La Romana...part one

The church was planning another trip to the Dominican Republic to work with the Church of God in La Romana. Paul had been the previous two years and this year had planned to take Mallory along. We began fund raising and getting Mal all set to go. Two weeks ago Michael and I were blessed to jump on board and join the team unexpectedly.

We flew out of Memphis Saturday morning at 6:15. We left East Prairie at 2 in the morning to make the drive down to the airport. We were all geared up and excited albeit tired from little to no sleep for some of the team. 

We flew through Houston and on to Punta Cana. 

The kids worked on some of their school assignments on the plane. 

Duke and Jennifer were back for their second trip together and Duke's third. 

Kathy, Lonnie and John were all returning for a second visit. Once you go on a missions trip generally you want to go back. 

Mike brought his oldest daughter along this time. 

After a long line thru customs we were finally on our way to the hotel. 

Mallory and Michael in front of the hotel pool. 

Michael took some nice pictures of the hotel grounds the next morning before church. 

 

We had a wonderful service at church. Paul preached with the help of an interpreter. He told of the miracle healing of the shingles he came down with the week before the trip. 

We ate lunch at the church after the service. Michael tastes the coffee they served. 

Michael had fun climbing on the rock pile outside the church with a couple of the boys from the church. 

After church we stopped by their version of Wal Mart called Jumbo and picked up a few supplies for the week then headed back to the hotel for a little R and R before beginning our work week. 

The kids had gotten some pickled eggs to use as punishment for a challenge game they were going to play. Yuck. 

Dinner was at 7 and after some more hanging out and visiting time we all hit the sack to be rested for our first work day Monday. 

Oh Say Can You See - Part Deux

Our Children's pastor, Dawn Walters, does such a wonderful job with our kids. She teaches them the things of the Lord and mixes in a lot of fun outings and events with them. 

A couple of summers ago the kids sang the national anthem before a Memphis Redbirds game. This past Saturday they sang it at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau before the women's and men's basketball games for Southeast Missouri State University. We didn't have a huge number of the kids turn out but it was a pretty good group and they sang, well, you know, it's a tough song to sing:)

Here they are preparing to take the court. 

They put a mike out for the kids to gather around. Pastor Dawn directed them. She's very musical and is a talented singer herself. 

The kids were up on the jumbo tron. 

Mallory got embarrassed when the singing got a little off key.  You can see her in the back with her head down:)

I got Michael a Southeast tshirt to wear to the game. 2 bucks at Goodwill:) He also wanted me to paint his face. Such a sport. 

The M's...Mallory, Maranda, Michael and Matthew

It was a very enjoyable day. The girls' team won but the men lost. The band, dance cam, indoor blimp that dropped prizes and all the other gimmicky things made the game quite entertaining. So many of our EP friends attended SEMO, as it's more commonly known, so it was nice to visit the campus and cheer on the RedHawks!

Mallory's 11th Birthday

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For the past three out of four years Mallory has had a sleepover for her birthday. I love all her little friends and have never minded hosting the squealy lot of them. But unfortunately drama is prevalent in this age group and even though I have a degree in theatre I am no match for this stuff. For the most part things have gone fine until like 2 in the morning when the girls are all tired and emotions run high. Paul has always wanted to put them to bed by midnight but you can hardly do that at a spend the night party!

So this year we put the kaibosh on a sleepover and came up with going to a movie and out to eat instead. We've had all but two of the kids' parties at home and I have always gone a bit overboard to lead Paul to say after every party "two words, Chucky Cheese (yes it's Chuck E Cheese but that doesn't go well with "two words"...)

I did a search to see if any kid movies were coming out the weekend of her birthday found out the new Peanuts movie was. Perfect. We picked the girls up in the carline at the 3-6th grade elementary school where they all go and got to the theatre, 20 minutes away, in time to take a picture, get popcorn and get settled in our seats. The girls plus Michael took up an entire row. They moved twice one time to get closer, and another time after some people sat down right in front of some of the girls!

We all enjoyed the show. It was very cute and sweet and lasted right at an hour and a half. So far, no drama!

Next we went to Mallory's favorite place to eat in Sikeston, China Buffet. Would have been my last choice but she loves it and most of the girls seemed to as well and it really did serve its purpose. No waiting for a big order to come out. Everyone got their drink orders taken and headed to the trough.

At the end of the meal the owner lady brought Mallory a little piece of cake with a candle in it. She's really great. Always happy to see ya.

After we ate we came back to our house for cake. I had thought of taking the cakes along and having dessert at the restaurant but Mallory wanted to come back home and it worked out really well. We were at two separate tables at the restaurant but got to all be together for cake and singing. Still no drama. 😀

The girls played a bit outside. I took a few of them home and others had moms to pick them up. When it was all over we had had a good time and never had any issues with drama so the party was a success based on that alone!

I'm so thankful for all the sweet girls who came to celebrate with us and for their mommas who allowed them to come and trusted Paul and me to watch after them on our outing.

Happy 11th Birthday, Mallory Belle. We love you and are so proud of the tweener you are! Now, stay out of the drama! ha ha

On Mallory's actual birthday we did a bit of celebrating too. Here are the highlights of November 4th, 2015...

Michael asked if I would get him up early to set up a little something for Mal. So this is what we came up with.

Mallory asked for homemade waffles on the waffle iron for her birthday breakfast so I made them for her.

She read the family devotion on her special day. So sweet.

Here she is for the 11th time by 'the cake' before leaving for school.

We always have a few kids come home with us on Wednesdays so it was fun to have a little mini-celebration with the Wednesday night gang. Mallory asked for spaghetti and I made her a pumpkin pie. She's not big on icing and really prefers pie so it worked.

Happy 11 Mallory! Two year til we hit the teen years. Yikes! Drama.