Camp Joy -- Girls and God

This will be another first for the girls.  They are going to bible camp.  They absolutely loved Bible school a couple of weeks ago.  Auddy was complaining because it didn't last long enough each day.  Well bible camp will be ALL day long and all night too.  Rachel is taking them to Camp Joy. The camp that she worked at over the past several years.  Rachel will be the nurse at camp for the week.  The girls will get to stay in a cabin with a bunch of girls and thier cousin, Sydney, also went with to camp. I pray that God will touch their hearts in a special way this week.  The camp this week is for 11-13 yr old girls and they will get to do lots of GIRLY stuff.  Plus they will get to go to canteen every day and spent their money on candy and drinks.  It will be interesting to see how they do with that because they really haven't gotten to take their own money to the store and buy something yet.  There will also be games and singing and campfire and a speaker.  I hope they have a blast!

Islande celebrates 6 months in the US with a trip to Grandma's

Islande is staying with Grandma CG this week.  This is the first time she has been away from home for more than a night since she got here.  Don and I are guessing that Grandma and Ed have a little more "noise" than usual in their home.  Islande loves to talk and ask questions, in fact, she hardly ever stops asking questions!  Sounds like they are having a blast!  Auddy is home with mom and dad.  She is loving the one on one attention.  She has picked a stack of books for us to read to her every night.  On Monday, she got to go to Hope and Sydney's to play for the day and today, Tuesday, she went to Bree's house.  Bree took her swimming at the Benson pool! fun, fun, fun.  Do you want to know how you can tell if Auddy has a good hand of UNO? She just giggles and smiles.  Bree and Auddy played several games of UNO today.  Auddy's favorite game is UNO.  We even played a few extra games when she got home tonight.  We have discovered that Auddy loves corn on the cob just like all the rest of the Sperrs!  At first she didn't think she would like it "me no like" but after she tried it, she is hooked!

Auddy and Hope in the boat

Rachel and the girls at Don's Father's day outing.

Islande and Grandma Betty

The one that didn't get away!

Summer is going sooo fast!

Wow!  It's hard to beleive that July is almost gone!  We have had a busy summer with many firsts and many funny sayings and events.  The girls are getting more comfortable all them time and gettting more used to us and the US.  Rachel has been home for the summer taking care of the girls while I am at work.  That has been great!  They absolutely love to be with her, she has taught them all kinds of fun stuff and they love to travel around with her and listen to her cool music in her car.  My idea of cool music just isn't as cool!  The other wonderful thing about having her home this summer is that she and the girls can do a little laundry or dishes and cooking. 

Our schedule so far as been :  TRAC every morning from 8 to 11 at the UMM.  (so no sleeping in) -- this is a reading program that the girls have gone to every day for the 1st 6 or so weeks of summer.  It was completed on July 14th.  They had small group or one on one tutoring from college students who are going to school to become teachers.  Reading and Vocab have been huge for the girls.  They are both improving and learning more words all the time.  Their sentence structure is still a bit confusing but they are catching on little by little.

The girls had swiming lessons for 2 weeks in June.  They were in Level 2 and did not pass this time but they are getting more comfortable all the time in the water.

Next we had Basketball camp -- both a dribbling camp and a regular basketball camp.  They loved that!  The whole dribbling thing is just a little too time consuming for ISlande so when she really wants to get to the other end of the gym in a hurry, she just picks up the basketball like a football and runs with it.  They both loved the camp and loved getting treats and prizes and playing with their friends at camp.

We sent the first week of July at Lake Darling with all of our friends.  We have rented a cabin during that week for several years.  The girls got so much more comfortable in the water and even learned to tube and tried skiing.  We all had a great time and great weather and the girls were great entertainment.  Islande loved, loved, loved to fish. They went fishing every morning for 2-4 hours and she caught something every day.  She and Dad even got a 5lb 3oz walleye one day, she was all smiles.  Auddy kept trying to hide a fish ( a live one) to take home as a pet.  By the end of the week, we decided she would be better off with a gold fish in a tank than a stinky perch in a pail.  We broke down and got her some fish and borrowed Michelle's fish bowl to try the fish pet thing for a while.  We are down to 2 fish, we started with 4.

This past week, the girls went to VBS at our church. They had a blast!  Auddy came home the first day and said it was "too little".  In other words, it should last all day instead of just until noon each day.  They were singing VBS songs all week long!

This next week, Rachel won't be here, so we are winging it with various friends and a few dr appts etc.
Rachel is in Haiti for the week with a team from our church.

Pics to follow!

Grand old time at many graduations!

The girls have loved GRADUATION parties!  We have gone to at least 8 in the last 3 weekends and they have figured out that there is GREAT food at graduation!  haha... They average at least 8-10 meatballs per party and managed to each eat 4 or 5 pork chops at Tanner's graduation over the course of 3 hours while we were helping.  Food is so exciting to them and they really do love to eat and are hungry all the time.  We went to the cities this past weekend for 2 different graduations and ended up staying over night and going to the "waterpark of America" by the Mall of America today.  We all spent 5 hours in the water! floating down the river and flying down all the water slides... It's official, they love the water.  They start swimming lessons tomorrow.

May ... Sunshine and bikes!

May had flown by! The girls' english is getting so much better.  They still talk Kreyole to each other but are getting better about communicating with us.  We have had lots of firsts again.  Auddy learned to ride bike on her own.  She has really been struggling .. Islande caught on so quickly so this was tough for Auddy.  On Monday, the weather was so nice and we went out to show Grandma the bikes and the garden we had just planted and Auddy tried again and it just clicked and she could do it!! She is so excited, she rides around and around the yard!

They are on the AgCountry softball team. They had their first game on Thursday... and they won! Both girls even hit the ball!  They are loving Softball.

Jesus likes me...

Auddy told me that "Jesus likes me" (meaning her).  When I asked her how she knew that, she told me that she is still living.  She lived thru NO Food at Madam Lucean's and the Earthquake in Haiti and she is still alive so Jesus must like her.  So simple but she is right!

Tammy Trent in Morris -- The girls got to meet her personally!

Tammy Trent did a concert at our school ( arranged by our church) .  She was awesome!  and the girls got to meet her personally. She is quite energetic and fun to hear and watch.  She did some cool dancing and the girls wondered if I taped it so they could practice and do it just like her!  They were so funny and enjoyed it all.  

The girls are also starting softball pretty soon so that will be exciting too! One more week of Trek (a reading program that they go to after school. It's taught by university students that are going to be teaching majors). School is going well too.