Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Another Speech

Today I spoke to a class of offenders at the Treatment Center.  I seemed to be weepier through it than usual.  I think it was because of the recent start of school along with the fact that it had been several months since I had spoke.  The class was very quiet after my presentation, but after several minutes they finally asked questions and opened up with comments.  Hopefully the silence meant I touched some of them. 

Monday, August 29, 2011

MTN Donor Family Picnic

Saturday we attended Midwest Transplant Network's organ donor family picnic at Faulkner's Ranch in Kansas City.  The girls had a great time with all the activities there and I was able to reconnect with some donor families I had not seen for a couple of years.

Elly loved all the animals in the petting zoo, even though she was a bit intimidated by the buffalo and Brahma bull at first.




While waiting for some of the festivities to begin, we played inside on the fun rocking horses and cows.


The girls got a kick out of milking the cow.

They loved watching the goats play on the goat climb.  We bought some feed and they sent it up to the top to make the goats climb up their playground.

Duck races played with water pumps.


Horse swings!

Elly was thrilled to be able to play on a playground since ours is in a pile.


Horse rides were a hit with the girls.  They rode several times.



We tried cane pole fishing, but the girls had trouble with there being no reel. 



Bounce house fun for Elly.


Doug became Elly's playmate for the day.  He pushed her on the swings, played duck races, and chased after her.  I was excited that Doug and Julie were able to attend since we had not been able to get together since our Washington DC trip.


I was glad I let Doug step in for me to play the water balloon toss in the second round with Mady since it ended up being a fight at the end.  Both came back wet.


Girls vs boys at tug of war.


Musical chairs was followed by a game of limbo which Elly was proud to win by simply duck walking under the bar.



It was great to spend the day with other families like ours.  Elly asked lots of questions from people there since she is trying to process death in her little mind.  

The picnic shirts had a great quote on the back ~  "Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." James Matthew Barrie  

Friday, August 26, 2011

Celebration Pictures ~ Ice Cream Eating Contest

One of the favorite events of the day has been the ice cream eating contest.  This year, two groups competed. 
 


Group 1 winners~

On to the adults ~






The winners!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Celebration Photos ~ Magician BJ Talley

Magician BJ Talley entertained with his magic tricks.  He even had several volunteers up on stage to help out. 







Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Celebration Photos ~ MDA On The Stage

I am finally gettting my computer to agree with uploading pictures and am going to be flooding the blog with pictures finally!  Here is Maryville Dance Academy performing for the crowd.    



This year Elly was super excited to be dancing too.