Happy Halloween

AISB had a Halloween carnival, complete with trunk 'n treating, games, a haunted house (run by the Marines from the Embassy) and dinner. The snow cone machine was a huge hit given the 95 degree temperatures yesterday evening, so after a few bites of pizza, the kids filled up on cotton candy and snow cones. Max dressed up as a panther, Charlie was a chef and Lucy was a princess. Our shipment hasn't yet arrived, so the kids were pretty resourceful with what we had. I took a picture of the kids, the school's turtle (it made its way up from the Niger River and hangs out in the soccer field) and a cute pumpkin carving and then forgot to take more pictures after that ... the cotton candy machine might have distracted me just a little bit.

Home Sweet Home

We moved into our house at the beginning of October and couldn't be happier. The kids love it here ... possibly because we now have a cook. :) Above are a few pictures of the house ... we have a big wrap around screened porch and another one in the back of the house so we can still enjoy the outdoors even when the mosquitos are at their worst in the evenings. We have several fruit trees, including lemon, grapefruit, mango, date palm, and coconut. We have been using the lemons in cooking (and by we, I mean our cook) and are eagerly awaiting the sampling of the mangoes when they fully ripen. The kids love the pool and have gotten lots of swim time in this week with friends - it's their school fall break. And for those who notice, a tall fence is being installed in front of the white picket fence by the pool. The little fence is pretty but easily scalable by young boys eager to go for a swim. We're hoping to get our shipment early next week and be sleeping in our own beds by week's end.

Kindergarten Playground Dedication

Charlie's class sang a song in French and English during the new playground equipment dedication in the kindergarten play area, while the older classes looked on ... if you look real close, you can see Max hanging on the fence. The school has a separate playground for preschool and kindergarten from the rest of the elementary school and recently added some great new pieces of climbing equipment.