14 Years

Emily is 14 today! SO hard to believe that my baby is growing up. I am so blessed to be called "mom" by this sweet girl.
Emily wasn't really sure she wanted to have a party, but decided on going bowling at the last minute on Saturday. I was happy that so many of her friends could make it on such short notice. She basically sent a text telling them about her party. :-)
Emily requested a cake with zebra stripes from our friend Dylan. He came through with flying colors...in spots and stripes! If anyone in our area needs a cake, let me know. The King of Cakes is in business and does a great job...did I mention he's only 16 years old!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY! WE LOVE YOU OODLES AND GOBS!

Field Trip

Claire's class took a field trip to a local museum...an old mansion. By today's standards it's probably not considered a huge place, but back in the "old days" it was quite grand. We love the place because we know that Randy's grandma lived there for a short while when her family first moved to this area. I'm not sure how impressed the kiddos are with the mansion and all of it's (ghost) stories, but the 4th graders always seem to look forward to their visit each year.
During the visit, the kids are taught all about the lifestyle of long ago...the food, the games, the homes, the people. One of the things the kids end the day with is an old-fashioned apple bob. Some of the kids plunge their head to the bottom of the barrel; some tentatively pluck at a stem. Claire was sort of in-between. She tried first for a stem, then went to the side for a big bite. Max got in on the apple fun too, but he didn't have to bob for it. :-)
Not the mansion...just a little store behind it.

Hog Wild For God

Our church has a Stewardship Banquet every few years, and it's always a different theme. This year's theme was "Hog Wild For God"...cool since we happen to live in Razorback country! One of our Sunday School teachers is a former Arkansas Razorback cheerleader, so he got the current junior high cheerleaders together to perform a routine (to the AR fight song of course!). Randy sang a couple of songs as part of the entertainment. The fellowship hall was decked out in razorback red, and the church members came dressed in their razorback attire. It was such a fun evening!

Our cheerleaders

Even Max got in on the act!

Allyson's "Gotcha Day" #11

Two gotcha days in a row...whew! Allyson's gotcha day was the weekend following Claire's, so we've had our fair share of partying lately! lol
We were the host family for the Hubei girls this year. We were so blessed that all 5 families were able to attend this year, and were thrilled that everyone was healthy! (Last year, one of the dads in our group was hospitalized due to a stroke. Happy to report that he is doing great!)

Allyson just wanted to hang out with her travel group friends, so we didn't plan many activities. The kids swam in the pool, while the parents visited inside (with view of the pool of course). We did take the kids for a short outing for some neon bowling though, before our traditional Chinese dinner. It was such a nice, relaxing weekend!

Our 5 Hubei Beauties...our blessing Miss Allyson in the middle

Swimmin' and bowlin'

Allyson requested a fortune cookie cake. Our friend Dylan did a great job!

(he's only 16 years old)

Claire's "Gotcha Day" #8

We recently celebrated our sweet Claire's 8th "Gotcha Day"! We are so blessed to call this child our daughter!
This year's gotcha day weekend was hosted by Michelle D.'s family in OK. We were so happy that all five NanPing families were able to attend this year! The party began on Friday evening with dinner, and continued on through breakfast on Sunday. There was lots of playing, lots of photos taken, and lots of fun had by all. The group also went to a pottery store where the kids all chose a figurine to paint. The 5 NanPing girls chose cute little puppy dogs...they did a great job on them! I decided to make a memory plate using each of the girls' thumbprints. (picture to come as soon as I pick my plate up this weekend!) Thanks to the D family for hosting our group this year!

The 5 NanPing girls and a couple of siblings

Even the big siblings got in on the action!

Cross Country

Emily and Allyson are both on the school's cross-country team this year. During the team's first time-trial event (2 miles), both girls received medals for placing in the top ten! Way to run girls!

