Get ready for the rainy season!

The rainy season starts the month of May, so it's just around the corner! Below the kids are enjoying a short rain burst... they're getting so excited for the rains to come!

Great time in the villages!

 Kids watching the filters arrive

 Many kids didn't have shoes. Elijah broke his sandals before we even arrived at the first village. I couldn't find a replacement b/c none of the villages sold a pair of kids shoes. I eventually bought a women's pair from the market, gave them to Eva to wear, and gave hers to Elijah.

The filter boxes behind, the filter in the front

 

Women watching

Learning how the filter works

One of the water supplies for the village... for taking baths, washing clothes etc

 Pounding rice

Taking fish out of their fish nets

Schoolhouse

Kids arriving for school

 The path down the middle of one village, houses on either side

 

 At one point, our boat grounded on sand in the river and a propeller broke. These guys from the next village came out to help...

... and pulled our boat across the river to their village.

Waiting along the shore as we pulled up in our boat

Carrying boxes of filters into the village

Another filter demonstration

 Village life

boat ride!

 We all got to go along on this trip, delivering filters to a couple of off-the-road villages, accessible only by boat. We drove an hour or so to get to the boat, already loaded up with filters, waited until a few people ran to the market to buy our food for the trip, then climbed into the boat to begin our 4 hr ride.

Looking from the front of the boat towards the filters in the back. Lots of filters, not much space!

 Our plan for helping Zach sleep was to bring his car seat along and place it so that he was in his own little corner away from all the activity. This little guy rarely sleeps if he's being held, so he just grew more and more exhausted as the trip went on.  Elijah did his best to keep him happy.

Elijah on the other hand was in hog heaven. He got to drive the boat! 

and ride on top of the boat with dad!

 This awesome guy finally got Zach to fall asleep.

filters on top of the boat

more pictures to come !

clearly the 3rd child

 The other day, I found Zach reading a book. I guess it was more like he had a book on the floor and was pointing to the pictures and babbling away. For the first two kids, by the time they were Zach's age, I'd been reading to them for months already. In their first year I was reading to them and giving them books, and they were spending hours looking through them and frequently bringing them to me to read. That's the realization that went through my head in a flash when I saw Zach with a book the other day, sitting their by himself with it. I'm glad he found the bookcase with the all the kids books, and I'm glad he pulled one down and sat down to look at the pictures and talk to himself. And I'm glad he liked it without my encouragement. I'm just going to take this one as a reminder... it's time to start reading to the boy! Read, read, read!

Happy birthday to Elijah! Are you already three years old? We love you so much!

Even though you are quieter than your other siblings, you give us great glimpses into who you are throughout the day.

 You are so thankful. When we took you guys for ice cream recently, you dug right in and then looked up at us, gave one of your great smiles, and said "Thank you mom and dad!" This is classic Elijah, big thank you's with big smiles.

 

You are so great with your younger brother. In fact, when Zach cries out, you might even get there before I do. You're often the first to hear him cry, you protect him when there's something scary, and you do all you can to make him happy. And he loves you for it!

 You are quick to turn your heart to things that are right. You are quick to obey, quick to say you're sorry, quick to drop the thing that shouldn't be touched, quick to run when you hear us call. Continue to turn your heart to what is right, and to watch over your heart with all diligence, because from your heart flow the springs of life.  You bring us so much joy, Elijah, and we are so proud of you!

Happy Birthday Elijah!

Lego birthday cake

So excited!

Watching as everyone sang happy birthday!

Later in the day, neighbor kids came over for cake and games!

And they made us all hats from leaves... zach loved the cake and the hate too

Getting ready for the 2nd game

Most of our neighbors are girls, but at least there's one little boy Elijahs'

To finish off the day, we watched an ocean life video with the kids! It is their absolute favorite!

Lao New Year! A huge holiday here!

Water party fun!

The festivities involve throwing water on each other...

and waiting on the roadside to throw water on those passing by.

The neighbor kids and our kids really got into it

Our kids started out with their little water guns...

and then started filling up the wheel barrow with water to use w/ their buckets...

They were out by the road every day... in the 100 deg weather... sun beating down

After a while, we had to go out and get something with a little more power

Which they all LOVED

but had to learn how to use

We had our own water fight in the yard too

The kids have great aim! We were soaked.

Loads of fun! Happy Lao New Year!