Picnic

If you read our adoption blog, you know we held a picnic/potluck as a benefit for Dashlyn's adoption fund. You can read about it here if you would like. I was hoping for a big turnout, and we tried to have a couple of games (like a 50/50 raffle) to earn some money. It was fun; my sister and brother in law provided burgers and hot dogs and grilled them, my good friends Pam and Ken provided music from their DJ business, we played games and ate great food, but it didn't quite work as well as I'd hoped. We didn't even earn $300, so if I subtracted the money we spent, it would probably be closer to $180. So I'm bummed, and worried about the financial aspect of our adoption. And the only reason I'm posting about this at all is a few people have asked how it went and I'm having trouble being positive. I need to come up with more ideas I guess.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Here he is, my oldest son, my firstborn, the first to call me "mom", the first person to ever take my breath away when he tripped at age 1 1/2:

Isn't he handsome? His face has changed so much over the past year. We had senior yearbook photos taken a week ago and I still can't believe it. He's matured, he's grown, he's becoming an amazing young man. It will be so fun to see what he does as a grown-up. It went too fast though. I miss the baby, the little boy, the sweet way he said "mick" when he wanted a cup of milk.

He went go-karting for his birthday, with a few buddies. (They're sooooo big!)

They came here afterward (along with a few more), for roasting hotdogs over a firepit and then an entire night of Xbox. Yes, they ate a lot. Yes they were noisy. But I cheated. Since the in-laws live super close, the younger kids and I snuck over there to spend the night, and then we snuck back in the morning! Al was here, but since he can sleep on an airstrip the noisy boys didn't bother him a bit! Andrew had a great time and I hope the other guys did too. He sure does have some nice guys for friends :).

Just so you know how well I'm doing...

I got up and got ready a little earlier that usual this morning to take Jack to his ENT appt. Just another follow-up to check on his tubes, check his hearing, all that stuff. M wanted to go, so got her up too and we all headed out. We get to the Dr's office, and yeah, his appt was yesterday. They will probably charge me the "no show" fee which I deserve. grrrrr. We set up a new appt for next Mon. MONDAY. The 21st. MONDAY. (I keep thinking if I say if often enough it should stick. Right?)

Jack's last day of the school year (well, almost)

(I added 3 posts today! Woo Hoo! So keep reading!)

So this is the next-to-last day. See the day I took these pics I thought it was the last day. Turns out, he had one more day. But this was a seriously good day!

Can you tell what this is? (Inside the big bowl!) Yep, it's ice cream!

Everyone got to add something to the giant sundae. Jack added sprinkes!

Braska added MORE sprinkles!

And here it is - the biggest Preschool flavored ice cream sundae I've ever seen!

Look who showed up to help enjoy the ice cream.....it's Kinlee!

Yummy! And really cooooold!

And a kiss for Mommy is even better than ice cream!

Pictures of the last days of school!

This is the best I could do of Ty. Yes, he wore his hoodie on the last day of school when it was in the 80s. What a goofball!

Here's my beautiful girl going to the bus stop. Who said she could grow up??

Getting her 8th grade graduation certificate.

Proud of herself! So am I!

I met someone special!

I feel like I'm living a double life these days. One is this life, where I take care of my 4 kids and blog about that. The other is my "adoption" life. There's so much to do, so much to think about. If you click on Dashlyn's button over on the right, you can see what's going on in in that life. But today, my lives intersected!

This is Erin! (with me and Jack, who must be involved in all picture taking opportunities)

She and her hubby are adopting Oksana from Dashlyn's country! They are traveling super soon and we got to meet Erin and her boys, and Erin's mom before they left. Erin has been a super source of info for me.

Have a great trip and be safe Erin and Larry!