We had the chance to host an Odyssey of the Mind team from Slovakia. There were 6 kids, 4 girls and two boys. There were also 4 adults, with one great interpreter, Milada (she studied abroad for years, so her English was great and she did so much to help this group.) Above is a picture of the kids and Paul, one of the adults and their teacher. This group was especially unique in that they were all Special Education students. Milada's mom was the principal of the entire school they went to. They attended a school for only Special Ed students, which in my opinion, we here in America should follow suit. Below are pictures of their Odyssey of the Mind presentation, was very cute, frogs and a song....can't remember it now.

This is Milada and her mom trying to order sandwhichs at Subway...was quite a feat for her. Her mom and trying to tell her what they all want and she is trying to translate it into English. It was so crazy! And then add 6 kids, plus my 3!
Slovakian kids enjoying Subway!
The next pictures are some highlights of some places they wanted to go. We took them to the Living History Farms here in Des Moines. I had never been. It was very interesting, it's an actual working farm and they grow stuff and they cook over fires in the different homes there. Below is Paul helping with dishes. She was just finishing up cooking lunch for her and her husband and those helping on the "Frontier" section. She asked if anyone would like to help with dishes, you know, actually heating up water and doing them in a bowl...well, of course Paul volunteered! He was so awesome! Tiahna LOVED him. (I forgot to upload a pic of her sleeping against him in the van).
I had to add this picture in. These are my two little ones...they don't know WHAT to think of a cow skeleton. This section of the farm was the American Indian spot. I just thought it was so funny because they were running around enjoying everything and then just stopped. I think it was a little shocking for them...LOL!
This is an old school house.
This is Martin with my girl, he sure liked her and she liked him. He helped her tie her shoes and was always just kind of watching out for her. He was a sweet kid, but all of them were amazing, very well behaved kids.
The print shop.
This is back in our town, at Fire it up. I think this was the biggest highlight! They loved painting their own ceramic!

This is all of them eating, we did a lot of cooking and eating!

They basically took over my kitchen! They were so hospitable! They made sure the kitchen was clean and just were great! They cooked us an amazing Slovakian dinner the night before they left, unfortunately, I didn't remember to take pics of it. Anyway, this was our summer adventure...was amazing! I would do again in a heart beat, very good for the kids!

Tiahna wanted a castle for her birthday cake, we improvised...


The Kremers, they are good friends!

just a few random pictures

We FINALLY got an egg over the weekend! Sawyer thought we planted it there to tease him...he asked if we planted an egg to tease him, we said, "no". And he said "Well, then who did?" Of course that led us to question him if there was an egg in the coup, and the answer was yes! And, as you can see, all the excited faces above and below tells how they all felt about getting their "first egg!"

This is Taylor at his XC meet at Central college's course. This is the second time he has ran this course for XC. This is his sprint for the finish line. His time on the hilly 5K was 21:55! Awesome job Taylor! GO DUTCH!
I got one picture as he ran by me, it's hard to get pics because they go so fast and it's hard to see your runner as they come up and over the hills!
This is Jaxon and Taylor, Jaxon is proud of his big brother!
We had such a busy weekend! Two soccer games, a XC meet and Rylli and Tiahna wanted to participate in paint the park. We paid $25 for a square and shared it with our friends, John Rhy, Matthew, Mark, and Brady.
My friend Cathy and the kids workin' on the square we divided up into 6 rectangles.



Mark and Ry with their paint stained hands! He has been in her class for about 3 years now! We also Love their family, John Rhys is the one with the hat and he is Taylor's crazy best friend! Fun family!
Finished product!
Cathy putting the finish touches on her face that Brady made for her....

Because of the craziness of the weekend and having to be in 4 places at one time, I did not get a picture of either Jaxon or Sawyer at their soccer games, in fact, I missed all of Jaxon's and only got about 10 minutes of Sawyers (fortunately dad was able to be to both). The season ends in about 2 weeks so I will try to get some shots and post them of their next game. Sawyer is probably the best player in his age group right now, he is amazing. He can pass right to his teamates no matter where they are and it's crazy to watch him considering that it's rec soccer and practice is only once a week and one game a week on Saturdays! He'll be awesome in High School on their team! GO DUTCH!

Happy 11th Birthday Rylli!

Rylli wanted a German chocolate cake for her birthday (above). Sawyer isn't in this picture because he is at scout camp.

We had a small party for Rylli, she invite two good friends and our theme was "crafts" because Rylli is such a crafty person. I made flower shaped sugar cookies and they made individual fruit pizzas.

Rylli got our her Fimo clay (sculpy clay) and they made a few things and I baked them.



And I took them to a place called "Fire it Up" in town that for a fee and the price of your ceramic you get to pick out, you can use the studio and paint and she fires it for you. Fun place to go! We went 2 times this summer!


Jaxon's first cavity

Jaxon had a cavity, and had to have it filled. His poor side of his face took almost half a day to get straightened back out. I though it was hilarious, so I took a couple of pictures! His smile was lopsided....

2009 Spring Break Trip (a little late being posted, but fun still the same!)

We rented a condo in Branson, Mo and had the best time. It came with 2 Master suites and two king size bed suites, all with their own bathroom. This is one of the "Jacuzzi" tubs the kids sat in and ate ice cream in...still talking about it now, 6 months later!
This was OUR king size master bedroom....
This was Rylli's king size Master room (with Jacuzzi tub bathroom)
Sawyer's King size bedroom with personal bathroom... (did I mention ALL the bedrooms had their own flat screen TV?)
Taylor and his own king size bedroom equiped with his own bathroom...
Upstairs family room, with games and DVDs included....
One place we visited while in Branson was a cave and you could pan for gold also...
There was a trail and we went for a hike (it was hot that day and spring was there in Branson...did I mention this trip was in March?)
It was hard to get pictures in the cave, but it was REALLY cool!
Sawyer actually stopped and let me get his picture....
We visited a fish hatchery (it was free!) and they probably loved this place the best!
These are some pictures of our cabin in Nauvoo. We stopped in Nauvoo on the way to Branson and visited church sites and stayed in a cabin. All three pictures pretty much depict how big it was. They moved the cabin and restored it... pretty small, I can't imagine living in it with a family!



Just letting the good soil and rain in Iowa speak for itself!You know you are in Iowa when the flowers grow bigger than your kids. These are Zinnias I planted (annuals) and they are "gia-normous"!

Here are some pics of my window boxes and my "large" containers I love to fill with annuals in the spring. They don't look as good as they did even a few weeks ago because annuals seem to know when their time and energy are spent, but they still are pretty!

Tiahna came up stairs and showed me her house she had made out of Legos. I was pretty impressed. She gets the idea from Rylli, Rylli makes amazing house all equiped with fridges, the works (I'll have to post a pic of one she makes the next time she can get one finsihed before one of her siblings destroys it!) Tiahna usually doesn't play with Legos (we only have about 50,000 of them), so I couldn't help taking some pics and having her tell me about them. Descripts below:
There is a desk and chair and pillows.
These are the stairs and the bed, the bed is the floor....