Woods

 Every Tuesday while the kids are on their summer break we go down to the woods to play. The kids imaginations are huge. They all are running, climbing, hiding, and collecting sticks and rocks. Last week they all made little houses out of the limbs, branches, pine needles, and leaves.

Bryan and Fernando with the three little boys (Josue, Olman, and Korbin).

Art class

 Cindy

Daniela and Rosy

 The girls and boys both have had a few weeks of art classes. Many of them enjoy painting, drawing and just be creative. The boys are much better at being creative and free with their art than the girls. Many of the things they make will be available in the casa store. The kids get excited about people buying their art work. They get a small profit and the rest goes to Casa de Esperanza.

Pamela with their art teacher, Rut.

Pizza

 So proud of these girls! They are in a cooking/baking class. This afternoon the girls went to learn how to make pizza from scratch. When they got home from class they were very excited and came showing me the pizza they had made. They had the pizza all cut up. A piece for everyone. They gave me and Dorian a me piece.
Dorian liked the pizza and said he wanted them to make him a pizza. So this was going to be the true test. Dorian went to the pulperia with the list the girls gave him to get the ingredients. The girls were soon hard a work. Dorian tried to get in the middle of it to learn how to make the dough. Although the girls shortly after were kicking him out of the kitchen. One worked on making the crust while the other got the sauce and ingredients ready. The sauce and dough they made from scratch. I was sort of worried if they actually knew what they were doing and if they could do this. Well I should have never doubted. They did an excellent job!! The pizza was delicious. Hopefully they won't forget how to make pizza and this won't be the last time they bake pizza for us.

Cindy and Ana with the pizza from class they made today.

Happy Birthday Jackson!!!

 Jackson had his birthday this past weekend. He got to spend the night at Nicole's with Jose and Fernando for his birthday. He is certainly growing up. He likes to push his limits. The teenage years are going to be rough around here with so many teenagers. Praying God continues to give us wisdom as we nuture and love on them. I know there is great things in store for Jackson!!!

Happy Happy Birthday Jackson!!!!!!

Forts

The kids are on their summer break. Well sometimes it is harder than other days to keep them all busy and entertained. Today was one of those days. It was a wet, windy, cold day. So all of the kids have been inside all day. There is no heat in the houses here so when it it cold outside its cold inside too. Most of the kids were bundled up in sweatshirts, and hats and a few had on scarves. And when I say cold only 60's, but it feels a lot colder. I know a lot of you back home have a lot colder temps. So probably not getting any sympathy from anyone.
Even a few of the boys went to ride their bikes but that only lasted maybe 10 minutes. I guess it was too cold for them. All of the kids got to watch a movie this morning. Although when the movie was over they were all trying to decide what they could do. They finally decided on forts. So the girls went to their bedroom and pushed the beds together and put sheets up so no one could see in. The boys pulled the beds a part and used towels, sheets, covers, and shoes to build their fort. The girls ended up fighting and the boys played hide and seek in the dark. So at lunch time the girls had to clean theirs up since they were fighting and the boys got to keep theirs til this evening. This afternoon when it was their quite/chore time the boys had a pow wow and had an afternoon snack together in their fort.
Hoping tomorrow there is some sunshine.

Ana Mabel

Happy Birthday!!!!!

We have officially entered into the teenage years with Ana. She has acted like a teenager the last couple of years. Although this year is the big 13 and is finally a teenager.

She is sweet, funny, bubbly, outgoing, but she sure does have some sass to her. Hoping the teenage years are easy on us. 

Happy Birthday Ana Mabel!!!!

Tonight she is spending the evening in our house playing the ipad, playing with Korbin, watching TV, and eating snacks. I let the kids that want to sleep in our house one night for their birthday. She is pretty excited about it.

Happy New Year

We spent New Year's Eve Day traveling. We are back home!! It was great to be home and visit and see everyone. We got to be there for Korbin's 2nd birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. It was Dorian's and Korbin's first Thanksgiving state side. I was really looking forward to Thanksgiving. It had been since 2004 that I had celebrated Thanksgiving with my family in the states.
All in all it was a great trip. Always hard to say good bye. It never gets easy. Although it was great to be greeted by all of the kids when we got home. It was a long day traveling especially with a a little one. He was so hyper active and was all over the place. Trying to get him to sit still on the plane was a challenge.
I rung in the new year in bed asleep. The kids had a fun filled evening with Terri and Nicole. They both slept in each house. As all of the staff had the night off. The kids went outside between 9 and 10 and I went out for a little while with Korbin. We came back in at 10 and I decided we were going to bed. By 10:30 we were both sound asleep. I remember my phone ringing at 11:00 thinking what in the world is going on. I was out of it. It was my mom calling to tell me happy new year. She said I picked up and was awful grumpy and hung up the phone on her. Sorry mom. Anyways shortly after the firewroks started going off nonstop. I vaguely remember the fireworks. I just remember hearing Olman screaming outside as the kids and Marc blew up the old man and set off fireworks. He gets scared pretty easy plus it was late and I think he was tired. The kids loved the fireworks, cookout with hot dogs, pizza, movies, Wii, and staying up late.

 Katy and Yair

 Ana

All of the kids were excited to get to show off their new bikes.

 Cindy

 And then there was a surprise. Antonio had been asked if he wanted to come home and celebrate the New Year's with his family. He of course said, "Yes." He had been really good and they had not had any problems with him so they let leave the campus for the night. He returned early the next morning. All of the kids were soooo happy to get to see Antonio. He came and helped me unpack and just wanted to sit and talk. I miss that boy!!

 Sisi

Katy and Any

Happy New Year! May 2014 be one of the best yet. Excited for all that is in store this year for CASA.