the start of school

Today is supposed to be our first day of school. The kids are all excited and doing all their work. I'm not feeling well, and am lying in bed. Hmmm... glad they can get along without me! :-)

Luba's week with us

( This picture is out of order) Here is Luba with her "birthday" presents at our annual cousin's camp. Because my brother lives so far away (and because it's hard to remember everyone's birthdays) we do all our gift exchanging at cousin's camp. Luba was thrilled with her watercolor tubes and other art supplies. Doesn't she have a beautiful smile?

Meeting Luba at the airport. Their plane was scheduled to arrive at 10:50 pm but actually arrived 30 mins. EARLY! (who ever heard of an early plane???)

Because of the late hour of arrival, only Clarissa traveled to St. Louis with us to pick her up.

Meredith and Luba at Maramec Springs, our Sunday afternoon activity with the other children from Russia.

Luba is visiting.

Last night we drove to the St. Louis airport to pick up Luba. She is from Russia and will be staying with us until July 13. She is with a program called the Lighthouse Project. They bring older orphans to the USA in hopes that they will find a family to adopt them. She will be going to a VBS done in Russian for 3 days this week, so she can learn about Jesus.

Luba is 13 and is oh so sweet! Although she speaks no English and we don't speak Russian, we've had fun communicating! She's already picking up some English words and we're finding out that despite what Russian words look like, many of them sound the same as in English.

One of the funny things that happened--Rebecca was showing her pictures in her science book, saying the names of the animals in English, then Luba would say it's name in Russian. (this is when we figured out how similar the languages sound). When Rebecca pointed to a mouse, Luba said what sounded like "clarissa!" So we typed it into imtranslator.com (a great tool!) and found out that it is actually the word for "rat" that sounds like Clarissa! We've had fun giving Clarissa a hard time about it! And, thankfully, Clarissa is a good sport about it!

A Week without "helpers"

I've been home this week with only Meredith and Matthew. Jenna is in Colorado with Mom and Dad, and my brother and his family, enjoying Deer Valley Ranch. (www.deervalleyranch.com ) Clarissa and Rebeeca are at Little Prairie Bible Camp. (http://littleprairie.org) I've gotten a lot more accomplished than I thought I would, but it has been a tiring week.

11 years ago, Jenna was Meredith's age, Clarissa was two months older than what Matthew is now, and I had just given birth to Rebecca. But I am now 11 years older, and this is HARDER! :-) We have had a lot of fun though. Yesterday, Kenny went with us to The St. Louis Zoo. It was HOT but we had a lot of fun. Matthew LOVED the elephants and the giraffes--among other things. I would post some pictures, but they are on my phone and I don't know how to upload them. I'm hoping Jenna can teach me how when she gets home! :-)

I thought I might mention that the post below concerning our trip to Hawaii could be somewhat misleading due to the title. We DID NOT take the 5 kids! :-) The "equation" in the title simply means that after 20 years of marriage and having five children, Kenny and I took a vacation together. I intend to post more pictures, but I just haven't yet. Maybe tomorrow......

20 Years of Marriage + 5 kids= trip to Maui!

Picking pineapples! Very cool tour of the pineapple plantation! They were incredibly sweet! We got to eat our fill in the field. I think I ate a whole one, just myself! Yum!

On our final day in Hawaii, we visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.

Hanauma Bay, a nature preserve where we went snorkling. We saw some incredible fish, coral, urchins, etc... Abosolutely beautiful!

The view from our hotel in Maui on our final morning there

Sunset on Maui. This was our final night in Maui and the best sunset. It was pretty hazy most of the week as the tradewinds were blocked by a storm and the volcanic mist from the Big Island was settled over all the other islands. (We heard this over and over from the locals--however we thought it was beautiful even with the haze!)

At the Old Lahaina Luau

Dance recital pictures

Jenna didn't want anyone to see her in this lovely blue dress--but Mom's like to post these things! :-) She is in the back row, 2nd from the right. Rebecca is in the middle row, 3rd from the left.

The Annual Spring Camping Trip

Each May, we camp at Sam A. Baker State Park in Southeast Missouri. We have a "core" group of 4 families that go and usually several others. This spring it was just those 4 families plus Allison's parents--a small but close knit group! (small compared to the trip last fall where we numbered 52!)

Sam A. Baker has a nice level bike path that takes you to the nature center, creek and camp store, and there's a nice hiking trail to the shut-ins. There was quite a storm Friday morning as we were enroute, so the river was up several feet and there were some trees down. BUT--while we were there the weather was GREAT! We got a little drizzly rain Sunday night (it wouldn't be camping without some rain sometime along the way!) but we had sunshine Monday morning so everything was dried out for packing up.

