How Many Pages???

by Amy

You may remember that Peter and Alex are working hard on their reading lessons and will get a prize when they complete every so many lessons. Those prizes are fun to give out and fun to work towards. So, I decided Savannah needed a goal as well. I wanted to choose something that would motivate her, and cause her to work hard. As a child, I remember Pizza Hut giving out giving out free pan pizzas to kids that read a certain number of books in a month, and the library giving out free stuff during their summer reading programs. But, since those programs don't stretch across the great Pacific Ocean, I decided to call on my fun, creative buddy to help me out -- once again!

I told Rachel that I wanted Savannah to reach the goal of reading 1000 pages, but didn't know how to track it and how to make it fun. Immediately Rachel began plotting and devising a plan. She came up with a path that leads towards an undisclosed location. And, when she offered to make the path for us, I was happy to let her do it!

Each rock represents 5 pages, so as Savannah reads, she gets to color the rocks on her path. For every 200 pages, she gets to uncover a picture that will give her a hint as to where the path is leading. (She's already uncovered her first hint - it's a picture of Cinderella.) She also will get an additional small prize for every 200 pages.

It has been amazing to see how motivated Savannah is to read! For homeschooling, she's required to read independently for 20-30 min. a day. Obviously the pages she reads then count towards her 1000 pages. But, I told her she's free to read other times too, and we can count those pages as well. I can't tell you how many times I've heard her say lately, "Peter, Alex would you like me to read you a story?" And, she's asked many times if she can stay up late reading in her bed. It's great! I hated reading as a child and didn't want Savannah to be like that.

This path is really working. I actually was hoping that Savannah would reach her goal about the same time Peter and Alex reach their 100 reading lessons goal. But, I think she's going to beat em!

Outdoor School

by Amy

My friend Rachel is one of the most creative people I know! She's constantly coming up with fun activities and crafts that her kids love! And, being the generous fun Aunt that she is, she often takes pity on my kids and invites us to join in on the fun. A few weeks ago, she planned an "Outdoor School" day for her kids and mine. (Ages: 6,4,4,4,2,and 3 months ~ it was before birthdays.)

We met downtown at the square. The first activity was to look at the flag and draw what you see. So, with clipboards in hand, plenty of colored pencils to go around, all the kids found a spot with a clear view of the flag and began drawing.

With kids as cute as ours, you can only imagine the crowd we attracted.....

The final product....

After we finished our drawing, we walked through the park noticing the jobs people did. We saw a teacher leading a preschool class, people selling water and mowing lawns, cleaning people and garbage collectors. We talked abut what the park would be like if those people weren't doing their jobs, and drew a picture of our favorite worker.

Then, it was time to begin the water focus of the day. First, we enjoyed watching the cool fountains. They're actually really well done. The water basically "dances" to the music for 20-30 minutes. The kids love it! We enjoyed the "up close and personal view"....

Then we went for the bird's eye view as we watched from a far....

For our math emphasis, we had all the kids count the number of stairs as we climbed to reach the balcony so we could enjoy this "view from a far." Although there was some discretion, I think we all agreed on 64 stairs in the end.

Next, Rachel gave all the kids the equivalent of $.80, so they could each buy these water squirter things....

Rachel fed the baby (Abby) while I took the kids back down the 64 stairs to play in the non-fount-ing fountains. I think I was supposed to give a lesson in water pressure or something, but instead I let run around squirting! It was tons of fun...

Samantha had a few issues filling her squirter.... So, she finally resorted to walking the circles... it was pretty cute!

We ended our grand educational experience by visiting this famous guy! What a fun, fun school day! Thanks again Rach for all the sweet memories you created for our kids!

Birthday Fun - Part 2

by Amy

Brad's birthday was this past Wednesday. The kids were quite distressed that Brad didn't want to do go anywhere fun to celebrate -- he just wanted to go to class like normal. "But Daddy," they pleaded, "Mommy says you don't have to go to school on your birthday!" So, they won! Brad decided to skip class! That meant they got to skip school too! Since I had just made the boys' birthday cake, Brad said he didn't want me to make another "real" cake for him. Instead, he asked me to make a coffee cake for his birthday breakfast. It was really yummy, but I put candles in a hot cake -- not the wisest thing I've ever done -- they melted into the cake. Bummer.... After enjoying our breakfast, we all went to the Lake-Park downtown to ride scooters and race boats. It turned out to be a beautiful day! And, since it was a Wednesday, the park wasn't crowded at all! Here are some fun pics from our morning out....

After playing for a couple of hours, we returned home to eat one of Brad's favorite local dishes for lunch - fried eggplant in some brown sauce. Then, later that evening, we ate Applebee's Fiesta Lime Chicken - a copycat recipe. It was quite delightful!

I'm so thankful that the Lord has given Brad 37 years of life! What a great husband and father and friend he is! May he have many, many more years to come!

Birthday Fun - Part 1

By Amy

This has been the Week’O Fun around our house! Monday was Alex and Peter’s fifth birthday (can you believe my youngest kids are FIVE?—It seems unreal!) So, we decided to celebrate as a family on Sunday. I’ll give you the play-by-play….

We kicked off the morning with some waffles -- a favorite, requested by my boys. Then, we did a video call with Grandma so she could watch them open some presents she had mailed. In May, Sue (my mother-in-law) took a trip to Hawaii, so many of the kids’ gifts have a Hawaiian feel to them! -- Aren’t these clothes super cute?!?!)

