African Children's Choir

Our church was hosting the African Children's Choir and needed members to volunteer their homes to feed and house the choir members and their leaders, which they call Aunties and Uncles. I jumped at the chance and knew that the layout of our upstairs was perfect for this. We were chosen and had two girls, Sarah and Grace and the tour leader, Sarah, as well. They were on a pretty tight schedule so there wasn't a lot of play time at our house per say, but we had a great time and hosting them was a blessing.

 They did shows on two evenings. We watched the show and met our 'kids' afterwards. We got home had and provided a snack then off  to bed they went. We got up and had breakfast and then dropped them back at the church by 9 a.m. so they could do school and rehearsal for the next nights performance.

The next night we got them after the show again and headed home and did the same, snack then off to bed. Then back up for breakfast and to the church by 9 to load the bus to move on to the next place.

 There dancing was amazing and their manners were impeccable, our kids caught on to that right away!

Our whole family went to the show the first night, with Scott and Reagan coming after Reagan finished her swimming lesson. The second night just the big two and I went. After the show they were taking down the stage and equipment and loading the bus so the kids got to run around and play in the front lobby of the church. They had a great time. I snapped this pic of some of them playing. Too cute. This choir is from Uganda. Several countries in Africa host camps and from those camps the choir kids are selected and with that they are given the opportunity to attend school and they travel to raise money and awareness. We were instructed to not ask about their families back in Uganda in too much detail because a lot of them are orphans. They were super sweet and amazingly talented. We'd host again in a heartbeat if they needed us to.

Swimming lessons

 It took us four weeks to get all of lessons in this year....geepers. The entire first week was rained out so they had us come the second week for "fun" and for free. We were then moved to session 3 to do an additional two weeks of lessons that would 'count'. The kids were happy to get some extra pool time, but I was tired of the daily drive to base, that's for sure!
Here's Addison the first week with Ms. Terry.

 Brady with Ms. Terry. They really liked her, but she wansn't their teacher the next go round.

 Brett and teacher Dawn. I had him do Level 2 again, he improved a lot, but I'm still not happy with his crawl so we'll see what we do next year.

 Reagan repeated Level 4 and did great. I'd like to see her do better at breathing to the side during the crawl and her diving, but for lessons being the most they are ever in the water, they did great and had fun and loved their teachers, of course.

 Brady with Ms. Ali. He'll get to move up next year to Preschool 3.

 Brett kicking away.

 Addison on the kick board with Ms. Ali. She'll move up as well. These two have NO fear.

 Brady again.....head back, Buddy, you can do it! lol

Reagan working on a dive with teacher Mr. Isaac watching. Isaac gave all of our kids nicknames which the big two just loved. Reagan is Fish Bone. Brett is Shark Tooth. The twins were Piranha 1 and Piranha 2.  Fun season. Next year I'll be able to get to the pool more, I think. They have a rule that if you are 9 or under you have to be within reach of a parent unless you've taken your swim test. Reagan got hers last year and would have been fine. Brett isn't quite there for mastering his test. Addison and Brady cannot fully touch in the big pool so I feel better with them in the baby pool. So my options are to take Brett into the baby pool, which is lame (just ask him) OR take the little two into the big pool and keep Brett within reach.....nope....too much. Reagan could help with the little two but really the kid should be able to go off and have fun in the deeper water since she's mastered it. I really wish it was zero entry, that makes life easier. Next year everyone will be a bit taller and more experienced and we'll tackle the big pool together....maybe.

Puppet fun

One day I was feeling kinda crafty so we started making some puppets with old socks. The kids had fun, me too. Brett's is on the far right...he wanted a shark and the heel to my old slipper sock made for a good fin! It worked for him, that's what counts. ;)

Fruity smiles

Watermelon smiles.

And three cantaloupe smiles and one mustache (Brett).

Bug sucker...

My parents gave Brett some bug catching tools for his birthday......and look what I now find in the house.....awesome! It is interesting to see what they find, but when the 3 year olds get involved and have the 'gun' with the bugs in it in the house, then come back with it awhile later empty and aren't sure what happened to said bugs....then it gets interesting.

Looky what I found!

I did some pickin' off the curb in the hood. What an awesome patio table, huh? Scott thinks it needs power washed and painted, but I say it is perfect just like this! I rolled this sucker nearly a block in the rain to get it to my house! Then with all the kids and Scott (I didn't know he was too) watching from the Carolina Room I went to tip it on it's end and that sucker is HEAVY! My flip flop got stuck underneath it and it hit me in the head and I fell on my rear, only to hear the roar of laughter from from the house. Reagan swears she was worried for half a second before laughing herself to tears. I also scored two stools to use with it too, just as soon as I get a shower curtain to recover the seats with. I'm also searching for a clearance umbrella for it and then it'll be complete and cute as ever!

Sunflowers and bunny rabbits.

 My sunflowers did really well again this year. I missed some of their blooms due to being in Iowa, but I still caught a few to include this voluntary one in my garden.

This little fella was super cute when he/she was eating my already past prime bean plants and the bad tomatoes that had fallen from the branches, but after I cleared the garden and planted for fall I was less than pleased to see that it had eaten off all of the new broccoli plants that had come up and half the kale! Grrrrr. I cannot find where it's sneaking through the fence either, I concluded it must be through the gap in the gate. We put a wire fence around the garden now and all seems secure. I win, so far........

CSA sampling

Were loving our new CSA we joined. We're doing the Fall one now too. I just love that it's local and that some is unfamiliar so we get to try things we normally wouldn't perhaps. We've got three weeks left of this session and I'll be super bummed when it's all over.

Random daily happenings

Reagan and Brett called us upstairs one evening and we were greeted with this sign. A concert!

Here they are rockin' out. Each took turns signing a couple of songs. Goof balls.

Brady is my laundry switcher and taker outter. As you can see he takes his job VERY seriously! No sock left behind!

Love him.

Addison likes to fold the square towels.

Playing some Cheez It Boggle with the ABC Cheez Its.

These two searched for the letters to their names.

Brady found his B!

Addison found her A....and ate it!

A little incline action with Spiderman.

Hang on!

Playing vet like Kay's work. One stuffed pet got renamed Weiser and another got named Hank after our trip to Iowa. Cuties. I love to watch them pretend.