We've begun a new Kids' Missions Moment during Sunday School at church. Last week, we highlighted our dear Wegners in the Republic of Congo. So, Friday night, we attempted a few African dishes, read a few African storybooks, played Mancala, and used a French picture dictionary to learn a few phrases. "Thank you, Mommy," was required to get dinner (I didn't appreciate the first attempt - "thank you, the woman" :). We had a curried meat (nyamo chuma?), chicken with tomato-peanut sauce, yams & squash (futari), with a banana custard (fool) for dessert. The kids loved dessert the best. Simon kindly licked everyone's bowl clean.

Spring is springing in Montana. We've had several days with around 50 degrees. Much of our snow is gone, but the mountains are still beautifully snow-capped. The sunshine has been very refreshing, and we've all enjoyed getting out to play. The team Jeff's been coaching in downhill skiing this winter competes Monday and Tuesday at the Special Olympics. We're excited there will be some nice beautiful days for that competition!

Cozy & silly moments I caught when all the big kids joined the grown ups. Kara's special buddy, Tessa (another camp gal) joined the party with her family! Kara BEAMS when she gets "girl time"! Simon does love tagging along with the big and small kids and is usually up for the fun they present (quite often adding his own personality to the mix).

A few fuzzy shots (photographer error :), but we had a blast with friends . . . 2 tvs, 2 Wii, loads of fun! We "big" kids are now a bit addicted to the guitar hero (Jeff's requesting that for his birthday :)! If only they had School House Rock addition - we could ROCK to those songs! The lastest competition on ours at home was a 9 hole golf tournament. Dad and Simon won, then Keith, Jacob, and Kara and I. Good exercise and good fun!

The fourth grade classes in our area have been part of the "Hooked on Fishing" program. This year they are utilizing camp's lake. Kara and I had fun accompanying Keith and his class on their ice fishing adventure. It was this Southern gals first time to walk out on a frozen lake (Keith and Kara's, too)! We didn't catch any, but several of the other kids did catch a few small ones.

Our Awana program at church had its annual derby car race. Keith and Jacob and Dad all worked hard and fast to assemble their cars for this year. Keith made a skateboard car, and Jacob fashioned his after a boat. They didn't place in speed this year, but Jacob won honorable mention for his design.

The day before Gran and Uncle Scott headed back to Mississippi, we had a special day to celebrate! Keith turned "10" on the 19th of January!!! It was a full day of fun as we had lunch at school with the boys, where they enlisted Uncle Scott's help to move a "grandpa snowball". It was frozen to the ground, however, so even Uncle Scott couldn't make it budge. We had enjoyed some cheesecake at a Pheasant Feed with friends the night before, so we ended the day going out to eat for dinner.