A link to the Kids' Christmas Music

I'll try to get over here soon and write about what's new, but until then, here is the kids' Christmas Music! Enjoy!

Christmas 2016 music

- Alesha<><

Little House in the Jungle

In preparation to buy the cabin that is on our jungle property, we've been spending a lot of time cleaning and clearing on that end of the property lately.  The cabin has 3 rooms; a main room and 2 bedrooms. We're excited to have a roof! Having a dry spot will make spending significant time out there a lot easier. We've picked up a lot of trash and cut a lot of weeds. (My project was mopping the floor, which besides being used as a place to work on chain saws and weed eaters, had previously been mopped with diesel. (Apparently, bugs don't like it, and it dries faster than mopping with water. However, it somehow misses the mark as a "cleaning" product, if the dirt sticks to it, and it smells worse than it did before you "cleaned"? But that's just my opinion.) Mopping, however, was not nearly as photo worthy as Taylor's project...

...He got the swing hung! 

Concerning the proper way to eat a birthday cake...

Our kids are slowly getting accustomed to the Ecuadorian way of doing birthday cake. 

Here's how it's done....

First, you get sung to and blow out candles, just like one would expect.

 Ok...here is where it gets tricky... If you have no friends, (or siblings) you daintily lean over and get the first bite of cake. Though, on second thought, a birthday party without friends or siblings, isn't much of a party, now is it?

If you do have friends and/or siblings, you will most likely get you face pushed into the icing... 

...just to show you're loved. ;)

Happy Birthday, dear.....

...everybody? No, not quite everybody. Just to Taylor, and then to Dan, and then to Glory, 

within the space of 8 days. :)

Papa and his cookie mountain.

 Daniel's fiddle cake was fun!

 ...and following Ecuadorian tradition, he got the first bite. :) (More about this later...:)

...and two days later, Glory's turn!

How we play "Tag"

Today, our kids were playing a version of "Tag"...we call it "Hunter-Prey".

Glory was the hunter, who carries an arrow with a padded tip to "tag" the prey. The two bigger brothers decided to scale the 8-foot wall around our house and stay out-of-reach of Glory.

So what does she do? She grabs one of the light weight bows and considers tagging them as any true bowhunter would (thanks Uncle Whit)...

...and do the boys duck, hide, or get down...no, they jump up and down along the top of the wall like monkeys, taunting Glory to shoot at them...

...sigh...

...at this point, being the boring father that I am, I decided to call the game on account that we had guests coming over and it was time to clean up.

Enjoy!
TaylorH

Granny B's Visit

For those that didn't see it of Facebook or elsewhere, here is the video Taylor put together of his mom's visit with us! It was so nice to see have her.  click HERE for the youtube link. :)

Friends and Fishin' Buddies

The Nenquimo family is always a joy, and this week we were able to have them over at our house a couple of times. Especially fun for me, my friend Norma was here from the jungle picking up supplies.
 I hadn't gotten to visit with her for several months. 

 The boys playing with their good friend, Amalia

 Meniwa went with the kids and I to the finca on Wednesday. The first thing we did on our arrival was to check the fish trap that Dan and I had set in a deep hole in the creek. To our delight, we found it not only had trapped a decent sized fish, but a crab, whose body was about as big as my palm! This is our second fish and second crab, but the first time we ever had more than one thing in the trap at a time! We decided to grill the fish then and there, especially since Meniwa was around to help us do it right. We brought the crab home for Papa's dinner, so that he wasn't completely left out. 
(He was diligently working in his office, so that we could continue to go on adventures. :)

 The silly fishermen

 the fish close up...it had pretty purple markings that don't show up to well in the picture...

 I went to pick a lemon to season our fish with, while Meniwa fought to get the slightly damp wood to burn. His patience payed off, in spite of the fact that he had WAY too many little helpers. 

We were able to cook our fish on a grill made of green sticks. 

It was much more fun, and just as educational

 as staying home filling in workbook pages. :) 

 building the grill...

Dan coaxing up the fire. 

(The fish is under the leaves...you can see the tail if you look close.)

Thank you, Lord, for good friends, and also for the amazing 

creation You've put us in the midst of. You are indeed a loving Father. 

The Finca

We've been spending quite a bit of time out at the finca, sometimes just us, sometimes with friends.

Last week, while the creek was low, Taylor had a workday, hiring several of the young men we know to come out and haul logs out of one bend of the creek. We did it just in time, because the next day, the rainy season started in earnest and we haven't seen much of the sun since. The newly cleaned spot in the creek looks great, though. :)

It's been a lot of fun to plan projects, harvest food for ourselves and our friends, and have an opportunity for the kids to climb, swim, build leafy play forts or be taunted by the minnows that know expertly how to nibble a worm off a hook without ever getting hooked. :D

If you look close, you'll find 2 boys in the trees.

because wildflower pictures are better with Noah in them...

The cleaned out creek all filled up!

...and some of the logs that were pulled out of it.

Goofing off in the miniature Waorani hut Meniwa and the kids built. :) 

Meniwa is a good friend and great resource for all things jungle. 

Looks like Noah got Dan to cut him some sugar cane. :)

(this is the main road that runs in front of our place.)

My apologies that there isn't a picture of everybody...I'll have to make sure to get some current ones of Glory. She was there, on all the adventures, but was working with Papa a lot in the banana field/orchard (whatever it would be in English) :)  Please come visit! We'll put you to work. :)