Holiday Fete

Well, we have had a good week.  We hope this finds you all well.  The Holiday Fete (which means "fair" according to Kayla) turned out to be a lot of fun.  All the kids got out of school at noon on Friday and there was an outdoor market set up on the covered court at the girls' school.  Tables were rented by local vendors and parents alike.  There were tables of baked goods, used books, sewing, yard sale type stuff and even face painting.  The girls immediately found the face-painting table and picked the same style for their faces.  We had Kayla, Kailtyn's friend with us since she was going to come home and spend the night.

Kayla, Kaitlyn and Samantha

After face painting, the girls browsed independently and played a couple of games.  Various games were set up by the secondary school students and the prizes were candy.  No further incentive needed  :)  Samantha found a game where you knock down the cups with a ball.  Well, the kids ended up with a little help.  The wind is always blowing here it seems and  it was routinely knocking down half the children's cups no matter how close the ball was.  

Samantha with a little direction from the girl behind her

Now that the girls are sugared up, painted up and quite sweaty, we head over to see Santa.  After waiting in line in the hot sun, the girls had their chance and they all went up to see Santa together.  He wanted to know what they wanted for Christmas and Kaitlyn as usual said she didn't know.  Samantha was quick and confident with her answer: a sparkly purse!  They each recieved a little prize including, of course, candy.

Santa with the 3 girls.  Kaitlyn let us know that THIS was NOT the REAL Santa.  Gee, why would you think that?  It's a bit of a change from the Galleria  :)

Everyone was happy to head home after seeing Santa.  We went to the house and the girls raced into their swim costumes  and we headed to the pool.  Olivia absolutely loved her new wading pool.  She loves water, but the big pool is a bit much for her.  She is not able to play independently so I thought she might do well in something small she could splash around in.  It's exactly the type of thing Samantha likes which is evident as we see her join Olivia toward the end of swim time.

I have a picture with this exact face on Kaitlyn at this same age as she is playing in a baby pool on our back porch on Buttercup.  It is so fun to see parts of her sisters in Olivia!

Hanging out with big sis at the pool!  

Shortly after this, Samantha joined her in the 3 foot diameter pool.

Kaitlyn and Kayla playing motorboat in the pool with Olivia's float

My little fish trying out her new float in the deep end of the pool  (I have no idea why this is underlined and I can't seem to make it stop)

After an hour in the pool, we headed inside where the girls helped me make apple muffins.  The original recipie was for carrot muffins but I received very loud protests from the peanut gallery when I said we were going to make carrot muffins.  So, the plan quickly changed and the 4 of us baked my first recipie of homemade muffins in Africa.  Here our the list of challenges:

1) dividing tasks 4 ways to make apple muffins

2) using a recipie written by a "Granny" baker (referring to the fact that my great-grandmother just "knew" how to make things and never measured anything and had to give you estimates if you wanted to try and recreate it--good luck, it was never as good)

3) Taking those estimates and finding the conversions from cups and teaspoons to mls

4) using a recipie that ASSUMES you've ever made anything from scratch and you should just KNOW what temperature and how long it should be cooked and finally...... 

5) estimating that temp and time based on your memory of Martha White's recommendations and then realizing you need to convert that to celcius.

Well, in the end, the muffins were a hit.  The first batch turned out a little gooey so I added flour to the second batch which turned out much better.  I modified my recipie with new estimates of time, temp and flour and we'll see how it goes next time.  Olivia was particularly complimentary of the end product.

Once the muffins were in the oven, the girls needed hot chocolate to warm up from swimming and they decided it was a good time to start their movie for movie night.  Now, who knows what is necessary for movie watching if the pizza has not arrived?  That's right--popcorn--and not just ANY popcorn, but "HOMEMADE" popcorn according to the girls.  They are completely enthralled with the whole cooking popcorn in a pot instead of a bag in the microwave.  So three adorable little girls pulled up 3 seats right in front of the stove so that they could WATCH the lid lift off the pot as it filled with popcorn.  

The girls enjoying their "Homemade" popcorn while watching Barbie's "Diamond Castle"

So that concluded the real excitement for the afternoon.  We hung an extra mosquito net in the girl's room over the remaining air mattress and Samantha slept on the floor.  They each had books and flashlights and Brad and I left them giggling  as we went to bed.  I have to compliment Kayla and Kaitlyn.  They were very good about including Samantha.  I think she had just as much fun as they did.