New Violin

When Allyson first began playing the violin in 6th grade, she had to start with a 1/2 size violin since she was so small. The other orchestra students all played full-sized violins. :-(
At the start of school this year, Allyson was THRILLED to have grown enough that she needed a new violin. Sooo, off to the music store we go to look at new musical instruments. After being measured, it was determined that she could graduate to a full-size instrument! We now have one very proud orchestra student! :-)

I didn't realize how small her first violin looked until seeing it next to the full-size unit.

Posing

A couple of newer pics of the kiddos. They weren't really in the mood for posing, but I convinced the kids to stay still long enough to take a few group photos. These aren't the greatest shots ever, but they'll end up in our scrapbooks at some point anyway. :-) Max is "THE" hardest child to get a good photo of...NOT a *poser* at all!

Bring Home Kasidi

Dear Bloggie Readers,
If you have time, I would love it if you would hop on over to Connie's blog (I'll put the button on my sidebar). Connie's family is hosting a wonderful fundraiser to help bring home Kasidi Joy from China.

9 Years Old...Really?

Miss Claire just celebrated her 9th birthday. Hard to believe!
She celebrated with a swim party (surprise, surprise), and a flip-flop cake.

Yes, the blog posts are short and to the point. My way of playing catch-up. I kinda like it this way too!

Go Team!

Emily had her first cheerleading event last week, during a fundraiser for our city's school sports teams. The cheer team performed a routine prior to a jr. high scrimmage game. They all did a wonderful job despite the blazing heat.

Back to School

Our annual tradition of taking a pic with school supplies:

Claire and her stash o' stuff for 4th grade

Emily and Allyson didn't have much of a supply list for jr. high (mainly just a few binders). All of the binders were plain, so the girls wanted to jazz them up a bit. (Photos of Emily are on a different camera.)

I must admit that I enjoy taking the kids shopping for school supplies, so it was a little bit of a downer to not shop for jr. high.

Allyson with her decorated binders

The jr. high school held a "locker day" where kids could decorate their lockers, practice combinations and tour the school. (Again, photos of Emily are on a different camera.)

Muscle Man

Max is still learning to swim (although he has NO fear of the water now). Max didn't love using the little inflatable arm rings, so we decided to give one of the padded swim suits a try. As soon as Max donned the suit, the rest of the family fell into fits of laughter. He looked like a mini "Arnold" with his buffed up muscles. :-) Here's our little muscle man showing off...

Silly Bands

Silly bands, silly bandz, crazy bandz...whatever the name, they are the latest "thing" in Claire's world! Claire is obsessed with these little rubber bands. She has around 200 of the bands in all shapes, sizes, and colors. I walked into the family room one day and saw that she had spread out some of her collection, so I decided to snap a pic. Just wish I was the person who had invented these!

She Sews!

In an effort to keep Claire away from the tv screen and be more productive with her time during the summer, I decided to teach her to sew. Her first project is a quilt! We went to the quilt store and Claire spent a good bit of time choosing just the right fabrics (greens, pinks & oranges). I bought a smaller sewing machine that has a speed limit on the foot pedal, and just let her go. She has been doing great, and hopes to have her quilt finished soon. (I'll post pics of her project when completed.)

Natalie & Leah Come to Visit

We were blessed to have two of the girls from Emily's travel group visit us this month. Emily and Natalie decided to make cookies one afternoon using a rainbow sugar cookie mix. It was such fun seeing the designs they came up with...and tasty too. The "Toms" cookie was made for their friend Leah, who arrived later (not sure why I don't have pics of her though).

*Edited* - found a pic of all 3 girls!

All the kiddos by the restaurant door

I've been MIA due to being incredibly BUSY. As usual, I'm going to attempt to catch-up on our bloggie happenings, but I'm sure I won't remember everything. :-)
During youth camp, I volunteered to care for a friends daughter so the friend could chaperone our youth group. This was all arranged "last minute" since the friend's babysitter was suddenly hospitalized.
As payment for taking over her duties, the babysitter insisted on taking us out for lunch one Sunday. We were treated to a lovely meal at Shogun, complete with our own entertaining chef. The kids loved the show and the food was delicious.