Ms. Ellen

Sabrina loves Ms. Ellen. Ms. Ellen moved away, but is here visiting her son for a few weeks. She gave Sabrina the bracelet; it is the favorite color of both of them.

Marie-Anne

New Home

We have been very busy packing and getting ready for a local move this month. Since we are adopting we need more space. We are all tired and ready for the week after the move.  

Marie-Anne

Ronald McDonald House- Cookie Crew

Alex and Sabrina baked Snickerdoodles for the Ronald McDonald House residents and staff. As usual, several were given away before being put into bags.  

We also finished incomplete lunch bags for the free lunches the Ronald McDonald provides to families while they are at the hospital with their child. The workers shared that the kids, who are in the hospital for extended time, use the Lunch Bags and Caring Cards as posters to brighten their hospital room. 

It is not always easy to complete the bags that someone else started. For example there were several bags that someone wrote math problems all over. Nothing else, just math problems. Sabrina turned one into a chalkboard and drew a cat as a teacher. Others are just little kids' scribbling. 

Marie-Anne

August's Favorite Caring Cards

All of Sabrina's caring cards this month were cat themed.

All of Alex's caring cards for this month were origami Star Wars finger puppets.

(Of course, they both made a whole lot more than are pictured.)

Marie-Anne

Congressional Award Update

We have not yet heard when the award ceremony for Alex's Bronze Medal will be.

Alex has completed the Volunteer Service hours and the Personal Development hours that he needs to earn the Silver Medal. He still needs about 16 hours of Physical Fitness and to plan his next trip. He will plan a camping trip when the weather is a bit cooler. We do not know where the camping trip will be yet.

Marie-Anne

Nursery

Sabrina is now getting experience with babies. Two babies just started being dropped off in the nursery. The little lady preferred Sabrina to me.

Marie-Anne

Game night

We played a fun game that Sabrina and I have played before, but the guys had not. Flipolo is a game I picked up on clearance thinking it was for younger kids. It's not. It can be used for younger kids as a solo logic game, (with help) but certainly not as a speed game against other players. I'm very glad I decided to keep a copy and test it out before giving it as a birthday gift to a younger kid. 

In Flipolo every player gets their own set of double sided tiles and their own game board. Every tile will be used on every game board. The catch is you may make a mistake in which side of the tile to use. If so, you have to go back and figure out where you went wrong. The first player to correctly match their tiles to their board wins. 

Marie-Anne

English Second Language Class

There was only one child during the ESL Class. So Sabrina played with her little buddy. Alex had nothing to do during this class since there was only one student and two teachers.

Marie-Anne

Mother-Son

Alex and I went to the restaurant of his choice, which was a Pho place we had not been to before. We both ordered the seafood with quail eggs. It was extremely good. We will certainly go back there.

We also stopped in at Goodwill, where Alex found some toys he could sell for credit at his favorite collectible toy store. Of course, we also went to his favorite store.

We had a wonderful time just the two of us.

Marie-Anne

P.S. Frank and Sabrina went out for lunch too, but he did not take pictures.

Seedling Theatre- Charlotte's Web

Sabrina is starting a new semester at Seedling Theatre. They are doing Charlotte's Web. She is hoping to get the part of Fern. The first few weeks are mostly theatre games.

Marie-Anne

Mother's Helper

Sabrina is such a big help to my friend. Sabrina is also learning quite a bit more about preschoolers than she does in nursery, just by being in a home environment with him.

Marie-Anne

Bowling with Nancy

We take our friend, Nancy, bowling every few months. We pack a lunch and make a morning of it. Bowling is counting towards the kids' P.E. class this year. We have all become better bowlers. 

Marie-Anne

Parakeets

Sabrina got a new parakeet that looks almost just like the one that died. The green one was starting to lose weight after the other one died.

Marie-Anne

Homeschool Group- Game Club

We really enjoy our monthly Game Club. A new family joined us this month. The boys laughed almost nonstop.

Marie-Anne

Chess

Sabrina has been enjoying playing Chess a lot recently.

Marie-Anne

Community Pool

We have really enjoyed going to the Community Pools this Summer. We have met some friends there on a lot of Mondays this Summer.

Marie-Anne

father-son

Frank and Alex went out for ice cream at Dairy Queen. Both kids love having "secret missions" with us. (No longer secret, but the name stuck.)

Marie-Anne

Mother-daughter time

Sabrina has been wanting to get her hair cut for months. This was her first time getting a haircut in a salon. I got mine cut at the same time.

We got Blizzards from Dairy Queen after our haircuts.

Then we went to Barnes and Noble. Sabrina got an author to sign her copy of a book. We went home and watched a movie. It was a very fun day.

Marie-Anne

Foster Care Adoption

Frank and I have completed the adoption class through our local Family Services! We are now moving on to the required paperwork and additional training needed; such as CPR and Car Seat Safety Training.We will start our home study soon. 

Marie-Anne

English Second Language Class

There was only one child to watch during the English Second Language Class. I totally let Sabrina entertain her. I was in the room, but besides telling her not to be so loud a few times, I let Sabrina do all of the work. Sabrina wants to be a babysitter and later own a home day care. 

All of the students were there, but the mom only brought her daughter. Frank taught on question sentence structure. Alex did not have anything to do during the class. 

Marie-Anne

Indoor pool

Frank took the kids to swim laps at the indoor pool.

Marie-Anne

Mother's Helper

When Sabrina took the little man for a walk, she took him to the neighborhood playground without asking the mom. Always before she just walked him up and down their short street. The mom was starting to get worried. The mom had told Sabrina she could take him as far as she felt comfortable with, not realizing Sabrina would take him that far.  Sabrina now knows that she cannot take him to the park without his mom. 

However, Sabrina did say it was her best time being a mother's helper yet. 

Marie-Anne