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!

Travs Game

Last night we joined the Thrive group from Fellowship and went to see the Travelers play.  They had an all you can eat dinner of hot dogs and hamburgers.  It was SO hot.  You basically could wear the air!  The kids enjoyed being in the bouncy houses and riding a train.  We loved hanging out with our usual group- the Morris's and the Barbers.  Once the sun went down it wasn't too bad.  We stayed til the 6th inning and decided it was time to head home.  We enjoy just being able to let lose and have a good time with friends who get us.  This has been a huge relief to us as well as an answered prayer!  In fact, I can honestly say that in our married life, Luke and I haven't had any couple friends that we felt like we could be completely honest with until now.  It's wonderful! In this adoption/foster world having friends like that is truly priceless!  Who has time to be fake anyway!

Branson Vacation 2015

                                                Silver Dollar City Fun....

 

                                       The kids and Luke are drenched after the water ride!

                                           This picture is priceless to me!!!  Too funny. 

                                       The lame swin ride...that was as high and fast as it went!

                                                        
                                                        Dixie Stampede Fun!

                                                       

                                                      Laura Ingalls Home in Mansfield, MO

                                                     Joe's Crab Shack!!!

                                                      
                                                            The Gilbert Cafe

Luke and I wanted to take the kids on a vacation this summer- something short.  We seem to be only able to do weekend trips right now.  They simply cannot handle all the stimulation and fun that comes with a vacation and doing things.  We decided to go to Branson.  We drove up on Friday and stopped at the Gilbert Cafe.  It had been a great spot to eat at before.  The kids and Luke ordered burgers.  I surely should have! I got the taco salad and it was NASTY!?!?!  The food is not what it once was.  We were kinda disappointed, but had a good time anyway! 

On Friday night, we did a little shopping at the Landings.  We ate at Joe's Crab Shack for dinner.  We got a booth right by the kitchen window.  The kids liked watching all the action behind the counter.  Luke and I ordered the Big Daddy bucket.  It was heaven in a bucket.  It came with crab and lobster.  I literally think I could eat crab every day!  The kids loved having bibs on.  They didn't eat crab, but had their fish instead.  After dinner we headed back to the pool for a little swimming and an early bed time.

On Saturday, we took the kids to the Laura Ingalls house in Mansfield, Missouri.  It was fantastic!!!  They are building a new museum and it's 3x the size of the old one.  I took the book Little House in the Big Woods to read to the kids on the way to Branson.  We opted for this instead of the DVD player.  They got to see the Laura Ingall artifacts as well as Pa's fiddle.  We toured her house where she wrote the books.  The kids were amazed at how small she was.  We stopped off at the cemetery to visit her grave.  We ended our morning at a pizza place in Mansfield that was super good!

After that, we had tickets to Dixie Stampede.   Asia has been asking to do this for 2 years now.  They didn't know we were going until we pulled up in the parking lot.  They were super excited.  Robert was bouncing off the walls.  The food is always way too much.  They served a whole chicken, corn, potatoes, soup, biscuit, pork, and an apple turnover.  The kids loved the show.  I loved the food and seeing all the animals.

After Dixie, we headed onto Silver Dollar City.  It was super hot outside.  We stayed for about 4 hours before calling it quits.  The kids rode rides and had a blast.  They rode a water ride with Luke.  I stayed behind to get some pictures.  They even got their picture taken with Scoopy Doo!  The last ride they did was a swing ride.  It was really lame.  The kids went about .2 miles per hour and didn't even barely get their feet off the ground.  It was pretty funny.

We headed back to the hotel for showers and bed.  Since our eating times were so off that day, Luke surprised me with steak and shake in the room.  I love their burgers.  We ate a late dinner and went to bed.

It was a fun and busy vacation.  Maybe some day we can take a longer one with the kids.  For now, Branson it is!