Happy Fifth Birthday Ava!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVA

Today we celebrated Ava's 5th Birthday

with some of our friends. Ava was excited

to have her buddies Njeri and Braydon

over to go swimming at a local pool

and celebrate at our home.

Ready to cut the cake!

Ava with auntie Mo and auntie Kerry!

Kerry, Mel, Erica, Whinny, Tom,

Ava, Cabbie, Njeri, Diana, Emma and Braydon

BIG Birthday!

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY EMMA!

This past weekend, we had a fun birthday

celebration for Emma who turns is turns ten!

Diana, Emma and Tristan

Bowling for Emma's Birthday

Mommy and TK going head to head!

Daddy and Ava after the big game

Emma & her Birthday Unicorn

This was a very special birthday for Emma, as it marks half of her life in Canada and half in Kenya. We moved to Kenya when she was only five years old (It is hard to believe that Ava will be five in only 6 weeks).

August 16th -- Birthday Bash

Tonight, we all celebrated together

with a giant birthday cake

that mommy made for Emma.

Gotta love the cake!!!!!!!

Tristan's Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Tristan

Although Tristan turns 12 on Sunday, we celebrated his birthday this past weekend with seven of his friends who came over for a sleepover. This is the end of the school year at Rosslyn Academy, and all but two of Tristan's buddies will be leaving Africa this weekend.

Daddy playing night games with the boys

The Assassins

Ezra * Michael * Collin

President Tristan with his secret service men

Drew * Floris * Robert

Bring on the cake!

Along with running around in the dark, scarfing tacos and cake,... the boys had a riot playing "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" improvisation games. Very appropriate for these dramatic characters! It was a very fun night!

Robert?

The boys taking a look at Emma's yearbook

Daddy and Mommy with our boy!

Birthday Bash!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERICA !!!

The birthday girl

(There is one way to keep Tristan

from sneaking an early piece)

Last night, we had a wonderful time celebrating Erica's birthday with friends in Nairobi. We had the party at the beautiful Zen Garden Restaurant in Spring Valley -- everything was amazing! We are so thankful for the everyone who could come and for the special evening together. We had a lot of fun sampling the sushi, decorating ourselves with flowers, and celebrating Erica!

The party was well past Ava's bed time, so a big thanks to our friend Judy for staying back with our littlest one. Ava did have fun opening presents at home with mommy and eating cake for breakfast the next morning. Oh, what a great birthday tradition!!

Atalie helping Erica with flowers in her hair

Mel giving a scarf tying demonstration

... Tristan, very European!

Kerry, Emma and Tiffany

Emma with Tristan the flamboyant!

Sammy filling in as Ava's double

"Oh Ava what big eyes you have...

...what a full beard you have?"

Amy, Emma and a "quiet" Tristan

The Girls

Daddy's Birthday

Daddy's Birthday Trifle

On Friday evening, we had some friends over for a backyard barbecue to celebrate the Easter long weekend and Aaron's birthday. According to our kids, the highlight of the evening were the desserts that Mommy made for Daddy!!!

"Happy Birthday Daddy!"

Ava helping out with the candles...

... and the yummy cakes!

Daddy's Settlers of Catan Birthday Cupcakes

Easter at Lake Naivasha

Easter Sunrise at Carnelley's Camp,

Lake Naivasha, Kenya

Team work!

This past weekend, we celebrated Easter at Camp Carnelley's, on the relaxing shore of Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley. We arrived after a late lunch and found a quiet corner of the beautiful tenting area under a canopy of Yellow Acacias. Our site was separated from the Lake,and the hungry hippos, only by a shallow ditch and a three foot high fence, but other than the troops of vervet and colobus monkeys, we didn't have any trouble from the local wildlife getting too close to our tent.

Finished setting up the tent together

on Saturday afternoon

Daddy opening his birthday present at the campfire

...can't wait for those birthday cupcakes!

Ready for our sleeping bags after a big day...

Emma enjoying an Easter sunrise along the papyrus

lined banks of Carnelley's Camp

We enjoyed a quiet Easter Sunday, with a short family Easter service and lots of fun playing our favourite board games, walking along the Lake and cooking over our campfire (and our classic Webber grill... we love that charcoal barbecue) -- Easter bunny smores!!!. While Saturday night was pretty crowded at the camp, a thunder storm rolled in on Sunday afternoon and most of our neighbours hit the road. Fortunately for us, the storm moved on and we enjoyed the camp almost to ourselves on Sunday night and Monday morning.

Colobus monkeys in the tall Yellow Acacia trees over our tent

Daddy getting the gas lantern ready for Sunday night

Mommy and Ava at our campsite

Easter morning on Lake Naivasha