My Somali Visit

On Monday a teacher from SALT (Somali Adult Literacy Training) and I were invited to a "cooking class" by our students. Sandee is the teacher of the Monday night class and I do tutoring with Asho and Halimo. We thought we were going to go over and watch and assist as we could with cooking but it turned out we had quite the lunch waiting for us and then we cooked! We made Sambusa, Malawax, and Canjero. The sent us home with enough food for 10! We tried to take less but they wouldn't allow it! We had such a wonderful time laughing with and learning from these ladies. It is always fun for the student to become the teacher and the teacher the student. Asho and I were chatting while we made Sambusa, I was having a hard time folding the shells and I told her "This is hard! Almost as hard as learning English!" She laughed and said "Oh no! Sambusa is easy!" Which was true for her-she has been making it since she was 13!

Asho had all her children with her to translate for us. Through her son she told us that she was "very happy to be able to sit and talk and get to know each other outside of class." What Sandee and I didn't understand when Asho and Halimo extended the invatation was that they wanted not only us but our families also! Next time. :)Our lunch spread.
Sandee and I eating with our fingers and making quite the mess!
Halimo and Asho.
Sambusa shell making lesson.

Grinding the roasted cumin.
Ayaan chuckles at our attempts to make Malawax.
Sambusa filling. It tastes so good!
Asho teaching me to make the Sambusa pockets. Asho would laugh (good heartedly) at my attempts and was able to fix all of the mistakes.
The ladies packing us up. We left with food for 10!

Holiday Weekend Fun!

Yep the camper does sleep 7!
The kids had a great time with their Dad!

A Trip to the Capitol

Yinghua School Carnival

The kids had a great time at the school carnival this year. They played many games and ate a Chinese dinner. And yes there was ponies too!
Our friends Le Que and Briana. B is going to be in kindergarten with Asa next year!

My Mother's Day

I was woken up on Mother's Day by the children delivering me breakfast in bed. I had eggs, toast, cereal and tea. Grace gave me a gift of all my favorite teas and a couple candies from the pantry all wrapped up. It was very sweet. Grace wrote this letter (which was dictated by Asa) with out any help. I was told that the black circles we "happy yells". We had a great day and went to the "Good Earth" restaurant. The children behaved well all day and were very complimentary all day. "Mom you are the best Mom in the whole world" was said more than once. :) I felt very loved and special.

Sweet Photos of the Kids

Up close and personal with Zeke.
Yep, a tie with a Tshirt.
My sunshine (taken on Mother's Day).
My angel boy (taken on Mother's Day).

Handsome Young Man!

We picked 'em up today. It was ok with him for about 3 seconds. We got to the car and he came undone. Fully convinced his friends were going to tease him and that he looked "stupid" he cried, and cried, and yelled and screamed. His little heart broke and so did mine. He then got mad. Yelled and said how much he hated them. By the time we got home he decided he was ok with glasses and was very happy that Zaboo was easier to see. I think he looks so much older. My little baby boy is getting all grown up!

Happy Mothers Day!

So Barn and the kids took me out last night to get my Mother's Day gift. Man was I surprised! I got this!

Here are some of the photos we have taken thus far. The one of Zeke is blurry because I didn't want to turn on the flash and wake him up. He is currently sawing some pretty big logs on the couch!

You Put the Tatto Where?!

So last night our house mate was doing some cleaning and came across some tattoos (temporary ones). Asa loves these things so Chris gave them to Asa. This morning he asked if he could put em on. I said "Sure." I was getting ready for us to go to ECFE so I let him put them where ever he liked. He came in with the muscle car on his neck, a skull and cross bones on his shin, and a chain around his wrist. "Very nice." I say. "Wait honey, did you put them all on?" "Oh yeah!" he says with a sly grin and a twinkle in his eye. Warily I say "Where did you put the other one?" He giggles..."I put it on my guts!" Now "guts" for Asa means, we are all adults so I will just say it, testicles. Yep. Asa has a skull and cross bones on his testicles. Thank goodness that he has had all his doctor appts done before this! So yeah, thats my boy, skull and cross bones....on his guts...

Soccer Lessons

Asa decided he wanted to teach Zeke how to play soccer. If you look closely Asa decided that soccer balls were to be kicked off of tees. (Yeah this whole post is in bold, I have no idea why.) Zeke then decided to pass on tee soccer and ride his bike.