Family Time

We have been focused on doing a few special things with our boys before leaving for China, and today we surprised them by going to the Legoland Discovery Center! They were ecstatic! All week they knew that as soon as Jerry got home from his business trip, we were leaving for a surprise, but we wouldn't give them any hints or details.  It drove them INSANE. :)  As we pulled into the parking lot at Grapevine Mills, Aaron spotted the sign first and about lost it he was so excited!

Life-sized Dirk!

In front of the Lego version of Texas Stadium.  This other boy and his father both saw me trying to take their picture, but didn't bother to get out of it...

Andrew had the most fun building towers with these giant blocks and going down that slide in the background about 74 times!

When Jerry's parents heard we were taking the boys here, they gave Jerry some money for the gift shop.  We let Andrew pick something out (knowing he would choose something small) and let the other two split the remaining funds.  They got a nice pile of loot - Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!

The bag from the gift shop was bigger than Aaron! 

For lunch, we hit the food court so we could all be happy with our food.  I decided to get in the swing of things and go with Asian food - Mmmm.  Okay, so it is Japanese, not Chinese - but it was so yummy.

I also found something I *love* in the gift shop.  Last month, I resorted to buying the ugly white and black salt and pepper shakers that are in every greasy spoon restaurant in the South because my children have broken multiple salt or pepper shakers and I was tired of replacing nice, expensive shakers.  When I saw these, I knew the solution had been found.  Aren't they awesome??

Preparing the Kiddos

I think our trip to China will be hard on the kids.  Aaron and Ethan can at least understand that we will be coming back in 18 days and have some concept of what that means, but Andrew will need some help with that.  To help them all, and especially Andrew, I had them make a paper chain.  I wrote the date on one side of each strip and how many days until we are home on the other side, then I let the kids decorate them with stickers.  Aaron stapled them all together, and now they can take a chain off every day and Andrew can see the chain get shorter and shorter until we are home with Hannah!

Andrew took his job very seriously!

Aaron was all business.

Ethan tried to see just how many stickers he could fit on each one!

They were all excited about this! I sure hope it is fun and helps them!

We are also writing notes to the boys, one for each day, that talk about what we will be doing and asking them about things we know they have planned.  I've even wrapped up some presents for them to get on many of the days we are gone.  Nothing major, but a few books from Half Priced Books, gum, balloons, candy, etc.  I think these things will help them with our absence, and create special memories for them of this time!

Play Ball!

We love baseball at this house!  All of the kids took in their first major league game as infants, we watch baseball on TV, and last year the boys started playing ball as well.  They were both in T-ball last year, but this year, Aaron moved up to coach-pitch.  Both boys look forward to practice and games and just love being on their teams.  Aaron was on the same team this year as last year - most of the kids wanted to stay together.

At bat for the first time with no Tee!

Ethan was on a new team this year because his team from last year didn't have interest in staying together and the coach didn't return.  I'm guessing he'll be on yet another team next year...

Waiting for his turn at bat.

Knock it out of the park, Ethan!

I am not always very good at doing hands on projects for science with my kids.  We do a lot of science "book learning," but that hands-on stuff is just so messy and time consuming.  Oh, and you have to plan ahead to have all the materials on hand.  BUT...I did actually do a volcano building project with the kids this year! They happened to have one of their best buddies over that day (also homeschooled...and also here as I type this post... :) - We love Nate!), so it was even more fun for them.

Mixing the salt dough and deciding where to put the plastic bottle volcano core.

Packing dough around the bottle.

Great buddies!

The lava kinda oozed pink out of the volcano, rather than blew out all red and destructive.  Oh, well.  Notice all the "burned out trees" on the volcano! Can you tell we visited Mt. St. Helen's last summer? :)

Whether the volcano fizzled or blew its top, this project was a success!



Boys Will Be Boys...

It's moments like these that make me extra proud to be a mom to three boys...

Mini Post Monday

• I think this has been the January/February with the most snow and ice days in the DFW area that I can remember! It has been crazy just how often everything has been shut down for a bit of ice.   

Andrew enjoying playing in the snow!
• Along the snow day theme - the post office doesn't really have that motto, "Neither rain, nor snow, nor..." We have had almost no mail delivery in the past couple of weeks! 

A full 4 inches one of our snow days!
• Good news on the allergy front! Jerry and the boys went in for another treatment this last week, and were told that after the 3 week "critical period" is over, they can add in ALL their allergic foods on a rotational basis! Woo-Hoo! That means I get back yeast and tomato!! I have really missed yeast and tomato. 

All of my men enjoying some winter fun.
• I placed an order with this company, 240 Sweet, recently.  I was amazed at the level of customer service I received from them! I messed up my order (completely my fault) and e-mailed to see if they could change it before it shipped.  I had a response in less than an hour from them, they fixed the problem, and even went above and beyond what I asked them to do! You don't get service like that very often anymore.  If you are looking for a fun treat or an unique gift, check this company out! 

A bit of snow and a very big stick.  What more does a boy need?
• You may not even notice my adoption ticker on the side blog anymore.  After something's been up for 2 years, 3 months, and 3 days, it starts to blend in with the background.  When we first started this whole process, we were told the timeline was about 28 months from our dossier being accepted in China to travelling to pick up our daughter. We are now just days away from that 28 month point, and it doesn't look like we are any closer to going to China than we thought we were then.  This can be discouraging at times, but occasionally some promising news comes out of China, as it did this past week.  Please continue to pray for this whole process - and not just for me, but for the thousands of families waiting to receive a referral from China, and the tens of thousands of children in orphanages throughout that country waiting for their forever families.  Change doesn't usually happen quickly in this whole process, but I know that God is in control of every step of the process.  He alone can cause things to speed up! 

