Wheeles Family: August 2010

Sycely's First Day of Kindergarten!

Sycely had her first day of Kindergarten last week. The transition was, of course, much easier for her than me, and the tears, were of course, all mine (though Ella did cry every day the first week when we dropped her off.) We packed her lunch and backpack and laid out clothes the night before and Lem took the morning off to be there for the big event. He, thankfully, took us out to breakfast after the big drop-off to help fill the time and keep me distracted. We had to bring her her own stool so she can get on the potty and reach her cubby, but she took to her classroom as well as all the other, bigger kids did. She had a great first day (aside from not being able to get up on the climbing wall during gym) and was still all smiles when I came to pick her up at the end of the day. She's enjoyed being in school and tells us details about her adventures everyday. Ella's been missing her favorite playmate, but is starting to get used to having the house and toys to herself all day. I, on the otherhand, am still adjusting to having just one kiddo home. I'm still getting used to the quiet-especially for a couple hours during naptime!

Sycely's 1st Haircut!

Part of Sycely's getting ready for school included getting her very first haircut. Her and I made the drive out to Eagle River, had ice cream to kill some extra time and headed to see Miss Normandy. She got to wear a very fashionable zebra print cape and even let Miss Normandy wash her hair in the special washing sink.

She of course, is still little enough to need a booster to be at the right height. She sat very still and followed directions perfectly. Norm trimmed about 2 inches off her ends and followed up with her own artistic flair involving purple spray in high-lights, curls and glitter spray.

No, she didn't ask permission to do any of that. She's kind of a stinker that way sometimes, but she has been waiting 5 years to get to do Sycely's first haircut so I guess we can forgive her that and the 5 suckers she gave her ;)

African Children's Choir

A few years ago we had the opportunity to watch the African Children's Choir in concert at our church. An amazing program of restoration, the African Children's Choir a Music for Life program has been helping Africa's most vulnerable children for 25 years. Music for Life offers camps for African children ages 7-11. These camps offer crafts, games, music, devotions, and in general, a break from the everyday cycle of poverty that surrounds these children. Once children are selected for a choir they spend 5 months at the Choir Traning Academy where they learn the songs and dances, as well as attend school and church. As they come from some of the most needy families, the African Children’s Choir is committed to helping Choir children physically, spiritually, emotionally and academically, giving each child an opportunity to reach their God-given potential.

While touring with the Choir, the children are exposed to a world of new possibilities. Chaperones, host communities and caring professionals share their wide variety of experiences with the children, exposing them to many new ideas and encouraging them to dream.
After returning to Africa, the African Children’s Choir provides care and education that builds on the unique international exposure the children experienced abroad. The children receive a quality education, leadership training and spiritual ministry at the Music for Life Primary School or at other well-equipped schools in their respective countries. Selection into the African Children’s Choir means a long-term commitment and investment as the children are supported through their secondary and post–secondary education. Scholarships, school visits, camps and counseling are just some examples of the support given.

When they solicited host families for this year's tour at church, we jumped on the opportunity to use this home God has blessed us with to bless His precious African children. We had requested girls since we figured that'd be easier with our own girls, but got a surprise when we picked up our two African children and chaperone and they were all BOYS! Of course, hosting Derrick, James and Uncle Tony was a blessing to us as much as it was to them. The girls got to make friends from another country, another lifestyle and a whole nother culture and were exposed to a life much different than their own. But, most importantly, the learned the important lesson that we are all created perfect in God's intention and that His love is universal.

The boys were very gracious and polite and it was kinda fun being called Uncle and Aunti (their equivalent of Mr. and Mrs.) Their English was fairly well developed and we were able to understand each other and communicate easily (aside from one instance regarding how to cook their egg yolks) They played nicely with the girls and didn't balk one bit about the fact that the two of them were camping out in a very pink, girly, princess room for the night (see, we were totally expecting GIRLS!) Uncle Tony is a past member of the choir who is now serving as a chaperone and it was interesting to hear him share about his experiences in the choir, his travels and his passion for providing for these children the same education and experience that the program provided to him.

After their concert we got briefed on instructions for our time with our guests and met them for
the first time. We headed home where the boys showered and readied for bed. We had a bedtime snack of milk and cookies we'd baked earlier in the day. Then it was time for books, prayers and bedtime. It was a very special experience listening to the boys pray and thank God for all the simple things they have that we so often take for granted here in the States. I will always remember our time with these sweet boys.