Sue also put some money in our account and asked us to buy the boys each a scooter. So after opening a few gifts, including the scooters, we went downstairs to our newly cleaned tennis courts so the boys could test ‘em out!


About 11 am we came back inside and let the boys to open a couple more presents. They opened some water guns and some remote control boats. (Just a side note – Brad and I went shopping for the boys and found these cool RC boats at a local toy store. They cost about $70 USD each – YIKES!! But, my resourceful husband came home and found the exact same product on the local version of Ebay for about $15 USD each! Delightful!)

We packed up the boats, water balls and rockets (from Grandma) and water guns and headed to a local park for some fun. We stopped off for some lunch at McDs on the way – Alex’s choice! First, we zoomed the RC boats through a lake – they’re pretty fun! Then, we went to a little wading pool area. We had been there the week before and the kids LOVED it. But, the week before we went on a work day – not a weekend! Notice the difference….

First visit:

Birthday visit:


Yikes – what a difference! But, the kids didn’t seem to mind. I’m sure the fact that some of our American friends came to join in the fun helped! Then, after leaving the park, we decided to walk down the street to a nice hotel and go swimming for a while. Whew… Can I just say that after several hours in the sun and swimming, my kids were exhausted! --So were Brad and I! But, they fun wasn’t over yet! When we got home, I threw some nachos together for dinner, they opened the rest of their presents, and ate cake for dessert.

The cake… They boys agreed on requesting a Lightening McQueen cake. I thought that seemed fun since my friend Rachel had a Lightening cake pan. And, thankfully, my boys wanted it to be a “Blue Dynaco” Lightening because I’m not sure I could have whipped up red icing – and a pink cake for a boy just wouldn’t go over too well in this house! Anyway, I decided to make a homemade chocolate cake and to tweak the recipe some…Long story short – it baked for almost an hour, didn’t have any problem popping out of the pan, but was a little crunchy on the bottom and around the edges. The boys didn’t seem to mind, but I was thankful not to be serving it to guests… Maybe next time, I should just follow the recipe!

I have a rule in our house – No School on Birthdays! (unless they want it, of course!) So, on Monday (their actual birthday), while Brad went to class, the kids and I all stayed home and played with the new toys the boys received the day before. We had lots of fun together! For lunch, Peter asked Leigh to make some dumplings. It probably took her 2 ½ hours to fix lunch for us, but my kids were happy! Dumplings are a pain to make, but it’s one of the kids’ favorite local dishes.

Later that afternoon, we went to the kids’ preschool to share cupcakes. The teachers decided to celebrate all the June birthdays that day. They gave my boys and two other kids these cute little hats and had them march around the room in a line singing a song – in English! “How old, how old are you? I am one, I am one –two, three up to five.) It was really cheesy, but the boys didn’t seem to mind. – Then they all danced around a bit, sang Happy Birthday, and ate cupcakes. It was pretty fun! I’m glad we could share that with those kids and look forward to doing something similar again for Savannah’s day.


That night for dinner, we had imported hot dogs and homemade buns. That’s one meal that my kids really miss from the states. I was so thankful Rachel was willing to hook us up with real dogs when she traveled to that big city up north last week.

Wow, my boys are really five years old. What a blessing they are to our family. They love to wrestle with Brad and each other, they are often joking around and making us smile. Alex loves to entertain guests; Peter likes to give them pictures he’s colored. Alex wants to be a pediatrician when he grows up because he likes to make kids smile and laugh. Peter wants to be an artist and work with his sister when he grows up. They are unique and wonderful. I can’t imagine my life without them! I praise the Lord for bringing both Peter and Alex into our lives!

Stay tuned to hear what we did to celebrate Brad’s birthday, just two days later!

Cherries Anyone?

By Amy

We have a friend that works for a local TV station. On Sundays her station does a quick 10 minute English program. She invited our family to go cherry picking so they could film us for this program. We agreed to go...

We had to be at the TV station on the other side of town by 8am on a Monday morning. As soon as we arrived, we piled into a mini-bus type-thing and were off. We were followed by 2 minivans full of people. There must have been at least 20 people from the station along for the ride. We drove for about an hour south of town (including a 20 minute stop to do a little filming.)

When we got out of the van, this is what we saw. The cherry orchard was on the side of a hill/mountain that had been terraced. So, we slipped and slid down the side of the mountain until we found the cherry trees.

The host of the show is a guy from the UK. He talked to each of our kids on film. Peter was pretty shy and didn't want to look at the camera, but did a good job at answering each question he was asked, clearly and loudly. Savannah and Alex had no problems talking...(I wonder who they get that trait from?)

My kids are great! Can I brag for a minute? They were asked to hold their arms up and act like they were picking cherries from the branches above their heads so the camera guy could get the right angle. They did so with cheerful hearts (even though their arms ached!) They had to answer tons of questions, but did so without complaint - often speaking in the local language. And, they had to pose for lots of pictures! All the TV station people had their own cell phones and wanted pics of these cute American kiddos. My kids smiled every time! Then, we were treated to lunch at a local restaurant. Several of the dishes had nuts in them (2 out of 3 of my kids have nut allergies), and many others were strange things that we don't typically order. Once again, my kids didn't complain a bit! They all ate more than I did! :) Then, we had the long ride back down the mountain and all the way home (about 90 minutes). My kids were cheerful and patient.

What a blessing! And, at the end of the day, our friend who works for the station commented on how she would love to see us teach a class on how to raise kids. She was so impressed with their attitudes and respectfulness. PTL for my three precious kiddos! What a joy they are to us!