Hangin With My Girl

Last night I took Samantha to see her friend Peter perform at The Wire.   Here sweet friend Baylee came along with us.

Baylee was one of the first girls Samantha met and became friends with when we first started home schooling four years ago.  They are moving to Arkansas at the end of the school year and the girls are so sad. We are trying to fit as many memories in until then as we can:(

We had fun at the show and then we hit Denny's for a late night breakfast.  Good company, yummy pancakes, and good conversation made for a great night.

If you want to hear some of Peter's songs you can check him out here.  He is a junior in high school, leads the Jr. high worship at his church and performs with Samantha in Theatre.  He has 7 brothers and sisters and his mom and I love talking about how we handle our large group of kiddo's.  Really sweet family.  Go check out his site if you get a chance, and listen to some of his songs.  His album will be coming out soon.

The Shopping Cart

Do you ever look at other people's shopping carts and wonder what they are going to make with the food they are buying? I do.

Some days I am so tired of the same old, same old, I almost ask the lady in front of me in line what she is going to do with that roast she has in her cart. Either she would think that I am very strange.... or lonely. Or, maybe not. Maybe she is also a busy wife and mom looking for something new to add to her weekly menu. Who knows.

This was my Sam's Club cart from today.

We have been out of Goldfish crackers for 2 months.  The kids will be so glad to see them:)

There was a married couple who asked me who I was buying all that food for. I was to embarrassed to tell them that I usually fill two carts when I hit Sam's, but since it was a solo run, I didn't want to push two carts by myself.


They probably would also be shocked to know that Dave and I had earlier hit our local Sprout's market where we filled our cart with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as 30 pounds of fresh chicken because they were having a great sale.

Now, what am I going to do with all that chicken? Any suggestions?

Treasure Island

Garrett decided to try a Theatre class this year.  Samantha is a part of the class and he thought it might be fun, although I think it had more to do with the cute girls in the class than it did about the actual acting part.  The class did a skit where he played the scare crow from the Wizard of Oz, during their first semester open house at the co-op we attend.  He was hysterical. 

The theatre teacher really likes him and wanted him to play the town squire in their spring performance of Treasure Island.  He didn't like that idea very much.  Although he did great the night of the open house performance he was very nervous for weeks before.  He was so glad when it was over and had no intention of being in Theatre second semester. I told him he would have to tell the theatre teacher that himself.  She sweet talked him and told him how wonderful he was and then he just couldn't say no.  He will be the squire.

Of course he blames me for this but I told him he could tell her no, I wasn't going to do it for him.  He needs to learn to speak up for himself.  As I watched them rehearse this week I was so glad I hadn't stepped in and took care of this for him.  From the below picture you can see how much fun they are having.  He is in the angry bird sweat shirt.


When I read the script I figured out that this was a musical version of Treasure Island and that Garrett was going to have to SING.  Oh boy, he didn't look happy when he found that out.





Samantha is in the play as a girl pirate.  Here she is practicing her song with some of the other kids.  One of the boys put his baseball cap on her head.  I could write and entire post on the boys buzzing around our girl.  She is 15 and not allowed to date but that hasn't stopped a few from asking permission.  That is sweet, however, the answer is still NO.  Not yet.   Maybe never.  The convent is sounding like a great idea:)



I loved watching them rehearse and today Garrett asked if they had practice.  Some times it is good to work through our fears instead of just giving up.  I could learn a lot from this boy. 



This is Samantha marching down to me once she figured out I was taking pictures of them while they practiced.  She was not a happy camper.  I quit taking pictures:)

Here is the costume that I bought Garrett to wear as the town Squire 

Kind of blurry but you get the picture.  He actually likes it so I am thrilled.  I ordered him a colonial hat also.

Here is Samantha's pirate girl costume.

She is going to wear flat shoes and the dress up at the shoulders.  I was amazed at how, ummm, revealing most of the pirate costumes were for girls.  Not quite the look I was hoping for.  I think this one will be o.k..

I had to laugh when the theatre teacher stopped me last week to ask if Samantha and Garrett would be coming back next year.  I told her I didn't know, it would be up to them.  She then proceeded to tell me she really hoped they would because she was thinking of performing Tom Sawyer and she thought Garrett would be perfect to play Tom.  I told her maybe we should just get through Treasure Island and then we could talk.  I don't dare tell Garrett this until later...much, much later:)



Best Friends

Here is Amelia and her best friend "little" Paige. Not to be confused with our "big" Paige. She talks about little Paige all day long. She knows she will for sure see her Thursday's at our homeschool co-op and at church on Sunday. This has helped her learn the days of the week:) Our girl and her brother have officially been home with us for two years this month. She turned three on January 12th. I can't believe how fast those two years have gone. None of us could imagine our lives with out this sweet precious little girl.

Happy 2012...A Little Late

Hi friends and family, yes we are all still alive.  I gave the blog a little make over tonight hoping to inspire myself to update regularly.  Now maybe you will all stop whiining so much.  Did I actually say that? Ha.

Levi had been begging for a pet for a while.  He loves birds, so it was only fitting he get a love bird.  This is the sweetest bird.  The breeder hand fed him so he prefers to eat while you hold him.  He will squawk until Levi takes him out of his cage.  He just wants to hang with us all day.  Really cute:)

Introducing Mango.

Levi loves this bird and he is a very responsible pet owner.  For those of you keeping track we now have a bird, rabbit, snake, and two dogs. Thankfully the kids are really good at taking care of them:)

For the second year in a row our good friends Roxanne, Terry and Eric traveled down the freeway to come and spend New Years with us.  One of the best things, besides the children, about adopting are all the wonderful life long friendships you make.  Such a blessing!

Here are a few pictures of the kids celebrating at midnight....

Here is Eric enjoying his sparkler.  I saved some from the 4th of July and the kids had a blast.  Don't you just love Samantha's mis-matched socks? We had a very layed back day.

I was so proud of Paige.  This is the first time she had the courage to hold her own sparkler.  She made so much progress on trying new things last year.  We are very proud of her.



Here is Levi in his Ninja pose.  See me walking away?  That is the only picture of this night you will see of me.  I was still wiped out from Christmas and had on no make up and hadn't done my hair.  Just pulled it into a pony.  Aren't I a good hostess? Ha.



Roxanne thinks we need to have a contract made up for an arranged marriage for these two.  Look how adoringly she is looking at him. So sweet.  All of the kids love it when Eric comes to visit.

Throwing their gang signs.  What goofs!

Here is the lovely Roxanne with all the little kids.  They had such fun!

Blowing their horns and doing sparklers at the same time.  I'm sure the neighbors were thrilled that our kids blew on those horns for a good 20 minutes.  Thankfully, we celebrated east coast time so it was only 9:00 here.  However, the teenagers across the street got us back at midnight.  Not fun:(

She loved her horn!  I threw them in the trash after they went to bed:)

Well, that's it folks.  I hope to be back here soon:)

**Will you please pray for Roxanne and Terry.  They are still trying to get their little girl, Joy, home from Ethiopia.  I shared some of their story in previous posts.  Please pray that God would soften the hearts of the Ethiopian officials and orphanage workers so she can come home to her forever family.  No child should have to grow up in an orphanage, expecially when there is a family waiting to love and adopt her.  Thanks so much!