Last Day of Summer

                                     Love this picture considering all they've been through.

                                                          Asia looks really grown up here!

Today, I took the kids on a celebration of their last day of summer vacation.  We started the morning out with breakfast at Ihop.  The kids got the Silver 5 meals.  They each had 5 pancakes, sausage, and scrambled eggs.  After breakfast, we headed on over to Tyndall Park.  We ended up walking the track for a bit before the splash pad opened.  Once we figured out how to get the water going, the kids had the whole place to themselves for almost an hour.  They had a blast splashing around.  After the splash pad, I surprised them by going to see the Minion movie. We even splurged and let them get candy for the movie.  They ended up eating 2 big bowls of popcorn!!! Well, I might have helped some!  After the movie we ended the day with ice cream and playing at Sonic.   It was a fun, memorable way to spend the last day of summer vacation!

Open House

The kids were super excited about going to Open House.  We got their early- as usual- and stayed in the car to wait on Luke. The school has no parking, so it's always good to get a spot early.  I read Little House on the Prairie to the kids while we waited.  We went to tour Asia's new class first.  She has Ms. Crossett.  We found her seat and put away all her school supplies.  She seemed excited about starting 2nd grade.  Next, we found Robert's 3rd grade class.  It's all the way on the other side of the school.  Robert has a cool desk that opens at the top.  He was amazed by that.  He met his teacher Ms. Vaughn.  We are super excited about that.  After putting all his supplies away, we headed onto dinner.  We ate at Taco Bueno before coming back home.  We're all looking forward to great school years!

Kingston Turns 4!

This past Sunday, we celebrated Kingston's 4th birthday.  He had a Paddington Bear Cake.  His favorite part was eating the nose.  We fixed burgers and hot dogs with all the fixings.  Kingston brought over a remote control car to play with.  The kids and I picked out Crocodile Dentist- a game for him to play.  It was a fun day to celebrate his 4th birthday!

Class Posting

So the kids could hardly wait until 4 o'clock today to go to the school.  It was class posting day!  They talked all stinkin' day!!  It was non-stop chatter about nothing all day.  This is what we do when we have anxiety.  I'm dreading school to start and can't wait all at the same time.  I let the kids find their names on the papers.  They both were thrilled that this year their whole names were right!  Asia is in Ms. Crossett's class for the 2nd grade.  Robert has Ms. Vaughn for 3rd grade.  I'm thrilled with both.  I know Ms. Vaughn and am so thankful we have her this year.  We stopped by the entrance to the school to take a few pictures.  It was so awfully hot outside! We ended the class posting celebration with drink and onion rings at Sonic.  Bring on the school year!

1 year Adoption Celebration

Luke and I decided to celebrate the adoption of our kiddos last night.  It's officially been 1 year since we adopted them.  Our house is the longest house they have ever been at.  When they start school in a couple of weeks, this will be the longest amount of time they have ever been at one school.  We let them pick where they wanted to eat.  They chose Larry's pizza.  We found one doing a buffet and decided to go.  Robert was not a fan of the taco pizza.  They both loved the BBQ chicken pizza.  My favorite one is the Honey Mustard Bacon Chicken and Luke loves the Cheeseburger pizza.  We ate til we were stuffed and then decided to walk it off at Sunset Lake.  Asia lost her chance at riding her scooter because she didn't want to listen.  So instead, she got to run the track at Sunset Lake.  By the end, she was laughing and having a good time.  It's all about regulating behavior and moods here! 

After Sunset Lake, we headed over to Paradise Ice to get a Sno Cone.  We like to go there because it's quiet and not busy.  The kids love Snow Cones, but don't get them a lot.  Robert decided on a Hornet Stinger, Asia got Princess Jasmine, I got a Leaping Lizard, and Luke got the Green Apple.  Of course, he got a large which was WAY too much! 

We had fun laughing at each other.  In fact, at Larry's Pizza, Robert was talking and accidentally spit a sunflower seed at Luke.  I think this was the first time in a LONG time our family all laughed together.  Really laughed.  In fact, I felt happy for the first time in a long time.  It was good to laugh deep from your gut and be able to look your kids in the eyes.  It's a feeling I can't describe.  It doesn't happen very often here- simply because we have to always be one step ahead of everything. 

Our family adoption celebration was a lot of fun.  Hopefully we're building memories and trust all at the same time!