Happy 90th Birthday to Grandma!!!

Today my grandma turns 90. Wow! We went to the nursing home on Saturday for an Open House Party for her. A lot of family and her friends were there. She whispered to me that her boyfriend was there, but his wife took him away.. ROTFL!!!

She lit up like a candle seeing all the family and friends. My uncle's friend Ben showed up and made her day... He was like another son to her.

She noticed QiJia and wanted to know "Who is this young man?"

I told her it was QiJIa and he was staying with us for a school year. She just smiled so big!

The party wore her out after about an hour and a half, so she called it quits and headed back to room as we headed back home.

Grandma and longtime friend Mrs.Pearcy

Mom and Judy

Brandi, Pat and Rob

Tyler, QiJia, Kaci, Kole and Phil

Cookout!

Yesterday we had a cookout and invited some friends over.. We had a great time!
Susan and Curt brought there son Ethan (from guatemala) and their exchange student Thais from Brazil. Lisa and Mike came and broght Billy and Sierra. And Kole's Big Sib, Wells from the U of I came. It was a small but fun crowd!

It was so much fun, I didn't even take any pictures! shame on me!

The kids played in the pool and Wells, kept surprising them from outside the pool, it was hilarious! After they were out the water continued with the hose and glasses of water being flung at each other.

We had quite the menu: Hamburgers, brats, ribs, salad, pasta salad, fresh veggie tray with dip, chips, watermelon, cantaloupe, chocolate brownies and gooey butter cake.

We did not even need dinner last night. ha ha

We talked and kidded around and just really enjoyed ourselves... we really need to do this more often!

Reiko and Sweetpea did relatively well, once the initial excitment was over, then after a couple hours it was more stimulation than they could handle... Time to really work on the training again. Poor Ethan was so close to the ground that Reiko thought he was his own personal lollypop. Billy being tall, Reiko thought it would be fun to jump as high as he could to get him to come down to his level so he could play with him....
Sweetpea on the other hand, did really well.

I think the kids would really like to do this again. Maybe not this year, but who knows...

Big news of the week

After careful pondering and an o.k. from the rest of the family to try this one more time...
We will be hosting a boy from China. He is 16 and from the Jiangsu Province. This is the province just to the east of the Province Anhui, where Kali was born. He is very tall 5' 9". For us that is tall since none of us are over 5'6". ha ha

We are just waiting for final agency approval. We should be getting that today and they are going to get him here as quickly as possible to get registered for school.

More later as we find out!

Twelve more days of summer vacation

With twelve day left until school starts things have already started to wind up here.
Kali started marching band camp at the school 3 - 4 days a week. Kole is into the swing in cub scouts and Kaci is signed up for Hip Hop dance starting the 27th.

Monday I get my stitches out and then I can get in the pool again!

Next weekend we are having a cookout and have invited a few people over to keep it small.

Kole had his Shriner's visit this past Wednesday and it went very well. His hearing and ears are in perfect shape. His teeth are growing great including the bonus tooth!
Next year we are looking toward a palate expander if he has more permanent teeth by then.
And he is on a list to get a cleft nasal repair to straighten his nose out a bit so kids can leave that part of him alone. It has only happened a couple times, but kids can just be cruel if you are not what they see in their eyes as normal. Kole is now 48 inches tall and 48.5 pounds. Not too bad!
He is growing like crazy!

Kali is maturing at a remarkable rate. She is more focused this year than last. She is really enjoying band even more this year..

Kaci is trying to mature... but still has a ways to go... She loves to dance.

Boyd is doing well, still laid off, but that has been a plus for us this summer with no daycare needed. It will also come in handy when Kole has his surgery. Boyd can go and I can stay back and save my time for when I am sick.. Let's hope I don't get sick.

We have had a wonderful summer and are looking forward to a great school year.

last week of July and heading into August

Vivian stayed with us until July 30. We were so happy to have her stay with us. Just her presence brought a peace around the house. She is such a lovely girl inside and out. The kids loved having her... Kole was actually kind of flirting with her. LOL He was shy to do things hewould normally do...ha ha. I wished I could have taken more time off work to spend with her and the family. oh well better to look forward than back!

This week brings a start to band camp for Kali, a craniofacial team appointment at Shriner's for Kole and school registration for all three. Cub scouts starts this week too! oh boy... I thought I would be ready, but I could use another week or two! I also think it is time to register Kaci for dance. School starts in under three weeks!

During all this, I had a slight accident and cut one of my toes to the bone and had to have it stitched up. I guess it was a good excuse to have the kids help more around the house. Too bad it hurt more than anything I have felt for a really long time... And very lucky that the bone was not broken. The doctor didn't say what would have happened then... I didn't ask either.
I can still walk, but slowly.
And Boyd cleaned up the garage so I can walk out the door and to the deep freeze and not kill myself. Too bad it takes an injury to wake everyone up.

We are planning a cookout with the big sibs and a few friends for in a couple weeks. That should be fun. Not a huge event just a few friends over too.

The kids loved going to City Museum with Vivian while she was here. I really think Boyd is the one that really likes it! ha ha The kids have the most fun! They get to try so many dare devil things that are supervised, sort of...

Well, that is all for now and sorry no pics!