The next morning we got up and cooked breakfast. Derrick had shared that his aspiration was to be one day be president while James wanted to be a chef. It wasn't much of a stretch for him to help with preparing breakfast. We had a feast of pancakes, eggs and sausage and afterward I fixed up some lunches while the kids all played outside. Our morning entertainment included an impromtu drumming session with tambourines and Sycely offering her own rendition of the African dances from their perfromance the night before.

We headed out to Kincaid Park to meet up with the other host families and the rest of the choir for some outdoor play and fun. The kids played soccer and played on the playground then we finished up our time with lunch and some group photos. Then it was time to get the boys packed up and drop them off at their tour bus to head off to their next destination and host family. We are so grateful we had the opportunity to be just a small part of the remarkable work God is doing for these children and the nation of Africa.

August

After the crazy rollercoaster the month of July was, we've really been enjoying opportunities to get together and spend some low-key time socializing with family and friends. We've had Lem's cousins' girls over for a BBQ and got to host my cousin Danny and his wife and three girls shortly after their move up here from California. It's really fun to see our girls playing with all the little "cousin girls" and them all just fitting right in with each other without any effort at all. Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and watch and let yourself be reminded of the joys of the simplified life of young ones-no cliques, no discrimination, no social struggles, just acceptance. We got to have a few visits with our friend Alaina when she was home visiting from Portland. We eve shared some of the raspberries we've been picking at Nanny and Papa's with her.

Ella's been enjoying dressing up and playing with her big sister. She's pretty entertaining to watch her engaged in dramatic play either with Sycely or on her own with toys, dolls and figures. Sycely is always such a great sport to share her things with Ella and include her in whatever she's playing or performing. Sycely also finally decided that she wants to ride her bike. When we got it for her this spring she broke into tears telling me that kindof bike was for 5 year olds and she wasn't 5 yet. I guess now that she's 5 she's ready for bike fun. The girls had one last end of summer sleepover with Nanny and Papa and that kicked off our back to school season.

Bonnie and I got to go on a girls night with Cousin-in-law Amandam, Cousin Jesse's girlfriend Rachel and Ian's girlfriend Kathryn. We shared some fabulous Moose's Tooth pizza and followed up with dessert and tea. It was such a nice time of girly bonding and I just love the girls in our family to pieces! Bonnie also finally made the leap and retired from Dimond this year so we got to celebrate her big transition with a deck party with all the Dimond crew. She's so far enjoying the work (and the flexibility) of being Ian's paralegal.

August hasn't been all lazy days and socializing, though. It's back to school time which means, tennis and school started back up for Lem. This year, he's added Student Government to his activities so work began on that even before school with a working retreat with the Student Government students. They got the year off to a great start and got a really good jump on planning their activities and giving direction to their year.

Back to School time was doubly exciting around here this year with Sycely starting Kindergarten. We got her registered and got all her school supplies, including the colored pencils and gym shoes. We didn't find out the our zone exemption was approved until a week after registration, but we were able to go to her school's ice cream social and meet her teacher and tour her classroom and walk around the school a little. Kindergarten starts a week after the other grades here so the teachers can meet one-on-one with their students. During this time they're able to talk with the parents as well as do an assessment to see where the kids are at cognitively and socially. I'm thrilled with Sycely's teacher (no easy feat with my background) and am so thankful that he background is in early childhood and that she has great value for play and development based learning. I'm confident that Sycely is going to thrive this year and that her love of learning is going to be supported and developed. I'm really grateful that I can feel that way about her entering school.

We also encountered 32 straight days of rain-yep almost as many as Noah, so when the sun made an appearance for 8 days straight we took advantage of it best we could. We were wrapping up the end of Sycely's summer so our last day before school started we headed to Bouncin' Bears and had lunch picnic style along Campbell Creek. The girls had fun playing a the playground and tossing rocks and just watching the baby fish swim around. Turns, out, the August sun, was in fact a fluke and the pouring started up again when the fair started...so, back to normal, I guess.

Official Mrs. United States Photos by Joe Pier

Here are some of the official photos from Mrs. United States, taken by Joe Pier:

With Tammy Johns-Brown, Mrs. United States 2009 at Registration

With some of the other delegates at our welcome dinner

With my line leader buddy, Mrs. Alabama. We developed our own combination of hand signals, eye contact, head nods and cues to keep us perfectly synchronized as we took the stage and lead our groups in the opening number.