March Memories

March kicks off our spring celebration and beautiful spring weather. We had a great March filled with lots of sweet memories. 

Ezra loves to craft and I helped him make this bunny themed Spring decor mostly by himself. 

Our friends came through town and stayed at our house. They precious new baby Alma was a joy to hold as much as possible.  

Madelyn has been working on writing her letters and was able to write her name letter by letter. She was so incredibly proud. 

One day Luke's work meeting was cancelled so we had an impromptu date morning.. my favorite!

This sign is outside of the mall. 

We love to do special movie nights during the week. This week we made paper airplanes and flew them outside then watched the planes movie on the projector. 

This picture cracks me up. The kids are working on letter learning and it looks like Sadie is listening so intently. 

I love working in the kitchen with my girl. She and Ezra both are really great helpers. 

Enjoying the beautiful Spring weather on the golf course. 

Ezra isn't as crazy about golf as he was when he was younger but he still enjoys going out with Luke to play and its a great activity we can enjoy together. 

Madelyn loves to play on the golf course. 

Across the street is a small store. Ezra is now big enough to go across the street and grab things for me. He loves running errands and is so proud. 

Our sweet friend's parent were in town so we had the pleasure of visiting for a while. 

These friends have been such a blessing to us. 

This is how happy we are about beautiful weather. 

These two are equally happy about meeting a friend at the park. 

These sweet girls are precious friends. 

We went flower shopping and it was such a beautiful scene that I told the kids to pose. This is what they did.. so so cute! 

We bought flowers for the kid's teachers on the last day of school. 

The first day of break and the first day back to school is always celebrated with cake slices at Nik Bakers. I love this tradition! 

February Fun

February was a quick and wonderful month! 

I started meeting with these ladies weekly and have enjoyed what we're learning together. 

Madelyn is doing a lot of work on her handwriting skills and making strides. 

She learned all of her letters and sounds this month. We played this alphabet game a lot and Ezra was so sweet to join. 

Madelyn loves to help me in the kitchen and is excited she can use scissors now to cut the tips of the green beans off. 

For the Super Bowl we had friends over and made some great food. The game was kind of boring but the fellowship was great. I wore my Cowboys shirt because I'm always a Cowboys fan.. even when they don't make the cut. 

Madelyn is SO social. She has a lot of friends from school. The girl with the headband is named Charvi. She lives in our neighborhood and we have gone to her house and met her at the park for playing. 

Ezra played in another golf tournament. He isn't quite as good as the other kids because they take coaching every day after school but he has a lot of fun! 

He played with these two girls in his age bracket. They were sweet. 

He had some great shots. His drives and chipping are very good and just needs to work on putting now. 

For Valentines week we did a really fun craft from Pinterest. 

On Valentines day, we did another craft, had heart themed meals and I made our annual chocolate fondue. I cut up fruit to dip though because we are trying to eat healthier as a family. 

Our sweet friend Aniaya turned 5. She is one of my best friend's daughter and truly precious! 

We love playing outside when the weather is good! 

The kids have been so great at working hard even after school. Ezra has been learning to read and making incredible progress. Madelyn is going to be skipping a grade to enter straight into preschool this coming year so we've been playing catchup to prepare her. We're moving her upward to put her in the right grade by American standards instead of Indian standards. 

We have a little arcade/bowling alley in the mall. The other day they were running a special where you could play every arcade game and a round a bowling for $7! The kids took turns and had a blast! 

I started a 100 book reading challenge with Ezra in which he progresses in book difficulty so that by the end he will be at a 2nd grade reading level. He should finish before he is done with Kindergarten. This guy works hard and is a great student! I'm so proud of him! 

I love how much Madelyn looks like me. She is my tiny best friend. :) 

It's so easy to forget to take selfies of just us two, but I love the way this one turned out. The flowers behind us are my favorite! 

The weather is getting better which means we're back to playing in the park more and more. Madelyn loves the elephant slide. 

Ezra is more into playing soccer. 

Meetings, homeschool fun, friends, crafts and playing outside.. that about sums up our February. I am so very thankful for this life we live. It is so much more abundantly joyful and amazing than I thought was possible. We serve a great God! 

January Memories

The last couple of years I have been really bad at consistently updating our blog but as we went back to the States this past Christmas I heard over and over from others how they loved keeping up with us through this blog so I am determined to do better at month by month updates of our family fun and memories we're making. 

To start with this is the front of our house and I've been intending to paint the pots one uniform color since we moved in back in June and I finally got around to it. It looks beautiful and gives the front a very put together look. 

I brought back a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workbook full of ideas and problem solving dialogue for Ezra because he is very interested in STEM. We do one project every weekend and he LOVES IT! This is him making a paper jet that would fly 10 feet. 

The kids are so cute in their winter uniforms. I still get so giddy at how sweet they are in matching uniforms. 

I try to have a "special movie night" once a week. We used to bake something that correlated to a movie we watched that night but we're eating very healthy as a family now a days so now I'm finding crafts we can do that go with the movie of the night instead. I found this cute penguin idea off of Pinterest to go with Happy Feet. The kids really enjoy crafts so they love our new "special movie night" just as much as cookies. 

Our neighbors and dear friends have enrolled their daughter in Madelyn's class which means we get to see each other after school each day and even play in the park for a bit. 

This is the kids on a hunt for rocks which they then painted. I try to do something "fun" with them everyday. 

We love our precious friends! They go to our church and live down the street from us! So thankful to be back in town together. 

I took this adorable picture of Madelyn and her friends in sunday school class. I help/teach each week and she was totally not paying attention. But, she was SO CUTE with her friends that I couldn't complain. 

Our church is a small bilingual (Hindi/English )congregation of about 80 people that meets in a school. During the sermon, we have a children's church upstairs in a classroom. It's been a joy to serve in the children's church and the kids really love it. Their best friends are almost all from our church so Sundays are very fun! 

We really enjoy going to the driving range! 

The weather has been really cold so when a pretty day comes we take advantage. This day we went to the nature trail in town and let the kids ride their bikes while Luke and I chatted and followed. It was really sweet. 

We brought back some pretty cool new dress up clothes. 

Whenever possible the kids and I love traveling with Luke. They are so great at playing with the other kids (many of which they know well by now) and happily enjoying all the Indian snacks and food we have before and after meetings. 

I love how big Madelyn looks in this picture, hanging out with the girls on a scooter. 

This picture is adorable. Aaron is one of Ezra's best friends. 

Aniya is one of Madelyn's besties, and their mom is one of my best friends. The guys are friends too but we usually get together for playdates while they are at work. 

One day after Amina and I came back from a meeting, we picked up our kids who happen to all go to school in the same neighborhood and went to KFC for lunch. They were surprised and so delighted! 

We heard about this new playground in town. The kids definitely approved! 

We went into Delhi to see our teammates because they just had a baby. Outside the mall was this sign which "Melissa" written on it.. so I had to take a pic. 

In the fancy Delhi grocery store there were miniature carts for the kids. It was awesome! 

We took the train to and from Delhi. The kids LOVED it! 

They especially loved the chai and cookies time. 

Behind our house we love to play tennis, soccer or ride bikes. I thought this community center would be a bother because of parties in the evening but this big empty space right outside our backyard has been such an incredible blessing for our kids. 

In the community center there is a sign of numbers to call with questions. Madelyn is learning her alphabets so well now a days and is excited to read them wherever she is even in the middle of playing. 

January was a great month of getting over jet lag, meeting back up with friends and partners and getting back into our busy but wonderful life here.