We had a fun Easter weekend, preparing for our special day of celebration by boiling and dyeing eggs. Thanks, friends, for sending us some coloring tablets - Our eggs were the talk of the house! The colors were deep and rich, and each egg turned out beautiful! Joe can be seen here enjoying the egg festivities as well -














The kids took turns dipping the eggs in the colors, sometimes mixing a few for a special effect. We added a little vinegar to the cups and it made a huge difference in the colors that became the end result.








After the eggs were dyed and dried, we decorated them with anything we could find that you have sent us in the past 8 months - glitter glue, googly eyes, stickers, pipe cleaners for legs, etc. It was a ton of fun for the kids as they created their little masterpieces. They were so proud!
















Whitney is one of the budding artists in the family, and she took great care to decorate her egg exactly right.












Easter morning arrived, and we feasted on muffins, the 100% juice that just arrived in some of the supermarkets here 2 weeks ago (hooray!!!!) and our pretty eggs. They were almost too beautiful to crack open and eat, but we got over that fairly quickly and chowed down!







The following weekend I took my first trip with only Brooks and Kendall - 6 1/2 hours on the train to the big city we like to visit in order to shop and eat Western food. My fun purchase while there was a 4 cup coffee maker! Now I can get my newly-acquired morning caffiene fix with a little less hassle, except that I have to ration the ground coffee and filters because we can only get them elsewhere. Anyway, I am proud of myself because I was forced (notice I say forced, because I don't think I would have had the determination otherwise) to get train tickets, our hotel room, the taxis and to order our meals all by myself in Chinese! I was nervous as all get-out, but it ended up OK, and I came back a little more confident in my language. All that tutoring is finally paying off! We took the trip to participate in a competition for homeschool kids of all ages in the areas of writing and art. Lots of kids from many different countries entered short stories and artwork, and Kendall came home with the 1st place trophy for the painting of a flower she submitted in the 7 to 9 year old category! Way to go Kendall!!!!

A Couple of Very Contented Kitties . . . . . .














And Another Few Lost Teeth!!

Our kittens are adjusting nicely to life here with 4 very active children in a small apartment. They sleep and purr a lot, and love to be around people. We are so glad that they are a part of our family!

We've also had several teeth lost (on purpose, thank goodness) in the last week or so. Brooks enjoys pulling his own teeth, so when he lost his second premolar he wanted to put it under a microscope, examine all of the blood, etc. He is definitely a budding scientist! Sidney, on the other hand, was a little less enthusiastic about losing her first top tooth. It seemed to be hanging on by a thread, and she wanted me (Kelli) to pull it, for some reason, so I proceeded to put my Kleenex wrapped fingers in her mouth to extract it carefully. Unfortunately, Sidney was not convinced that it was ready to come out, so she bit me and I pulled back a bleeding index finger! After closing the windows so our neighbors would not think we were torturing our child, and sitting on her legs while Albert pinned her arms down, we attempted to gently (ha ha) remove the offending tooth. It did come out, but not without a struggle. Thirty seconds after she had one less tooth in her head, though, Sidney was laughing and making funny faces for the camera. I'm personally just glad that's over with, and I hope she won't want me to pull the next one. I may be mentally scarred for a while. And you'll lose tooth #3 very soon, too, Chloe Bickers! We can't wait to see how cute you look!!!

We're still waiting (somewhat) patiently for our first visitors from the United States (let us know if this will be YOU!), and we're looking forward to enjoying Easter weekend with some friends. Hope you all have a blessed weekend remembering the greatest story ever told!

P.S. Mrs. Leah - Do you like that pretty Auburn shirt? We miss you!