handsful

Remember a little while back, I told you about Marley not making the pre-team for gymnastics?  If she would have made it, it would have taken her off the usual progression…beginner, experienced beginner, intermediate, and then advanced.  Well, she found out this past Tuesday that her coach is moving her up to the advanced class!  She was thrilled!!  I love it that God saw fit to deny pre-team, only to reward her shortly after with this.  It means 2 hours per week, rather than 1, but is MUCH less time-consuming than pre-team would have been.  Way to go, Marley!!

This is Abbey, looking both excited and extremely nervous.  Why, you ask?  We belong to a homeschool co-op, which meets every Friday.  Co-op means that classes are taught to our 200+ children BY the parents, with the exception of a few paid teachers for certain classes.  One of Abbey’s classes is Basic Engineering, and she has loved it.  A recent project was to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks and wood glue.  There were certain requirements, such as height, width, and type of stick used and those bridges that qualified were tested to see how much weight they could hold.  Last years top weight was 300 pounds.  Yowza.

Here are the bridges…Abbey’s is 2nd from the left.

Here is the set-up for weight testing…the bridge is put across a 12″x6″ hole cut-out of the wood plank above, a piece of wood is placed on top, and the weight is suspended below by cables.  This is her teacher, an engineer husband of one of our group moms (Hi, Amy!).  This is Abbey’s bridge, with the 1st two weights put on.  He would place a weight, let the jack down to allow the weight to hang, and then count to 5.  If the bridge held, he’d slowly add more weight, about 5-10lbs at a time.

I know the suspense is killing you, so I’ll jump ahead.

This is her bridge, right before it broke.  He had run out of room to put weights on the platform under the bridge, so he had to start stacking them directly on top.  Guess how much weight her popsicle bridge held?  553lbs.  Yes, that’s five HUNDRED!  The crowd was going wild!  lol…

A close up…the bridge basically exploded on that one end and sent the weights on top sliding onto the floor.  We were astounded that it held that much weight.  After doing popsicle bridge research on the internet, Abbey decided on what type of design she wanted and Randy and Abbey both worked hard putting it all together, sanding, gluing, clamping, etc.  One of the boys in the competition was overheard saying “No matter what, I’m beat by a girl”.  Hee hee… Abbey was positively beaming.

So, the moral of this post is basically…girls rule.  :)

In spite of the undesired outcome of Tuesday, we remain hopeful.  Afterall, God is, and always will be, in control.  He chooses our leaders, for His reasons alone.  We can rest in that, no matter the circumstances of this life.  On to better topics…

Lainey’s big sisters poured a whole bottle of bubble stuff in the bubble machine today.  That’s a LOT of bubbles.  Lainey decided she’d go head-first in for a quick taste. 

Feeling a wee bit sticky now, little one?

Ahhh, that’s better.  Bubbles to wash off the…bubbles?  Abbey takes full advantage of the baby wash in the bath water. 

Did I mention that our 2 year old is now addicted to Youtube?  I was reading one of my fav blogs (salsa in china…on the sidebar), and she listed some of her twins favorite Youtube videos.  I happened to have Lainey on my lap and showed her a couple.  That was all she wrote…now, if she sees me sitting at the computer, she’ll climb up and quickly sign “go”.  That means, pull up the “Wheels on the Bus” video NOW!  She loves it.  We also discovered she has a love for The Wiggles, which Randy is so thrilled about. 

In other news, both EJ’s baseball team and Abbey’s softball team are in 1st place in their divisions.  Woo hoo!  Abbey has 4 more regular season games, and then their playoffs.  EJ has 1 more regular season game, and their playoffs will begin.  The schedule of getting to practices and games is about to wear me out, but once we’re there, it’s so much fun. 

Lainey does great at the games…she sits in her stroller for a while, usually snacking or having dinner.  When she starts to get a little fidgety, I pull out a small lollipop…that’s not bribery, right?  Then, her brothers and sisters (whoever is available) take turns letting her play and run around.  After a life filled with day after day in the same room in an orphanage, she has easily transitioned to life in our crazy fun household. 

First of all, they had their 6th game tonight AND 6th win.  Yep, undefeated.  The score was like 15-2, I think?  Not exactly a nail biter!  Abbey walked and brought in a run, and then struck out unfortunately.  She’s still getting the hang of it all.  But, she plays center field, and ran down 2 balls quickly and got them to the cut-off girl perfectly, stopping extra runs.  That earned her….

She was thrilled!  The coach got these made for all the girls, and each girl will get theirs by the end of the season…tonight was Abbey’s night.  We’re very proud of you, Abs.  You had the courage to step into the world of girls softball, not knowing a thing about it or anyone else doing it.  You’ve done so well, and we LOVE watching you play. 

We hope to eventually share more pics of her games…problem is, all the games are at 7:30pm and it’s tough taking night pictures! 

No “real” reason for this post…just wanted to share some cute pics from daily life around here.  Hope you don’t mind ;) 

Guess who took this picture…

The photographer. 

She also captured Lainey doing something she does REALLY well…

Escaping.  See the gate?  It seperates the kitchen from the front room.  She learned how to open it (foot pedal) about a nanosecond after we first installed it.  So, we had to add a cabinet latch to it to keep the little lady where we want her.  Problem is, sometimes we forget to close the latch and when we do…well, see above. 

