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. 

Random July Tidbits

Ah, here is a space to bring July to a restful end. You'll find photos of Gherkins out and about which I've not yet blogged.  Random thoughts and tidbits from July. 

Melia got acrylic nails before our trip to ID in June. She ended up getting them before Akemi's graduation in May....and they lasted much longer than expected! She paid for her nails as I didn't consider them essential and I'd already paid for a boat load of things in May/June (clothes, pedicures, plane tickets, braces, haircuts, eyebrow waxing....) They would have been about $100 to put on...but she decided she needed EACH nail to have a different bit of artwork...so that was another $22.50. I paid the tip as she'd forgotten to account for that expense. Actually, she has been raised you don't tip unless a really good job is performed. I asked if she thought the gal had done a really good job, I thought she'd done great. She had earned a big tip.  All that to say - these nails cost but they lasted much longer than expected. They lasted through May and June. She wasn't doing a lot of dishes and such, but she was living life and still they lasted. Volleyball camp started. I suggested she may want to remove them as it would hurt to have such long nails....she didn't. It hurt. She was ready to remove them but refused to go back to pay to have them removed. ::snort:: We googled, borrowed Michael's cache of chemicals and figured out how to remove them ourselves. I was pretty proud of us. 

The garden is struggling this year. From the start I knew Michael wouldn't be able to help, and I was determined to focus on the beds I planted and not worry about the mutant weeds in the rest of the "Garden plot."  Then the free range chickens and moose decided to eat all the cauliflower and here they decimated all the cabbage.  I was still limping along in the garden and then we had 10 days of rain in a row. . . in the end we've had the rainiest July recorded.  I have lots of lettuce, a bit of kale and potatoes are doing well. The animals have eaten the rest or the rain and cold wheather. 

first zucchini

OF COURSE, we went and saw Toy Story 5....Melia and I, Bre, Arielle and their kids and Nolan. Nostalgia. 

Noah successfully completed his first year of soccer. 

Jared and his team

Michael and the boys used to hike out to a forestry cabin at Red Shirt and fish for pike. Cory and Jared carry the tradition forward with the next generation. It's a 3-mile hike, a canoe ride and then sleeping primitive for a couple of nights. They all had a blast!

Jared, Benny, Danny, Noah and Cory in the back

Noah's first fish

Benny, Danny, Cory 

A flaming marshmallow - so many memories of camping with the Bowers! LOL 

This month brought the discovery that Charles is allergic to bumble bees, wasps and hornets. 

Melia and I made it a goal to hike a bunch of new trails. This one - we didn't hike. There were many ways we felt this trail could kill us - to include recent bear maulings. 

Preparing for upcoming travel

Tuckered out 

CoRielle and all the kids made it for the last trail in the Trail challenge! 

These girls are off for a July adventure...Mall of America, Forrest Frank Concert and NYC. 

Ellie loves sunny days

Uncle Jamin came to town

July 28th - we settled in to watch short films Allie and Ash participated in making and we viewed their photos from the past week and a half. 

The girls first visit to the Great Lakes. 

Cory took these boys dip netting

Bre & Arielle celebrated the end of the library summer reading program. 

Bella stays cool with her personal purchase

Yum! Traveling vicariously through the girls. 

Well, there are a few other photos I am trying to load that refuse to load....so we'll call this the end of July. LOL I recognize there are no pictures of Alex, Krista, Nolan or Stacia here - they were all busy working away the month. 

 As is often the case if the photo isn't watermarked it was sent or harvested from the elder Gherkins with much thanks!