Courtney and I went to play at the park one day while the kids were at rangers and them we all met at the beach. Its pretty rare these days for all of us to get to the beach together when Todd has been so busy with school. The kids and I are averaging maybe a once a week or once every week & and half to the beach. Life is busy and the water is cold! Brrr.
Friends, Friends and more friends! We had our friends Matt and Sarah over one Friday afternoon to hang out and we made cupcakes! We all had a great time together swimming, playing, and talking Hunger Games!
We were invited to the Tolmans for a fun Saturday Morning get-together friend hangout!! Beckam and Maddox were wonderful hosts and the kids had a nice time playing games, eating popcorn, watching a chow and having snacks!! These little guys are fun little buddies to have here on the island with us!
Girls Night at our house!! Every once and a while we have a girls night or a boys night party at our house. They hang out, dance, playgames, watch movies, and this night the girls had some makeovers! I wasn’t very good at taking pictures this night, but they did a facial mask of oatmeal, honey, and yogurt! Some of them thought it was pretty sick but it was hilarious to watch them put it on and have some fun with it! So here are the girls! Left to right: Emelia Beckett, Courtmey, Niz Vos, Katie & Sarah Rodrigues.
They also painted their toes with polish donated by Lyndsey Tolman but I was so busy doing nails I forgot to take a picture. But they had a ton of fun as they usually do.
Jase had a boys night where I have no pictures of but Jase thought is was so fun collecting wolf spiders that one night with his Dad and sisters that he wanted to do it with some of his buddies. (Zay Vos, Beau, Stuart) I tried to help them get some but I just couldn’t seem to find them, luckily Daddy came home and he found a bunch in no time. These spiders are quite aggressive toward one another so Jase wanted to set up an ultimate fighter spider version of sorts. Some might not like the idea of setting up spiders to fight, but they are just spiders – ugly spiders.
We went to the beach with some wonderful friends and the kids wanted to walk up the ‘slave trail’ – not official name but commonly used – which they do a lot of this times after a beach afternoon. I had my camera and attempted to take a few shot of the girls.
We found this…
…dead at the bottom of the pool. Just greatful it didn’t find its way into the house at night. That same week we had found 3 other small ones in the house. Thank goodness for the bug spray because when we found them in the morning they were mostly dead, but we had to be very careful!
Our friend Mia had just got two new little baby cats and wanted to show then to the kids! It was a wonderful time together with a bunch of friends visiting with Mia and her kitties. The kids love seeing Mia and talk about seeing her more often which I really need to get on the ball and do! She is a sweet friend!
Pic 21 – 27a
Mia has this really neat tree in her yard and I can’t remember the name of it but It gorgeous.
Beach again! Tradition after a block exam is to head sown to the beach! The kids made turtles in the sand, Todd and Saad made some ‘beach chairs’ and we played with friends.
Valentines day!! The Youth and Family Centre here on Statia is trying to unite the feeling of family on the island. One of the programs they have been doing for the schools is on Valentines Day. Each school child has the opportunity to write a Valentine to their parents and someone special. It was so fun walking into the Centre and finding a room full of balloons on the ceiling with cards attached, sorting through them and finding cards from my kids. It is such a cute idea! Unfortunately a lot of cards and special notes go unread because the connection between many parents and children on the Island have a lot to be desired. Being here just makes you feel so blessed to have a loving, connected, and full family.
Courtney Loves sugar cane and was sooooo happy to have gotten a piece from Uncle Ismael one day at school!
The Island is a beautiful island but unfortunately keeping the environment a clean and tidy place is definitely not one of the strong characteristics for a majority of people here. Trash is left or just throw where ever and is quite an eye sore a lot of the times. The government has employed people to clean the garbage from the street and grass along the roadsides but it quickly becomes littered with garbage again. Its pretty sad actually when it comes to that disregard of a lovely island. STENAPA and other representatives continue to promote a clean Statia with no littering signs and commercials; but littering continues. So with that said…
Cara Lot, the relief society leading in our group organized a wonderful service project for our group to do. She thought it would be great if we all got together one afternoon and cleaned up all the garbage on the beach and part way up the “Slave trail”. It was a fantastic idea! We gathered garbage, plastic bags, glass bottles, lots lots more and pulled up the crawling vines to make it a nicer beach for all to enjoy. Jase and Stuart with the help of Todd dug a hole to burn the items we could burn and threw the rest in the garbage. A well meaning local man asked us what we were doing cleaning the beach, and when we replied that we were trying to make it a cleaner beach he said, “Don’t worry about it. This is the way my people are. It will be full of garbage by tomorrow.” We enjoyed a conversation with him for a bit and then carried on. Many hands made made light work, and it was wonderful to have the help other others, besides our group, take care of the beach too!
