If a picture is worth a thousand words...

          ....then this post is a library. For those that don't like to read long
            winded blog posts but prefer lots of pictures, this is for you...

                        ...starting with some beautiful scenery pictures! Thanks to
                         quick, sudden down pours, we see rainbows quite often.
                         This one was a full arch but I couldn't get it all on the picture.

Man's destruction, God's handiwork...

                                Our enterprising children have opened a coffee shop...
                                 you will be delighted to see it is open to the public.
                                 As you can see on the sign, it is opened most afternoons
                                 after school hours. Your taste buds will tingle with unheard
                                 of cuisine and brew...seaweed salad washed down with a
                                  mug of iced mud frappe. If you're feeling really rich you
                                  could order a side of sand dollar cookies.

                         Waiting for business...oh the fun they had stacking cement
                          blocks to make walls and dragging out chairs and other
                          paraphernalia. Oh the work it is to put everything away!:(

                          Next up...Kaylah's 12th  birthday...

Kaylah sheepishly enduring the church singing Happy Birthday to her.

                           
                          She was convinced this was going to be her worse
                            birthday ever, but had to admit it was a fun day!

                              We gave her a set of paints for her birthday, now her
                               creations are showing up all over our walls.

                        If I would be going with a theme for her birthday party,
                        I guess I could call it white...only after I set the white cake between the
                        white popcorn and white ice cream on the white counter, did I realize
                        how severely this party lacked color....
                        

                         While no one will ever take place of Grandpa & Grandma, this is
                          as good and as close as it will get. Kaylah was thrilled with the
                          porcelain figurine John & Rachel gave for her birthday. Rachel
                          reminds me so much of  my mother in law! I think they even look
                          somewhat alike. Sweet, gentle, kind, hardworking, considerate...
                          are some words I would use to describe both of them.

                             Making icecream for the party...

                            Kaylah even got wished a happy birthday by a parrot! Their
                            school went on a field trip the day of her birthday and there
                            was a parrot at the one place we went.

I'm not sure what prompted it, but the boys have been spending many afternoons after school digging for gold. Thanks to the quiet hours it afforded me, I wasn't about to deter them from their ambitious endeavors!

                                 Celina & Keondra joined us for supper one evening.
                                  Celina is as spunky as her brother is quiet...
                                              both are sweet children!

Carter just being Carter

                            Chris taught them how to fly a plastic bag & Carter
                            about fell off the truck in his excitement of his success:)
                            (Note the orange object in the top right of the pic)
                                  Doesn't take much to entertain children!

                    Excitement ran high as the students prepared to leave for Kite Day...

                 This is a fun day for the students. For the chaperones...not so much.
                  Unless you're the rare adult that loves untangling kite strings &
                  tails for hours on end....only to have them retangled within seconds of
                  handing them back to the excited first grader. Words of caution
                   flew to the wind faster than the kites.

                       We went to St David's point to fly the kites. The breeze was very
                        heavy. (Grenadian terminology) Being out in that for a couple
                         hours had my face feeling like a dry cracked Sahara desert...

                           Collin & Carter with their friend Jamal. He is in
                           Carter's class & they have become good friends.
                           That scrunched up Dollar Tree kite Collin is holding
                            compared with a Grenadian made kite, is like
                            comparing a Lamborghini with a horse & buggy.

                          And then there were some teachers that just simply had enough
                          of kite day and took their brood and hid in the bush. Natalie, I
                          won't tell anyone it was you. (Ok, so she had a little birthday
                           party for one of her students & this was the only wee bit of
                           shade she could find...)

Christi Brooke

                     We were thankful for Ryan's offer to share his keyboard with Kaylah.
                      She had 2 years of piano lessons and I am hoping she can remember
                      what she's been taught. He took it to the church for better sound one
                      Sunday evening & some of the staff joined us for a fun evening of
                       hanging out & singing.

