Mire

This week we welcomed Mire (Me-ray) into our home from Japan. She is here to study English and finish off her High Schooling; so she could be in our home for around 2 years!

Kelly

This summer Kelly (one of our girls from China that we hosted a year ago) came back for a 6-week program! Unfortunately due to our travelling in July, we weren't able to host her again though. But we did have Kelly over for a weekend in August and then again for a quick visit the night before she was leaving for Home again! (shown)

That night we I pulled out a chipboard book for everyone to cover with pre-cut patterned papers and some stickers/letters. We also had our Japanese Student with us - Kana - at that time. Kana was with us for 2 weeks at the end of August.

Kelly, it was soooo good to finally have one of our Students return! We pour so much into the lives of these kids and so it was a real treasure to actually see one of these faces return!

donuts

on probably the hottest day we had in June, we were signed up to sell Krispy Kremes on a street corner... a fundraiser for our Church's Family Retreat this Fall. It was a hot one, but we survived and sold a good amount of donuts.
our first customers: aunt carla, Grandma and Grandpa: let's just say we won't be quick to sign up again for one of these 4 hours shifts with kids...

happy birthday Sophie

I have barely even mentioned the Girls we have from China right now! Sophie and Sally arrived in March and already leave this week (June 26) - in May, Sophie had her birthday, so I had a birthday party for her on the Long Weekend and on her actual birthday we had ice cream cones in her honor. notice the mini cones? SS sells these little cones...

carving our patch of pumpkins

On Sunday afternoon we got out 6 of the pumpkins and carved them up!

lining up to meet...

Spiderman!A Best Buy opened up this weekend in town, so to attract Families in to the store, on Saturday they had "meet Dora" and Sunday was "meet Spiderman" - for a long line up, it went real smooth and quick and the rest of the crew spent a bit of that time in the Playstation semi-truck playing some games while I got us a spot. No fuss - and it's not like we really know anything about Spiderman besides his name, but it was fun none-the-less!
Gabi wanted nothing to do with him so she didn't make the shot.

makenna turns one

On Saturday we went to Makenna's first birthday party! Sweet little thing is already one! Wow! She had a Halloween-type theme for her party - Dana did an amazing job of creating a great atmosphere and activities for the kids!
We were asked to wear Halloween colours - so my kids were all in orange and black and even some Halloween shirts!

Spread out around the house were stations for facepainting, decorating a Halloween House (gingerbread house), Halloween video and Halloween necklace making, shown here, Gabi and Aunt Katrina:And here's Makenna:

Mmmmm - cupcakes:Jessie:I even had this shirt that Lily could wear!Wish I got a picture of all 5 kids together. Elijah's shirt says "no questions, just put the candy in the bag"! We got it for super cheap after Halloween one year at Target. He usually wears it as PJs.
and yummy - a buffet of candy!

recycling all sorts of things

Friday was a Pro-D Day, so we took advantage of a free event happening at our local recycling depot... pumpkin decorating. Right up the alley of my kids who love to create!buttons, ribbons, bottle caps, ornaments, flowers... you name it!Sammy liked the ornaments that he could hang on his pumpkin - which became "O Pumpkin Tree, O Pumpkin Tree"and creative Elijah loves to go to town - he had quite the fake-flower bouquet on his complete with nesting birdFun times!

Oh, and speaking of pumpkin patches lately - my front entrance way is basically one! There's 12 pumpkins out there (plus one "fake" one)!

spirit day

Last week the kids had Book Character Dress Up day! We were thankful for this opportunity when it came to Kelly and Lily being able to dress up since their group heads back for home (Beijing) on Halloween Day morning! How lame!! So at least they go to get a costume and dress up last week a bit!
From left to right: Anna (Alexa's student) is Queen Esther; Lily is Anne of Green Gables; Kelly is an Angel from the Bible and Elijah is a Lion, since we had that costume for him for this year... so he could have been Alex from Madagascar or Aslan (though he doesn't know about Narnia yet) or Lion King...

pumpkin patch

Saturday, October 11th we went to the Pumpkin Patch since it was a beautiful fall day!
As always, so many pictures, but if I want to keep updating this blog and keeping it fairly up-to-date, I need to be able to get posts done fast! So less pictures I think it will need to be...

Build a Bear

Those 4 days off (2 no school and then regular weekend) were jam packed for us! With Chuck E Cheese and a bit of shopping that one day... and Friday Night Basketball... and then a trip to Build a Bear for the girl's pleasure! (Elijah was going the next day with Uncle Matt for his long-awaited birthday present)

I really wanted to go along and get in on the experience too! So much fun! Oh, to be a kid!

So it's quite the workshop and series of things that you do when you go to B-A-B...
Here they are already stuffed and ready to insert the special little heart that you wish upon first! (Elijah looking on - he did SO well coming along with us, knowing he was going to come again the next day for his turn)
hmmm, what to choose for my new stuffie? Underwear, shoes, Halloween costumes, shirts, pants, socks, sunglasses, guitars - you name it!so cute, hey?!Since bears/animals range from $12 to $30, I got Elijah to pick a bear ahead of time so that Matt wouldn't be stuck with a little boy wanting the $30 bear and be able to have enough extra to get an accessory or so - he chose the "velvet puppy"$150 later spent per girl and we were ready to go!(don't worry, it doesn't have to cost that much but these girls have money and are almost on their way home to China so we didn't stop them from going crazy! And they did!

C.E.C.

On Elijah's actual birthday he had a day off from school due to Christian Teacher's Conference - so we went and did our 'tradition' of going to Chuck E Cheese! I brought along a little cake and some candles and we celebrated Elijah together! We had Elijah's good friend from school with us since he wasn't able to make it to Elijah's party. Alexa and Erin also joined us - she had her Students of course as well as Angel and Helen for the day since there was no school for them either.Gabi is right in there at CEC - I give her a few tokens at a time and she carries them from ride to ride inserting them herself and sitting on the little rides. Too cute! Such a big girl already!
This machine prints out 1 of 4 Girl or Boy "credit" cards with a picture of the child on it - Elijah's face is getting printed onto a card - a big hit always... and for one token (less than a quarter), why not!?!

spirit day

On Wednesday, Sept 30th the kids' school had spirit day - wear blue and yellow! So this is what the three looked like.

And on that day Elijah brought a birthday treat with him to share in his class. I found lego Cookies online and thought that's exactly what I'd do - it was a hit amongst Mom's looking on in the hall and the kids! (for his cake I used m&ms; for these I just made a sugar cookies and used skittles)

apples

On Sunday, Sept 20th we went to the Apple farm on the way back from church - had a picnic lunch there and enjoyed a lovely sunny afternoon! Dana and her Girls met us there too!
and this this year to this farm are 'apple slushies' - so we splurged and got one to share amongst the 5 of us and it was delicious! Sammy asks to go back for one of those because 'they are my favourite'.