Milestones

Our little boy is growing up. Just this past week he started riding a bike on his own without training wheels. He's doing great but still getting the hang of starting and using the breaks. I thought there would be a lot of tears and scrapes since we have no soft areas (aka grass etc) to ride on. He's done great, I think since he's cautious so far he hasn't had any major wipe outs!

Here he is riding by himself. This is a great place to ride. There's a lot of room and not much traffic. The cons are it's hard dirt and gravel!

Pete started out running behind and holding onto the seat and handlebars. Gradually he let go and just ran alongside. At first, I don't think Aidan even realized Pete wasn't holding on.

Aidan's been talking a lot about what he's going to do when he grows up. He's quite sure that he wants to be a policeman, probably in the states near Grammie and Grandpa. He did say that he might be a policeman here, but I said I wasn't sure if that would work or not. Another thing he has sort of decided is that he isn't going to get married! It's great being 5 and being the mother of a 5 year old. Here's a snippet of a conversation we had the other day, "Mom, I was talking to Daniel and he's not going to get married either. We think that we might live together." Daniel is his best buddy here. They play together as much as possible.

Late Christmas pictures

Elianna and Laura the carrot who talks when you bop her on the ground. Elianna was really quite taken with Laura.

A playmobile knight that Aidan got for Christmas. He loves to play with the guys along with his legos. Some days he creates quite the 'forts' for his creations.

A family Christmas photo.

Soccer Game

On Christmas Eve some of the Guineans hosted a soccer game in honor of the 'photes' pronounced fo-ta with a long a. It's the word for white person on one of the local languages. It was held at 6pm but didn't start till later than that. It was fun but different since some of us wanted to make nice suppers etc. Aidan had fun and wasn't shy at all, he went to sit with the kids and had a good time running around and playing with sticks. Here are a couple pictures.

Conference 2007

Here are some pictures from our annual field conference which was held in mid December. They're sort of out of order. On the last day of conference the teens organized a medieval fair for the kids. There were different booths/games that had a medieval theme. For playing the games and scoring etc. you could earn shillings. After the whole things was finished Aidan got the trophy for the most points scored in the activities. He gets to keep the trophy till next conference. His name and the year were burned on with a wood burner. He's also proudly displaying his sword which you'll read about below.

It was a great week of Spiritual and Physical refreshment.

This little guy from the village even got in on the fun. He got his face chalked! The damsel in distress picture.

Aidan's first time with a bow and arrow.

At the smithy you for 5 shillings you could get a wooden sword made. As soon as Aidan heard that he was eager to start earning shillings.

This was the jousting booth. Pete was injured so a fellow missionary helped Aidan.

At the Beauty Parlor you could get your face painted.

This was a unique booth, two opponets played hockey with mops on a piece of wet, soapy plastic.

At the Village Inn you could get drinks or buy candy with your shillings earned. The vendors handed out 'popsicles' or bonbons, an African popsicle, ye glaces. You just pour juice into a small sandwhich style bag tie it off and freeze it.

One evening we enjoyed a BBQ together and someone made balloon hats etc for the kids.

The adults had a great time playing volleyball, court soccer and floor hockey. Unfortunatley on Wed. and Thur. Pete hurt his ankle on one leg and then knee on the other. I'm glad to report he's doing much better. Our friend Brian had some pretty nasty looking road rash.

Enjoying Sports at the Sports Court. Which is just below our house.

During the mornings the adults had worship and teaching times. The kids had VBS style classes. They had a great time and enjoyed making crafts, like this crown!

Aidan is really starting to become a funny guy.