Andy's Early Birthday Celebration

Andy will turn five at the end of the month but we decided to celebrate early while we're still here in Brazil with his friends. He wanted a Spiderman party, so a Spiderman party it was:

He had a pool party in November - something that probably won't happen next year:
Dad grilled up some deliciousness while the menfolk milled around the churrasqueira (Brazilian-barbecue oven):

Judging by the expressions, he's gotten pretty good at it:

Andy opened some presents:And played some games:
While Ben wondered when he was going to get a turn. Not for about four months, Little Man:

Then Andy disappeared and Spider-Man joined the fun for a group photo:
All in all it was a great day and a birthday to remember, not just because of the food and fun, but also because it will be the last birthday Andy celebrates with this Portuguese-speaking bunch... for a while, at least.

Jonah Turns Eight

We celebrated Jonah's eighth birthday with a party at our house.

The first item on the agenda was cool hair styles for the three amigos:

It was an experiment with egg whites. Jonah, Andy, and their best friend Irvaine all sported the spikes until they hit the pool a bit later in the day:

Here's the birthday crew:

The theme was Ben 10 again. Jonah L-O-V-E-S Ben 10, as do most of the other little boys around here. I'll be interested to see how popular the cartoon is in the States. Since we got rid of TV, our boys have to rely on videos and comic books of their favorite super hero.One of our guests, while reaching out to hand a card to Jonah, quickly pulled it back when she saw the "Ben 10" table decoration. She whispered to her mother, "You wrote happy eighth birthday on the card to Jonah but it's BEN who's turning TEN. How embarrassing!" I had to laugh, and I assured her they had it right the first time. In case you haven't guessed, they also don't have TV.

Dad grilled up some tasty treats:

And the big kids talked and ate together:

While the little kids enjoyed the pool:

And the even littler kids enjoyed poking each other with sticky fingers:

Then there was this:

And presents:

It's going to be sad to say goodbye to good friends but we are blessed to have made so many memories while we were here.

This may be the last pool party Jonah ever has because it's much colder in October north of the equator. I'm sure he has no idea how much he'll cherish these memories, but he will be blessed by them forever.

Andy at Capoeira Practice

The kids are learning capoeira (an Afro-Brazilian art form that combines martial arts with dance). Here's a short video of Andy during a recent practice.

A Look Into the Future

My upcoming homeschool student was very interested in writing class today.

Teeth

The New Kid in Town

This is our new brother Ben.  He was born on March 3 and he's about two weeks old in this picture.  Mom had to be induced a couple weeks early because of some crazy itching she was having.  

Dad was trying to explain to us that we were about to have a new baby in the house.  He wanted to prepare us, so he said, "Today is Friday and on Tuesday Mommy's going into the hospital to have the baby."  Andy was so happy.  I was too.  

I said, "Dad, are you kidding me?  Today is really Friday?  Do you know what this means?"  

"Yes, I do," he said with a big smile on his face.  "Only a few more days."  

"No," I yelled with glee, "Star Wars is on TV tonight!"       

The Prayer of a Righteous Kid Availeth Much

A few days ago we came home and the electricity was out.  We couldn't open the electric gate to drive the car in.  Mom and Dad didn't have a key to the other door either.  We were stuck in the street and couldn't get into our house.  We have an electric fence around the top of our wall to keep out robbers and Dad says it's very dangerous.  But since the electricity was off, he said he could climb over the wall and try to pry open the electric gate from the inside.  He backed the car up to the wall and climbed on top.  We were very worried that we were never going to see our toys again but Mom said we should pray that God would turn on the electricity.  We both talked to God and said, "Please turn on the electricity so we can open the gate.  Please let us into our house.  Amen."  Just when we said "Amen" Dad came crashing down onto the car with a yell.  God did turn it back on and Dad got shocked real bad.  His hand was even bleeding.  He asked us to please tell him before the next time we were going to pray for something that might kill him.  We thought it was pretty cool that God answered our prayers and that Dad was OK.