Sunday means church day...

Today was church, which when adding a child into the mix made us a tad on the late side.  There is a good chance we would have been late anyway, but that was our excuse!  Today was also the day of our church wide picnic after church.  We had lunch and then everyone played an assortment of games ranging from Washers  to Volleyball.  It was an absolutely beautiful day outside.  I have to say that I love our church.  They have welcomed him in with open arms and were amazing to him today in helping him learn the games and accepting him even if it wasn't quite right.  I am pretty sure he played at least three games for the first time ever.

Playing ladder golf 

He also played wiffle ball for the first time ever today, getting his first ever hit ( thank you to everyone that played)!  The third game that he played for the first time was washers, which he actually beat me at the first time that I played against him this afternoon.  I did redeem myself in the second game however.

After the picnic we celebrated the birthday of "Loco Colleen" (that is what he calls her) with a birthday dinner, we then came home and took the scooters to the park and walked around the park while the three older kids rode their scooters.  We had a few stops along the way, to drop sticks in the water and watch them come out the other side, to skip rocks, and to walk out on the pier, and look at the lake!  It was a GREAT day today!

Nothing more American!

What ia more american than baseball and fireworks other than apple pie of course. Today we started off pretty early. We had our final tball game of the year. It was pretty cute to hear " Go Libby" in a cute l@tvian accent.

After the game we hit the park. After playing a while a game of tag broke outt and fun was had by all. The rain kept us from swimming  this afternoon so it left the kids to have nerf  gun wars and build forts in the livingroom.

We ended the night watching a great fireworks display in Arthur. Day two wound down with some very tired kids!

Day one down.

Day one has now come and gone.  It was a very late night last night, finally getting to bed around 3 a.m. I would have thought that I would not have any trouble sleeping.  WRONG I was up between 6 and 6:30 due to excitement I am sure.  After breakfast, we all went down to swim, where we found the rest of the hosting families as well.  It was a great icebreaker for the new hoster and a great chance to bond again with the rehosters!

After the drive home, the kids were going 100 mph showing him everything that we had changed since he was here last, and all the stuff outside that he did not get to really do when he was here for Christmas hosting.  We wrapped up the evening grilling, and eating outside on the patio.

It was a great day overall, but there are some tired people in our house tonight!

The time has come!

Today is the day, well yesterday was supposed to be, but delays made the plane an hour later!  That was the story of my day. I took the day off to get the yard mowed and to St. Louis in good time. Well a 3 hour mowing job turned into more than 5 due to mower issues. We made it down here just in time to find that his plane had been delayed.  We got to hang out with the other awesome host families for a bit longer than we thought due to the plane being delayed. We were all lined up waiting for them when e realized that they were coming from a different concourse, so we took off running to the other end of the baggage claim!

We were created with a big hug as if he had never left. We all got big hugs and went to get some ice cream!  It is now almost 2 a.m. and playing tablets. It has been a great night!

5 Days!!!

We are down to 5 days.  5 days until we get to hug him again.  5 days until we get to see his sweet smile.  5 days until we get to hear his sweet l@tvian accent.  When I sit here and think about the airport pickup, I can not help be think about how much is different this time than the last time we were waiting at the airport.  The level of excitement in the family is getting higher and higher each day.  We are all so very excited!

I am still trying to figure out how I am going to blog about our hosting experience this time.  We are in a totally different place than we were the last time we hosted.  We will have to be a little more limited with the information that we share in order to protect ourselves while in the process.

Many of you have asked what we are going to be doing with him while he is here.  We are very excited that he is coming during the 4th of July, because he loves fireworks.  He is coming at an exact opposite time of year, the hustle and bustle of Christmas and all of the commitments that come with that time of year are not there.  We plan on slowing down a bit, spending a lot of time in the pool, attending local festivals and giving him some experiences that he has never had before.

If anyone has any question feel free to fire away!

Excitedly waiting!