Celebrating Melia - 6/7 Party

 We love to celebrate Melia. We find little ways to celebrate like drinks on the 1st of each month to celebrate our "got ya" date, and gifts for A's.... We realize celebrations haven't been the norm for her, and they speak to her.  As July 1st approached and her time of being with us for 6 months approached she asked if we could have a party. We agreed - but the month was CRAZY and so we asked about maybe celebrating her 6th and 7th month with a big party on August 1st? She agreed. 

And thus, a theme was formed - Melia's 6 7 party! LOL   We filled a pinata with candy free prizes, we bought goody bags, balloons, bracelets, tattoos, plates etc, tablecloths, a pinata and a photo backdrop with the appropriate number of months we were celebrating - 6 and 7. 

We invited family, past guardians, family friends and Melia's sisters and their foster families to join us. In the end we had a pretty good crowd, though we missed those who couldn't make it.  We did have a blast. We were especially thankful to Erik and Ingrid for picking up Melia's sisters and bringing them out. 

In this picture, Jared, Arielle - their kids, Bre's kids
Nolan, Stacia, Mike & Me
Melia and her sisters

Jared manned the pinata. He did a masterful job keeping it from being split open until everyone had a couple of swings at it! The company sent the cute blindfold and wand - we brought out a baseball bat for the second round. 

Melia

Annie

Trudy

Alena

Bella

Benny

Gideon

Noah removed the blindfold so he could see. 

Josiah

Danny

Akemi

We couldn't have asked for a better day for a party! The outside plan was far better than the inside plan. It was 82 degrees at our home. Melia made a pineapple upside down cake, I made brownie bites, Akemi made jelly filled DOUGHNUTS (maybe Malasadas? Awfully close if not.) and Alena brought a Guava cake. Dessert was well covered. We also had fruit, veggies, meat and cheese, deviled eggs, pigs in a blanket, bagel bites and pizza rolls. 

Melia spent hours figuring out how to put up the volleyball/badminton net (Michael helped with the finishing touches of the project). 

Guess who blew up all those balloons? 

Ellie and Papap

The photo background and props were a hit! 

Erik and Ingrid (far right below) were the girls' first guardians when their father was injured. Ingrid has been friends with their Auntie since high school and attends ACF, our church. They were the ones who contacted us back in November about providing a forever home for a teen girl.  How thankful we are that they did! 

::snort:: Ellie has the general idea! LOL 

Our out of Valley guests had left, the local grandblessings were playing in the yard, I was picking up plates and trash, when we noticed two uninvited guests in the garden! I SWEAR we are known as the Buffet place to be! 

Bre sent this photo of the kids having a glow stick party at home later in the evening. 

It was a great day to be together, and it was fun to remember and celebrate all that has happened in the 7 months since Melia moved into our family. 

Noah's Game and Allie's Adventure

 We discovered a funny little fact recently. 1 a.m. on Thursday morning is really like right after midnight on Wednesday night. We had all been thinking Ash and Allie were leaving late Thursday night. Nolan noticed the error in all of our thinking yesterday. SO....today was filled with packing and weighing bags, doing last minute budgeting and such and then it was time for Ash and Allie to go to game night at Nolan's. 

This was our final opportunity to catch a soccer game with Noah. Yes - we DID have three young boys in soccer this season. We were happy all the last games were on different nights so we could catch them all.  Melia chose to skip game night and head into Eagle River with us for the game. Noah was impressed with his cheering section. 

Bre & Kids, Cory, Arielle & kids, Larissa, Melia, Mike & Me

A word about this team! They are CUTE!!! CRAZY CUTE. Jared is their coach and quickly realized it would be more about safe fun than games. That first week he simply ran up and down the field chased by about 15 3 year olds....great fun. By tonight, they had the general idea of kicking the ball down the field to a goal....and Jared still runs up and down the field with them. 

Organizing the players...

huddle up

Look at that footwork! 

