Take Me Out to the Ball Game

We had such a great time last night! The kids experienced their first semi-pro baseball game and their first chicken dance. We had so much fun! The kids each got a ball too - seriously we had a blast! One of the families from school had 10 tickets in a box that is basically on the field - it was the perfect spot to enjoy the game. Addy got to run around and the kids got to watch all the plays up close and personal! It was great.

Tomorrow we are celebrating Marta's birthday with her friends from school. This will be her first birthday party and we are really looking forward to it! Her real birthday isn't for another 10 days but we will be out of town for the real birthday so we decided to celebrate this weekend.

Happy Tuesday

Ethiopia abounds here in Washington!  Tonight we will be having a delicious Ethiopian dinner to celebrate... Tuesday.   We aren't actually celebrating anything, just enjoying the time to cook a traditional dinner.   Grandma and Grandpa are coming over for dinner too... I wonder what they will think???  We also made an Ethiopian friend yesterday.  We were at swimming lessons and Marta turned around and stared when she heard a woman speaking Amharic.  She QUICKLY made friends with the woman and her daughter.  We are so excited to make that connection and will be calling her soon to get together.  Marta was super excited to hear that our new friend has lived in America for 6 years and still speaks Amharic.  The kids (especially Marta and Joseph) want to keep their native languages while becoming fluent in English. 

 

This week began swimming lessons and athletic development camp for all the kids!  They are having fun and working really hard.  Joseph and Marta are also spending each day with Grandpa catching up on math skills and making sure that they are ready for the fall.  Thank you Grandpa!!!!!!!!!!  We worked through a story last night about fossils and the I taught the kids how to do an Image search on Google for words they don't know.  They used it several times for magma, fossil, roadway, and extinct.  I stayed close by in case something "iffy" popped up but all was well and it was so helpful for them as they read through the story.

 

Danny is working his way through the Magic TreeHouse series, I love watching him devour the books and read with such expression and understanding.  Jacob and Lilly are both reading well too.  I am so proud of them both and they are taking their "silent reading" time very seriously and love learning to read.  They are both pretty independent and only accept help when they cannot figure it out themselves. 

 

Have I told you lately that my kids are FABULOUS????????

Happy Anniversary to US

It is our anniversary today. We have been married for 12 years today. In fact, 12 years ago at this precise moment I was waiting to walk down the isle into Ben's arms. Wow! We got a card from Ben's parents that said, "My how your lives have changed in 12 years." That is the understatement of the century! :) It is amazing to me that I love Ben more now than I did even 3 years ago -- I never would have said that was possible.

I heard once that men marry women hoping they will never change... and that women marry men hoping to change them. I guess I would agree with that statement, at least a little. I hope everyday that Ben will pick up his towel and put it away after his shower -- but I pray that those little things that make him my best friend will never change.
I am sure that I have changed too... I would love to say that I am less bossy now than I was way back then... but probably I am MORE bossy. Oh well. He still loves me bossy or not.

We are going out to dinner tonight with the kids. My dad sent me money for my birthday and what better use is there than to take my family out to eat so that I don't have to cook??? :) I told them that we are going to the restaurant where Daddy proposed... Lilly replied, "so it's a really old place???" It is funny to think that in their eyes we have been married FOREVER - and for Ben and I, it has flown by! :)

When we get home tonight we will show the kids our wedding video... it shows me falling down on 3 different occasions (and I wasn't even tipsy). It also shows me doing a little hop when pastor pronounces us husband and wife. I know it is cheesy, but that really was the best MOMENT of my life.

Happy 4th of July

The kids enjoyed their first parade in America and loved all the candy that was thrown their way! We ended up with 10 adults and 12 kids in our little group - it was so fun to watch the kids having fun with friends!

Tonight we will go see the fireworks - the kids have never seen them before. Joseph said that in Ethiopia they had fireworks for their millineum celebration (on our calendar it was 9/11/07) but that all the people thought it was a war starting and ran home. I hope they enjoy them tonight! Joseph also talked about parades back home they were for the police and military only. I am wondering if they were used to intimidate... hmmmm???

Our 1st Fourth

The flags are by the car. The blanket and chairs are in the Suburban. The red, white, and blue clothes are clean. The Frog Eye Salad is in the fridge. The cooler is ready to go. The hotdog buns are on the counter and the ingredients for homemade ice cream are in the fridge. We decided that our kids first 4th of July should be special! So in honor of all things American (ooohhh... I forgot Apple Pie) we will be heading off to the parade tomorrow morning and then enjoying a good ol' picnic dinner with Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow evening. For the fireworks we will either go to the free spot we have discovered and enjoy them on blankets in the dirt... or maybe we will pay the 10 bucks and sit in the park and enjoy the "ooohs and ahhs" of all the people around us. Whatever we decide will be great and I am super excited to share this day with our kids.

The freedoms we enjoy in America are very foreign to our kids. There is no Free Press in Ethiopia, no citizens own land. They are controled in every way by a misguided government. I heard someone once say that women who are born in America are the luckiest woman alive. So tomorrow I will enjoy my freedoms, my newspaper and internet, being able to drive, my home and my children and I will thank God that I can spend the day with my family!

Happy 4th of July

How things have changed

People ask us all the time about how life has changed with 6 kids... I decided to make a list of the ways our home and life have changed and how we keep sane!

