Happy Birthday, 11 Year Old!

Wishing this amazing kiddo of ours a Happy 11th Birthday!

 

He keeps us young and keeps us laughing.
He challenges us to be better parents and shows us what it means to love.

He is a joy and a gift!  He may have only been home for 9 years, but he has been in our hearts forever!

He is LOVED!

Wordless Wednesday

Ummm, do forts in the living room count as History?  And yes, I do school other kiddos.  This one is just the most fun! ;)

Linking up today with the following friends!

H is for High Places & Happy Birthdays

Can you believe that I almost had a hard time coming up with a post for this week and the letter H? 

 How could I have forgotten that this baby-

turned 7 last week!

Yes, that is a birthday cinnamon roll.  Don;t judge! ;)  It is also not homemade!  Years ago, we stopped "doing" big birthday parties around here.  We stopped spending extra money on things that really did not matter and worked on making memories- special meals, homemade cakes, fun memories. 

CJ wanted cinnamon rolls, so that is what he got.  Candle and all.  And the camera in the picture- that was my mom skyping with us so she could sing too!  Yes, we are weird like that.

What a day of memories.  

First thing up was park time with our co op friends.  I did make mini cupcakes, minus all the red dye number 40, to share.  I promise there were kids there, but since I did not ask permission to post their pictures, this is the one you get.  He was practicing for the next activity!

Rock wall climbing.  The other kiddos love rock wall climbing, but somehow CJ had not done it yet. The first time he tried he made it about half way up, said it was too high, and promptly closed his eyes while he came down. After watching a few others get cheered on, he decided to go all the way to the top and there was no stopping him.  The look on his face each time he came down was priceless!  No more fear of high places!

Of course, what made it even more fun was that we took our friends with us!  (and yes, they did give me permission to post their cute smiles!)

This picture cracks me up!  They were all watching one of the dads climb.

After all that hard work, we headed off for pizza, of course.  My older kids always ask me to make a special meal that they like the best.  The 7 year old- yep, you guessed it- pizza.

Happy Birthday CJ!

We are continuing through the alphabet with Marcy, at Ben and Me!  Join us anytime!

Just Swinging

I have discovered the secret to why you should not have kids when you are older.  It is not about diapers.  It is not about late night feedings, or having to read Dr. Seuss again and again.

It is about swing sets!

And our diminished ability to put them together at a slightly older age.  That my friends, is why young people should have kids.  Old people like me should have someone pushing them on a swing set, not helping build one!

Seriously!

My dear hubby and I built a wooden swing set about 15 years ago when our youngest was 4.  We even took it apart when we moved and rebuilt it at a new location.  I remember doing it in a day.  I remember it being fun!  HA

Fast forward 15 years and we have a newly turned 6 year old in our house.  Who has never had a swing set.  It's not his fault he is our last.  It is not his fault we are old.  So I was determined that prince of mine was going to have a swing set like his siblings.  Next time, would someone just tell me to get a life and take him to the park, please?

New house- new swing set.  Let the adventure begin.

You should have seen his face when he saw the forklift bring it to the truck.  Wish I had gotten a picture of that!  Priceless.

For the first day, and 6, yes count them, 6 hours of the project we had help.  Team effort at its best.

For the second day the team was pretty much down to two...when an occasional spot check by the 6 year old.

By day three my sweet husband was on his own!  The kids were no where to be found.  I was tired of the drill sounds, tired of lifting, tired of bad directions,  tired of the swarm of mosquitoes trying to carry us off.  TRIED!

Luckily, my husband (read here my hero) did not give up despite being tired and finished building this...

Had it had been left up to me, a few parts would have been conveniently left off.  Permanently.

And now...

we are just swinging!  Every free minute we have.

Happy boy, happy mom!

Thanks hero!

Fun Friday- Come meet the baby!

My youngest.  The longing of my heart for too many years to count.  My Guatemalan prince who amazes me daily, challenges me hourly and fills my day with talking!  You all do NOT have to worry I will ever get bored with this kiddo in the house.  He does not know a stranger and cracks the general public up.  You never know just what he will say.  And I tell his siblings almost weekly that I think he is smarter than all of them put together.  Seriously!  It's scary!  You all watch out- this kid is going to do great things.

