Thanksgiving, Eastons birthday and more....

There has been so much happening it is hard to know where to begin.  We have celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving and Eastons birthday, our cargo has arrived and so has our friend Sarah, Easton was in his first school assembly and he met Santa.  Gracie has learned to crawl and Easton has learned the joy of going to the bathroom outside.  I will include some of our favorite pictures throughout. 

Looking at all the candy.

I know that many of you have seen our facebook posts, so you have seen photos and heard some of these stories, but I thought I would add them again.  Halloween was fun.  Nobody in Africa really celebrates Halloween, and there aren't really pumpkin patches so instead we had the kids pick out a bunch of bananas from the yard.  We then dressed them in their costco costumes that we brought with us and took them around the school where all the teachers lived.  His treats were very African style.  He got a coconut, a couple bananas, a mango, a few pieces of candy and a Cadbury top deck chocolate bar.  They were adorable and Easton loved it.

It was so hot, we felt bad keeping her in the costume.
Easton refused to take his off.

Dad calls her "June Bug" now.

For Thanksgiving this year we had about 15 of our good friends over for a dinner. There were Americans, Scots, Dutch, and Zimbabweans, but it was a very American Thanksgiving.  We were able to have dinner outside and even had pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

Easton celebrated his 3^rd birthday with his friends and a bouncy castle with a slide into a pool.  The bouncy castle was great, but it was very near a disaster.  In the morning we had no power to run the fan and we had no water for them to slide into the pool.  I had to drive to the school and fill large buckets of water and drive them down or bumpy driveway to fill the pool.  Most of the water was spilt in the back of our car, and now our car smells horrible. But Easton and his friends had a blast.  Then after his nap, I took him to his favorite ice cream place called Gelato Carnival.  They also have a train and a little ferris wheel that kids can ride.  Needless to say he had a great birthday.

The bouncy castle was a hit.  He is jumping with his
friends, Jen and Mustafa
He loved his cupcakes.

He had to hand them out before he could eat one.

Easton is continuing to love school.  He has a number of good friends and everyday when I pick him up he runs and gives me a huge hug, which is awesome.  Especially because if he sees me around at school, he acts like he is to cool for school, even as his friends frantically wave at me and point me out to him. Each class in the school puts on an assembly in front of the school and their families and Easton was in his first assembly, but the Nursery class only performs there assembly in front of the parents.   He has been learning to sing Christmas songs which is awesome because now he walks around the house singing about Father Christmas.  Father Christmas is what the British call Santa Claus for all my American friends.  He was able to meet Father Christmas this year as well.  Last year he was terrified of Santa and would cry when you tried to take him near him, so it was a big step getting a picture with him this year.

 He was the star for the top of the Christmas tree.

If you look closely you can see the Movember Moustache.

Today is the last day of school before we take our Christmas Vacation.  Yes, that is correct we get 4 weeks of school off.  We are excited to finish turning our house into more of a home and doing some fun trips with the kids.  We will go do another safari with Easton and we will spend New Years at the lake.  Christmas is going to be at home with our little family, which is going to be hard to be away from extended families, but it will be good watching Eastons first Christmas where he really understands whats happening.