oceanside visit

On Thursday, July 23 - I took my children to the beach in W.Rock and we met up with our Friends for a little adventure! It was a cloudy and breezy day which gave us some goosebumps since we are now used to fairly hot weather - but we are glad we went and had a great time! Makenna playing with and eating the rocksKorinne, Koby, Mercy and my boys fled down to the waterDana and her Girls and my kids -Declan and Alise looking at a jellyfisha full size dead crab! Usually we just find the carcass-The kids - Elijah, Danika holding Makenna, Alise, Declan & Isabella, Mercy, Sammy and Gabi (where's Koby?)and the Mommies - Dana, Korinne and Sarawe then had a picnic lunch on a grassy area and then ice cream cones of course:and then I had the 3 Grade 1ers (or as you say in the USA, "first graders") show me their ice creams - Alise, Elijah and DeclanThanks for a fun day friends!

dinner at the lake

On Wednesday, July 22 Jason took the boys in the afternoon to the Lake and I met them there with Gabi and the 4 girls once I picked the Girls up from school... dinner time ~ bbq hotdogslittle Elijah fishwho's he throwing rocks at?Kelly getting close to the geeseit was a fun couple hours at the beach!

summer bbq

4 "sisters" (for the 10 days) enjoying ice cream in the backyard on the hot afternoon!then...
Amidst packing boxes and Mercy/Koby unpacking boxes... Korinne and Brian decided to host a BBQ last week Saturday (July 18)! It was a beautiful day (we've been having great summer weather!) - perfect for a shaded backyard bbq! Thanks for hosting us!
Korinne introduced the girls to Bocce Ball- (anywhere we go this week as a family we have to take 2 vehicles b/c we are a family of 9! I can fit 8 into our van!)

Mother of Seven

Today ended 10 days of being a Mother of Seven Children! Imagine!!! It went way better than I thought it might be with stress levels... God is good!
Alexa is also hosting 2 Girls from the same group as Lily and Kelly... but before she agreed to host, she knew she wouldn't be able to host this past week due to their annual {long} camping trip to D.Lake - so I jumped up right away and offered to take her girls this week! I've had her girls in my home for as long as Alexa's had them in her home so far - so now that they are home now, they'll have to get reacquainted.

So on Day One (Friday, July 17), I picked them up from school and Jason conveniently took the boys on a Campout for the night... so I filled up my house with 6 Girls for a Slumber Party! After we went scrapbooking, we filled Jason's office floor with mattresses and sleeping bags - scooped out bowls of ice cream and turned on High School Musical - they were having so much fun!
Angel returned this year - you may remember her from my posts last summer/fall --- it's so good to see someone return! Welcome Back Angel! missing from this picture is Kelly - who had fallen asleep!

day trip

On Wednesday (July 15) I headed across the Line with my 3 kids for a little day out!
First stop - Free Movie at Bellis - theatres across the USA have free movies playing ALL summer - this particular theatre is free on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10:00am - playing 2 different movies each week! We saw The Tale of Despereaux. It was Sammy and Gabi's first time in a theatre! Gabi could careless but I was able to keep her happy for the most part. That was fun!
Then we did some shopping at "Deals" - lunch at McD's - and then a quick play at the cool park in L. Here we are at the park -and a quick dip with our feet into the creek before we had to get back across the Line in order to be home when the girls were out of school at 4:00we will definitely return for a longer play and dip in the creek - better plan to pick up Great Grandma (Beppe) for a picnic - she'll love that!

Helen - it was so neat to run into you at the park! I SO knew I'd see you there!

Seven Eleven

In the monring I took Elijah, Lily and Kelly to Michael's for a free make/take - painting a little tote - which I thought was a pretty decent make/take! They all put a lot of work into their liittle bags -
After lunch we packed up and headed to a birthday party for Declan and Isabella -
I don't know why but I have no pictures of your party besides the cool cake for this Ocean Themed party! Sara set up their gorgeous huge backyard with 3 pools for the kids and different shaded areas... it was a HOT day as it usually is on their birthday party day! It was an enjoyable time for all! Thanks!
here's Sara's work of art...Happy Birthday Declan and Isabella! (born on the same day 4 years apart!)

On our way home from the party, on July 11 (7-11), we stopped into 7-11 'the store' for a free 7.11oz slurpee!! so fun and although small, they were the perfect size for a quick treat on the way home!Thanks for that reminder Korinne about the free slurpees that day!

flutter by, little butterfly...

During my super busy week with the early arrival of Kelly and Lily and VBS at our church, I had already invited Gabi's little two year old friends over for a birthday party! Despite some sickness that week and the pure busyness - we managed her birthday party just fine (and were thankful we could be outside for it)...
the party was from 4:30-6:30 - I served pizza buns (click for recipe), spinach-strawberry salad and watermelon... it turned out really well.
I was debating what theme to do for Gabi's birthday months beforehand - I was tossing around themes like ladybugs, cupcakes, tea party... and ended up with butterflies - due to these headbands I found at Dollarama. Aren't they cute?! Even found a flower for Koby to wear!Really, to me, the theme all comes down to a few decorations, corresponding goody bag favours and the cake... so even though I considered buying a cake this year due to my scheduling that week - I did find the time to put together the cake I had found and had been waiting to do. Pretty simple - but cute.Here are our little buddies - Erin and Gabi -Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

welcome Lily and Kelly

So what a crazy week last week... but we made it! Phew!
Our next Girls from China were actually going to be coming even with the scare of the H1N1 Flu - some backed out, but a group of them have arrived! Yea! So cutting their scheduled trip to Toronto off their itinerary, the Group arrived 5 days earlier than we originally thought they'd come - making my busy week even busier.

On Tuesday, July 7th our new Girls, Lily and Kelly arrived! They are from Beijing (same as Amy and Fran) and will be here until the end of October. Here we are when they first arrived - only Sammy was able to join me in picking up the Girls since Elijah was at home with the 24-hour bug and then we decided Gabi may as well stay home for her regular nap - these girls are ages 9 and 10 - they seem to be getting younger especially as the age gap closes with my kids! They have excellent English and are adjusting perfectly! They love to play outside...

names

As a last minute thing to make for our new girls' bedroom - personalizing is key to a warm welcome I believe!... I drummed up these...
I bought these 2 flower shapes (that are meant to be "masks" to look through? for $1.50each...and then just traced the shape onto patterned paper, modgepodged onto the flower... added these wooden shapes and chipboard letters - voila - and since I have been terrible at showing you our house, I did take some pictures of the Student's bedroom we have set up and may as well share the 3 pictures with you... the room is a "L" shape but it's kinda hard to figure it out by these photos...

Happy Birthday Ben!

Gabi shares her birthday with our friend, Benjamin! He turned 1 this year and we were able to be home from vacation and celebrate with him! It was a hot day, just perfect to be outside for a wonderful Mickey Mouse party!Happy Birthday Benny!

Lane County Covered Bridges

On Friday morning we continued on our way to Portland and saw a few more covered bridges in Lane County...Our day consisted of some shopping at another Outlet Mall called Woodburn Company Stores which was great; and then Washington Square Mall (and play area) and then a trip to Chuck E Cheese (like we did last year too) - in honor of Gabi's 2nd Birthday!So we spent the whole day in Greater Portland, and left for home at 7:00pm... home at midnight - it was perfect!