Well, let's see how this goes! (His words, not mine, so reader beware!)


Where were you born CJ?  Guatemala

What makes you special?  I am adopted! 

What are your favorite things to do?  Play playmobile and play with my brother

What do you like to do with your brother and sisters? Play nerf wars

Are you smarter than they are? YES!

What do think you want to be when you grow up? A police officer so I can take people to jail!

What do you know about God? He made me.  And He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.

Isn't your mommy the best? Hey, I had to try! yes (heehee)

Where do you want to go on vacation next?  Why?  Great Wolf Lodge because they have a fun swimming pool!

Are you excited about moving to a new state? yes!  Because there are going to be hundreds and hundreds of snowstorms.

Postscript from momma...Yes, well at least hundreds and hundreds of boxes!  As you may remember we are in the middle of a move.  A wild and crazy one!  You can hear me rant, I mean, talk, about it on Monday!  See ya back then I hope.

Blessings, Michele

Home four years. Happy Home Day, CJ!

Happy Home Day, Son!

Yes, it has been four years since our sweet boy joined our family.  Four years since we traveled from Guatemala and landed in Houston with a new US citizen, and then on to Wyoming.

For those who don't know our story, here is a short version.  I wanted to adopt for years.  Longed for it really.  My husband did not.  Yep, no longing.  So for years I would bring it up occasionally, show him a few pictures of the beautiful orphans waiting for families, and he would reply, "if God wants us to adopt he will have to sky write for me."

A few months would go by, OK, maybe a few weeks, and I would bring it up again.  Him- same answer, waiting for the sky writing.

It went that way for years.

Then, God did a little sky writing.  He can use anything, right?  This time he used the military and sent my husband to Africa for 7 months unexpectedly.

And a few weeks into that adventure my sweet, wonderful, loving husband called and asked if I still wanted to adopt.  Ummm, YES!

If you asked him what changed, he can't really seem to  say, but obviously God changed his heart.

Fast forward many months and this is the referral we got...

3 days old

 

4 months old at referral

How could you not just fall in love with that sweet baby?!

God's timing is always best, but I will tell you that after waiting for years to get a yes from my hubby, waiting another 17 months to bring our son home was hard.  Very hard.  Extremely hard.

But he did come home...four years ago today.  And we were blessed beyond measure.

This kid brings me laughter.
And love.
And the sweetest kisses.
And sometimes challenges beyond belief.  ;)

But mostly he brings me the reminder that God is faithful, that He loves us, that He wants the best for us and that He loves the orphans of this world.

So do we.  We are called to.

James 1:27- Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress..."

CREW Review- Speekee TV

You just have to know upfront that I have been excited about this review since the minute we got it.  And it is very personal for us.  And I am going to go on and on!  And then maybe on some more.

We love Speekee!

Hola, soy Speekee. Y tu?
Hola, soy Jim.
Hola, soy Dino.
Hola, soy Lupi.
Hola!

That's how the videos start.  I typed it by heart.  Wanna know why?  Because CJ is an obsessed Speekee groupie.  Think Elvis or Beetles, here!

Before I get too ahead of myself, let me fill in some details.  Speekee TV is an online video program that teaches younger children (recommended 2-10) Spanish by immersion.  Using the adorable purple puppet, Speekee, two sock puppet friends Dino and Lupe, and then a cast of children in Spain led by the teacher, Jim, your child learns vocabulary, phrases and catchy songs.  (That sometimes make my 14 year old leave the room, I do admit!)  Each of the 10 videos are centered around a theme (cafe, park, school, zoo etc.) and last about 20 minutes long.  There are also individual clips you can watch if you have time for only a few sections in one sitting.  Following the immersion concept, the videos are completely in Spanish, with subtitles available.  To increase your learning, the FastTrack program has been added, which schedules specific learning instructions for a 40 week period.  The added bonus is that these lessons can be emailed to you each week as a reminder.  Worksheets and flashcards are included along with activity suggestions.  While watching the videos your child gets to earn points to use in the mercado (store).  Points buy you colors, patterns or accessories to allow you to change your puppet on the side bar.  This is not an essential part of the program, just a little fun on the side to entertain younger children especially.

