Discovery Days & China Camp 2010

It's July, so that means it's time for camp! Our family has been attending China camp since 1998 when Emily was around 18 months old. It's always great to see our travel group families at camp, as well as meeting new families...and sometimes even putting faces to the people we've "met" on the internet. :-)

Since Emily is now a teenager, she attended Dillon International's "Discovery Days" camp this year. She was SO excited about attending since her China orphanage-mates were attending also. Emily had a wonderful time, made lots of new friends, and is already looking forward to attending next year.

Emily and her travel group buddies

Emily climbing the pole to get to the zip line...it was way up there, but fun!

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As soon as Discovery Days ended, Emily headed straight to China Camp for her counselor training. Again, more great photos with her travel group. :-)

Emily wasn't the only one having fun at camp though!

Dragon dance during opening ceremonies


Claire and Allyson with camp friends/travel buddies

Some of Claire's art from camp

And last, it looks like Max found a cute hat at the camp store! :-)

Max's Gotcha Day #1

In June, we celebrated our one year anniversary with Mr. Max. So much to say about the last year with this little guy, but WAY more than I have time to write now. Who knows, maybe someday I'll have time to write a book about it! lol It has been quite an adjustment for our entire family, but I think we're on the downhill slide now....a very good thing. :-)

We were so fortunate to be able to meet with 4 of the 5 other families in our '09 travel group to celebrate "gotcha day" this year. We missed the "B" family, and sincerely hope they will be able to make the event next year!

The "W" family hosted our group in KS this year. A few of the weekend events included: an interactive animal park, eating Chinese, swimming, a yummy dinner (prepared by the host family), and a gift exchange. Max also has a personal souvenir from the weekend...a massive scrape (now a scar) on the backside of his knee from falling off a concrete block step. :-)

Summer Fun

I have a new computer now, so I'm gonna do my best to catch up on the ol' bloggie! I'm sure there are lots of our activities I've forgotten, so this will be a "hit and miss" kind of post. :-) Away we go!

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The kiddos attended a Terrific Tuesday skating event sponsored by our church. This was the first TT of the summer and they had a great time. Max tried to take giant steps with his skates and fell quite a few times...he only cried once when he fell in front of a group of moms and bruised his...ummm ego. :-)

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We've done lots of swimming this summer and can't seem to resist new pool toys. We found a cute inflatable shark and the kids had to try it out immediately. They found that this is one shark they shouldn't mess with as it dumps them every time! lol

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The girls have had quite a few friends over for swim parties this summer. They love jumping in near the pool house, and even request that I take photos of their antics (& I'm always happy to oblige). :-)

Emily and a couple of her school friends:

We also hosted a cookout and swim party for our church youth choir:

SO thankful for such a great group of kids!

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And finally, just some swimming fun pics...

Hello Out there (echo, echo, echo)

No, I didn't get lost on the way to the internet. I allowed the kids to play on the computer, and it seems we acquired a lovely virus...that then went about its merry little way killing our computer!!
I am posting from an older (slow) laptop, but am hoping to get a new computer soon. I'm hoping to be back soon with lots of pics and updates on our daily adventures. OK, so I know we're a pretty boring family, but I kinda like it that way. :-)

Children's Choir

In May, our church Children's Choir had their final performance for the school year. It's been a long session as we had kiddos participate this time who were only in preschool (it's just harder for them to learn the parts in a play), but we got through it. Our program was called "Everyday Heroes", and the setting was similar to kids playing a Wii game (about Queen Esther and Haman). Claire was a "Mii" rock-star character, and Allyson played a cousin to the Queen. It was a lot of hard work, but the kids all performed beautifully, and the play was a success. It was a little sad for me though as this was Allyson's final performance with this choir...she will move up to the youth choir this fall.

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Hawaii

My dear, dear husband went to Hawaii last week...with his boss! I stayed home with the kids as usual. I'm thinking the abbreviation "dh" may come to mean something besides "dear" husband if he does this again! :-0
Oh well...he did take a few pics for me so I'll share on the blog.

