Our little Composer

Sofia had her first composition contest recital this afternoon. She
was a little nervous because they were being judged and there were a
lot of people, but she did great and we are heading to dairy queen to
celebrate. Go Sofia!

I get to paint our houses for Haiti tonight. Yay.

Funny Bunny

My grandma gave the kids gift cards to Barnes and Nobles (thank you Grandma!) and Katryna got a book about making cute little plushie creatures ~ and this Funny Bunny (as Charlotte calls him) is the first little cutie she has made. Isn't he great? Such personality.

Katryna would sit for hours and sew these little guys. I just ordered a new book from Amazon about making ADORABLE critters out of stray socks. So cute! It will be fun to try for all of us.

The circus yesterday was very fun. Interesting at times, but fun. Charlotte had the flu all day and I wasn't feeling great either but pushed through for the sake of Katryna. So we're staying in to rest and clean today. Maybe if we get our work done we'll try to find some stray socks to turn into cute little owls or something. ;)

Wanna See More of RHFH???

Licia and Lori's brother Casey is in Haiti right now and took some great video of the Rescue Center and the long line waiting to be seen at the clinic (amazing) and of sweet little Darlens.

The short tour video is wonderful and shows all the places we were and a lot of the kids we loved and played with. Good stuff!!! :)

At the circus

Circus Day

Very excited to get to go to the circus with Katryna for her big 5th grade field trip tomorrow! I'm excited. She's excited. It's ALL good! :)

The CRAZY that is UNICEF

How does man decide that power is more important than children?

I will never understand UNICEF and I will continue to hope that more people realize what they truly stand for. Are they REALLY working in the best interest of children or are they just on a major power trip that makes them feel like they must do anything and everything to prove they are the authority. Even if it means kids are sleeping outside under a tarp in the rain without loving caregivers. Yeah. Crazy.

Read more HERE.

Some Disney Favorites

No surprise...I took WAY too many pictures in Florida.

I'll try to post them in stages, but as you'll see from this first group~
there is a lot. ;)

Charlotte eating one of my favorite things at Disney~
Mickey Waffles. How can they be that yummy???

Charlotte LOVED the characters. Like she loved them so much that it was hard to keep her away from them. Here's everyone with the Mouse.

Donald was definitely one of her favorites.

She LOVED the Little Einstiens too. She wouldn't stop hugging the girl (I'm having an Einstein blank. What's her name?) so I just went ahead and took the picture.

She about lost her mind when we finally made it through the line to see the UP characters. She made this face when she saw Dug the dog. How cute is that???

The UP characters were really cute and very interactive. Mia asked Dug if he's seen any squirrels and he acted just like he does in the movie. Adorable.

Mia was picked to dance in one of the parades and she took her job very seriously. She danced her little heart out.

Bazzy is a very happy little man in the picture.
Charlotte is kinda hiding in the back. She screamed and ran when Queen revved his engine.
The only thing that really freaked her out.

Being "eaten" by Bruce.

Mia's favorite~ Snow White.

Bazzy got smooched on the cheek by Cinderella. Look at that grin on his face. Yikes.

I got to play Paparazzi a little again. We saw Demi Lavato, Joe Jonas, and the guy that hosts America's Funniest Videos.

We loved watching this lady in Japan make beautiful animals out of candy.

I decided to buy an oyster in Japan to be opened and see what pearl was inside. It was inexpensive and very fun because they make a huge deal out of it with a Japanese Ceremony every time a pearl is opened. I couldn't help but giggle cuz the lady was SO animated.

The kids all had Christmas money that they had saved for Disney and Mia decided she wanted to pick a pearl also. I made her wait until another day to be SURE this is what she really wanted to do. I didn't want her to see something she really wanted and regret picking a pearl just cuz it was "in the moment." She waited 3 days and all she talked about was picking her pearl. So....

....we headed back to Japan so Mia could choose her oyster. :)

Neither of us got the special giant or gold/silver colored pearl, but it really was fun and I'm going to order a cheap pearl cage off of ebay so we can both wear out special treasures.

There will be more to come soon.....
(whether you like it or not! ;) )

Charlotte loves Costco

We ALL love Costco. ;)

One of Those Songs

Do you guys have "one of those songs" that always seems to get stuck in your head whenever you hear it? We all LOVE the Nemo Musical at Disney's Animal Kingdom and we decided to buy the CD this year so we could listen to it in the car. I had this song stuck in my head when we were in Florida and now that we listen to it in the car....
it's stuck a LOT. ;)

I hope to get some Disney pics up soon. We decided to tackle putting Bamboo floors in my art room today. Actually Kris decided to do this before I even woke up this morning. We didn't factor in that the wood has to acclimate to it's new home for several days before it's installed...so our plan was put on hold for a few days, but we had plenty of regular cleaning and laundry to keep us busy.

I also attempted to sew this afternoon to help the Rescue Center. I tried to sew some simple dresses that are similar to the pillow case dresses, but smaller. They turned out pretty cute, but my techinal skills are definitely lacking a bit. No Project Runway for me for awhile. I'll post pics of those soon too. Until then~ enjoy Nemo.

Tamales!

Yummy

Local Job Help for our Refugee Dad

(This is the only picture I could find on this computer that involved Hsar Moo ;) )

I'm just hoping to spread the word so that hopefully someone local might have an idea to help out the Dad from our first Refugee Family. Tyson laid off over 400 workers last month and most of them were Karen Refugees. Unfortunately the dad from our first family was one of those who were laid off. :( I'm SO bummed for him and for his family. Bummed and also freaked out because they were approved for a Habitat House and I DON'T want them to lose out on that opportunity! His last day at Tyson is March 22.

Hsar Moo is such a hard worker and loves his family more than anything. He has worked himself up to one of the higher paying positions at Tyson and worked long hard hours so he could save money for his family to have their own home.

I would love to answer any more questions anyone has about this great guy and I hope that SOMEONE out there might be aware of a job opening. English is obviously a bit of a barrier still, but I have NO doubt that he could easily pick up any skill. Seriously. He's a very intelligent guy and actually knows more English than he thinks he does. He just gets nervous to speak it.

Please let me know if you have any ideas. Thank you!

Very Excited

The girls school did a raffle to help the Rescue Center in Haiti.
Sofia brought $5 out of her piggie bank (all she had) to donate for
the raffle and they drew names yesterday and Sofias name was chosen!
The prize was this beautiful oil drum sculpture made in Haiti and I'm
so thrilled to be able to hang it in our home and so proud of my girls
for giving of their own money to help the kids in Haiti. The kids at
school appropriately named her Hope. :)

Bye bye Mickey

Bubbles

Lunchtime

Playing in Pooh's Forest

Matey

Ahoy

Heading To Tom Sawyers Island

Breakfast

About to go....

.... On Big Thunder Railroad roller coaster. :)

Happy Valentines Day

Norway

Waiting to eat in Canada

Sleepy valentine

Dancing Kids

Look what bazzy bought

Lol! :)

Finding Nemo

Mia and pearl

Manatee!

Baz and the fish

Drumming at Boma

The Little Girls

Cars and Aunt Judi

Late night carousel

Baby ducks on the rain

Baz and his new Alien