School Pics

Taylor will be graduating from kindergarten next month - her school makes a big deal about this, complete with cap and gown ceremony. Next year, the big time, first grade :)

Spring Break

Taylor has been off this week and she's enjoyed a day with some good friends, but she's had to spend a lot of time supervising her parents as we work, she says what we do is pretty boring but has been really good about letting me help Tom with a big project he has to complete. She took a break from woodworking to work on her princess persona (not that she needs a lot of practice). This shot was taken as she practiced her royal wave - thanks, Sara for the gloves. We're hoping to end out her break with a trip to Sara's and a little shopping :)

Busy Week - Adding a Goat?

So, yesterday afternoon Sara calls me to say she and Chuck are getting a goat?! And that Chuck had to work today and she was going to go buy it by herself. Well, this adventure sounded too good to pass up and besides, how was Sara going to go buy a goat and get it home by herself, I asked. So Taylor and I jumped in the car and drove to Goochland last night so we could help. There was a farmer's market type event especially for people who wanted to sell farm animals. There were chickens of all types and sizes, bunnies, geese, ducks, a sheep, and yes, a couple goats. Sara chose this cute young goat named Lightening and bargained hard for him. He has been raised like a puppy and is so gentle and loving and spoiled. Chuck put their dog cage in their car before he left for work. Sara bought the goat and it road home in the cage right beside Taylor in the backseat. When we got him home, we cleaned out the chicken coop so he could share living quarters with the four 'girls' until Chuck completes the fence he'd already started. He is going to have to work double time now LOL. We played with the goat for awhile, went out and bought him goat food, and Taylor and I came home and went grocery shopping where Emilee is working and went through her line so we could say hi, and well done :) Our family is growing by leaps and bounds, just didn't know it was going to include a goat!

We are going to be grandparents :)

Sara is expecting and we couldn't be happier for her and Chuck. I can't wait to see them as parents, they are really good with kids. A boy? or a girl? It doesn't matter, it's going to be the cutest baby ever and I'm sure will be smart too. No prejudice whatsoever! Sara is big on green and organic products so over these next months I will have to find some good stuff to spoil her as she waits to become a mama. Anyone out there with good ideas on mom gifts, let me know. I definitely want to buy them a baby travel bed (one of those things you can pack in the back of your car and pop up) because we hope they'll visit often!

Guatemala - Emilee returns

Emilee is home from Guatemala and she will never be the same. And I say that very proudly. She loves the people of Guatemala and realizes there is a world that she once could just imagine and now knows it to be true. I still have to share some pictures, the country is beautiful and Em took over 450 pictures (don't worry I won't share them all!). But I just had to post a youtube video that one of her friends made that really captures her trip. (I've never posted a youtube video so please excuse my first attempts. Once you get through watching, just press the 'back'button to get back to the blog). Em is in the video a couple times, you can spot her helping with the Bible school day with the orphans. The cute little boy in the aqua onsie being held by a couple people is one of the rescue babies. A 13 yr. old girl saw the baby's mother burying him alive and rescued him and helped him get to the rescue center. He is now a year old. Many, many stories of survival and hope. Emilee will return and maybe next time I'll get to go with her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdv73MU4psQ&feature=email

Amazement Square

You can actually "milk" this cow (cow looks a little worried LOL)

Friends from China, not discovered til they both got to move here :)

Taylor discovered something else important today - she says boys are fun friends too!

There are times in life when learning takes place outside of school, even when it's within school hours - today was such a day. Taylor had a friend whose school's spring break was this week, and she wondered if Taylor could have some fun with her this week. I decided that a kindergartener could take a walk on the wild side and skip school one afternoon. So Taylor and her friend M, and one of M's brothers, J all got to go to this really fun place called Amazement Square. This is one of those hand's on type learning centers where lessons of physics and weather and history can be taught while playing. There are just so many fun areas in this huge building, a farm area, a hospital, weather station, art centers, music centers, even a place where precipitation is taught and it actually rains inside :) I think the greatest lesson learned today was friendship, one of life's best lessons learned.

Guatemala

Emilee left for Guatemala early, early this morning. Tom and I drove her to meet the bus that would take her group to the Dulles Aiport at 3 a.m.. Last night, Em and I went to see Alice and Wonderland (with Johnny Depp). It was a fun mom/daughter thing to do before I let her leave me to go off on her adventure to a third world country. She will experience things I've never gotten to, I'm jealous! Our church is starting a program to aid a particular area in Guatemala, this group of villages will become like sister cities so to speak, so there will plenty of opportunities to travel to this reagion - I have it on my 'things to do' list. I am jealous of knowing she will be spending days in tropical temperatures. I can hardly wait to see the beautiful pictures she will take. We have a friend who has so generously let Emilee take a "real camera" (her words lol) to capture her adventure. She is so interested in photography and I'm sure will take advantage of this special gift of having good equipment to use during her trip.

I just checked her flights on a flight tracking program and she has landed in San Salvadore and is on a commuter flight to Guatemala City. I am hoping she feels better than when she flew to China. Tomorrow the real work will begin. She will get to visit a baby rescue center, travel to a village and attend a church in a rural area, help with a Bible school at an orphanage, and visit a home for the elderly and sing songs and minister to that group. Stay tuned for some pictures late next week!