Zoo field trip

We were able to go on a field trip to the beautiful San Diego zoo yesterday. Steve and I had our three grandchildren three and under, plus our youngest three girls. We did very well and had a great day. Steve took the first picture before we went in. He wanted some reference if anyone got lost during the day. When traveling with small children it happens. A lot. We didn't lose anyone yesterday!!

 

One time I lost a son there for forty-five minutes. I was a nervous wreck. He on the other hand was walking around looking at the monkeys. Another time I lost a son when we were there with elderly relatives.  We had stopped and were debating if we should go on the bus tour or not. He took his time into his own hands and actually went to the bus tour spot and stood in line. Once we went to LEGOLAND and a son told the security officers he was "losed." And yet another was lost at Disneyland. Our youngest son got away from us. My husband told security our son wouldn't ask for help (he's a non-talker to strangers and pretty much to people he knows anyways) he would just walk around until found. And that's what he did.

 

Another strategy we have used before is placing a business card or our number in the child's pocket in case they're lost.

 

Happy Birthday Little D!

My youngest daughter celebrated her 7th birthday last week. I can't figure out how to turn her picture so until then you'll have to turn your head to the right.

 

 

 

                                        Love her sense of style. Pink Hello Kitty fedora.........

                                                        Hello Kitty jammies and robe.

Pictures for my adopted daughters

One of the adoption seminars I've attended in the past suggested having photo albums of pictures of and for your adopted children. As I thought about it I that was something that was missing in our home. It wasn't intentional, it just played out that way.

Back in 2003 a wildfire raged through our area and we had to leave everything behind. The next time a threat came through I grabbed all the photo albums. Since then though I had not had pictures printed much less placed them in photo albums.

My older kids have tons of pictures, but not so much for my younger crowd. I decided to start tackling that task. I bought a big photo album from Target that holds six 4 x 6 photos and more photo pages can be purchased to keep adding. So far I have the photos from when Addis & Abi Mulu first touched the water from the Pacific Ocean. I don't think they had ever been to the ocean since Ethiopia is landlocked. I think they had been to a lake before in Ethiopia, but not the ocean.

                                                       Pics are from June 2008

 

These are two of the pictures included. Weren't they cutie pies?

Homeschool or Not to Homeschool?

I have been preparing all summer to school my three youngest girls at home. We did well on Tuesday, our official start day. However, my face froze up (I'm guessing from stress) and my 2 1/2 year old grandson wasn't real keen on the idea of keeping quiet during school (I was taking his playmates away.)

A few of the girls came with me to pick up their older sibs from school, and well the enticement of friends, fun, and so-called freedom won over. We enrolled them the next day. Except.....the classes were now full and my second grader needed to go back into the first grade class. One of my girls was repeating first grade anyways, but in many ways she does better than the one who was promoted to second grade. My girls were not happy campers.

A few days went by and by Friday two of the girls withdrew from school. Two second graders sitting in with first graders was NOT going to cut it in their book. Then the third grader (the one who really needs to NOT be in a group setting) wanted to withdraw also. This week they're all three home.

We received permission from our church to use a classroom during the day so we could have somewhere quiet to go. Except two mornings a week BSF is there, which means we shouldn't be.

I'm tired. Do I REALLY want to do this all year long? I've done this for twenty-five years now. These girls put a different spin on it though. All three are high-maintenance and low tolerance for each other which are two reasons I did want to keep them home this year. The bonding. Between them. Between us for the third grader. She is absolutely a different child when she is not in a group. I thought about this yesterday and it could be that the classroom setting takes her back to her time in the orphanage, and there was where she was criticized and had to look out for her self.

We're trudging through our A Beka readers, our Saxon Math, our Rod & Staff spelling books, and loving our Blessed Heritage history.