Last year, we had some wonderful neighbors who organized a summer blast for the whole neighborhood. Water slides, free food, and lots of fun. They worked so hard and put together a wonderful time for all our neighbors. This year, they did it again. The whole neighborhood raised money and put together a fun party that lasted from ten in the morning to late in to the evening.
Waterslides and cupcakes. They made for happy kids and great memories.
Y tried to learn how to play cornhole.
We took advantage of our zoo membership and took part in the Members’ Night festivities. Our local zoo plans these member nights three times a year and they are always a treat and less crowded for our crew.
We thought Y the Brave had been to a zoo before because he lives in a city where there is a zoo. But, he told us over and over that he had never been. It was so much fun watching his excitement over seeing the animals up close. 
Spot our bunch…I have to say tie dye shirts are my favorite family shirts so far. They were a lot of fun to make and easy to spot.
New sea otters exhibit is so interesting!
But, Emmie loved the bears. She “oooohed” over them the most.
A volunteer singing about koalas. We can’t call them koala bears now.
Feeding the Lorakeets. They were so full from the whole day of eating but we managed to get them to take a bite or two.
Flamingo impersonation.
Y the Brave told us that he wanted to see elephants most of all. I think he was thrilled when he got to see them. But the smell…well, it always knocks us all off our feet.
A bunch of Characters in a small train car. Mostly all smiles.
Rock wall climbing. I was a bad mama and forgot to open the flash so half the pictures were unrecognizable.
Zoe and Ace were proud of their checkerboard accomplishment.
Here’s the traditional family portrait with the lions.
This is our family,our neighbors next door and our neighbors across the street. Right now, we have twenty kids between our three families (we have some amazing neighbors who are foster parents!). I can’t remember how many are in this picture though. Pretty close to that number, I believe.
If we are close to a chaperon from New Horizons for Children during hosting, the rule is to plan a time to spend with the chaperon. Well,, we were close to chaperons but they were about two to three hours away. And, then there was the minor problem of transportation since, with Y, we are at capacity in our van unless there is a super skinny person who can squeeze in the back seat.
We really wanted to meet and spend time with the chaperons but we just couldn’t figure out how to do it. Then a hosting family/friend, had the idea to bring a favorite chaperon to our area and we could split time. When I told her what we were going to do, I told her that they could join us too. So they did. And the kids opened the fun trunk to find tie dye kits.
The fun happened before all of this though. Ace woke up the day before with a rash that we thought might be poison ivy. But, when the rash started moving around and we talked to other people, we realized that it was actually probably hives. I made a call to the doctor and got an afternoon appointment thinking we would be done tie dying in plenty of time. I totally underestimated our tie dying timing or skills.
Our friends arrived and we got to work.
Soon after starting the dying process, we realized we didn’t have enough dye. H, the other host mom, made a mad dash to Walmart to try and get more dye. Just so you know, when it says it will dye nine shirts on the kit, what it really means is if you put one dot of each color on nine shirts, then you’re covered. One dot is not enough for our crew. They needed full on dye.
In the middle of the dye-fest, Ace’s appointment approached. I begged H to stay at the house while I took Ace to the appointment. We found out he had an allergic reaction to who knows what and needed to stay on an allergy med for awhile and then made a mad dash back to the house.
Even though it was quite chaotic, I think we all had a wonderful time. And Y got to see his favorite chaperon, M. It was a blessing for us to see her too.
We had a hosting gathering at the lake in July. It was a truly wonderful time with our friends and fellow hosters to reflect and visit.
I didn’t get to go out with the kids, but one of the hosting families had a boat and several of our kids got to go “tubing!” It was all fun and games until Zoe broke the innertube. Just kidding. It did break but not because of her. Even though I didn’t get to hang out with them on the boat, I got to hang out with the littles in the sand.
Yeah, awesome shot. Silly face.
We also had the pleasure of seeing the kids when they got back.