Pool Guest

As I walked by the window last week, I glanced out at the pool as I normally do. A little something caught my eye, so I had to take a second look. There was a brown ball of fur sitting on the cleaning tube. A little brown mouse. Apparently, it couldn't figure out how to get out of the pool & had been swimming a long time. It must have been exhausted, since it didn't try to run as we approached. After a few tries, Randy netted the little creature and tossed it onto the deck. Randy said he would dispose of it, so the girls and I headed inside...didn't really care to watch what might come next. I just know that I didn't want to find it on the bottom of the pool...or even worse, in the filter basket after having been sucked up by the cleaner! :-0

Mother's Day '10

Since our schedule has been so busy lately, Randy and I didn't have time to go see our moms for Mother's Day. :-(
My family was really good to me though. Allyson and Claire wrote the most beautiful poems for me (& made me cry), and everyone gave me cards. My big gift was a mini camcorder...a cute little Sony Bloggie. I've had some trouble with my flip camera, and the family has heard my grumblings about it. So proud of them for "listening"! :-)

After church on Sunday, the kiddos and I posed for a pic. I truly hate being in photos, but I did it for the kids. LOVE my kids! SO very blessed!!

April Wrap-Up

OK, so I didn't improve on blog posting for April as I hoped. :-) We've just been incredibly busy with a big home improvement project, so my journal (the blog) took a back seat. I'm just going to do a quick wrap-up for the last half of April (since I can't really remember everything we did), and make a new goal for May! :-) May is another CRAZY busy month for us, so my goal is just to post once a week.

OK, so wrappin' it up quickly....

Emily participated in a band clinic, where she played a flute solo...she received the highest ranking and a medal. She also traveled to Tulsa with her church youth group, and attended a wonderful concert featuring Mercy Me. To top off her month, Emily tried out for the cheer and dance teams at school....and she made the cheer team! **Go Emily!!** Sadly, the only pic I have related to any of her activities is of a cookie...one of her friend's mom gave one to each girl as a good luck gift. :-)

Allyson participated in her first school orchestra concert. She had the best time, and the orchestra played beautifully. I love the fact that the orchestra is much smaller than the band, so the gathering seemed more intimate. She has two more concerts in May.

Now...just a few random pics from the last couple of weeks...

And finally, I think spring has finally arrived here. The giant bumble bees were buzzing around our little redbud tree so I grabbed my camera. This little guy was kind enough to pose for me...so sweet of him! ;-)

Easter

Egg hunt at church on Saturday. Allyson and Claire were in one age group, Max was in another, so Emily and I split the picture-taking duties. Everyone came away with a basket full o' candy (er, I mean eggs). Max was perfectly happy with his eggs...then a well-meaning lady at church showed him that the eggs opened to reveal chocolate candy inside - oh boy! Had to quickly redirect him to keep him from devouring it all on the spot! ;-)

Decided to set the camera up and take a quick shot of the family after lunch. Not a great shot, but we're all in there for once....

Dentist

Max had his first dental visit yesterday. Before we left home, I explained where we were going and what they would do to his teeth. The only problem was that I told Max about this early in the morning, so I had to listen to "We going to dentist?" at least a hundred times before his early afternoon appointment. :-O The appointment also coincided with nap time, so I was more than a little worried....Max is NOT fun to be around when he hasn't napped! lol (Had to take this appt. time as they only see new patients in the early afternoon.)

Max was first weighed, and then he climbed onto the exam table. He looked around and tried to quickly jump down (mommy is worried at this point, but kept encouraging him). The hygienist used a stuffed frog (with a beautiful smile) to show Max what they were going to do. Max was sold as soon as she showed him the water squirter! He then agreed to lay down, don the sunglasses, and opened his mouth (& asked for more water! lol). Max's teeth were successfully cleaned, and the dentist said his teeth look good. A new toothbrush, a little bouncy ball, two stickers and we were outta there! :-)

Spring Break 2010

Just realized I never posted about our exciting spring break. Actually, not so exciting...just a break (much, much needed break). We're doing some construction and landscaping around the pool, so that was our break. Emily was none too happy about our plans, because apparently *everyone* in her school (except HER) was going on a trip or cruise of some kind. ;-)


The kids returned from school on Friday, SO excited to play outside. The weather was lovely, there was no homework for a week, and the scooters were charged and ready to go. This was the action here on Friday afternoon/evening:

And THIS is what we woke up to on Sunday morning! A lovely covering of snow! I think we ended up with around 8" of snow by the time it stopped. It was beautiful, but we are all ready for spring.