• Chore Lists!!!!!!!! Addy is the only one who does not get a list. The list includes bed making, teeth brushing, room cleaning, 1 daily household chore, 2 "school periods", and 1 big chore each day. By big chore I mean cleaning the family room or the van. It has been working well (but it has only been 4 days).
• Putting away all my cute little pots and pans and bringing in the humongous pots that I used to only use when Ben's basketball team came for dinner.
• Paper Plates - bad for the environment -- GOOD for me! I am weaning myself though.
• A new cell phone that has a super easy calendar that has an alarm to remind me of everything.
• Grandpa taking over math tutoring for the 2 big kids.
• I asked for silverware for my birthday -- and I got it! 2 huge Costco packs of pretty silverware!
• Benches instead of chairs for the kitchen table.
• Water bottles instead of cups for meals and quick drinks. We keep them filled in the door of the fridge and the kids grab those instead of cups, usually.
• Colored towels... each kid has a color.
• Laundry baskets for each child to store their clothes. We got rid of all our dressers and it is going well!
• Mandatory nap time for the 4 little kids - the boys read and Ben and I work on school stuff with Marta and Joseph.

I am sure that I am forgetting a couple things, but these are just a couple of ways that we are making life work!

Bonding 101

Here are my top 10 Bonding Moments of the last (almost) 3 months.
These are in no particular order!

1. Watching Ben impersonate Elvis Presley following a family viewing of America's Got Talent
2. Teaching the kids all the words for bodily functions, then practicing burping :)
3. Praying together
4. Playing soccer, basketball, baseball, puzzles, Uno, together as a family. (We actually have had to institute the Uniform Rule - if you are NOT wearing a uniform you cannot complain or get angry about a game). I have 7 VERY COMPETITIVE children - yes, I meant 7... Ben totally counts!
5. Going to bed when the kids are not ready and listening to them laugh and throw stuffed animals at each other
6. Teaching the kids to swim
7. Riding in the Suburban singing 'Funkytown' with the Chipmunks
8. Learning all about the kids life in Ethiopia and knowing it is OK for us to ask questions.
9. Practicing for our "Family Band" - We are beyond horrible but have a great time playing our maracas, guitars, pianos, tambourines... you get the idea!
10. Talking to Mesalech on the phone while the whole family gathers around to listen.

These past 3 months have been pretty much wonderful! I still get stressed out about the mess and the laundry and the grocery shopping - but I will get over it! I hope! :)

There are lots of things that the experts tell you to be sure to do... or not to do... but the best advice we got was to HAVE FUN! We have certainly done that! We have also done lots of things that the books say not to do... send them to school right away, take them out of the home the first couple of weeks, introduce them to extended family too soon... we have ignored all of that advice and it was the best move we could have made for our kiddos. Just tonight I overheard Ben and Joseph talking about the fact that the kids have been here for almost 3 months and Joseph said, "3 months very fast Dad. Very good."

Are there things we wish we hadn't done... yes, I am sure that there are, and the kids will probably remind us of them for the rest of our lives. But that is OK because right now I can hear the kids having fun (they are supposed to be asleep) while Ben is relaxing and watching the Mariner's... Life is Good!

Marta's Braces

Marta Grace got braces today. She also spent an hour getting a ring cut off by a jewler. It was a pretty crazy day around here! Marti is a bit sore but quite a trooper... she is so excited to have straight teeth. She told me all about how Mesalech told her that her teeth were very good until she turned 6...

Marti's last picture BEFORE braces!

Isn't she cute!

Thank you Dr. Ostler for this wonderful gift! The whole office is full of wonderful people and my 2 hours there flew by... I am pretty sure it didn't fly by quite so quickly for Marta but she did remember to say goodbye and thanks on our way out the door!

Home Sweet Home

I am writing to you from a VERY MESSY house! I am so glad to be home. We had a fabulous trip and the kids loved every minute of it! They loved the zoo, the Portland Children's Museum, THE BEACH, and the 67 people at our family reunion! I loved watching their eyes light up throughout our weekend. It was so much fun!

Hangin' With the Kids!

The kids loved the water and pretty much DOVE RIGHT IN!

We went out to breakfast to celebrate my birthday! The kids got a little tired of the "normal" pictures so we took a few silly ones too!We are making "fish faces" at Bonneville Fish Hatchery! Feeding the fish was lots of fun!

I absolutely love summer vacation!

What is not to love??? I actually sang, "It's the most wonderful day of the year..." in the hallway today as I greeted my teacher friends with a goofy smile! My kids (except for Joseph who had a FABULOUS last day) have all been done since last Wednesday and are now asking if today is Saturday everyday! They are in vacation mode! I am enjoying my first hours of freedom by packing for our trip to the coast! I am so excited to take the kids to the zoo and the beach! I am actually more excited than they are! :) We have friends staying here at the house to take care of the dogs, so I guess I better add cleaning to my list of things that need to be done before we leave early tomorrow morning!

Packing for 8 is a science and as much as I love lists and organizing - it is still making my brain spin! I made flash cards today with the following:

• 1 stuffed animal
• 4 pairs of shorts
• 5 t-shirts
• 3 sweatshirts (it is supposed to be cold)
• 2 pairs of pants
• 1 towel
• sleeping bag
• jacket
• flip flops
• swimsuit
• 5 pairs of underwear
• 5 pairs of socks
• 2 pairs of pj's

My plan is to give each child a card so that they can find the required items and then return the card and items to me. I will write each kiddos initials on the back of the cards when I receive the items and then give them the next card... It SHOULD work. Maybe.

Can you think of anything I forgot? I am actually buying everyone a new toothbrush so that I can pack them tonight and we won't have to worry about them in the morning! My list is a bit longer so I had better get to work! Have a great week and if you get a chance to pray for gorgeous beach weather - that would be terrific!