Luke's 2nd Birthday

On February 24, Luke Cleveland Phillips turned TWO years old!! Although we are currently hosting a team from our home church, we "took the day off" & let others on our team host them so we could devote our full attention to the little man on his special day.

We began the morning with opening gifts. The little stack on the right is from us (minus the Big Wheel we already gave him). The stack on the left are the presents from his Gaga & Papa that they sent with the team.

It did not take long for him to dig right in.

Isabelle was being the typical big sister ... trying not to be tres jealous of all of Luke's presents by "helping" him open them!

A musical set from his musical grandparents!

A little racer set from his Aunt Amy & Uncle Jon. He loves this thing!

After presents, we played around the house for the morning & let him pick out a movie to watch. He's obsessed with Lion King right now. He'll say, "Raaawwwr Moomie!" (As in a lion's roar + movie) While he & Izzy watched the movie, Mark & I did some prep work for his party that evening. (By the way, we had already done prep work by staying up til 1 am the night before cooking & wrapping presents!)

For lunch, we headed to the American Rec Center to eat his favorite cheese quesadillas & swim. He & Izzy were so excited to go swimming! Izzy is the ever cautious child & wants to tip toe into the water (which was FREEZING in 110 degree heat ... how that happens, I'll never know). She also had some little arm swimmies but she wouldn't go deeper than she could touch because she didn't trust they'd hold her up. Her little brother, however? He jumped right in, didn't care that it was cold, & went from jumping off the side with help to jumping by himself (in the kiddie pool) to putting on Izzy's swimmies & going for a swim in the big pool. He is all boy for sure!

After a good lunch & a good swim, we headed back home for naps & to finish getting ready for the PAW-ty! I'll post on that tomorrow because it's another good 15 or 20 pictures!

Valentine's Day

On Valentine's Day, we decided to do something fun for the kiddos & scrap our school day & normal schedule. Way back in 2010, when we were in the States, we got a few Valentine's decor & goodies on clearance & packed them on our crate. They weren't here in time for Valentine's Day last year, so I wanted to make sure that I used them this year.

Isabelle woke up that morning & saw the banner & tablecloth & said, "Who's birthday is it? Lukey's?!!" Mark had to explain in 3 year old terms what holiday we were celebrating.

The night before, I had wrote out 8 fun activities for us to do throughout the day & stuck them in little bags that were tied with numbers. After breakfast, we opened our bag #1 ...

... and it told us to go make cookies! One of our clearance purchases was a cookie cutter with different presses in it that had Valentine's sayings.

Bag #2 told us to go paint a picture! Izzy & Luke are loving painting these days!

We continued to open up the bags throughout the morning (of which I did not get pictures) that included watching TV, playing with play-doh, & reading books together. One of the bags also told us to go eat at the American Rec Center for lunch!! I was sure glad these bags were telling us what to do so that I didn't have to fix lunch that day!

After naps, Izzy opened up bag #7 & it told us to go to the park. So we loaded up the bikes & headed out. Oh & I did say "bikes" as in plural. Luke was getting tres jealous of Izzy on her bike so a few days ago, we decided to give him one of his birthday presents a little early.

After we got home from riding bikes, Luke opened up bag #8 & it told us to make pizzas!! Normally, we do one or two large pizzas on baking stones but this time I decided to do them in cake pans so each kid could pick their own toppings & make their pizzas themselves. It was a perfect idea because they knew just how far to squish out their dough because of the sides of the cake pan. And when they added sauce, it didn't matter if they were sloppy because it all stayed in the pan. And it was just small enough for them that they didn't get bored adding the cheese or toppings like they normally do when it's a large pizza.

 

I think they were pretty proud of their pizzas! And we had such a fun day celebrating Valentine's with our favorite little Valentines! 

 

daddy/daughter date #2

On Monday evening, Mark took Isabelle on her 2nd date with him. A pre-Valentine's date, if you will. Like I said in a previous post, it is one of our family's goals this year to take each child individually & spend one-on-one time with them. 

Isabelle was SO excited to go on a date with Daddy! Before she laid down for her nap, she reminded Mark that he needed to have flowers & candy for her. Ha!! He has set the bar pretty high (& rightly so), so that whenever she goes on her first date (when she's 45, of course!), she is totally going to expect that boy to have candy & flowers for her! 

 

As soon as she woke up from her nap, she was ready to go! Only problem was that it was 3:30 pm & her date wasn't going to be ready for another 2 hours. So we got to take our sweet precious time getting ready. She let me curl her hair & then she put on lotion & lip gloss & picked out her outfit.When Daddy finished with his Bible study, he got ready, gave Isabelle her gifts & they were out the door.

 

Izzy's choice this time for their date was pizza so they went to eat at Amandine's. Isabelle called me from the restaurant to let me know that she was drinking a Sprite! She then talked to Luke for a few minutes, too. After their pizza, Mark let the Belle choose a dessert & she choose cake instead of her normal ice cream. He also said that while in the car, Izzy wanted to hold his hand the whole way! She loves these times with her Daddy!

Mark made Isabelle a special Valentine's candy card!

