Friday, December 3, 2010

Bonjour,

We had school this morning.  The boys were in a hurry to get finished because Justin finished early today.  His birthday is tomorrow, but we are celebrating it tonight.  So, he didn't want to do school on his birthday and got most of his work done yesterday.

This morning, I was unloading a box of office supplies.  We had borrowed a stapler from Jennifer because we hadn't found ours yet.  When I was sorting through the box today, I found two staplers.  As I was putting them in the desk, Danny was sitting at the desk doing his school work.  He said, "Mom, there's one stapler for you, and one for me.  We can give Aunt Jennifer's back to her."  As soon as he finished with school, he made a beeline for the Posts' house to give Aunt Jennifer's stapler to her.  He told her, "Now, you have two, and we have two.  One is for me and one for Mom."

He has been taking two pieces of paper and stapling them together making "bags" and "books."  The only problem is that he staples all four sides and leaves no opening.  Then, he does a little cutting on it and decides he didn't want there to be a hole in his project; then, tape is needed to repair the hole.  He is always busy doing something!

After naps, the kids were ready to get outside to play.  The Posts roasted hot dogs outside over an open fire for Justin's birthday.  Bonnie went right inside to tell Daddy, "They're making a fire, Dad, a hot dog fire!"  Then, she was busy moving the plastic chairs around.  She said she was going to make a choo-choo train.

Gilbert was chomping at the bit for Justin to open his presents.  When it was time for Justin to blow the candles out, Gilbert blew them out before Justin even had a chance.  So, they lit the candles again for Justin.

The kids had a blast. We ate supper outside and then went in for cake and ice cream.  After the party, we watched a movie.

Things in the country have not gotten any better.  Gbagbo was declared president today by the Constitution Council.  Then, the UN spokesman said that they were backing the preliminary results with Ouattara as the winner; he is called ADO here; those are his initials.  The US President and the French President both called Ouattara, who is a Muslim, to congratulate him on winning; they also called Gbagbo asking him to step down peacefully.  Gbagbo made a speech tonight declaring that this is a sovereign nation, and no one was going to tell them what to do, referring to both the UN and the Presidents.  Violence has erupted in Abidjan with tires burning, concrete being thrown, and billboards being destroyed.  Please continue to pray for the country and for our safety.  Things have been quiet in Bassam.

A demain,

Joe, Laura, Gilbert, Danny, and Bonnie