It was the month, even the week for birthdays! In one week we had 7 birthdays to remember! Saad, Jase, Pallov, Cara, Eric, Megan, and Stuart! It was party time.
We had an instant surprise party for Saad. Saad is one of Todds closest friends on the island and the kids love him. With the help of Saad closest friends we threw him a surprise party at our house. There was a big shocking surprise and then the kids make him a treasure hunt. I think it was a fun time had by all!
Jase’s birthday turned out really nice. There wasn’t a million kids like at Katie’s and Courtney birthday, which I will never combine again, and they were a very nice and considerate for the most part. Jase invited all his closest buddies, one boy named Chevron could come, but the rest did. From left to right is Stuart Beckett, Beau, Jase, Sharique, and Zay Vos. They had fun swimming, treasure hunting, eating, opening gifts, hitting a piñata, and watching a movie. Jase had a wonderful time turning 11!
In the last picture Jase is sporting a pirate outfit created by his sisters for his birthday! Arrrr.
The kids really wanted to find themselves come hermit crabs – solider crabs – to keep as pets. So we decided to take a walk down toward Crooks Castle and trying to find ourselves some crabs. On our walk there we heard some little crying and found the tiny little goat that couldn’t even walk yet. Must not have been very old. We thought it would be all right if we picked him/her up and held her for a while. She was so soft and sweet but when we went to put her back she tried to follow us and was crying and crying. The kids and I were worried because we didn’t see the mother, but then we saw her in the distance eating. I was worried about the baby when she was still all alone by the time we left with our new pet hermit crabs. They were hard to find this time. So I had the idea to come back tomorrow to see if she was okay and if not we would take her to a our friend Kermit who raises goats.
Poor goats leg on my shoulder!
One our way home we took some beautiful sunset pictures!
A long story short I had Courtney with me when we went to go and see if the baby goat was okay and low and behold we found two more had joined her even newer than the first. So we knew that they were being watched for because they were healthy and content. And also because we saw three male goats not far from us keeping tabs! We snapped a quick picture and off we went to find Court a new crab because hers died that 1st night! We didn’t find any though.
We bought these shoes in Canada for Katie and they obviously didn’t last, and had order her some on the school container which was suppose to ship by the beginning of January – It didn’t’ ship here until the end of March. So she went around with duct tape shoes for a while until they really gave out, and then she got a pair to use from a friend until her new ones came.
Crusin on Mr. Eric Vos’ dingy! The kids love it – except Court, she came out to be with Mom.
At the University beach B-B-Q. Todds was the cook with the help of Iman and everyone had a good time.
Jase had his assembly and I had to get a couple picture of him doing the welcome to the school! He did a great job. He gets a little stage fright but he didn’t’ let it bother him too much! He looks pretty serious!
Can you pick out Court in the crowd?
Ruin of an old Sugar Cane Stack that I would really like to check out one day. I buried back in the bush.
Katie is doing very well in her Dutch. Teacher Hilda always tells me that she is a natural at learning languages. They had a special afternoon to celebrate their learning of the Dutch language with songs and games. Katie welcomed everyone out to the ‘show’ and proceeded to be the life of the show! She definitely has that Bishop girl stage presents! She was so fun to watch. The others did well too of course!
The funniest game is where you tie a string around your waist with a string dangling behind you between your legs with a nail at the end of the string. You then have to squat and aim the nail inside the hole in the bottle. It is called spijkerpoepen! Translation - Nailcrap It is hilarious and the parents were able to give it a whirl.
The day was finished off with throwing a ball to knock down pop cans – Court was one of 2 kids to knock them all down, potatoe sack race, and spoon & egg. It was a fantastic way to celebrate!! Thanks Tr. Hilda!!