So why do we love Speekee?  At the risk of sounding like a infomercial, here goes.

As some of you may know, our family adopted our youngest, now five, from Guatemala at the age of almost two.  Yes, he came home only speaking Spanish and No, we are not bilingual.  At all!  But we tried.  We read bilingual books, listened to tapes,  stumbled over Spanish toddler phrases and did our best to keep his Spanish in tact.  Results- not so much.  We began to see a trend of CJ saying, No Espanol.  It seemed the more we tried, the more he dug his heals in about speaking Spanish.  Seriously!  And then Speekee came into our house and for some bizarre reason my child became obsessed.  He has spoken more Spanish in the past 6 weeks than in his three years home.  And we have watched those videos until we all know them by heart.  CJ's foster mom may still cringe at our pitiful attempt of an accent, but I pray she will be proud of his progress and our commitment to try to honor his heritage.  When we are able to return to Guatemala to visit one day, we may be singing our Spanish, but hey, at least we know a little more than we did a month ago!

A few things about how we used this program.  The FastTrack lesson plans take it nice and slow, which I recommend for slightly older children, but for CJ we put aside the lessons until next year, when he is in first grade.  We have been introducing two videos each week and then each day he chooses which one he would like to watch.  Now he has six to choose from so far and I do usually limit him to only two a day.  Otherwise he might drive us all crazy!  We accidentally got locked out of the program for almost two days (read I forgot the log in and password here) and I thought my child was going to have a meltdown.  We seriously almost Skyped with a fellow CREW member so he could watch along with her child. 

I sit with CJ while he watches the video, occasionally piping in with a translation or repeating something I am not sure he caught.  There are several times during the program that Speekee asks for your response, which CJ loves.  I also sit with him right now because for some reason every time the songs begin he wants to jump up and dance, playing his pretend guitar.  Now I have convinced him that is only needed during the opening and closing song.  An older child should need no guidance except for when you are teaching using the FastTrack lesson plans, but know that they will have to learn to use reasoning to figure out what is being said sometimes.  It takes time and patience for sure, but teaches them to look for visual cues, which Jim is wonderful at giving.  If CJ asks me what they said, I often will pause the video and get him to think about the clues and the context.  If my 5 year old can figure it out, your child can too!  Studies show immersion of a language works best for learning, something we saw firsthand while in Guatemala.

Why he loves it so much...

*Maybe because of the cute purple puppet.  Childish for older kids, probably, but not really for the targeted age.

*The catchy songs which I have to admit run through my head at some point every day!

*The clips that are real people.  Each of those clips are filmed in real places in Spain using real students who speak Spanish.  Maybe he identifies with them, maybe not.  But he LOVES those clips best!  Note- This Spanish is from Spain, not Latin American, so some words are going to be slightly different.

Why I love it so much...

*CJ is learning while having fun!

*CJ asks to do Speekee EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!  More than once, mind you!
*FastTrack is organized and emailed to me.  Printables are included.  You all know how I LOVE lesson plans!
*The cost is great!

My only regret- There are only 10 videos.  While it will take you at least 40 weeks to move through the curriculum and maybe longer to master all that the videos encompass, I KNOW we are going to not want to stop!  So here's a shout out to Jim...we are ready for more!  ;)

You can try two weeks of Speekee for free, which I encourage you to do.  After that it is $7.50 per month, or $60.00 for the year.  You can also buy a DVD boxed set, but since the company is out of the UK, make sure your DVD player is PAL compatible.

 To see what fellow CREW member shad to say about Speekee, click on the banner below.

  Disclaimer- We received a free six month subscription to Speekee TV in exchange for our honest review.  The opinions expressed are our own and were not influenced by the company in any way.