Summer Robots

We had the end of season, start to the next season, remember Jim, say goodbye to Adrianne, and meet new team members party at our house for the robot team. We are, if not anything else, efficient in combining our parties!  This is such a great group of people to be with. I love every one of them!

I was concerned about the heat.

I talked to Betsy and asked if she and Abe's contribution to the party could be shade. We were most grateful for their willingness to share the shade.

Thank you Coach Keith for making 673,986 hot dogs in the 104 heat. You probably didn't need to use the BBQ.

These kids are so fun to be with. They are so kind and respectful.

One of our most loved mentors passed away last week due to complications during heart surgery. His sweet wife passed away a couple of weeks before. This is his daughter. She and her family came from Australia. I was so glad they came to meet the team and share the evening with us. She is a great example of grace under difficult times.

This is Adrianne. She is another beloved mentor. Adrianne and her family are going to Nepal for a few months and she felt it was time to hand the keys over to another mentor. She will be greatly missed. We made a book of pictures from the past 3 years and some thank you cards from the kids.

Anders, (a sibling of one of the team members) who is an excellent soccer player spent some time teaching Kate how to play soccer. How nice of you to be so patient with her, Anders!

I love my robot family. I will forever be in debt to these people for their examples and great friendships.

By the sweat of thy brow....

Keith and I have a long list of yard improvements. The kids are so lucky to help us with that list. We decided we wanted a fire pit area. It rained on our plans. No matter. We have people for that.

Ohh, Im so excited about the progress. The gravel ended being more "sand" than I wanted but I think it still looks nice.

Now, we just want to sit out and relax every evening. Too bad we are busy and don't have time. It looks nice and peaceful though. Some time we will actually start a fire and enjoy the space. I'll let you know how that goes.

Some of the other yard work we are doing is finishing up the fence and gravel path in the garden. All of the kids worked so hard to help. 

Yard work is exhausting.

 

Everyone was very tired by the end of it.

The garden area is looking so nice! We still have a lot more to do but it is exciting to see progress.

On a Mission

We have been waiting for Jakobs mission papers to come.... the waiting seems like FOREVER. Kate was so nice to wait with Jakob. What a supportive sister.

IT CAME! It finally came. The kids were jumping up and down and screaming when the mail finally showed up at our house.

Where in the world will Jakob go??

We had a few people come watch Jakob open his call. It was so much fun and so exciting!

MEXICO MONETERREY WEST MISSION! Ok, yes. That sounds right. Palm trees. Modern city. There is even a temple in Jakobs mission area!

Leaving when?!  November 29th. What?! Apparently we need that much time to deal with paperwork. Because I love doing paperwork with our corrupt government, we get extra time to deal with a foreign corrupt government. Doesn't that sound fun?! Crazy government  paper work or not, we are excited!

Thank you everyone that has been so supportive of this process! Thanks for coming to watch Jakob open his call.

Broken

Hayden is active. Very active.  He is sort of like watching one of those very bouncy balls in a racket ball court and the ball just keeps flying off the walls and won't ever stop. He hurt his foot at Tae Kwon Do and complained about it all morning. By that night, I decided that maybe I had better take him to insta care and have them check things out.  While we were gone, Keith and the other kids roasted marshmallows.

The verdict: Broken foot.  Hayden couldn't be happier about using crutches!

I felt bad for Hayden. I let him stay on the couch and play plants vs zombies. What a good mom I am.  Wait... letting him rot his brain is not good. After one day of that, I decided we had better move to a little more brain stimulation. Hadyen spent a week watching Mythbusters. Its an educational show, right? One week after the broken foot incident,(and a week of sitting on the couch because he can't do anything!) we had a group of people over to the house. I looked outside and saw this:

The rest of that evening, Hayden was running around with the cousins and having a great time. When I say "running" I mean running. I decided at that moment that Mythbusters would be over and it was time to get back to chores. BUSTED.... and Im not referring to the foot. Hayden also took his crutches to pack meeting. Honestly, Im not sure why Hayden took the crutches to scouts. He spent a lot of time "running" with the other scouts. He can get around just fine.

Because of the bouncy ball syndrome, I had wished just a little that the broken foot would slow him down for a day or two. Guess not.

Kate

Kate is now 4! Im still surprised at how fast time is going. We have enjoyed the many faces of Kate over the years.  She is a big girl now and loves to help with the projects. We took Kate to watch Finding Dory for her birthday. This was quite the treat. We hardly ever do movie theaters. (sorry about her weird face.... hum)

Birthdays are so much fun!

Sometimes, being 4 makes you very tired.

I asked Kate to clean up all of her birthday toys so we could vacuum the carpet. This isn't what I had in mind.

Kate is going to miss Jakob when he leaves on his mission! They are kindred spirits.

Happy Birthday Kate!! We love you and we are glad you are in our family!

Summer fun

As crazy as things have been, it has been hard for me to remember that we are on summer vacation!  The kids decided to get out our rather small but works for them swimming pool!

When it got too hot to play outside, I make homemade play dough. The kids love this activity. Im trying to love it, but the mess is hard for me to love.

One evening for mutual Keith, Jakob, and Corrine went on a hike to prepare for Trek.

Im not sure what this is about. Its a good look though.

While Corrine was away at EFY, Sariah took over the lawn mowing job! She did a great job and it took all of her concentration!

Running errands in a nice air conditioned car is another fun way to enjoy summer!

Thankfully, we have more time to enjoy summer!