave.



You can't go wrong digging and playing in the beautiful wet sand on the Carolina beaches. Here's Kira playing.


Elayna is always a delight and full of life. She finds so much joy in each new experience.


The kids spent a lot of time hunting for shark's teeth and buckets full of shells.


All the cousins helped bury Brynn in the sand.

Here are Nana and Papa with all of their grand kids.