Karate Kids

These are the three foster kids that we had when we lived in Vegas.  Ciarra, Nickali and Brandon.  Kenny and Kale had been participating in Karate for a while before they came to our home, but once they arrived, we enrolled them also.  It was quite hilarious the looks we got when we took all 5 of them in at the same time and many of the parents would comment on our “bravery”.  Below are their individual poses:

KENNY:

KALE:

BRANDON:

 

CIARRA:

 

NICKALI:

 

And here is one of the whole rowdy bunch…

 

A fantastic bunch that brought us a handful of laughs, a few tears and a lot of adventure.

Canning Tomatoes in Hurricane

I was going through some of the pictures on my phone tonight and came across these great pictures of the boys canning tomatoes at the Haley Prete’s parents house over Memorial Day 2011.  I thought I would share them with all of you.

               Smile for the camera!

            Kenny, Sarah & Emma Prete

The kids helped us remove the skins off the blanched tomatoes and “stuff” them in the bottles to be canned.  They really enjoyed getting sticky and making juice, but the fun only lasted about 10 minutes and then they decided it was off to the backyard to play again.  I thought the fact that they came in to help a little was pretty cool.

Miniature Golf with the boys

On Friday the 23rd of September, we took they boys mini golfing at the golf-a-rama in Hazel Dell.  They have been wanting to go golfing for quite some time and have been bothering us a bunch so we decided to go for 18 holes and see how they would do.

They were really having a blast, and doing pretty well for the first few wholes and then I think they got a bit bored, because their strokes were more and more and the balls were not going in the holes.

When we got to hole 14, Kenny looked at the strip and said (and I quote), “ Oh my curvy mother, you need to hit this one with uumph!!” (see photo below for the pic of hole 14)

All in all, we had a great time.  The scores ended up being:

Dad: 47

Mom: 66

Kenny: 84

Kale: 92

The course was a 41 – so you can judge for yourself how well we all did.  Afterword, we enjoyed a meal at Steak Burger and then went home and watched movies and ate popcorn.  A great way to end the week.

Saturday @ 7 am…

I awoke to a strange buzzing sound.  Kenneth was not in bed with me but Kale was sleeping at the foot of the bed.  I rolled towards the sound and found Ken's cell phone ringing.  He had it on vibrate, which is abnormal for him.  He was asleep downstairs on the couch (for reasons unbeknownst to me).  I answered the phone to his Dad asking if we were up (why would we be up on a Saturday morning at 7am???) and wanted to go to breakfast with he and Carolyn.  He was taking her to the Red Mill in Milwaukee, Or.  He claimed that it was some of the best breakfast food in Oregon.

I crawled out of bed and wandered down to find Kenneth to see if he was interested.  He thought it sounded fun, so 25 minutes later we were off to meet Ken and Carolyn at their house and head to breakfast.  We drove for about 20 minutes and as were came around a curve in the road, there it was; a big red barn complete with a water-wheel.

We parked and went inside.  As we looked at the menu, I realized this was going to be about as “healthy” a breakfast as anything could be that contained biscuits and gravy, pancakes and waffles.  Whole grain everything, oats and grains of all kinds.  I have to admit, I was a bit worried.  But the food wasn’t half bad…  I don’t think I will go back anytime soon to eat, but there was an amazing array of whole and bulk foods, kitchen gadgets and other neat things.  I will have to go back when I can explore the store at my pace (meaning no kids).

The boys seemed to enjoy it and anytime they can spend time with their grandparents makes them pretty happy.