Family Fun Night

For family fun night we like to do challenges. We base them loosely off the show the Apprentice. This week the kids challenge was to create a dessert. They would be judged on taste, originality, creativity, appearance. They also had to do a presentation that sold us on their product. That would also be judged on originality, creativity, and actual presentation. This time is was girls against the boys.



They were given a budget of $15.00 and twenty minutes at the grocery store to purchase their ingredients.


They went to work creating their desserts. The boys made "twisted ice cream croissants". Which was croissants filled with vanilla ice cream that had peanut butter m&ms crushed in it.




The girls made sundaes.

I wish I had taken more pictures but the camera died so this was all I got. The boys won for originality, and their presentation won by a landslide. I thought the boys were gonna take it. But when Will and I sat down to judge all the criterias it wasnt that clear cut. The boys presentation was great but the girls taste was by far better and they had a better food presentation. It came down to a tie and we had to determine that the tie breaker had to be the product which came down to which one would we want to eat again, so the girls won! They were super happy especially Graisan because this was her first win. Aly is 2 - 0. Their prizes were a movie of their choice, dessert of their choice, and they got to give Will and I one of their chores. I got laundry which wasnt so bad and Will got dishes (I was glad I didnt get that). The boys were mad but they sucked it up after about 10 minutes. Over all it was an awesome time and Im already thinking of what the next challenge will be!

Cow Appreciation Day

So today was cow appreciation day at Chik-fil-A. If you go there fully dressed as a cow you get a free combo meal and partially dressed a free entree'. I told the kids about it and River was all for it. So the girls joined in too and they went to work making their cow costumes. I love my kids because they are so creative and they take intiative when they want to do something. They finished their costumes last night while I was teaching my class and I took them for lunch today. Above are the pics of our cow adventure. As you can see Alex is no where to be seen and that's because he wanted NOTHING to do with this. He didnt even want to come along dressed normally lol! I think he is too cool to be seen with us. Anyways it was alot of fun, the kids are trying to get me to take them to a different chik-fil-a for dinner tonight. I'm thinking its a good possibility (who doesnt love free food). But for sure we will make this an annual tradition! Next year I will even dress up and dress the babies up too.

I sewed my first outfit

So I decided as a challenge I would start sewing. I got a pattern, some fabric, and began away. Well it took me two different days to do, but its finally done. I got frustrated towards the end and my mom finished the hems so it was a group effort afterall. I wanted to do the whole thing myself but my patience ran out and I just wanted the darn thing done. Yes its super cute, however after figuring in the fabric, time, and frustration its just more sensible to buy clothes at the stores. Now maybe if I wanted to make all the girls dresses out of the same material maybe but even still I think I'd rather buy them. So in conclusion I think I'll stick to pie making :)

Reanna's room and an announcement

Reanna's room is finished. Will might add a few more bugs to it but you all get the jist. She loves it. We just transfered her to her big girl bed and last night was her first night in it. As soon as she saw it she hopped on and started jumping on it like it was a trampoline :). Today we got some great news!!! Reanna's appeal has been dismissed. Which is super fast, alot faster then they had thought. But I knew it all along because I have been praying for supernatural speed and God always comes through on his promises. So now we are hoping to co-ordinate it to where we adopt her on her birthday Sep 13th. If we cant get that date its ok but it will be much sooner then 2010. Yeah God!!!!

4th of July continued

So the party was alot of fun. Good food, swimming, friends, and the kids even saw some fireworks in the distance.

Above are the homeade apple pies I made. They were a huge hit but it took me like 10 minutes to convince each person that I actually made them. Granny may not live on through me with quilts but she does now with pies :).

Here is Nicholas on Aggie's shoulder. He was pretty fussy most of the party. He doesnt like being hot and I think he is still out of whack from having no routine from all our hospital stays.

This is our Pastor Dan and his wife Shelbi. The party was at their house. Dan reminded us of why we celebrate 4th of July and that this is still a christian nation. The covenants God made with our founding fathers still hold true today and God hasnt forgot them.
Here I am in the Hawaiian dress my mom brought back for me from her honey moon. What you dont see and Im bummed I didnt get a picture of it, is Will was wearing the matching shirt. When everyone said "oh you match" I told them it was Will's idea :). No one believed me. It reminds me now of my mom and Uncle Eric when they were young lol!

Reanna had a blast. She was fearless. She would jump in the pool and I would let her go under before pulling her up and that smiling face is what she would do each time. After she banged her ears to get teh water out. She is so strong too she would climb out all by herself.
Here are some pics of Graisan. You have to look hard though cause she's so skinny :). She is going through this "I am too cool stage". I suppose we all go through it. She is pretty cool though, she will be an amazing woman one day. We just need to make it through the teen years lol.

Aly had fun too even though it may not look like it from this photo. There was another little girl Sammie there about her age that she played with. The funny thing is Sammie is her exact opposite, girly to the max! It was fun hearing those two play together. Sammie wanted to play princesses and Aly was like Ewwww!

This is River......enough said.

Alex looks so much like Will to me with long hair. He acts like him too. Here he is with his future wife. I cant believe he will be legally able to marry in 2 1/2 years. Creepy cause I dont feel that old.
This is a better picture of Shaila with her mom Shelbi.
Last but not least we had an uninvited guest. A couple of them actually. They didnt bother me so much but Shelbi wasnt pleased with them at all.

So it was a great night and it must have been a doosy cuz we all slept in today until noon and totally missed church! And there was no drinking involved. Must have been the pie :)

Happy 4th of July

Today is 4th of July and I am grateful for my freedom. Especially grateful because I have been in and out of the hospital for the last two months with our new foster baby, so I am not taking any freedoms for granted. We are going to a 4th of July BBQ at our Pastor's house. Im looking forward to it. I baked two homeade apple pies (yes I made them all by myself from scratch). I suppose I'll blog more later to tell how the party went and if Im lucky I'll have some pics to post too.