Soccer Camp!

 Our church does an annual soccer camp on Wednesday nights during the summer that lasts about six weeks.  This is pretty much the only sports program our kids participate in.  They really like it.  The weather was beautiful this year, so they got to spend almost every Wednesday outside.  I had fun walking around taking photos since I typically have a kid in every age group.

Foreign Exchange Student

Her name is Seokyoung.  She's from South Korea.  She plays the flute.  Those were the first things we knew about the young lady who will be traveling around the world to come live with us for a year and go to school here.  It was exciting and a little scary to agree to host a foreign exchange student when we first considered it.  Now that we are getting to know her  and her family a little more through emails and Facebook, it's starting to feel more real.

Unfortunately, the agency we met her through, Pacific Intercultural Exchange (P.I.E.), is having trouble with the U.S. state department, so they aren't able to issue student visas right now.  We're trying to quickly switch to another agency, but it's a slow process.  We've filled out all the info twice now and are preparing for a second set of interviews and home visits.  We're praying for her as a family and with our Sunday school class.  Hopefully, God will work things out so that she can still come and be a part of our family this year.

Watering the Neighborhood

God is good.  I know this because every time something awful happens, God provides a special person to help us fix it, usually for free.  When we had plumbing problems at our old house, God provided our friend, Jim, to help us fix it.  When our van air conditioning stopped working, God provided our friend, Chad, who volunteered to fix it and even bought us a new blower.  This time was no exception.

Not only did our sprinkler head break, but also, a man from the city showed up to tell us that we were wasting tons of water according to our meter, so we must have a leak.  Fortunately, God provided Daniel's dad.  Grandpa Wayne was visiting, so he was able to help us dig around the meter and find the leak.  He tightened something after digging through quite a bit of mud and fixed the problem for us.  I'm so glad, because we would have had NO idea how to solve it.  Daniel's dad was the head of maintenance for my school system for over a decade.  Sometimes I think there is nothing he can't fix.

Grandma Time!

 A visit from Grandma always means super fun craft time!  An all time favorite is marble painting.  Paper and paint in a box, then you roll the marble around inside to make cool designs.  The kids love it.

Sometimes the best fun is simple fun.  And, of course, everything is more fun with Grandma.

Dedicating Our Children

 We don't believe in baptism for babies since that is supposed to be a sign of the decision that a Christian has made to die to their old self and live as a new creation in Christ.  We do, however, believe in dedicating our children to the Lord.  What this means is that we are making a promise to God to raise our children in the knowledge of Him.  We are promising to do our best to be a Godly example to them.  And our church family is promising to help us in that task.  We are saying that our children belong to Him and we are promising to be faithful stewards of them since He has given us that great privilege and responsibility.

On May 13th of this year, we dedicated all our kids at our church.  I thought it was really neat that they allowed us to do that on Mother's Day.  Danya and Gloria are the only ones who had been dedicated when they were born.  We decided to go ahead and dedicate all the kids together this time.  We were so glad that Daniel's parents and Molly were able to be there with us.

GREAT Grandparents!

 Grandpa Wayne and Grandma Nancy were so happy to see Molly and get to hold their great grandbaby, Alayna.  Each day they were here they asked when they were going to get to see Molly.  It's understandable, though.  She is incredibly cute.

Hair Extensions!

Elitch's Homeschool Day 2012

 We took advantage of the half price tickets for Homeschool Day at Elitch's this year.  Even though it rained off and on, it was a fun day.  Shannon and Luke joined us to help out with the kids.  We all pretty much got to ride everything we hoped to.  We haven't been to Elitch's in a few years.  Jordan said that she had never even been to a carnival, much less an amusement park.  Lucky her, she's going to get to go twice this year.  We're planning a trip to Frontier City in July!

Summer Soccer

 Our kids joined our churches annual summer soccer camp.  It lasts six weeks and is held on Wednesday nights.  I don't know if the kids are learning a lot about soccer, but I know they're having fun and memorizing scripture.  That's my kind of sporting event.

