Bribery

We have been in a pretty good routine this week we get work done in the morning then eat lunch and go play, most days we have to hit the school playground so that is what I use to bribe the kids into doing the things they need to do and to be good. So far it is working!

They race up to the school and the monkey bars are the first thing they hit, Destina has rips in her hands from doing the monkey bars so much!

JT doesn't care for the play ground he prefers to ride the bike all over he really doesn't like wearing the helmet but we make him wear it on the way up and then he can take it off to ride around the school.

We had Scott's brother and wife and little Jennifer over for a couple of days and she had fun at the playground too!


And of course Avrie wants to go to the slide every day!!

Summer Weather Finally Decided to Make an Appearance

After getting the morning work done and a much needed nap for the 3 girls we decided to head to the local watering hole for some fun in the sun!
JT was a little unhappy that the water was so cold, he kept telling me he wanted to go to a pool! He did get in a little bit and had some fun digging in the sand!!

Avrie had fun digging and playing in the water but it was really cold!

This guy is pretty handsome!

Delanie got right in the water and started "swimming" she did not want to get out!

Destina had fun swimming too but it was even too cold for her after a while!

Ryan showed up with some of his friends to jump off the bridge!

Jayden let me know before we left the house that he did not want to swim so he came in his jeans and tee-shirt and kinda moped around but had fun playing on the playground.

Our First Summer Daycation

School is finally out and we headed down south for a couple of days of fun! First stop was Uncle Dan's and Aunt Lynn's house for some horse fun... Destina loved it, Avrie loved it as long as she was not too close to the horse. Destina had fun brushing and feeding the horse before she got onto the horse for a ride she didn't want to stop!


She was a little afraid to feed the horse but worked up her courage after a little while and after watching Jennifer the pro feed the horse!

Avrie loved riding the tractor that was about her speed, of course it didn't go anywhere!

After we left Dan and Lynn's we headed to the hotel for some swimming fun the kids swam for about 2 hours and we had to drag them out!

Avrie is not afraid of water she would jump off the side of the pool and go all the way under, pop up and want to swim to the other side and jump in again, she loves swimming!

After the swimming Scott took the boys for some late night jumping at Sky High an indoor trampoline place they had fun jumping until midnight but they were pretty tired when they got back to the hotel.
On Sat we went to a family reunion - not really our family- but it was so much fun to see friends that we have not seen in a long time, we will be coming back next year!!!
Saturday night we headed over to grandma's house and on Sunday we drove to Baker City OR to pick up the cousins, they will be staying with us for about a month it will be a little crazy but I think they will have a good time!

8th Grade Graduation

It is official Kelsie has moved on to High School! Today was the 8th grade celebration and last night she had some friends sleepover so they could all get ready for the big day together! The girls woke up about 6 had breakfast, then the festivities started, extension cords coming out of the bathroom to plug in all the curling irons, and flat irons, make-up every where but in the end they girls came out looking beautiful. They had a great day!

The program was really good this was an unusual year for the 8th graders, their school burnt down in November and they were moved to their own little wing at the nearby High School. There were a lot of memories shared and this will be the last 8th grade class to graduate from the middle school until it is rebuilt in 2012. The committee did a great job turning part of the High School into the old Whatcom Middle School, complete with a photo both!

Kelsie has made so many great friends and has had a great middle school experience, the sad part is half of her friends will be going to a different High School than she will be going to.

Kelsie with the photographer, I had a great time being a part of the celebration it was fun to see all the kids dressed up and to see Kelsie so grown-up! High School watch out!

Birch Bay

The sun was out and the grandparents are in town so we loaded up the cars and headed to Birch Bay for some fun in the sun! When we arrived at Birch Bay it was low tide and we stayed until high tide. The wind was blowing a cool breeze and it was one of those days where it was not really hot so of course no one was getting a sunburn and that was true for about 3 out of the 8 of us, the rest of us came home a little red!

Since there was a wind the girls had a great time kicking the ball and the wind would carry it away and they would have to go chase after it they did this for about an hour.

Then it was time for snacks and resting before heading out into the water for more fun.

Destina practiced her swimming skills in the 3 feet of nasty water, she caught a fish, and all the kids had fun digging for clams. They played Frisbee and wrote their names in the sand. Jayden and Destina spent a lot of the time digging in the mud looking sand and were covered in it. Finally when the tide came in and started covering our little camp it was time to go get ice cream! It was a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday!

I Hope You Enjoyed the Show!

This is the last song they sang at their program, notice how Destina keeps the right rhythm throughout the whole song, and then she has the last speaking part we had to explain to her what the word"enjoyed" means, but she did a great job and had so much fun!

Kindergarten Program

Destina had her Kindergarten program today, I know school should be out but we still have 2 more weeks, and she was so excited she has been looking forward to this event for about 5 days. They worked hard on their songs and Destina even had a speaking part which she did great on. I had a lot of comments on how good her English is and how pretty her handwriting is. She really loves school, but has also been looking forward to summer break too! I have been telling her that during the summer we will be doing "Mommy School" so that she can get all caught up before she goes to 1st grade and she is excited for that too!
After the program we were taking pictures and after I took this one of her by herself another little girl came up and wanted her picture taken with Destina too....

Then another girl came up and wanted in on the pictures.....


Then two more came up to stand by her.....


Pretty soon almost the whole class wanted in on the pictures standing on the same bench as Destina. When we first put her in school she had only been home for about 3 weeks and I think the other kids didn't quite know what to think of her or how to interact with her, but every week that I go in to volunteer I see them opening up more and talking to her more and it has been really fun to watch Destina blossom and find her way.

Making up for Lost Time

We brought home a 6 year old little girl from an orphanage, the only home she has ever known and put her into an environment that, although better, is very different than anything she has ever experienced. While the transition has been beyond my expectations we still have things that we deal with on a daily basis that require us to parent Destina a little differently. For instance as we were sitting on the sofa cuddling the other night she told me that "In Haiti I get no love" upon further questioning she told me that she never received hugs and kisses. That she had to look after other kids and clean up after those kids, basically she was expected to be an adult since she was one of the older children in the orphanage, she didn't get the childhood that she deserved.
Then she was swept away to our home where she is the second to the youngest and that roll was taken from her, and for the most part it has been a relief to her. She now has the opportunity to be babied, to be taken care of, to be loved, hugged and kissed. Yet sometimes she doesn't know how to go about this new change in her life, she is testing and trying to find the boundary between being in the adult caregiver position and being one of the youngest. This has been a challenge for our whole family, the boys struggle with why she "gets away" with behavior's that they don't or Destina will get her feelings hurt or feel like she has been slighted and that can send her into a melt down where she will cry for about 20-30 minutes, and nothing I say or do really changes that melt down it just has to run its course.
When she first came home she would not give anyone a kiss or didn't want to be kissed either, but watching Avrie, who will kiss anyone, has helped her to be able to trust enough to share that affection with her parents and sisters. It comes a little at a time, and for a little girl that "didn't get love in Haiti" she is trying to figure out how to make up for lost time, to regain some of that childhood where she should have been cared for and loved on but wasn't.

Violin Practice

Kelsie pulled out her old violin and is letting Destina use it. On one of my trips to Haiti I took my video camera and on it was Kelsie playing the violin and Destina wanted to watch that video over and over and she had to show it to all her friends. Now that she is home whenever Kelsie is practicing she has to come over and play her violin for a minute. I am not sure how effective Kelsie's violin practice went this day but at least she is learning to play while there are distractions going on around her.