a eventful weekend

This weekend we had all of our children come over and stay the night. We planned to just have them one night but decided to have them stay one more. Our house dad, Isaac, went to their farm in Lemoru to harvest their wheat. He ran into some problems and had to stay longer, leaving Vivian home with all the children. Constance, the "auntie" or house help, comes during the week to help. We decided it'd be a good break for Vivian and a fun weekend for the children. It was such a fun weekend. I thought I was going to be more worn out than I am. We jumped on the trampoline, watched movies, sang, danced, had a feast for one of the dinners, and best of all played on a home made slip 'n slide. It was a blast. Bud went to town and found some tarp like plastic stuff. It was 18 ft. long. We got johnson and johnson shampoo and put it all over with water. At first Bud taught them and they were all over the place. Then they kept getting stuck so Bud would just fling them down and they'd go flying and twistin all the way to the end. I absolutely loved having our house full. I've always wanted a big family and this is a fullfilment of that! It was fun to prepare meals for them. We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with chips and fruit for lunches. It was their first time to have it and most of them loved it. The second time all of them liked it a lot. The first night Bud cooked meat out on the grill, Violet made chapati's (like tortillas), and I made carrot/potatoe soup (common food here), french beans, and rice. Sautrday monring I made them all pancakes. Saturday night I made noodles, lentil soup and biscuits from scratch. We had them all take showers both nights. They were hilarious! It was their first time to take a warm shower. I bathed the girls and Bud bathed the boys. I bathed baby Noah too. He really has come a long way. He's so fragile and so sweet. He loves to sing and dance. We put them all in their new jammies that Lindsay and Katie brought. Friday night we worshiped and prayed. Wow, this was the best moment for me. They worshiped with all their might. We prayed and we taught them some on it. We would do different prayer exercises with them on listening to God and praying for specific things. At around 9pm we thought they'd want to stop and go to bed but they said "no! we'll pray till we fall asleep!". It was amazing. I really dont have the words to explain it. Then we prayed for each child. One at a time, the boys would sit in Bud's lap while he prayed for them and the girls would sit on mine and I prayed for them. The cutest was when Geoffrey curled up in a ball and cuddled up with Bud while we prayed. These were memories I'll cherish forever. Elisha really enjoyed the weekend as well. He does so well with all the children lugin him around everywhere and passing him off one to another. He's half the size of them but the girls would stick their hips out and confidently hold him on their stick figures. Ian came home for the weekend as well. He's such a great big brother. He's learning a lot more english so we were able to manage most of the weekend when someone wasn't around that knew swahili. Our guards really helped us out too. It was sweet to see Protus take care of the children. Well my battery is going out and the power is out. TIA! (this is africa) So I'll stop, which I probably should anyways since I'm drawing out the details for you. I'm tired but its a good tired. We're taking off Monday to rest and clean up the house. I'll post pictures next update.