Monday, April 16, 2012

Catching up

I dragged out a few of the older photos that I never put on. This year I tried something different for dye. I never buy it but always use vinegar, water, and food coloring. This year I tried water and Kool-Aid. The color was nice and bright but the eggs smudged easier.
Last year we easily ate all of the eggs that were hard boiled so I didn't hesitate to make more this year. Peter and I enjoyed our egg salad sandwiches.
Gaëlle is one of our cuddlers. She loves to snuggle in and read a book or take a little snooze.
The other day Gaëlle and I had a foot race up the hill. She beat me by a lot. She is fast. So knowing that I run longer distances she was all set to run with me. Yesterday we did it. She thought she could run 5K with me, but I wasn't sure. She started out nice and light but about 1/2K I could tell she was huffing and puffing. But she didn't want to give up. It was too cute to see her determination. We turned around and she easily managed to complete 1K. I think if she ever wanted to be a runner, she could. She has the mental determination and the physical ability. Watch out world.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Bunny Day 2012

Instead of a giant basket on Easter, we have always done a small candy hunt on the Saturday before Easter and we call it Bunny Day. Today was the day. It doesn't take much to excite Gaëlle and the promise of candy really puts her over the top. She found the first hiding spot.
Generally these kids don't miss anything, but they both climbed down from the tree fort with the skittles still there. If you look, you can see the red skittle container beside the tan bucket.
Gaëlle loves to share the knowledge and couldn't help herself from telling Peter when she found something.
Sweet success.

Kids and cousins

Proof that the people mover mini van really works. All 7 of us can go from one place to another. Not pretty but it works.
I don't always think to get a picture of the 5 kids together but here they are.
Melissa and Emily are cousins who we have always thought resembled each other. Melissa is 10 years older and the resemblance is still there but maybe not as strong as it once was.

Haitian coffee

Robin and Kaylin brought back some roasted coffee from Haiti. One of the employees at Clean Water for Haiti roasts the beans and they sell them as a fund raiser for CWFH.
Gaëlle loves grinding the beans up. The first time she pressed the grinder lid down and it made such a loud noise, she jumped. I wish I had caught that on film. It was priceless. She's ready for the noise now and loves to grind.
It's nice to have freshly ground Haitian coffee. Gaëlle and Peter love to share their Haitian "stuff" with our guests. So now anyone coming over is offered not just coffee, but Haitian coffee. Too cute. We also have some Haitian vanilla so when we bake, we refer to our vanilla as Haitian vanilla. It definitely fills them with pride.

Belated Birthday

I know it's April but I'm going to flash back to March and our last March birthday. We haven't been able to celebrate Joshua's birthday in person for the last 4 years. So Robin made sure to keep up the trend and he decided to get stuck in Haiti so that he missed the actual date. However, the party went on. Joshua opened a bag and found his favorite chips.
Peter also painted a picture for him. It's also signed by the artist because that's so important.
I picked up some peeps and Peter and Gaëlle had their first peeps. Pure sugar. How can that be bad?
And of course, we had lemon meringue cake. This would be Joshua's cake of choice. Altho he is pretty easygoing when it comes to cakes.
This is Kaylin waiting it out in the Port au Prince airport instead of being home with us. Latte, game, and patience galore.