Field Day

The kids had a blast at Field Day.  There were some new games and many of the old favorites like tug-of-war.

  A good time was had by all.

Birthday #7....LEGOS!!!

Reed's growing up.  I can't believe he's 7 this year.  He had a rough week with an ear infection so he didn't feel great on his actual birthday but with meds he recovered in time to still have his birthday sleepover.  He is starting to really get into Legos so we decided to do a Lego theme.  I really had fun with it.  Reed came up with lots of ideas too.

Happy 7th Birthday!

When each kids arrived "we" assembled a Lego car. I say we because this was really harder than the kids could handle.  Wes has gotten pretty good at it though.  :)

Then it was off to the races.  I found this piece of vinyl siding with 3 "lanes" at Lowes and it was perfect for our track.

I was so excited about how the cake turned out.  Store-bought cake modified with Legos.  Lego guys holding the candles.  The kids all loved it.

Liquid Legos...Reed's own "creation."  He came up with the formula himself.  ;)

While waiting for popcorn the kids stopped to watch Wes play Angry Birds on his phone.  Ha ha. 

Lego movie: The Adventures of Clutch Powers

There was the usual sword/light-saber battles and baseball games played throughout the evening.  Sadly one of our sweeties had a baseball injury that required stitches.  He was so brave and I'm very proud of him.  Just sorry he got hurt.  His mom says he's doing well now and it even looks like it's already starting to heal. 

We love you Reed.  Can't believe you are so grown up.  You bring so much joy into our lives.  Your passion for life is contagious.  Can't wait to see what God has planned for your future.

He did it!

My boy has been content to ride around with training wheels and never seemed motivated to do anything else.  He's not naturally a risk taker so our few attempts to push him in that direction just ended in frustration.  After a little research, I decided to try taking the pedals and training wheels off his little bike and have him push it around and try to balance himself.  After a few minutes of success we put the pedals back on and away he went!

Then we took the training wheels off the bike he got last Christmas and gave that a try.

It worked and he loved it!

He was grinning from ear to ear and said, "This is better than baseball!"

Whoa!  Better than baseball?  That's the highest praise coming from my big guy.

Way to go son.  So proud of you!

A year with Happy Kim

Kimberly has been in our hearts for over 5 years.  One year ago today she was placed in our arms and became a part of our family for forever.  What a blessing she is.  God knew we needed a little spice.  Saturday we celebrated by having friends and family over for cake and ice cream.  We even got to use one of the fun candles we risked our lives to get from the bakery across the busy street from our hotel in Nanchang. 

The kids had fun playing with squirt bottles.

Kimberly has pretty good aim so watch your back.

We got to spend Saturday evening with the beautiful Uland family and their little Fu girl, Ting Ting.  Kim and Ting didn't know what to think about it all at first, then they fought over a few toys (haha), but by the end of the evening everyone was playing great.  We reminisced and compared stories.  Looked at pics from China and enjoyed memories.  We really miss all of Travel Group 1597 and Kimberly's Fu sisters. 

We've come a long way since this time last year.  Kimberly has bonded and adjusted so well.  She is so much fun and keeps us laughing, especially now that we can understand some of what she is saying.  She can be so sweet and loving. 

As you can see, she's a girl on the go.  Sometimes it's hard to keep up.  I look forward to the years ahead and can't wait to see where the road leads.

We love you so much Kimberly Mei Xin.

The Starfish Story

The Starfish Story

The Starfish Thrower

Once upon a time there was a man
who used to go to the ocean

to do his writing.

He had a habit

of walking on the beach

before he began his work.
One day he was walking

along the shore.
As he looked down the beach

he saw a human figure

moving like a dancer.

He smiled to himself

to think of someone
who would dance to the day.
So he began to walk faster

to catch up.
As he got closer,

he saw that it was an
older man and the man

wasn't dancing.

Instead he was reaching

down to the shore,

picking up something
and very gently

throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer he called out,

"Good morning! What are you doing?"
The older man paused,

looked up and replied,
"Throwing starfish into the ocean."

The man noticed

there were hundreds of starfish

all washed up on the beach

from a storm the night before.

He watched as the man carefully

continued to pick up the starfish

one by one.
"I guess I should have asked,

‘Why are you throwing starfish

into the ocean?’"
"The sun is up

and the tide is going out.

If I don't throw them in

they'll die."
"But don't you realize

there are miles and miles of beach

and starfish all along it.

You can't possibly make a difference!"
The older man listened politely.

He bent down, picked up another starfish

He looked at the starfish

as he prepared to

throw it into the ocean,

past the breaking waves and said –

"I will make a difference to this one!"

 

 

4th of July Fireworks

After a long drive home from Mississippi we were greeted by friends bringing dinner, dessert and fireworks.  This was Kimberly's first 4th of July celebration with us and we were curious to see what she thought.  Well... she gave the fireworks two thumbs down.  It didn't help that her sleeping was way off after a visit to Gran's and it was past her bedtime when the fun began.  She loved the bubbles and rocket balloons... and of course the Popsicles.  The rest of us enjoyed the show the neighbors do all around us, plus a show of our own and the kids had a blast with the sparklers. 

Sparkler fun!

Thanks friends for celebrating with us.

Thompson Family Camping Extravaganza!

My mother-and-father-in-love celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year.  We celebrated by going on a family camping trip together.  Five days at Joe Wheeler State Park in Alabama.  It was great.  This wasn't our typical camping trip.  It had to be special.  We schemed for months.  Whispering.  Watching for opportunities to gather info in stealth.  We wanted to have lots of surprises along the way.  I designed a t-shirt and Christy got a great deal on printing them.  Katrina gathered photos from each family and put together a really cool slide show.  Travis borrowed a projector so we could watch the slide show (and movies) on the big screen.  This was so much fun.  We set up a concession stand with popcorn one night.  One night we had coins to use to buy movie candy.  One night we used the projector light to put on a shadow puppet show.  It was hilarious.  I know my kids will talk about that for years to come.  We rode bikes and scooters, played ball, hiked, went to the beach... We even got in a little craft time for missions.  The Thompson's never had to prepare a meal.  Travis did lots of research for our gift... an Add-a-Room for their new camper.  We had special guests that came up for a surprise visit!  (Joe, Marian, Jerry, Nancy, Bonnie and Billy)  The only thing we really wished for was the Hawaii Thompsons.  We really missed them. 

Dreaming

Cooling off

Hacky Sacks for Africa