Ricky turns 15!

May 10th was Ricky's 15th birthday! He celebrated all weekend by having a few friends over to play soccer, X-box, and jam on the guitar and drums on Friday night, and then having a combined Birthday party with a girl from his class on Saturday.

The party on Saturday turned into an all-day affair starting at noon and not ending until 8 PM! But the invited the entire 9th grade from school, and lots of people came - enjoying music, line-dancing, and the ever-present X-box "FIFA 2009".

Ricky has grown a lot in every way over the past year. He is taller than me, has bigger muscles than me, and or course has more hair than me! But I can still get around him sometimes on the soccer field, so I don't feel too old!

He's also learned a lot in the past year, not only at school, but in music as well. He taught himself how to play the electric guitar, continues to learn new rythms on the drums and has also started to learn to drive.

Ricky's Birthday

We are now the proud parents of 3 teenagers! Ricky turned 13 yesterday and it was a great day. At lunchtime, Richard came to school and we surprised Ricky with a cake and a very special present which was able to be delivered right on his birthday because of a really nice friend, Renald (and Richard, who drove Renald to get the gift)...



The most entertaining part about this gift was when we brought it home at the end of the day. When Lexi (our BIG lab-rottweiler puppy) saw the gift she was very curious and when she smelled it's skin and then...heard the loud noise it makes, she was terrified! It seemed really funny to us, but then again, it's bigger than her, it's got the skin of animal she's never encountered before, and it's sound probably sounds a bit like the scariest thing on earth--thunder. (see below)
Ricky really seems to like his Haitian drum. We're pretty sure he still prefers his drum set, but this is more portable. In fact, one of the first things he said was "I'm gonna take this to college!"

The Big Bike Hike

Since everything closes down here for a few days for Mardi Gras, Richard and Ricky went on a bike hike with some friends from school. A driver took them and their bikes out to the country and they rode toward the border with the Dominican Republic. They crossed over and rode around a lake that is near the border. It was a pretty challenging trip--one day they rode 65 kilometers. They battled hills, heat and hellish mosquitos (had to get in another "h" there :)).

They saw crocodiles, 3-foot long "lizards", lots of egrets (in Haiti we only see them rarely) and more. They took a boat out to an uninhabited island and saw some cave drawings.

It seems it was one of those macho guy adventures (this is the "MamaMea" report of the story, of course) on which Ricky made a significant step in manhood ;). On the first day when they had biked a long way in the blazing hot sun and kept hearing "yeah I think we're really close to the hotel now," Ricky took a spill trying to adjust something on his bike. Thankfully, there weren't many cars on the road and he was far enough to the right not to be hit. He got scraped up pretty badly and ended up with a big bruise on his hip, but nothing worse. Richard then offered that they hitch a ride with a truck that could take them and their bikes to the town, but Ricky brushed himself off, and got back on the bike and rode to the town.

They really enjoyed the trip and we're grateful to Ad and Ardjan DeBlaeij who loaned them a bike and lots of other stuff and led the hike after scoping it out last year.

"Our house....is a very very very fine house...with 2 dogs in the yard"

Here are some pics of our house...in case you're curious.

We praise God for how quiet and peaceful it's been in this neighborhood and for Pastor and Mrs. Hantz Bernard who are renting it to us at an affordable price.









our "puppy" Lexi and good 'ole Shadow...sometimes we call her Nanny Shadow

Here is the view from the "roof" porch. ...Come see us sometime!!

Random pic of Ricky and classmates

I want to share some of our regular everyday life in this blog, so, I'll pick on Ricky first...



Can you pick him out among his classmates?



Yes, it's cool enough in the mornings to want a jacket if you're used to 80 degrees and above everyday.



Even though it looks like this 8th grader is displaying stolen goods to sell to his classmates, and we live in a city with a lot of crime, it's not true, really, it's just ...um...too cold to take your hands out of your pockets....