Doughy Play

While Mom and Jonah have homeschooling lessons, she tries to keep me occupied with something fun and quiet.  She's reminds me over and over to put the lid back on the Play Doh, but sometimes I forget.  We don't have to worry about it drying out, though.  Instead, it gets wetter and wetter until we get this doughy mess. 

The Fall of Fort Paper Mache

We gathered together about 100 milk boxes ('cause that what milk comes in here) to make a paper mache fort.  We mixed some flour and water and the ever-important salt to keep it from growing mildew.  We covered the first wall with saturated newspaper strips then waited for it to dry.  Then we waited some more... and some more... and some more... and... 

a week later it still wasn't dry.  Our art project turned into a science project.  Mom said that was OK because we learned something very valuable.  We learned that salt absorbs water and, since there's lots of water in the air around here, traditional flour-water-salt paper mache never dries.  If anyone has a suggestion for a non-mildew making, non-water absorbing paper mache recipe, we would like to try again.

Our Dog, Peanut

We adopted this puppy from a cave.  He lived in a great big hole his mommy had dug into the side of a hill by our house.  You may remember the puppies that were born in the bat house. Well, they moved into a sandy cavern and, when they got big enough to wander out on their own, we brought this one home.

  All the others moved away but Peanut's mom still comes to visit him.

Teddy Pain

This is our new pet.  It's a tarantula.  We found it in the basement, but please don't tell Grandma or she may not come back to Brazil to live with us.  Her room is down there.

Andy wanted to name him Teddy and I wanted to name him Pain so we settled on Teddy Pain.  Mom says he's a small tarantula and that if we feed him we could watch him grow.  He loves to eat and it's fun to watch him attack.  We found a bee that mom says is the biggest one she's ever seen.  We threw him in there and watched the two do battle for two days straight.  In the end, Teddy Pain won.

You gotta love that spider!

Mommy's Little Production Assistant

I have become the photo and video lady at church.  Andy insisted on wearing a tie and carrying the tripod during my last assignment.

Mom's Bed Has Monsters

A few weeks ago Mom got attacked by a spider in her bed.  She got five bites but they all healed OK.  The bats like to hang out in her room too but Dad stapled some screens on the windows so they don't come around much any more.  Lizards still patrol the walls at night but she's OK with that because they eat the mosquitos that find their way into the one window we haven't been able to close off. Dad says Mom has been a real trooper through it all but yesterday we think she met her match.

Andy got up real early and went to hang out with Mom and Dad in bed.  Then I woke up and went to join them.  I put my knee up on the bed to crawl in and discovered that something else had beat me to it.  This was climbing up the sheet that was hanging down onto the floor:

In case you'd like a better look ('cause we sure got one), here it is:

Mom was less that happy and encouraged us to beat it to a pulp with the flyswatter.

Life out here can be sometimes exciting and sometimes disturbing but it's never ever boring.

New Life at the Bat House

We like to walk to this vacant house just up the hill and shoot at the bats that hang out there with our slingshots.  

A few days ago, after clearing the place out of the little black fruit-eaters, we discovered something new in the garage.

One of the many local street dogs had turned the place into a nursery for her six puppies.

Mom told us not to touch her since we didn't know if she would bite.  Instead, we slid a bowl of water and some dog biscuits to her two days in a row.  On the third day, she came into our yard looking for her meal.  Dad's not super happy about that but we think the puppies are great!

Pet For a Day

It came down to a behemoth roach, a fledgling bird that landed on Dad in bed, and this harmless baby gecko.  Thankfully, the lizard won the contest and became pet for the day.  Jonah wore him like a tattoo for the better part of the morning then released him back into the wild (our back yard) so that he can grow and return another day to climb our bedroom walls, eating his fill of mosquitos. 

Pineapple Gardener

This is Grandma, planting a pineapple:

She's actually re-planting a pineapple, because the roaming cows came along last night and dug up what she had planted a couple weeks ago.  It already had roots and everything.  At least they had the decency to leave some fertilizer behind.

Fruity Cereal

Dad thought this looked like a taste of home, so he brought it home for us.  Can you say knock off?  Funny thing is, we never did eat Froot Loops in the States, but there is something that just tastes American about this stuff.  It's our favorite breakfast comfort food here.

(Since the taking of this picture, we have found Kellogg's Froot Loops at the grocery store.  For just under six dollars a box it's a real bargain.)

Bat Killers

These pictures were taken just days after we moved into our new house.  There was a bat living in Grandma's room and she sent us in to get it out.  We chased it around and swung this baton and this flyswatter at it.  Dad finally made contact with the flyswatter.

We carried it out into the yard on the baton and gave it an improper burial.  
We publish these photos as a memorial and an apology to the flying mice.  We know now that they are our friends and the eaters of many insects.

Not Our Dog

We have a lot of dogs in the neighborhood.  This one comes around every day.  Dad says he's not our dog.  He likes us a lot.  We like to pet him.  A couple days ago when Dad was gone, we fed him.  He liked that a lot.  We also learned that he likes to catch Cheetos in the air.  When Dad heard about that he reminded us that he's not our dog.  Yesterday when Dad was out again, we had the dog in.  He's a real good dog.  Too bad he's not ours.  I wonder if his daddy told him that we're not his. 

Branch Bug

If they call this kind of insect a "stick bug" in the States, I think I would call the Brazilian version a "branch bug".

Toad-ally Cool!

I couldn't fit this one in my pocket.

Our Superman Pool

This is the best part of our new house.  Mom and Dad thought it was funny to have a built-in pool this little, but we saw it and knew immediately that this superhero pool was built just for us.   

The Fish That Didn't Get Away

We went fishing with Grandma on her boyfriend Bill's property.  Here's Bill harvesting our cane poles:

Grandma stood by to help in case a big fish tried to pull us into the water.  (We can only hope she intended to help us and not the fish):Andy handled this one just fine:Jonah had to work for his catch though:

It was worth it in the end, don't you think?:

We would say one of the highlights of the day was riding on this four-wheeler, but Mom insists the highlight is that none of us was maimed:

What a blast!

High Aspirations

We were driving home one evening recently and passed several restaurants when Jonah announced that he wanted to be a "restaurant guy" when he grows up.  He said he wants to sell food to people.  I said I thought that was a fine idea and that I would certainly buy food at his restaurant (especially if he stops picking his nose by then).  A few minutes passed, then Andy chimed in with, "I want to be Spiderman when I grow up."  Not wanting to be outdone, Jonah said, "I think I want to be Batman instead."  Several more minutes passed before Andy decidedly pronounced, "I am going to be the Lord."