Justino turns 10!

The cake. The red is the flash from another camera. :( This was supposed to be a battle between Pikachu and Piplup. Jay said that Piplup won, probably because Piplup is his favorite.

Jay's new bike. Grandma and Grandpa Ramon sent Jay money to get a new bike. This one is really cool.

The kids. This is my entire living room! And it fit 7 kids! Thanks to all the kids and parents for a fun day.

Star Wars Legos. Jay loves LEGOS.

Transformers!

Getting ready for cake!!

Ellie trying to hit the pinata.

Ricardo made a Pikachu for the "Pin the tail on Pikachu" game.

Party area. Jay even bought a Pokemon shirt for the occasion.

The 29th was Jay's birthday and he turned the big 1-0! He is so funny because he thinks this is such a big birthday. :) We had a few kids over for a Pokemon themed party. It turned out nice. The kids had a good time. Ellie even got to hang out and play. Ricardo got a soccer ball pinata and spray painted it to look like a Poke ball. We are so happy that Jay had such a wonderful day. We can't believe he is 10 already. The years sure have flown by. Thanks to all those who sent along birthday wishes. We love you all.

Andrew

This is Andrew. He lives in Uganda. We have been sponsoring him through Compassion International. I just wanted to share his story so that if you feel led, you might sponsor a child also.

Andrew is 9 years old and lives with his sister. His mom passed away. Andrew's dad makes around $3.00 a month. Andrew loves learning about living things and playing football. Some of his chores are fetching firewood and washing clothes. He is now learning the Parable of the Sower and his favorite Bible story is the birth of Jesus.

We are hoping that one day the Lord will open up the door for us to meet Andrew. Compassion Intl has trips so that sponsors can meet the kids. What an amazing experience it would be for us!

Ellie's Dance Recital

Ellie and her teacher Mrs. Caya. A funny story.....Ricardo worked with her husband in Hawaii at JPAC. Small world.

Waiting to go up on stage.

Ricardo and I had been talking about getting Ellie involved in an activity. There are a few classes for her age group so we enrolled her into a Creative Movement class that teaches basic ballet and tap dance. This particular class was just a two week summer class so basically they just learned one dance to show what the class has to offer at an informational fair on base.
The kids had it more "together" at practice at the gym. I think they were surprised that they were in a huge building with lots of people. They still look way cute though and of course I had to try really hard not to cry. My baby is getting so big!

The video of the dance is too large to put on this blog :(

Rita's tour

Ellie chose to have Fudge Brownie and Jay tried the new flavor, Swedish Fish. I am not a fan of the candy but the ice was really good. It just left his entire mouth red!

The entire process for making this batch took only 10 minutes. It brought back memories of my high school days when I worked at TCBY Yogurt.

One of the wonderful ladies at the church (Calvary Chapel Ellicott City) set up a tour for the Moms and Tots group to Rita's. It is an Italian Ice and Custard shop. I had never been to one before. We got to taste test almost all the flavors they had, we watched how the ice is made in the machines, the kids got to make a bracelet and we got free ice and goody bags!!! It was so much fun.

Outside fun

Some of the flowers that Ellie helped Ricardo plant.

Jay and his friends were outside playing and they found this snake. He was in the middle of his meal time. We watched him eat this frog! It was really cool to see exactly how a snake eats. We felt bad for the frog. It is amazing how the entire frog went in the snake.

Ellie and I were playing with chalk outside. Can you see her self portrait? The squiggles on top are her "crazy hair". :)

I am almost caught up on this blog! Here are some random pics of us outside. Ricardo's new hobby is planting flowers. Actually he has planted herbs and pumpkins too! He has also been building many things like a planter and a bird house that Jay helped him with. We have been enjoying the family time that we have together.

Military Appreciation Day

The mascot from one of the Texas teams.

Shamu made an appearance.

Face painting

She loved riding the pony!

Tyler (left) and Jay (right) were trying to fight eachother. Note the word "trying".

There was a Military Appreciation Day being held on Fort Sam Houston (Texas) so we went to check it out. It was awesome! There was free Dominos pizza, drinks, popcorn, shave ice (Sno-cones)..........we certainly had our fill. There were alot of bouncies for the kids and even a pony ride. The only down side is that Texas gets very HOT! We had fun though.

Last day in Hawaii.........part 2

The canyon

Another view of the canyon

Plumerias

Kaui Coffee fields that we went to visit on the way to the canyon.

After our run on the beach we went to the West side of the island to see the Waimea Canyon. We stopped along the way to see various sights. This last picture is a waterfall that was along the road. I can't say enough how beautiful Hawaii is.

Last day in Hawaii.........

This is one of the many beautiful sunsets that we witnessed in the morning on our run on the beach.

There were alot of dead little jellyfish on the beach.

Ricardo running on the beach.

My sweet husband was writing in the sand. We had a great week being lovey to eachother. ;)

Luau

This was a volcano in which the Hawaiian goddess Pele came out of. Very cool special effects.

A beautiful hula dancer.

Hibiscus

Various pictures from the grounds where the luau is held. The family that started the luau many years ago were missionaries to Hawaii. They had prayer before the dinner which was so awesome. We had a great time.

On our last night in Hawaii, we went to a luau. The food was awesome. Ricardo and I were really missing living in such a wonderful place. There is no place like Hawaii. ;)

Kayak Trip

Yoda, the Guard Dog of the shack where we got the kayaks and met with the tour guide. The guys didn't even lock up the shack when they left. They said that Yoda would take care of it. :)

Part of the trail.

There were even wild chickens up in the mountains!

The waterfall that we got to swim in.

On the trail.

A small waterfall along the way.

We went on a kayaking/hiking/swimming trip on one of the days we were in Hawaii. We kayaked 2 miles each way, "hiked" 1 mile each way, and went up to a waterfall where we had lunch and swam. It was awesome.