My Sweet Girl

Just some fun stuff with Rosie

Playing Helicopter.  They love each other so much.  I love watching them together.

So cute!

Some friends of mine gave Rosie two Twins outfits and this Mariners outfit.  

I'm not a huge baseball fan (surprise, surprise) but she sure does look cute.

Rosie LOVES to dance and Darwin and Courtney finally caught it on tape.  She runs to the camera as soon as she sees it so we have to be really sneaky :).  

She cracks me up!

A Kite Flying Afternoon

We found some donated kites in a closet at my house and decided to have a fun day with the Shine! kids.

Fridays are usually no homework days and we enjoy getting to watch them getting active outside.

This is a video of them getting set up.  

Of all the videos I'm about to post it probably has the most action and narration.

My girls all headed to the park to fly kites.

Escarleth is adorable.  Dayana was struggling to keep her kite up.

Jose started out pretty good.  He had a "run as hard as you can despite what you smack into" strategy.

Getting ready for round two

LOL Darwin threw Claudy's over a pole so that it would stay up.  

Her kite got the most flight time of anyone's.

I love this shot!

All four kids and their kites.

The kite doctor.  None of the kites lasted very long without some repairs.

Jose managed to trip on or destroy 2 1/2 kites.  

He was feeling a little frustrated towards the end but we just kept taking turns.

Most of the kite "flying" consisted of them running as fast as they could with the kite a short distance behind them.

Courtney tries to revive Jose's kite.  We ended up taking parts of Escarleth's broken kite and parts of Jose's broken kite and making one working kite for them to share.

Darwin tries to revive Jose's kite

Despite some technical difficulties the kids LOVED their first kite flying experience.

Escarleth's Africa Book Report

Escarleth's book was Lion's at Lunchtime.  She was the most uncomfortable presenting but got through it and did a great job.

The kids played animal safari bingo 

and ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches (from the book)

Albert was sure he had won (he hadn't) :)

Jennifer showing off her prize.

Claudy's Indian Book Report

Claudy's book was Buffalo Before Breakfast. 

She did a wonderful job despite being a little sick on the day of her presentation.

Claudy has a tendency to be a tad bit condescending. 

This is her "of course" face :)

Claudy's activity was a little work intensive so we only have the final product shot.

They had a lot of fun making their indian headbands and corralling Rosie at the same time.

Dayana's Viking Book Report

Dayana's book was Viking Ships at Sunrise. 

She struggled a lot at the beginning but then really got the hang of it.  I was extremely proud of her.

She has some self esteem issues and it's amazing to watch her work through them and come out on top.

Me showing the kids how to make their viking boats

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Jose helping Jennifer (another girl in his class)

Little Maria was concentrating really hard.

Jose with the book and the finished product.

Jose's Shakespearian Book Report

This past week has been completely consumed with book reports for the Shine! kids.   Courtney and I have been working on book reports from sun up to sun down and finally today (thursday) we've got them all finished. Each quarter (for those math whizzes out there, that's 4 yes FOUR times a year) the kids have major book reports in Spanish and in English (different books).  The kids write their rough drafts but the parents i.e. Courtney and I, write the final reports, make the posters, and come up with class activities.  It's a fairly major project.  However, it's really neat to watch their little faces light up with pride once they've finished.

All of the kids read books from The Magic Tree House series.  Jose's was called Stage Fright on a Summer Night.  I think he probably did the best at comprehending all of what he read, which is exciting.  He also became my walking thesaurus as I translated their stories into Spanish for them.  That kid can come up with just about any word I'm looking for with just a few clues.  Here are a few pictures of his presentation.

The kids have to read the whole book report in front of the class

 The kids made acting masks for their activity.  

Escarleth working on her mask

Jose with the example mask

All of the kids with their masks

Here is Jose's actual presentation, afterwards all the kids ask questions but I don't have that on video.  

Jose was the first one to go and did a great job as the "guinea pig".

A Day at the Park

For the past month I've been trying to work in a family picture day.  Park Plaza, my supporting congregation, is sending out missionary Christmas cards and they requested a family picture from us.  Well between twice stolen cameras, fussy babies, huffy teenagers, broken cameras, and just life in general it has not gone very well.  So on Sunday morning we decided to forgo matching outfits and head up to the Jesus Statue park for a picnic and some fun, and we took lots of pictures along the way.

Here are a few of our favorites:

I think this one is my favorite but not really Christmas card worthy

 This one is not a popular favorite but I like it.

I think this one is the popular favorite.

We had a nice picnic of Popeye's Chicken

Rosie REALLY enjoyed hers.

Darwin and Rosie dancing in the Mayan ampitheater

My wonderful intern Courtney and I

I love them so.

Sneaking up on the monkey out of his cage.

And finally attempting to play in the water park.  She never managed to actually get wet.  Funny girl.

We had a wonderful day.  I need to remember to build family time into our lives more often.

I need some input

Hi Guys!  I'm working on some things for the new website and since I don't have my camera...
sidenote:  if you haven't heard about a week after the incident at the homeless ministry it was stolen out of my car along with quite a bit of cash, while we were eating dinner at Pizza Hut.  Luckily no one was injured and nothing irreplaceable was taken or broken)
Anyway, since I don't have my camera I've had to get a little creative with Courtney's point and shoot.  I'm so thankful I have that to fall back on.  Let me know which one is your favorite and if you'd like to take any of these shots and improve on them I'd love that too.
Thanks!

The theory behind these shots was to get a shot of their shoes.  

I'm not totally convinced that it serves that purpose but I like the pictures anyway.

I'm going to try to do a Christmas shoe drive and get shoes for all of them. 

Let me know if your church or organization is interested in pitching in.

A New Reward System

Last week the Shine! kids had their monthly reward day, and to be completely honest they had no idea it was reward day, not exactly the incentive program we had intended.

So yesterday we adapted the program a little bit.  Now they each have a decorated sticker chart where they can track their progress.  I told them they could decorate the heads of their people and to leave the rest for stickers.  Silly me, I assumed they would draw faces, not at all.  They have very colorful round balls on the top of their bodies.  I love watching their creativity and letting them surprise me.  

P.S. We're still looking for sponsors for some of these kids as well as sponsors so that we can add new kids next year.  Let me know if you're interested.

Try Not To Judge Me :)

When it's time for this sweet angel to take a nap she will nap just about anywhere.

Including standing up next to me as I drive down the road with her head on my shoulder :)

(I'm stopped at a light here, and Courtney is taking the picture, I'm not that crazy)

I put off buying her a car seat because I wasn't sure how long I would have her (and they're really expensive) and now she's used to having the run of the car.  I think it's time to start purchasing :).  My mom seems to think someone could just throw a car seat and high chair in their carry on and bring it down.  I'm doubtful :)  

Love you, Mom!