April 2010

What started out as a normal month with Dani and Cathy playing and singing at the Good Friday church service...

Took on a fun change when we welcomed two exchange students into our house for 10 days. They were part of the SouthEast Asia Youth Leadership Program (SEAYLP), a program from the State Department and NIU. Nobelle, from The Philippines, and Sriwikan(May), from Thailand, were a joy to have around.

They went to Ollie's with Dani and some of her orchestra friends.

May celebrated her 16th birthday with us. We invited some of the other SEAYLP friends as well.

We were invited to Ethnotopia, with performances from all of the SEAYLP students, as well as others from the SE Asia studies at NIU

Nobelle and May helped out around the house, trying to learn about our culture

They even attended a Tupperware Party that Dani hosted. It doesn't get much more American than that.

We showed them ice hockey

And roller hockey

Went to the mall for Dippin Dots

And they really enjoyed Nellie

Dani took them to the hospital, where she works as a TAGS volunteer

Dani also took them on a tour of her school

This is from their last full day with us. They even got to see Dani for her violin lesson.

Our final time together was an award and thank you reception for the host families. After this, the SEAYLP group was off to Washington D.C., and then home.

Dani and her church youth group made cinnamon rolls to help fund their summer mission trip to Tennessee.

Joe and Cathy did a little morel mushroom hunting. Don't remember ever finding them this early in the season, but the blue flowers and lilacs were in bloom, and the mushrooms followed. Unfortunately, the few that were found in April turned out to be about all for the season.

It's funny how we were out mushroom hunting and came home with a boat. We found this 1957 Glass Master near Oregon, IL. It came with a trailer and two motors. It should be a lot of fun when we get it fixed up.

And finally, here are a few pics from our back yard. The bird is a Towhee. We had never seen one here before and haven't seen it since. Even the squirrels enjoy the feeders.