                     We walked around the Caranage one Saturday evening. The children
                      enjoyed checking out all the boats & I had fun snapping pictures in
                      the perfect evening glow! Was beautiful!

                                             

                                                             Trying to find fish

                        Breathtaking! No editing on any of these scenery pictures!
                                      How beautiful heaven must be!

Playing Headbands...Alta, does this look familiar?:)

                     I was wondering whatever is taking Christi so long to bring the
                        wash in...after I spotted this walking clothe tree, I had my answer

                        Playing cricket....yes, they were playing in the rain & yes,
                        they are soaked & no, I didn't know it till they were already drenched

Kaylah wanted to make bread one evening, so that she did. Was delicious

LaBorie teachers & personal worker....we are so very blessed with a great team!

               This picture about makes me blush just looking at it...This was
               taken the Saturday morning right before Faith seniors arrived.
               I had a grocery list a mile long to stock up for our group & after
               filling 3 carts at the grocery store, I thought I had reached the height
               of embarrassment. Not so. We left the store and swung in at the bank
                on our way home. "Look!" the children shouted, as they spied a
                bunch of about 6 balloons headed into the sunny blue sky in the distance.
                I'm not sure if it was their excited gasp or bulging eyes, but the man in the
                bus beside us said, "Hey, kids! Want some balloons?" Well, what for
                 child would turn down an offer like that? I'm picturing a neat, tidy little
                 bunch of about 6 balloons, but as he pulled and tugged and pulled some
                 more, that small bus gave birth to about 80 balloons on a string. If I
                 thought loading up half a truck of groceries was bad, loading up
                  the rest of the truck with balloons was worse. Oh, the stares we got!
                  Added to that, as we bounced over the bumps and
                  around the turns of the Grenadian roads, every so often a clump of
                   balloons would find freedom in the wind and head off into the great
                   unknown, leaving the people behind us staring at us with bewildering
                   amusement. I could only imagine them going home & instantly
                   doing a Google search on Who are the Mennonites?
                             

            And then they arrived!...The cook center was at our house so that's where
           all the food landed. The children were thrilled that a Reddi Whip can
           had exploded and were only too happy to grab spoons & help with clean up:)
           We hosted Arnold & Melanie Martin at our house and had a great time
             getting to know them better.

                    I filled in a few times for teachers that had other plans or were sick.
                               This was the craft station I taught the one morning.

Finger paints are always fun...

We assembled in the Court each morning for singing before they all headed off to their class...

                               We took the senior class to sing at a nursing home

                                 Cottage meeting at Miss Eliza

                                            Hanging out & playing games

                                               Faith High School senior class

                    They were a great bunch! One evening we came home late & I
                     forgot I had wash on the line...till I saw they had brought it in
                      and were folding it for me!

 

We went to Fort Frederick one evening to watch the sunset & then spend some time singing in one of underground tunnels. Sounded beautiful but was very hot & muggy

       Yes, some of us were crazy enough to painfully pull ourselves out of bed at the
        unearthly hour of 3am to watch the eclipse. We went to the Fort (again) for a better view.
        It was worth walking around in a lack-of-sleep induced haze the next morning.
            

                            Sitting under the stars, admiring God's handiwork,
                             has a way of making one feel very small!
                     
         Praise reports:
       Thankful for Faith senior class safe arrival
       Thankful for a good Vacation Bible School attendance
       Thankful for good behavior at VBS (for the most part)
       Thankful for a risen Savior!

          Prayer requests:
           *Smooth travels & safety for my parents as the leave on
            Wednesday to come visit us for a week. We are so excited!:)
          *Safe travels for Terre Hill's senior class planning to arrive May 7
          *Wisdom to know what to do about Collin's arm...we thought we were
             going to wait till our visit home in November to get it checked out
              but another Dr thought we shouldn't wait that long. It is still obviously
              crooked & although some movement came back, he still can't bend
              his hand down the whole way.

                                        Thank you for your prayers & support!