One of the fun things we did was shooting off a "bottle launcher." The Gaines saw it on "Ask This Old House." It was a PVC pipe that they attached a 2 lt. bottle to, used a tire pump to add the pressure, then they pulled and string to launch the bottle about 80 ft into the air. To add to the fun, there was water in the bottle, so whoever did the pulling of the string, got a shower. We ended up losing three bottles in the tops of the pine trees, but were able to shoot down one with a sling shot. We were working on one of the others when we realized that it was sitting about 5 feet from a hawk's nest. We noticed it when the momma hawk flew in to feed the babies! Needless to say we quit shooting the tennis ball at the pop bottle! The third was way too high in the tree to be able to get it down. I'd love to hear the stories people make up, trying to figure out how a pop bottle got to the tops of the pine trees! LOL!

Camping at Sam A. Baker State Park

Bike riding is a major activity while camping. Here's Matthew learning how. Once when he was climbing on, he said, "HAT!" so I guess he's already learned the rules about always wearing a helmet! (no, he can't actually ride, but he did enjoy being pushed around. He loves riding in the cart behind Kenny! (no pictures of that though) :-(

Hiking with Daddy.

Sitting on the waterfall en route to the shut-ins. A beautiful hike!

Throwing rocks at the shut-ins. Matthew definitely is right handed with writing/coloring, but he's a "switch-hitter" with his rock throwing. As you can see in this picture, he's demonstrating his left handed skills.

Because of the wet conditions, every rock Matthew picked up had mud on it's bottom side. He's smudged it on his face here.

Our whole camping crew--front: Allison Bruno, Peggy Austin, Beth Branson, Laura, Adelia Gaines, Row two: Stan Austin, Anna Mae Bruno, Drew Branson, Katie Bruno, Meredith, Will Gaines, Rebecca, Kenny, Back row: Charlie Bruno, Emily Bruno, Andy Gaines, Megan Bruno, Rachel Gaines, Jenna, Clarissa, Mary Kate Gaines, Melivin Branson

We traditionally stop with the Bransons for lunch at Elephant Rocks State Park on the way home. Here are Kenny, Meredith, Rebecca and Drew Branson way up on the rocks.

and zoomed in, so you can see their smiling faces!

Meredith is the flower girl--again!

This past weekend, Meredith had the opportunity to be a flower girl again, this time for Cassie Leach and Andrew Smith's wedding. (Cassie is a young lady that we attend church with). She wore the same dress that she wore in Tim's and Katie's wedding last Sept. , removing the black sash and replacing it with a lovely cornflower blue sash and bow. The wedding was held at Little Prairie Bible Camp, where Cassie's parents are the care takers.

Here she is with Premier, the ring bearer. Aren't they cute? :-)

Bingley picture

I just realized that I never posted a picture of Bingley, Rebecca's puppy--so here he is!

This was our post-show celebration at Steak and Shake. The girls were "attempting" to do the "Got Milk?" look, but I think Jeni and Hillary were the only ones that were successful!

This is Leia, Clarissa's new puppy.

My three dear daughters in their costumes for "Pirates of Penzance."

The Stanley Sisters, a "Bevy of beautiful maidens," being scandalous by showing their bare feet!

Catching up! Again!

Well, once more my life has been way too busy to blog! But we've had such fun! We now have ANOTHER new puppy! Leia is Clarissa's border collie. She is so fluffy and adorable. She is somewhat shy, but that means when you actually can pick her up, she's a good snuggler! So once again, this non-dog person is enjoying a puppy!

We've just finished a 6 show run of "Pirates of Penzance." I wasn't IN the show--I helped my dear friend Kim, the director, with note taking during rehearsals and I was also the "ticketmaster." We sold out all 6 shows, even selling tickets for as many folding chairs that we could fit in comfortably for 3 or 4 shows. It was somewhat stressful--but FUN! The show was INCREDIBLE! Jenna played the role of "Edith." I described her as the "spunky gal in purple." It was a fun role for her! Clarissa was one of the Maj. Gen.'s daughters in the 2nd act. Rebecca was in the intermission show, "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." We all had such fun! I'll attempt to upload some pictures.

Bingley

We have a new puppy! He is so adorable! That should tell you a lot, seeing as how I'm really NOT a dog person! Bingley is a Rat Terrier and is about 8 inches long and 6 inches tall. I've not uploaded pictures yet, but I will soon. He officially belongs to Rebecca but Kenny is pretty enamored of him. Matthew likes him a lot too, as long as he's not jumping on him. As little as Bingley is, his jumping can still be pretty overwhelming to Matthew!

Matthew's adventures

Matthew loves to COLOR! Today I discovered crayon on the walls. Yesterday I caught him coloring on the window of my office. Luckily, it came right off--not so the walls! He also loves markers. This morning he got into a pink marker--it's not the washable kind!

He really needs a haircut! We've already cut it once, but it's growing like crazy! His curls are awfully cute, but I think he's looking a little "girly."