Not sure who captured this shot…Lainey in mid-forward roll.  Did I mention that she taught herself to do this about 2 weeks ago?  I’m just counting the days till she’s 3 and can be enrolled in gymnastics. 

Speaking of that, Marley has been taking gymnastics for over 3 years now and is in an intermediate class.  She LOVES gymnastics, it’s definitely her “thing”.  This week, she tried out for a pre-team class that would increase her practice time from 1 hr/week to 5 hrs/week and would also include some competitions.  She did her very best, and we’ll find out if she made it on 11/8.  We prayed about it together, and she knows there is a chance she might not make the team…she’s says she’ll just keep on improving in her current class and try again next year.  God might want her to do this now, or He might want her to wait…she knows who is in control. 

Love this shot of EJ and L.  She curled up with him to read before bed tonight.  EJ had a baseball game and they won…his team is currently in 1st place!  Before the game, Randy took EJ & Abbey and I had the other kids (EJ has to be there early for practice).  Buckling Lainey in her seat, she asked where EJ was (meaning, she signed his name and said “eee”).  I told her we were going to see him and she immediately smiled and signed “ball”.  I think she saw him in his uniform earlier and put two and two together…I still think it’s pretty amazing.  She’s a smart cookie. 

Lainey loves our hammock swing.  It’s on the back patio and the kids love it.  The big kids take her out there all the time, especially when it’s their turn to watch her.  We have certain times during the day – like while I’m making lunch  – that a big kid is “assigned” to play with her and it rotates weekly.  They take her outside or up to her room to play…she loves the attention and it helps to build their relationship (not to mention gives me a few minutes to get a load of laundry folded or dinner started!). 

Remember that we moved Lainey up to the bonus room and gave Randy her old room for an office, now that he works from home?  Last night, we finally took down her quilt and a couple of prints up to her new room to hang.  While it was down, I had to let her sit on it and get a picture :)  One day, we might let her use it on her bed.  Maybe. 

Honestly, is there anything cuter than a toddler in a blanket sleeper?? 

Taken on the way home from pumpkin picking…she doesn’t understand “smile” or “say cheese” but it works everytime if we say “stick out your tongue”.  Go figure. 

 

Abbey and Marley decided to introduce Lainey to the fine art of dress-up today.  I was very surprised when they came downstairs, to see Lainey actually keeping the tiara on…she usually rips anything off her head about a nanosecond after you put it there.  Incidently, that tiara has some major history.  I wore it when I was 9 and Ball Queen for a local little league team.  Ah, the memories…

the gals all glammed up…Abbey looks ready for the prom, while Marley looks ready for the saloon. 

Thanks, Miss Anne, for the great “dress”!  You can’t tell in the picture that it almost hits the floor, but she loved it.  She’ll be growing into this tee shirt for a while! 

Major congrats go out to our Payton for completing his speech therapy today!  He graduated, performing at 100% on all “r” sounds in all positions and levels.  Way to go!!  He was so excited and we’re very proud of him.  Mom is happy that this is one less place we have to visit each week ;) 

About a week or so ago, a gentleman from our local paper, The Creekline, came out to do a story on us and our adoption of Lainey.  It showed up in today’s edition and we’re on the front page. :)  You can see and read it digitally, on their site, by clicking on the photo of the front page on the right side of the screen.  http://www.thecreekline.com/index.php  There are a few typos (Bengbu, not Bengu), but overall he did a great job.  It’s a bonus that we’re all looking at the camera and no one is closing their eyes!

 

Yesterday was quite the day.  By chance, we ended up with a jam packed schedule…thankfully, there was enough time in between to make it to the next thing on time :) 

First, we headed to the Diamond Dude Ranch, for a field trip with our homeschool group.  Nature trail, hay ride, feeding and petting animals, pony rides, etc…loads of fun.  I took pictures…surprise, eh?

Abbey enjoys the hay ride

Stop off at the animal pens for feeding time…Marley (and Payton on the left) feed the sheep!

Lainey tried, but got a little scared and dropped the food.

Pony rides were next…Payton, are you having fun?? 

Lainey rode Duckie, the miniature horse…she didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it either! 

Nothing like a lazy day on a farm…

The girls meet Miracle, another miniature horse on the farm

EJ and Lainey make friends with Bruno, the brahma bull

Abbey caught this shot…love it! 

After the ranch, a friend took Abbey to her 2pm pottery class while I drove the other kids home.  Put Lainey down for a nap, and about 30 minutes later, it was 3:30…time to pick Abbey and her friend back up.  (Randy was home, so Lainey could snooze away)  Dropped Hannah off at her house, drove home, and then ran around trying to get ready for Abbey’s softball game (i.e. pull together the uniform, softball bag, water jug, food for the other kids, etc.).  A few blinks later, I was driving again…Marley had gymnastics at 6pm.  Dropped her off, took Lainey to the consignment store, then picked M back up.  Stopped by Wendy’s for the girl’s dinner, and headed to Abbey’s game that started at 7:30.  Abbey did really well for her very first time in a softball game…she fouled the ball off once, and ended up scoring a run on a dropped 3rd strike.  She played center field and stopped everything that came her way.  We’re proud of her for trying this brand new sport.

Taken at home, before the game.  Ain’t she cute?

First time up to bat!

She’s got her game face on :)

Yesterday was fun…really.  I’m glad they aren’t ALL that busy, though.  It should settle down somewhere around the end of November, when softball and baseball season are done.  And, we all know how relaxing the month of December is.  ;)