As anyone who has ever worked in a church nursery or preschool knows it's challenging to do so with your little one in the group. Noah learned how to share Dad with the team, and it was priceless to watch. I may be a bit biased, but I found it sweet to watch our son coach his son...a bit bittersweet as I know Josiah would have been on the sidelines cheering every game - possibly even helping coach. LOL  The plan had been for them to raise their children together in the community and sometimes the ache is big...exactly when life is the sweetest. 

Vitaly loves soccer! 

Bachan, Noah and Papa

One of the bright points of the night for Noah was getting a CERTIFICATE!!!!!

His cousins had made him some race cars. I think this one was from Danny? Anyway, Noah was excited to show it off. He told me, "I like racecars Bachan!" 

Some of the grands climbing on the back of the dinosaur skeleton

We headed home after the game to pick up Ash and Allie and head back to Anchorage for their flight. Usually, Allie leaving would mean the end of summer. We aren't quite ready to file away summer, but this is a significant chunk of summer ending. Allie is going back early to get settled into her apartment and handle some details before her senior year begins. She is working on cast and such for "Elevator Pitch," her thesis film.  BTW, she is about 50% of the way to raising the money she needs to pay cast, crew, safety officers and such. If you'd like to follow her progress or hear how to donate to her efforts click the link above or here even! ::snort::   We are so very proud of Allie! We were happy to meet Ash in person. He's a great guy. Anyway - we drove into Anchorage and dropped them off for the next leg of their adventure. 

Thanks to whoever grabbed this photo

It was a somber ride home. I guess summer is coming to an end. August is nearly upon us, Melia will soon begin her junior year and her college class at ABC, Stacia and Allie are both about to start their senior years in college. Wow. Join us in praying that there is time between their graduations for Michael and I to be able to attend Allie's in VA and Stacia's in AK. We think one will be the 14th and one the 15th - and finding those plane connections are proving tricky. Still praying one is moved to the 13th or we find the right connections. 

Note: Ash and Allie were delayed 3 - 5 hours in Seattle but were able to make all connections back to VA. 

OK I have to include this video! Jamin took it last Wednesday (22nd) when he was in town. Noah is driving for the goal...until he sees a butterfly. It's CRAZY CUTE and so typical of coaching 3 yos. 

Most photos without the watermark were provided by Larissa! Thank you. 

Monday in July

 Allie and Ash made a day trip to Seward today. They have been trying to see as much as they can while Ashton is here. We feel like we are in summer 2.0 with nice weather the past few days.  Stacia worked. The rest of us puttered around, did some house cleaning, shopping - stuff like that. 

I sent an invite to Jamin and Nolan to join us for a later Chicken Pot Pie dinner. Allie, Ash and Stacia all made it home and we enjoyed being together. 

We topped the evening off with a campfire. Jamin leaves for Florida tomorrow. He promises to be back in 6 -7 months. 

Check out Nolan's eye - the results of he and Jared's collision at Family Gathering. 

More Sunday Fun

Sunday at ACF in Eagle River, lunch with Jamin, Jared and Noah, Cat Cafe with the girls and then we dropped the girls off at home and Melia and I went to the Raceway to meet up with Larissa and Noah. We meant to catch the final race, but they didn't have enough contestants and had decided not to run the final race. We visited and played a bit. 

Noah - I think Papa could make something like this

 

Pretty setting for a race

Arielle and Bre had talked about putting a family field day on the calendar. Every Sunday night at 6 p.m. This brought back memories of playing kick ball in the fields when we were at Beale AFB. We invited Larissa and Noah to join us for a bit as the race was off.  Danny met us in the parking lot. He was excited to show us a swimming grasshopper...

This little girl! She is excited Auntie Bre came thorugh with a pretty BLUE dress! Here she accessorizes with tennis shoes - perfect for kick ball!  

These guys were most interested in catching insects! 

Ellie, Larissa, Me and Danny

Kick ball! 

Benny & Melia

Ellie & Benny

Ellie, Arielle & Cory

Running bases with Daddy! 

She ate a grasshopper! YUCK. 

Arielle & Melia

What a kick! 

We ended the day all at home playing "The Bible is Funny." 

Stacia, Melia, Allie & Ashton 

This was a very full Sunday.