And he did not forget the flowers!

Awww!

Double Awwww!

I'm telling you, this man sets the bar so high! He is such a wonderful father & treats his little girl so good!

I thought it was funny that their first date, they went walking out the door hand in hand. But on this date, Izzy wanted Mark to carry her. Precious!

The little man & I had a "stay at home" date. We played games for a while & then Luke told me that he wanted to cook eggs for supper. So we did & made some french toast, too.

My little helper who is almost 2!!

Mommy/son date at home!

what we do when daddy's gone

A couple of weeks ago, Mark went to Burkina Faso for a few days to meet a volunteer team that was working among the Songhai there. Normally, when Mark is gone, the kiddos & I hunker down & try to stay on schedule as much as possible until he returns. That usually works well but this time we decided to be a little more fun!

Mark left on a Tuesday before the sun came up & returned home late Friday afternoon. On Tuesday morning, Susan & I headed to meet with our ladies' outreach group in Niamey. We had already planned to do lunch together & I was SO looking forward to it because I have not had this particular African meal in a VERY long time!

This was the first time that I had ever brought Luke with me to their house. He usually stays back with Mark while just the girls go. He was a little timid at first but then he & Izzy started playing & he did great! It actually made it easier because Izzy was more inclined to play when Luke was there. 

When the food was ready, Isabelle was so excited to eat! It reminded me so much of her younger days in Ayorou. And just like those days, she was the very last one to finish eating. I think she will always have a special place in her heart for African cuisine!

Luke is such a city boy. He would not eat out of the common bowl. He had to have his own bowl & a spoon. Oh my!!

We also spent EVERY afternoon outside watching Isabelle ride her bike. Yes, that's right. Isabelle is now a pro bike rider! It just came out of nowhere. For the longest time she was just not coordinated enough to peddle, look up, steer & even get herself going from a starting position. And then the day before Mark left, she hopped on & took off. We are so proud of her!! And we have enjoyed spending long afternoons outside (& the last of the cool weather) watching our big girl spin around our yard!

I need to note that those are not Luke's shoes. He has this obsession with wearing Izzy's shoes.

On Thursday evening, Susan (or "Grusan") invited us over for a little brownies & movie night. Susan had bought Izzy a movie when she was in the States last month & Izzy was dying to watch it with Grusan at her house. I fed the kids an early dinner, dressed them in their PJ's & we headed over. The kids had so much fun sitting in Grandy's chair (because he was gone with Mark) & just having a special night at Grusan's house.

The kids & I had such a great week together. We missed Daddy terribly but we just had fun & tried to make the hours pass quicker. We didn't stick to any specific schedule (other than naps!), played hard & made good memories. We even had popcorn & peanut butter sandwiches for supper one night while we watched a movie! We ditched school (I know, I know ... shame!) & went out on the town, visited our ladies twice in one week, played hide & go seek, read books, played outside, snuggled extra long at night, etc, etc.

We definitely had fun but we were SO glad when Daddy got home on Friday! Life is never quite as fun when Daddy's not home!

girl's day out

Last Saturday, the senior class of the Christian boarding school in Niamey put on a Girl's Day Out event for all girls & ladies of all ages. Since Mark & I decided that we each individually wanted to devote special time to each child throughout the year as part of our family goals, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity for a Mommy/daughter date.

We dressed up in our finest duds & headed out for our special day together ...

but not without a funny picture first because, well, it's just who we are ...

I was so glad to have this time with just Isabelle. She knew it was coming for a week & was counting down the days.

The event provided the options of the attendants having a manicure, pedicure, henna, massage, & hair cut as well as other fun options like a thrift store, tea room, beauty workshops & a dress-up photo booth. There was also a salad & soup lunch, too.

Izzy & I chose to just have our nails done, shop at the store, have a sip of tea, stop by the photo booth & enjoy lunch together.

She was a little upset when we were leaving because she was having so much fun & heard that the "How to Make Earrings" workshop was about to begin. Even though I tried to help her understand that she didn't even wear earrings, she still wanted to go learn how to make them! Bless her heart. I knew she just wanted to stay & have more fun no matter what they were offering! She offered up her best smile when I put her in the car, though.

We had such a great time together & I'm so thankful that I got to have that special day with just her & I. I told her about all the fun days we had like that in America & how I can't wait to have more dates with her. She made sure to tell me that next time it should be Luke's turn to go on a date! Such a sweet, thoughtful sister.

Later that evening, after the kids had gone to bed, we got an email with the pictures from our photo booth session. There had been just a big pile of dress-up clothes in one room & then a bench & backdrop in the other with a student taking pictures. Izzy & I picked out semi-matching shirts & she wanted to wear a big hat so I just chose to pick out a funky scarf & put on my sunglasses. The first one we did smiles but Izzy wanted to do a funny one for the second picture.

Y'all, my girl's face made me crack up hysterically! Seriously, Mark & I sat & laughed at this picture for a good long time. She is just so funny!! The girl that emailed us the pictures said, "The second picture is my personal favorite. I think it might be the cutest picture in the entire universe...;D!" Ha! Ha!!