And hear about how it went.
I just love our local library. We always have some pretty special events during the summer and even throughout the year. Aside from the mountain man performance, we also got to check out some awesome animals from a wildlife group. The kids were pretty impressed.
The following pictures are from Zoe. I threw her my phone when Emmie decided she needed to have a walkabout during the presentation.
This possum was our absolute favorite. He was the cutest thing and was so sweet to look at. And for those wondering, Y was just as impressed as our kids. The guest started with small animals but as they got bigger, they all got more quiet and really enjoyed seeing and hearing about them.
Part of our fun trunk surprises was a backyard camping adventure with daddy. It was hot, ya’ll. Very hot. And mama did not complain one second that I had to stay inside with nursing baby.
We did play outside for a bit before the heat got to us.
S’mores….we love them.
And cool fire effects…in the 100 degree heat. 
We even got a fireworks display through the trees. Bonus.
Playing off of another friend’s idea, we created a fun trunk for the summer. Some days, it was full of fun stuff to do and others it just went along with what we were up to. We had sprinklers and crafts and all sorts of neat things. Here’s a small glimpse at what we did with our trunk.
Sprinklers.
Pom poms, contact paper, sharpie marker and tissue paper…wall art.
This was a lot of fun. I definitely think we will do this again next summer. It helped the kids to build up anticipation. Some things were put on hold because of the hospital trips, so we have a jump start. Some things, I didn’t get a chance to post because we were having too much fun. And some are their own posts of awesomeness.
One of my biggest shockers since Emmie’s diagnosis has been that I have been brave enough to drive through Atlanta without another adult, not once, but three times in the past three months. While I don’t mind traffic, Atlanta traffic is its own little world that I didn’t care to delve in to. Until Emmie required us too.
In the middle of June, we got the call that Emmie’s new brace (the one just before the halo) was ready and Mark quickly rearranged his schedule and took off so that I could take Emmie for the short appointment. We both knew it would be a boring appointment for the kids but hanging out with daddy for a whole day would be totally awesome. It was.
Since this was my first, “Emmie and me” trip, I made sure we had a celebratory pit stop. At Ikea. Oh yes we did. There are some perks to having to drive to Atlanta for all of her awesomeness.
The appointment took a bit over an hour and she did a wonderful job. Despite the fact she was terrified every time she heard a door open or close.
I must say, she works this brace like the princess super hero that she is.
Complete with double pony tails. Oh yeah.
I found an etsy site called Higgy Bears after Emmie got her brace. This wonderful lady creates stuffed animal braces for children to have stuffed animals sporting their same sense of fashion. I knew she had the scoliosis braces but wasn’t sure if she could make something similar to Emmie’s brace. I decided it was worth a shot and sent an email. And she did it! I was totally impressed. I haven’t had time to email to see if she could do a halo brace now. But for now. Her LeighLeigh doggy is a favorite.
She even went back for her halo placement procedure. LeighLeigh, by the way, is after Emmie’s amazing orthotist who came up with this brace that was indestructible (stoppable only by the evil Kyphosis villain).
Another first for Y. The drive-in. We couldn’t resist when we found out that the local (local meaning 45 minutes away) drive-in was showing the newly released Minions movie. We were going to attempt to stay for Inside Out too but our little “minions” were trying to prop their eyes open with toothpicks so we thought it best to head on. We had fun waiting and during the movie though.
We met up with another host family/friends and the boys enjoyed a bit of soccer before the movie started.
Cow Appreciation Day is one of our families most anticipated holidays. We simply love it! This year we introduced Y the Brave to it. And, true to his personality, he went in to it with as much enthusiasm as we had.
Count ’em. Yep. There’s one missing. Want to know where he is?
We always have one little calf who is just not happy until after the food comes.
But this little calf thought the food was splendid.
Y thought that the cow was really cool and he wanted CeiRai and I to get in the picture too.
