Friday, February 11, 2011

Valentine Mystery Dinner

The youth group at our church hosted a Valentine's Day Mystery Dinner as a fund raiser for their upcoming mission trip. There were lots of skits and musical numbers to watch. The dinner was one of those where the menu items are all code words and you have to select what order you want them served in. So you may have one course with no silverware and another with odd food combinations. It was really fun. I especially enjoyed the men's synchronized swimming at the end!

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Zippity Zoo-dah!

We went to the zoo with a lady from church who recently became licensed as a respite care foster home. We're hoping to occasionally have her provide respite care for our foster daughters. This was an opportunity for her to get to know them. We didn't expect it to be so snowy that day. In spite of the snow, the kids had a great time. The zoo had lots of special events to celebrate Chinese New Year. Apparently it is the year of the rabbit, so there were lots of rabbit crafts to make. All the kids got temporary tattoos and watched the dragon dancers perform a dance inside of giant dragon costumes. It was nice, for once, to have an extra adult available to take a photo of our whole family while we were there. The kids all liked KaraMae a lot. It was a cold, fun day.

Happy Valentine's Day 2011

Valentine's Photos 2011

Ballerina Baby


Katie's Valentine's Day Photos. This was the first time she really posed for me without being asked.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

In Concert

Daniel and I went to the Winter Wonder Slam concert together. Our friend, Brandy, from church offered to watch our kids overnight. So we left five of them with her and the other three with another foster family from church. We hadn't had a night without kids in close to a decade. We saw Brandon Heath and Toby Mac perform. They were amazing. Brandon Heath's music is so beautiful. I especially love his song "I'm Not Who I Was" because it makes me think of my family. It was such a great night.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Egg Carton Caterpillars

We did a caterpillar art project after the boys learned about insects and metamorphosis. When our three public schooled girls got home they wanted to do the project, too. I keep finding these 8 different caterpillars popping up all around the house. The kids seem to think it's funny to leave them in odd locations.

So Long Cast

Gloria was happy to finally get her cast off the first week of February. She was a little scared, but she handled it like a trooper.