Ricky

This past weekend, Ricky competed in a regional meet for Special Olympics track and field.  Although the weather was ONCE AGAIN cold and rainy, we all managed to have a great time!  The thing that struck me about Special Olympics when we first began participating is that it is for ALL ages starting at age 8.  You see some pretty old athletes competing which is great for them.  Ricky always seems to get placed in competitions with much older and bigger athletes as they use their qualifying times to place them.  He is quite a little runner and has a great arm for the softball throw so he is paired up with much older people to compete against...see the size of his competition! Ricky is in lane one all the way to the right. It was raining and he wouldn't take his Buzz Lightyear rain jacket off!

He took 5th place out of 8 in this race...the 50 meter dash!

He also competed in the 100 meter dash where he took 3rd place!  In the softball throw, he did amazing too!  We left before they determined the winners in that competition so we will find out tonight at practice.

They had the local fire department there to allow the athletes to tour the fire engines...Ricky LOVES fireman and wants to be one when he grows up so this was a treat for him!

We also had FOUR extra children with us this weekend!  I am often asked to take foster children on a respite basis so we had 3 adorable...but very busy...children from one family over the weekend.  Then our little princess, Miss S, who we cared for over the first 6 months of her life, came for an overnight visit too!  We love and adore her and are so happy that she is back with her mommy and daddy and doing really well!  We are blessed that they allow us to stay in her life and get to see her at least once a month!  It's fun for us to see her grow up and it gives her parents a little break too.

The sun has been out for TWO days now and today promises to be beautiful too!  What a difference the sun makes in one's disposition after weeks of cold and rainy weather!  Enjoy today...

FFF

I haven't posted photos for Friday Favorite Foto in a while...here are a few from this week.  Peter recently started swim lessons and he has just taken to the water like a little fish!  All 4 of my other children were very hesitant swimmers and I spend a FORTUNE on lessons before any of them advanced to the next level.  With Peter, it's such a nice change to have a child who actually liked the water right away and he has already been moved up to the next level!  Having him swimming this summer will be nice as we spend so much time at our lake home!

Ricky loves to see himself featured on this blog and asked me to take a picture of him in this silly pose!  My flexible little man will be competing in a regional meet for Special Olympics tomorrow so I will be sure to post an update once that is done.  The weather is supposed to be cold and rainy all day...no surprise with the cool wet spring we have has so far!

My Crew

We had a beautiful day and a great time for Mother's Day yesterday. We all were squinting with the sun in our eyes but at least we HAD SUN!!! Spent the day with my sister and her family as well as my parents.  I don't often post pictures of my whole crew but here we are.  One member of this crowd was especially crabby and refusing to smile!

There are very few pictures of my mom and I as we both dislike having our pictures taken but I took the opportunity yesterday to have one taken of us.

This next one was taken on Mother's Day last year...my kids are growing up and changing....They are truly wonderful children and I am so blessed to be their mom!!

PETER

My sweet little man, Peter, turned 4 the other day!  He wanted a Sponge Bob birthday cake as that is one of his favorite TV shows!  He is growing up so fast and turning into such a nice young man! We celebrated his special day by him going to a movie with his Daddy, "HOP", and then having a bar-b-q with my sister and her family.

We recently spent a weekend in Duluth staying at a great hotel right on Lake Superior.  They have bonfires each night and hotel guests can roast marshmallows and make s'mores...yum!

We also got to meet my newest niece, Alivia...what a beautiful LITTLE one she is.  She was born very early but is doing so well...

 I couldn't resist taking this picture of her by a margarita which was bigger than her little head!

Of course, we got up early last week to watch the royal wedding.  We were invited to watch it with our friends who are from England and they treated us to a wonderful English breakfast and tea!  Greta will always remember getting up at 4am to see a real princess marrying her prince!  The wedding was especially fun for us as we visited all those places while in England a few years ago!

I just want to say Happy Mother's Day to my mom and all the other wonderful moms out there!  Hope you have a special day!

Water Fun!

Last week my kids were on spring break.  Unfortunately, we didn't have any fun vacations planned so we spent most of the week at home...did some shopping at the Mall of America but also had a few days of winter storms that we were basically stuck inside so it was a LONG week for this mama bear!  I was happy to send them all back to school on Monday!

One thing we did do was rent a hotel suite for a night and met my sister and her family(she also had 5 children) there.  The kids had a great time in the water and just hanging out with their cousins.  The adults had a great time visiting with each other too!  We even were able to sneak away for a nice relaxing dinner without the 10 kids!  The pool area was nothing fancy but the kids LOVED just being in the water.  It made me realize that I will never again miss a warm-weather vacation in the middle of winter...it's just too long to survive in the cold here in Minnesota without a break!!!  Next year we are already thinking Disney or Nickolodeon Cruise....

Pictures

I am FINALLY getting Peter's 3-year old pictures back.  He will be 4 next month!  I did try another photographer that came to our house last summer and took OVER 1000 photos of him and every one was awful!  She just could not get him to do a natural smile and by the end of the session, he was so wiped out and crabby...so was I!  I paid a fortune for that sitting fee and never even bought a single photo from it...they truly were terrible!  Anyway, I went back to my old stand-by photography studio and they did a fantastic job capturing his sweet personality and sly smile!  My handsome PILOT PETE!!  When we ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he says he will be a pilot "just like Daddy" or a farmer...really!!??  I actually can picture him as a very awesome farmer!! (growing organic produce for his mommy!!)

Welcome to Spring!

Yesterday there was NO SNOW left in our yard.  Today we woke up to 6+ inches and it's still coming down.  Under all that snow is a nice thick layer of ice too!  I know this is Minnesota but seriously...this has been one of the longest worst winters that I can remember!  Many Minnesota schools are cancelled today and we are ON SPRING BREAK!!! Bummer...we were hoping to do some fun OUTDOOR stuff during break...I didn't think shoveling out our driveway would be one of those FUN items!!!

We usually take at least one warm-weather vacation during the winter and this year it didn't happen as we still had our little foster baby and didn't want to leave her with another foster family while we left!  When you do get away somewhere warm, it helps to endure the rest of the winter.  On a positive note, my boys are loving the snow again!!

Ricky

Today is World Down Syndrome Day!  We are so blessed to have Ricky in our lives.  Through him, we have met so many amazing people!!  Ricky has taught us patience, acceptance of those who may be different than us and more than anything, he has taught us about unconditional love.

We just picked up Ricky's new glasses.  Isn't he so adorable??!!  We never even realized that he wasn't seeing well until the school nurse did an annual check of his eyes and discovered that one eye had very poor vision.  It's going to take him a little while to get used to wearing them, but in the end, I think he will realize how much better he can see with them!

Our little foster baby was here with us for over 5 months and just returned to her mommy and daddy last month.  We are happy for them but miss her like crazy!  I have to say, foster care is a wonderful blessing for my family but the pain is very real when they leave us.

Our kids are on spring break this week!!  Although the weather has been in the low 50's the past few days and the snow if melting, it sounds like more 30 degree temps are in our forecast for the rest of the week. We need to plan some fun outings to keep these kids busy!!!

Oh, one more thing...in addition to lots of other fun new items, I have added these three AWARENESS hair bows in my etsy shop!