Our new, sweet child!

is four years old, matches stripes with plaid, lives in Peru and has a bit of sass. We love her.

Now it's time for a proper introduction. Her full name is Milagros Del Pilar Ramirez Iparraguirre. Kinda just rolls off the tongue.

How did we meet such a delightful child? Well, I happened upon my bff's blog, and well, she'll do a better job explaining our decision of why we chose a Compassion Child. After reading about her very own experiences with children who are currently being sponsored by compassion and how their lives are bettered daily, from living in trash, to living with a hope and future, we decided to find one of our own.

Oh, and then there was God. He's all, "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." Well, hey, ok then!

Well, back to our little Milagros, which means "Miracles" in English. She is in Kindergarten, where she is doing "average." hmmm, I will pray that although I am not there to tutor her, that she will soon become advanced. :-) Who knows where I can find Kinder/1st curriculum books in Spanish?

Please pray for little Milagros with us, she needs it! Thanks!

Here's her pic, told you she was sassy! That's why she jumped out at us, we knew she'd fit PERFECTLY into our family!



To see some of the other precious (seriously) children needing sponsors, visit here!:

WARNING! Do NOT click here if you are not ready to see some MAJOR cute

Quick, pray for Milagros right now before you click on the next blog/facebook!

Why I miss Lucy

Cause she was so flippin' good at data entry. Entering grades has become a tedious chore in her absence.

11 Countries in one day!

Last Sunday we had the best day! We met up with our sweet friends Jason and Mindy and went down to the international fair in Balboa park. There are little cottages, each with artifacts from their country, and little treats! Norway house has heart shaped waffles and strawberry jam, Ireland has beef stew and soda bread, Sweden has almond danishes, Italy had biscoti, and much more! My favorite was definitely the Norwegian house because the man in charge was passionate about sharing the history of Norway with a smile! He also spoke like many in Minnesota when they are telling an "Ole and Lena" joke. (these are classic Norwegian jokes with the same two protagonists, and they cannot be told without a thick Norwegian accent, even ask my dad)

Andrew's favorite was the Ireland house because they had an abundance of food, and Irish dancers which made it very festive. Well, just thought I'd share, it was really fun and I recommend it to all!

It came in a dream

"Mrs. Brockhaus, can we stay in at recess and create a poster to cheer us on for First in Math?" asked four of my students.

First in math is an online game, and each class at our school is a team. You can log in at home, school, library, play math games and earn points for your team. Our team is in second place at our school with 48,000 points. But only first place gets a trophy. The closest next behind us is only 30,000. We are in fierce competition. We DONT' share our secrets, we don't fraternize with the enemy, we do whatever it takes! We are pitted again the first place team--a fourth grade team--who currently has the trophy in their class, and they have all year.

Oh, did I mention you can be ranked within the city and state? Oh, did I mention that this fourth grade class who holds our trophy is ranked second...in the state? ONE of their players has more points than half my class....

But California has a small populous, right?

Well, here's to high hopes! :-)

My eager students created this masterful paper of hope, had each student sign it and we hung it on the wall above the computers. "I thought of the idea in my dream," said Timothy.

Here's us with our poster, and YES! WE mean BUSINESS! WE are MATH STARS! At our school at least...






Three cheers for optimism!