Reading the fine lines....

A few weeks ago we went to the Wild's hockey game.  They were giving out mystery rides for MOA ride park.  Last week we picked Jade up there and I allowed the girls to go on one ride.  We lucked out and had 2 100points tickets.  Tonight (Friday) I took my four youngest and my nephew (8 yrs old) and neice (6 yrs old) along.  A lot of the "big" rides you have to be 48 inches tall.  Monika is 47 1/2 inches tall.  She got clever and wore her dress boots that put her just at 48 inches.  Steven and Trisha haven't been on big ride, but my girls were quick to take them on it.  They did pretty good.  I had told the girls that the two tickets we had had about 190 points total plus we still had 3 unused ones, so even if they had a min. of 5 points on it ,we had over 200 points and said they pretty much could go on as many rides as they want.

so we go on the first ride using the "unused" tickets, not many points on there.  I had to be very cleaver and on my toes.  Kids wanted to go on different rides, so I can to arrange on rides by one another.  The 6 of them did awesome.  We soon discovered you need to read the fine line.  The tickets that we used last week were only good for that day, so we lost out on all those points.  The children were disappointed as I had told them they could go unlimited rides.  So my cheap night just turned into a very expensive night.  The girls (and the one boy) had a blast.  Little Miss Monika was called our roller coaster baby.  When she was adopted at 10 months old, every time we got in a car or bus in China and it would go over the bump, she would laugh and giggle.  She loved to be tossed up in the air and so forth.  Then when she hit about 3, she was a little scary cat of rides.  Enter Erin in the picture who loves rides.  When we did the unlimited pass for the girls Katie and Erin went on all the rides and Monika was so disappointed.  So when we were leaving today, she dug out her heeled boots to make her tall enough.  she was about a 1/4 inch to short until those boots got on.  She felt so proud of herself to come up with that idea and that she got to go on the big rides.

 Jenny and Trisha hung out together.  This was Trisha's first"big" ride.  She got scared for the first half of it and then realized Jenny was laughting so hard, she decidedd to have fun.

Jenny and Trisha

Monika, Katie, Erin and Steven rode the Airbender ( I think that is what it was called)

Maniac drivers

Waiting for Monika and Erin

Katie and Steven

Erin

Steven and Trisha's parents joined us later on.  We decided to the plank which is ropes and blocks, climbing thing.  It is a rapid heart beating event.  Erin and Trisha only lasted for a short period before calling it quits.  The rest of us had a blast.  It was scary doing tight ropes and so forth.

Update on the Erin:  After I posted my last post about what happen with Dave and Erin.  After I written the post, I got a couple of comments left, along with some emails and phone calls.  Some people thought we did the right thing, some people disagreed.  When I wrote that post, I didn't write everything that had happen.  I am always open to advice and so forth as Erin is a very unique and special girl that needs a lot of love, boundries, and guidance.  She is trying so hard not to love us, not to like us, not to be a daughter, not to be a sister.  She is slowly realizing that we do love her not matter what, that she is our daughter forever, that she will always have sisters to be with.  She is also learning that can and can not do certain things even if she doesn't agree with it.  Wednesday night we were talking and I casually brought up the incident from Tuesday night and what was not appropriate and why Dad chose to do the disipline he did.  She has been with us for 4 1/2 months and has treated him most of the time very disrespectful and mocking him, giving him dirty looks, not wanting anything to do with him and she refused to stop after many attempts.  I also explained again about slamming the doors.  I told her she needed to say sorry to him for what happen on Tuesday before she can get the door, camera and computer back.  She asked me to call him and say sorry to him for her.  I told her "no" she needed to do it herself face to face.  She asked when she would see dad again, I said Friday morning and she said she would then.  I was shocked by this as she never said sorry for the other 2 major outburst with me.  She saw hime Thursday night, but didn't say it, and Friday morning, she didn't really get a chance to say it.  When we were talking before going to the mall, I mentioned that I heard she didn't say sorry, and she explained to me why it didn't happen but planning to do it.  Praise the lord, even if she does decide to wait it out and be stubborn, the fact that she is saying she will say it, is a gaint step for her.  She is also been trying to communicate better with me the last couple of weeks.  I have said many times, we have a very long ways to go, but anything positive we will take.  It takes a village to raise a child, and my precious daughter Erin is needing a very large village to raise her and she is learning even if she doesn't want to admit it, she is learning what Love is and what family is.