Fall Fest!

 Four Ethiopian princesses ready for a fun night!

 Trick-or-Treat!

The men dressed in a strange combination of traditional Oromo garb as well as kingly crowns and swimming goggles... because you just never know...

 Craft time!

 All the girls took a turn at whacking the pinata!  A pinata on Halloween?  Why not?

 Who likes candy?!

 Even the patio was dressed up for the occasion

 The Floreks are starting to make a name for themselves with their famously delicious pumpkin doughnut holes!

 Yum, Kenyan hot dogs. 'Minimum 65% meat' says the package.  :) count me IN!

Who sent us marshmallows from the U.S.?!  THANK YOU!

Happy Fall!

What a crazy holiday!

 Charlotte gets ready for the evening by wearing Grandma CarolAnn's scarf, which, of course, immediately transforms her into a princess!

 The girls begin the night with a little dancing, Ethiopia style!

 Then the knives came out!  We had great fun with our upstairs neighbors.

 I am the (candy corn) Walrus! Goo goo ga choo!

 Cheeeeeeeeese!

 Trying to copy the face of their pumpkins!

Happy Halloween!
We had a fun time trying to explain to our Ethiopian friends what kind of crazy American "holiday" this Halloween is!  Let me get this straight... its a holiday that nobody really understands the meaning of anymore, you cut a cartoon-y face into a vegetable, dress up in crazy outfits and knock on doors asking for candy?!  Crazy Americans!  :) Happy Halloween!

Recently...

We've been taking a lot of pictures!  Here are some from this past week!

 Charlotte playing with her friends in the mud pit.  

 Matt playing with his friends in the mud pit.  Er, I mean, the soccer field.  But when they played for 3 hours in the rain, you would have thought they were playing in the mud pit by the look of their clothes!

 Not to be outdone, the kiddos took their turn at playing soccer a couple days later, without the rain.

 Charlotte the gymnast and her friends!

 

Charlotte finally got a much-needed haircut.  It was so long and tangly; she hated having it brushed and it was always getting food in it!

 

  Now it's a little longer than shoulder-length with some layers in it (my first ever attempt at layering!).  She looks so much nicer, if I do say so myself!

 Charlotte playing dentist.  She said things like, "Those are all of my concerns.  What are your concerns?"  and "I would recommend brushing two times a day."  and "I have been cleaning teeth for a long time, 67 years.  My patients love me.  I am very kind and very gentle." and "You don't have to pay me.  I have been doing this for so long that I have lots of money, so you don't have to pay."  

 More dentistry.

 Some acrobatics.

 Roasting the marshmallows that Grandma Cindy sent to us!!!  It's lots of fun to have a fire in the fireplace, and even more fun to have marshmallows!  Especially when the power is out...

 Mercy LOVES to look at a picture of a dog sticking its tongue out that is on the wall near her highchair.  She started copying it last week and will stick out her tongue when you say, "What does a dog do?"

 She also makes a great ham face.  :)

 Skype-ing with Grandpa Mark, Lisa, and Liya!

 Yesterday Charlotte decided to make us breakfast in bed.  She did everything by herself and reprimanded Daddy for getting out of bed to check on her.

She was so proud of her work--two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on homemade rolls with bananas.

 

After she delivered our food she made herself a sandwich, then climbed into bed with us.

 

 The girls LOVE to play in the sand/mud pit.  This time the mama turtle was being unusually brave and got really close to them.  She got really excited when she saw a container of water (well, as excited as a turtle can get), so I suggested to the girls that maybe she was thirsty and they should give her some water.

Apparently she was quite thirsty, because they spent the next half hour filling and refilling various tea party containers with water while she thirstily slurped them all up.  In the video below, Charlotte whispers "We're saving the day!"

This weekend...

This weekend we rode a guitar case like a horse with giant Alice the mole, dressed up in a princess dress with a scarf from Grandma Carol Ann for a veil, took a VERY splashy bath in a washtub in the hallway, cut up and cooked a pumpkin and its seeds, had breakfast with our friends, rescued a tortoise who fell into the sand pit overnight, made long distance phone calls from the kitchen pantry while sitting in a washtub, and learned how to make a very silly face.  AND we got to Skype with Grandpa Mark, Grandma Cindy, and Grandpa Randy!  We were busy!

How was your weekend?!

Charlotte and Mercy goofing around in our new apartment in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!

Melkam Addis Amet! [Happy New Year!]

Happy New Year!  That's right, today, Sept 11 marks the new year on the Ethiopian calendar and it is officially 2006!  [read more here about why its 2006].  This is a big deal here in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia and all business is closed for celebrations.  It is traditional for Ethiopian children to sing and dance in the streets and for people to celebrate with close friends and family and share meals together.  So we did the same! :)  What a great day!

We started the day with good friends taking a walk to a nearby hotel which had a nice park, eating ice cream (a rare treat) and playing.  We then came back to our apartment and Charlotte decided to ride one of our three resident giant tortoises (see video).  Then she was off to play with other friends painting ‘pet rocks’ while we stayed home to continue to unpack boxes into our new home.  We finished up the day celebrating over dinner with our 2 neighbor families. In true Ethiopian style we learned a few new Amharic language songs and sang some old favorites with guitar around a roaring fire.  Melkam Addis Amet!

Also finished today was setting up one room of our apartment as a homeschooling room.  Tomorrow after the holiday is Charlotte’s first day of 1^st grade!  She is so excited.  She has been asking to start her school since the last day of Kindergarten in June!  

We’ll post pictures of our new home and Charlotte’s first day of 1^st grade soon so stay tuned!

Sorry if the formatting looks crazy on the photos or video.  It wasn't for lack of trying, but sometimes the internet here is slower than a giant tortoise!