Science Fair Success

 Gloria and Danya entered their very first science fair this year.  It was a lot more work than any of us realized it would be.  Gloria's project was called "Is Black a Color?" and involved research and testing to see what colors black ink is really made out of.  Unfortunately, she wasn't very excited about the project, so getting her to work on it was like pulling teeth.

Danya's project was titled, "I Drank What?"  She tested several different water sources from distilled water to local rivers and ponds and compared them to the tap water from our sink.  She used a pool tester kit.  We knew she'd worked hard on it and did all but a little of the typing herself.  We were already super proud of her.  Then she showed us her first prize ribbon!  We were so excited I thought I would bust.  Her hard work definitely paid off.

Zoo Friends

 We joined my friend, Brandy, and her children at the Denver Zoo for a homeschool field trip.  When Brandy goes on a field trip, she's not playing around.  She brought assignments for her kids and had them classifying animals on note cards.  I was impressed.  Most of our kids were at regular school, so we only had Katie and Karyie with us.  It was kind of fun to be the small family at an event for once.

We had fun trying to get pictures of them with the peacock.  We also enjoyed the duck that was sitting on a nest with eggs in it.

Wild Life Refuge

 Daniel went with Jordan on her 4th grade class field trip to a local wildlife refuge.  It was cold and rainy and not very wild.  She seemed to enjoy the trip, but the animals were either laying in cages or very far away.  Daniel said it was kind of sad and definitely not better than the zoo.

Sunday Morning Style

My boys briefly went through a phase, that still occasionally makes a reappearance, of dressing up for church.  On a usual Sunday we have rules like, no holes in your clothes, no high waters, leggings or shorts required under dresses, no tight or overly revealing clothing, etc.  We don't, however, require them to wear dresses or slacks. (although I do encourage the dresses on nice days)  The boys have been choosing to wear button up collared shirts with vests and slacks and even, on this particular Sunday, dress shoes.  They looked so handsome that I had to take a photo.  Then the girls, who had decided to wear matching outfits, decided they needed in on the photos, too.  I definitely don't mind when my kids willingly decide to go the extra mile on their appearance!

TNT Girls Sleepover

 The AWANA girls in 4th through 6th grade are called the TNT Girls.  It stands for Truth n' Training.  As an end of year celebration this year they had a huge sleep over at the church.  It was mainly run by the older teen girls from the youth group.  They played freeze dance and did each others' hair and make-up.  It was a very girly evening.

I wasn't sure about letting my girls go at first when I heard that it would mainly be fun by teen girls.  But Shannon, our babysitter, was going, so I decided to let them attend.  I'm glad they did, because they had a wonderful time with their friends.  I was scared, too, that someone might do something horrible to Jordan's hair that we've worked so hard on taking care of so that it would be healthy and grow.  Thankfully, Shannon didn't let them use flat irons on her hair!

World Beat Jam

 Jordan's 4th grade class put on a percussion and choir performance called World Beat Jam at her school.  They sang songs and played music from several different countries.  She looked very confident playing her instrument.  She also got a kick out of wearing her faux hawk that day.

Messy Art Day

 Messy art day with my friend, Brandy, and her children.

Faux Hawk Girl

"Mommy, can we try to do a faux hawk?"  These were not words I expected to hear from my 10 year old daughter.  Jordan had seen it somewhere and wanted me to braid her hair into this style.  I wasn't really sure I could do it.  It took hours.  Hours of Jordan laying down on her side on the couch while I braided her hair upside down.  But it looked pretty cool when it was done.  All her friends and her teacher thought so, anyway.

Mask Makers

 Brianna and Gloria made masks for their "Where in the World" geography class.  They came out really nice.  Gloria got lots of compliments for her design with one eye missing.  I thought it was pretty creative, too.

Spring Music Concert

 Brianna singing and performing on the recorder.  Danya in the drum choir.  It was definitely a show worth watching!  Danya was the youngest of the drummers.  Most of the kids were older teens.  If you watch the video of Danya carefully, you'll notice in the first few seconds that her drum slips down and lands on the seat.  I was amazed at her poise and confidence for an 11 year old.

She calmly continued drumming and fixed it at the first opportunity, never getting lost or having any trouble jumping right back in.  I was so proud of her.  She has the heart of a musician!