Happy Birthday Meredith!

Meredith we want to wish you the best Birthday ever. Hope you have a very fun day.
Here is a message from Liam and Lindie.

We love and miss you. Looking forward to seeing you in September.

When your Uncle Tony gets back he should have a package for you from all of us at The Village.

Meredith, Lindie, Kamohelo, Drake and possibly other kids worked diligently at making Liam many birthday cakes and treats out of mud. They all loved playing in the mud and being creative with their creations. The job was messy but they got it done. {And the mothers had a bit of laundry}

Cowboy and Bubble Bee

Liam's preschool teacher was very intrigued with the idea of halloween and dressing up, so this year at school she had a halloween party. To help celebrate, I made jack-o-latern cupcakes for Liam to take to school and he dressed up as a cowboy.

The O'Tools and us also had our own little halloween party for our kids. We really aren't into halloween that much, but to help provide a little bit of fun for the kids we decided to dress them up. Since there is no trick or treating here, we hid candy outside for them to find, pretty much it was an Easter egg hunt for Halloween. At least they had a little fun, ate candy, cake and it gave us something to do.

Lindie was not impressed with her bubble bee outfit, so it didn't stay on very long. She also would not sit still for any pictures.

Being Flexible-that's what life is all about!

Ah, life has been Good, Hectic, Encouraging, Always Changing & Never Dull.

From August 4-17, we hosted a group of guys from ISU and thoroughly enjoyed getting back into the groove of having teams. All of the guys stayed with the O'Tools but we were involved daily with the team.

Brian organized all the daily projects and kept everyone busy at the property. I was mainly involved with helping Amber cook at their house. Everyday around 11Am, the kids and I would go to their house to make lunch for the group and then take it to the property. We made a lot of sandwiches! In the afternoons, I'd go back and help with supper preparations. Sometimes we would join the group for supper and other times just headed home. We never knew when the guys were going to stop working for the day-so supper needed to be ready anytime between 6-7:30pm. {This is one area where flexibility was important}

{24 tune-apple sandwiches}

{Lunch at the property}

Sometime the kids and I would visit the property 2 or 3 times a day to keep up with the progress being made. I need lots of pictures and video! On really busy work days {pouring cement} we provide mid morning and mid afternoon snacks and drinks. Liam loves visiting daddy and the guys at the property. It is a true highlight of his day. I often don't know what Brian will think of next for Liam to enjoy. Check out the latest video of Liam! Who would have thought? But it worked out just fine! Liam loves watching this video clip. Meredith also enjoyed her turn. By far, this isn't the craziest thing he has done-I do believe riding in the cement mixer still tops it all! {to view Liam riding in the cement mixer check this post out http://niehoffsa.blogspot.com/2010/06/unconventional-daddy.html}

The Little Things...part 1

The Little Things...That Remind Us that We Live in South Africa. After 4 years of living in South Africa we've become accustom to random, bizarre, strange, and peculiar things in life. Most of the time we don't even think twice about things anymore but we still have those times when we say "you wouldn't see that in America".

Today happened to be one of those days. Amber and I took the kids to Clear Water, a play place, this morning and enjoyed a cappuccino while the kids were playing. While we were away for 6 months the owners have expanded the play area by adding more play equipment, petting area of baby animals, kids train, ect. Before we left, before they expanded it cost R20 {$2.63} for each child to play. Since they have expanded the cost has decreased, it now only cost R5 {$.65} per child. Hmm, one would think if you make the place nicer it would cost more to play now. Anyways, that is a good change.

The play area is definitely not up to the US standards for safety but we aren't in the US. Most of the play equipment is made of metal with a hard cement or dirt surface underneath. Part of the new "child friendly equipment" includes an old speed boat, Dune Buggy and Taxi to play in. The doors have been removed and carpet added to the floors for safe playing. (I didn't take pictures of this grand play equipment, I will have to do that next time)

They also added a nice train for the kids to ride on. The train is great & the kids love it. It is made out of old barrels, scrap metal and it has a pull start engine. The train cars are made to look like soda pop cans. I totally see ones of these becoming part of The Village someday. Brian could easily rig something like this up only better.



Seat belts aren't necessary because you cram as many kids onto the seat as possible so there is no wiggle room for falling out!

Don't worry about the rust, just make sure you have an up to date tetnus shot to ride ;-P




Compared to some of things Liam has played in, crawled on and been exposed to since living in South Africa this is really nice.