Last Weekend...

We had a really busy weekend...it just flew by. Saturday morning started really early with a garage sale benefiting TEAMworks Ukraine. Everyone from Children's therapy TEAM donated items and we were able to use the old North Star building, which worked out great since is was 95 degrees last Saturday. We had a great turn out and a lot of volunteers...thanks to everyone that helped!

We had so many items donated that we separated everything into different rooms. This was the home decor room.

the kids room....
Hannah and Lena selling donuts and drinks...

I had the early morning shift at the garage sale because of continuing education. We're starting a Constraint Induced program at the clinic so we were all practicing our casting skills. I'm so excited for this program to get started....it's going to be beneficial to so many of our kiddos at the clinic.

On Sunday we headed to the Naturals game for a Children's Therapy TEAM event. Dima threw out the first pitch of the game, so everyone from TEAM was there to cheer him on.

Dima...the all star

All the kids were holding signs for Dima...it was so cute!

Owen is still not a fan of Mascots...

All the big kids were eating snow cones, so Owen decided the he need one as well. He loved it!!This is a picture of Owen and Mary Claire after their snow cones....they had very colorful lips!

More News

TEAM Talent on FOX Family Edge...



You can also watch the story on the NWA homepage.

More on TEAM Talent...

This is a clip from the KNWA broadcast Monday night after the TEAM Talent Art Gallery

TEAM Talent Art Gallery

Children's Therapy TEAM presented the 1st Annual TEAM Talent Art Gallery tonight at the Fayetteville Town Center

TEAM Talent is a program at Children's Therapy TEAM that is offered to special needs children here in Northwest Arkansas. The program started in the Summer of 2009 as a way for the kiddo's to explore all their talents. The curriculum is divided into an acting program in the Fall and an art program in the Spring. At the end of the Fall semester, the kids put on a Christmas program and the Spring semester concluded with an Art Gallery!

This Spring, the kids met every Monday night to explore their artistic abilities. Each child was presented with supplies and given a general theme....then they put their creative minds to work and created some amazing masterpieces. And tonight we not only had the opportunity to view their artwork, but we also got to ask each artists about their masterpieces....I absolutely loved hearing all their unique stories about each piece of work!

Sam presenting the 7 Day Forecast...

Josh and Sam

A display of artwork from many different artist
Mary's masterpieces...

Katie, South, and Lexie enjoying some of the delicious goodies...

Ethan showing off his balloon hat...

Annie, Josh, and Owen

In addition to all the artwork, there was face painting and balloon animals...so much fun!!!!

Owen and I with Kole...

You can catch a glimpse of the TEAM Talent Art Show at 10pm tonight on KNWA (channel 9) and around 9 pm Wednesday on Fox

Saturday....

Owen and I started our Saturday morning with the neighborhood garage sales. Our neighborhood has a joint garage sale with the connecting neighborhood every year...it's always the second weekend in May. I thought we might find some fun toys for Owen's daycare, but apparently you have to get up early for the good deals. Since we're not really early risers, Owen and I ended up doing some garage sale browsing instead of garage sale shopping.

After our morning adventures, we headed to the Arvest Ballpart for the March of Dimes march for babies. Their mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. All of the money raised helps to support research and programs that help babies begin healthy lives. We have a Children's Therapy TEAM that walks in the march for
babies every year.

Owen and Mary Claire waiting for the walk to begin...

Our kids in front of the Children's Therapy TEAM booth...

After the March of Dimes walk, we went to the Bentonville clinic to work on the mats in the gym. Owen and Josh had a blast playing on all the equipment. I'm not sure who had more fun, Josh or Owen. They played in the ball pit, jumped on the trampoline, climbed on the jungle gym, and went down the slide...then I had to pull Josh away to help me with the mats.

"This is fun"

The finished product...

Owen played so hard that he crashed on the way home...

For dinner we tried a new dish....low fat king chicken. It passed the test for all three of us so...it's a keeper!

For those other VLCAD parents out there...here's the recipe

3 large chicken breast, cooked and cubed

2 cans low-fat cream of mushroom soup

1 can low-fat cream of chicken soup

1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chiles

1 green peper, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1- 6.5 oz package of corn tortillas

2 cups shredded fat free Cheddar cheese

Saute green pepper and onion in nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking oil spray

Mix sauteed green pepper and onions with both soups, rotel, and cubed chicken

In a 13x9 casserole dish, layer mixture alternately with tortillas and cheese

(make sure cheese is not on top - it melts better)

Bake at 300 for 40-45 minutes

On Your M.A.R.K. Academy

Josh played in a charitable golf tournament for On Your M.A.R.K. Academy last Saturday. This was the first golf tournament for OYMA....but I'm sure it will become an annual event. There was such a great turn out and everyone had a blast!

On Your Mark Acadamy is a school for children with special needs here in Northwest Arkansas. They have low teacher to child ratios and provide a unique and individualized learning environment for each child. This school is connected to Children's Therapy TEAM where I work...so I have had the wonderful opportunity to watch each of these children grow and develop. You can learn more about On Your Mark Academy here.

Caroline and Danielle, two therapist from Children's Therapy TEAM

Marsha and Stefan...Marsha is an occupational therapist at Children's Therapy TEAM and mother to Stefan. Stefan is a student at OYMA.
All the golfers getting ready....

John Micheal, Josh, Bill, and Travis were a team....

Lance also joined their team for the first 9 holes...

Josh's team didn't win, but they all had

a great time trying...

Dinner and a game...

Owen got to have pizza for dinner tonight...it was actually more like pizza bake but he didn't know the difference. We found a low fat pizza crust recipe on the back of the heart health Bisquick box, so we decided to give it a try. The ingredients: Bisquick pizza crust, diced tomatoes, veggies, grilled chicken, and fat free mozzarella for a total of 7.5 grams of fat for the whole pizza. Owen loved it, but Josh and I thought the crust could use some help....so we'll continue the search for a more "normal"

crust that's low fat.

The pizza bake...

Owen cleaned his plate and wanted more
After dinner, we headed to Lake Fayetteville to watch the TEAM play softball. The girls ended up playing a team of former softball players so the score was not so pretty but everyone had a blast. Owen watched the game on and off, cheered for the girls, played with the other kids, climbed all over the bleachers, ran around the ballpark, and played in the dirt. He was on the go the whole time!

Owen watching the game...

Blakely and Owen playing in the dirt...

The TEAM...

Packed and Ready....

We're headed to Ukraine tomorrow morning!! The past few days have been long and crazy, but I think we're finally ready. We spent Thursday night packing all the suit cases with supplies and donations...and as you can tell from the pictures it was very chaotic!

Each suit case can only be 50 lbs, so we did a lot of packing, weighing, re-packing, and weighing again. By the end, we managed to pack 3 wheel chairs, 1 stander, a lot of wedges, treatment materials, orthotics, shoes, toys, etc. into 17 large suit cases. Now we just need everyone to pray that the airlines let us slide if the bags are 1-2 lbs overweight!

Please keep our group in your prayers over the next week, specifically that our travels go smoothly and safely, that our information is well received, that our training and suggestions are carried over after we leave, and last but not least that we show God's love to everyone we meet as we work with these children.

We have a very busy schedule, but we'll try to blog while we're in Ukraine. Thanks to 99balloons, we officially have our own website now!
It's www.teamworksukraine.com.
So...if you're intrested in following our work in Ukraine, check out our new blog!