Fountain Park

We still have a few days until school starts, so we headed down to enjoy the local fountain park with a cousin, a grandma, and a good friend!

super fun and super wet!

Golf and Not so High Tea

Greta and her good friend, T, just got to go to 'Golf Camp.' For those of you that don't know, my dad has always LOVED golf. I think, as a kid, I actually thought that he was a professional golfer because that is where many of his 'meetings' were. Now, flash forward twenty years and they live on a golf course near us, a fantastic one, so he can play whenever he wants(which surprisingly, isn't as much as I thought).

So this year we signed Justus and Greta up for some 3 day golf lessons (different weeks) and my parents said that they could bring a friend and stay at their house for Golf Camp (aka-special time with Grandma and Grandpa after lessons). Greta had never golfed, except for mini putt putt, so this was a big deal. She loved it and because we didn't have any lefty clubs, she was forced to golf as a righty and she did pretty good. She was excited because she won some of their contests and it was just what she needed to build her confidence. Her friend, T, also did great and as the golf pro said, she is a natural, so it will be fun to see these girls continue on.

I love this pic. because it is a CLASSIC of my dad! My sibs will agree!

Too bad the mountains weren't 'out', they are a beautiful backdrop!

A favorite pastime that the kids actually do with all of their grandma's is 'tea.' This time, they got to have tea at my mom's house and Justus was the server. They had a fun time and it is always cute to see Fia and Kwame's excitement with new experiences.

Blogging Moms Unite!

Tonight our family got to meet another of our cyber Ghana friends(ie: friend who I met through blogging that has also adopted from Ghana). The D family was traveling through, so we were fortunate to get to meet them for a couple of hours and share dessert together at our place. They arrived in one of those big vans with 6 of their kids. Funny thing was though, they didn't even have half of their kids with them!! (they have 13) I was just SO impressed by this family with how much they trust God and fully give their lives to Him! Lindsey, one of their oldest(20) was just so focused on serving God and living her life in service. To be honest, I was fascinated how parenting would be for a family of 13 kids since I have never had a family even close to that size at our home, but I was thoroughly impressed. This family was awesome!!! We loved having them in our home and kind of hoped that they would miss their ferry (for our sake). Fortunately for them, I think they made it and they are safely on their way home. Thanks for stopping, Laurel, we had such a GOOD time!!!

Going to Prom in my 30's!

This weekend I went stag to Prom!!! It was actually an 80's themed 40th birthday Prom Party. For the 'pre-party', I went over to Seattle and got ready with my brother and sister-in-law ! We had so much fun goofing off and remembering all that the 80's look entailed. You would not believe how heavy my bag was with all my cosmetics, hairspray, curling iron and hairdryer; I just don't use all that now. I quickly remembered my 'techniques' at getting the high bangs and fly-away sides; it was hilarious! I lent out one of my late 80's/early 90's dresses to Ingrid (see above) and it was so fun to see someone wearing it again! This hot pink number has been to quite a few dances at Libertyville High School, as my friends and I always swapped dresses since we had 3 formal dances a year! I was fortunate enough to be outfitted by my friend, Jenny(dress & accessories), who if you haven't read her blog, you have got to-she is hilarious! She is queen of dress-up and twirling on the dance floor, so I knew just who to ask when I needed help! I also got help from my friend, Megan, for accessories; I never could have done it without you ladies-thanks SO much!!!
My brother decided to go as, guess who? Yes, Magnum P.I.! We have similar coloring, so it was funny watching him put eye liner on his eyebrows, add a mustache, a wig, and slap on some furry chest hair. His short shorts were making me giggle every time I looked at him. What was even funnier was watching the babysitters and three of our kids faces as we appeared. Fia thought I looked really pretty and she wants to get a dress like mine sometime! ;) Lola also loved what her mom was wearing and thought she was amazing. My niece, Kaia(6), on the other hand, thought we looked ridiculous! It was funny.

Before we could go to the prom, we needed to stop at Metropolitan Market and get Ingrid's corsage. What made it even funnier that she had to go in dressed like Cindy Lauper, was that Brad works for the company and many employees came out of the woodwork to see them all dressed up! Brad was pretty unrecognizable.

Once we got to the prom, we had so much seeing old friends that I have grown up with but don't see too often. Everyone had so much fun with the theme! My friend, Sonja, actually wore this Laura Ashley number to her prom and she brought a picture to share; it was fantastic!

Ing and I both were 'stag' until her husband showed up and ruined it all! Just kidding, it was so great to see these two again since they have moved away; they were a highlight of the evening for me. Don't you just love Ingrid's glasses?

Carol and her husband, Ted, our good friends from church, were also at the prom. We had fun dancing to the 80's together and I heard them having fun telling people that I was their pastor's wife! :)

Brad, Kirk, and Blake look all dapper, don't they? ;)

Here are the official vote counters for Prom King and Queen......they took it very seriously
.....and the winners were....Kendall and 'Birthday Girl' Steph!!! Aren't they a cute couple?

Happy 40th Steph!!!What a fun way to celebrate!

Adoption Advocates International Reunion

We just got to have a fantastic experience by being able to reunite Fia and Kwame with some of their good friends from Ghana! Our agency, AAI, holds a bi-annual reunion for all the families that have adopted from their agency. Most of the families were from Ethiopia, but our new Ghana program had 7 families in different parts of the adoption process come to the reunion! Most of the children had spent time together at Eban House, so it was so exciting to have the kids see each other again and reunite! Their eyes literally lit up when they understood that these were their friends that they had gotten to know as family for a part of their life. I am not sure how much Kwame actually remembered, but he went along with Fia and acted excited! ;) It was also real fun for our older three kids too since they got to see friends again that they had also met when we traveled to Ghana last winter.

What I thought was cool is that we actually had two families come from CA! It was really neat to meet one of the families since their son was actually one of the first kids to be adopted in this program and I had followed their story from beginning to end. Another family came from Oregon and they are still waiting for the dreaded passport to bring their son home (remember our saga?-Please PRAY for them to get their son's passport soon!) I thought that they were such good sports to come without kids and meet all of us with our Ghanaian kiddos. I think it would have been hard for me to do that, so extra kuddos to them!

What I loved was to chill with the families as much as we could, get to know the parents more, watch the kids play with each other, and also do some Ghanaian drumming. Next time we do this, more families will be settled and hopefully we can get an even larger group of us together again. As I look back and reflect on the weekend, we are really fortunate to have these opportunities for our kids to stay connected to their Ghanaian heritage and their 'familiy'. It was absolutely priceless!!

On the Jag side of things, our family had a good time camping for the first time with 7 in a tent! The car trip up was a bit overcrowded with all our our bedding and such; I think we need to get one of those roof storage containers! But overall, we just fit and we were comfortable in the tent.... until Fia got sick from dehydration in the middle of the night, the last night, on THREE sleeping bags! Nothing better than sleeping in a tent that smells of throw up! Ugh! Not the best way to end a camping trip, but just another memory I guess! As the kids said, at least a bear didn't break into our car again! :)