Mario Party

On Friday, Josiah turned 7, and we celebrated with a Super Mario Brothers birthday party.

The Birthday Boy

The Cake

FriendsGames

Gifts

Happy Birthday, sweet Josiah! We love you so much!

"Summer" Holiday Recap

Last Monday, Josiah and Anna started back to school after 5 weeks of "summer" holiday. However, since it's technically cool season in Tanzania at the moment, I should probably call it "winter" holiday.

Josiah started Standard 2, and Anna entered the Reception class. So far, the kids are really enjoying their classes, and we're all happy to be back in some sort of routine. (Yes, we are one of those families who thrive on routine.)

Having a few weeks of unstructured life was nice, though. Here's a brief recap of our "summer" activities.

Everyone's favorite activity was traveling to Kenya for our organization's annual conference. Each year, members of our branch gather together from our locations around Tanzania and Uganda for spiritual refreshment, fellowship, relaxation, and business meetings.


The conference theme this year was "Following Faithfully." The conference speaker, a former missionary in Tanzania, spoke to us out of the book of Mark, and both Paul and I appreciated the opportunity to sit under great teaching again.

Paul was asked to coordinate and lead the conference worship this year too, which was a lot of fun.

The kids loved getting to reconnect with friends, and spent LOTS of time swimming, even though it was cooler and rainier this year than last.

Anna had a blast playing in the sand nearly every day with her friend, Abigail.

The kids' program was also a huge highlight for our kids. Anna cried the day after conference ended because she couldn't go to her VBS class. Apparently, she had a good time.

Once we returned home to Tanzania, the last few weeks of the break weren't quite as exciting. But we had several fun play dates, did lots of coloring, and Josiah learned to ride his bike without training wheels. OK, that was pretty exciting!

It was a great "summer"!