Aaron - all bundled up and ready to play, but humoring his mom with a smile!
• I am finally getting my energy back after surgery Jan. 4, which was preceeded by about 4 months of being anemic.  I can almost feel my red blood count growing each day - and one friend told me I even sound like I have more energy!  You never realize how much you appreciate your red blood cells until you are low on them. 

When I mentioned being down, my bestest friend had these delivered to me. What an amazing spirit-lifter that was!

Mini Post Monday

• I cannot begin to speak of anything before mentioning the news from this last week that is the most exciting to me - I am going to Florida!!  Most would be excited to go to Florida primarily to see Micky & Co., but I am going for something much, much better - to see Joanna & Co.!
• I love my husband!  When I asked Jerry to help me one day by dividing up a huge 50 pound bag of rice into gallon bags for the freezer, he took the time to look up a different translation for "white rice" to write on each bag.  So when I pulled out a new bag of rice from the freezer, I saw this (below) on the bag.  It brought a nice smile to my face while doing something as mundane as fixing dinner!

• The Olympics have inspired a surge of athleticism in my boys.  Aaron decided to make skis out of pieces of a cereal box and yarn and ski poles from Tinker Toys!  He and Ethan have been participating in cross country events, ski jumping, and speed skating all through the house!

• Ethan's get-up is a bit more difficult to place to an Olympic event...He was speed skating with this on, I believe!

• And of course, I cannot put a picture of Aaron and Ethan without including an image of Andrew!  Isn't he still just so adorable?  I need to look at how adorable he is more often to make up for the hours of screaming and crying he is doing lately due to cutting 5 teeth at once and getting a strange rash and fever.

• I am making this Baked Fudge tonight for dessert.  I am really looking forward to trying it.  Since it is our day to rotate milk, eggs, and gluten, the only substitution I have to make is using spelt flour instead of wheat.  From my experience with spelt, I'm sure it will make an equal substitution.  I'll have to let you know how it turned out.  It seems that it would be hard for it to come out poorly given the list of ingredients!
• Jerry is getting so close to completing the bathroom!  He finished tiling the shower this weekend.  It looks incredible!  I think it looks completely professional.  He still has to add the shower fixtures, a mirror, and seal the grout, but then the bathroom will be complete!  I do need to find some decorative touches for it still, too.  I am so pleased with how it has come together. 

Is the slump over?

It's no secret that I've been in a creative slump ever since Andrew was born.  This kid has messed with my hormones, emotions, muscle tone...you name it!  He has also nearly zapped my creativity, although I did write a poem that totally rocked recently (if I do say so myself).  I used to troll the web for tutorials for new projects and tackle them with wild abandon.  I made stuffed elephants by hand, for crying out loud!  But, alas, the only thing I have made in the last year and a half is a mess in my kitchen.  But that might be ending.

I have felt a vaguely familiar tug in my gut recently, urging me to be creative in some area other than allergy friendly cooking.  I even pulled out my knitting bag (never mind that I haven't opened it).  Then, Brenda posted a link to this blog!  MADE by Dana is hosting a month of tutorials for items just for boys!  No way!  One of the reasons I gave into my creative slump to begin with was that all the ideas I found were decidedly for girls.  Since I am the only estrogen in my home, and I don't need a twirly skirt with matching head band, I just gave in up.  But this is intriguing.  I might just have to whip something up for my boys!  I won't get overly excited yet, since I've done nothing but drool so far, though.




Any other mamas of boys out there looking for some inspiration?  Look no farther!

Olympic Glee

My boys have become enamored with the Olympics! They can tell you all about Michael Phelps. My 5 year old is deciding not to watch some of the cartoons that he loves in order to save his tickets (he earns them by doing chores and has to trade one in for each show he wants to watch) to watch the Olympics. What has been so fun about this is that they are old enough now to understand the national pride in watching the USA win. GO USA!

Another benefit is that they are getting exposed to so many sports! We are a football kind of family. In the fall, we watch the Ohio State Buckeyes as if our very lives depend on it. But we don't often watch other sports. In the last week or so, they have seen more sports than they knew existed! And they play all of them together while they watch. It is so fun to watch them play "volleyball" just now! I have on the gold medal match from last night for them. The really funny thing is that because we talk about China a lot with our adoption, they are fighting over who gets to be China almost as much as who gets to be USA! The only problem with all of this new sports exposure is that they happened to see a boxing match on Sunday. Can you guess how their imitation of this is going?

Parenting Differences

So I have always known that men and women parent their children differently, but as the boy get older, those differences are becoming more pronounced. When I watch my sweet boys relate to each other, I tend to teach them things like learning to talk to each other without yelling even when they are mad at each other. I teach them how to negotiate taking turns or dividing the blocks so that they both have some. You know, cooperative living skills. Important stuff, right?

This morning, my children were playing football all decked out in their Ohio State Buckeye uniforms complete with helmets as they often do. Many times this game results in tears by the three year old, because lets face it, the five year old can hit harder and anticipate his brother's moves better. And the tears are always from the younger child. This morning I noticed that they had been playing football for quite a while with not a single tear as a result. Not even a frustrated, "Aaron!!!" from the younger. Jerry called them over and said, "Show your mother what I taught you." and then told me, "Watch. I taught them how to charge each other!" What?!!? This does not sound like any of the cooperative skills I have been working on with them! But I watched, wondering if this might have something to do with the sudden lack of tears. I watched my two, precious, young boys charge full speed toward the other! What Jerry had taught Ethan to do was duck at the last minute, when they were about to crash (the part that normally brought him to tears) and take Aaron out by grabbing him around the knees! This caused them to both be able to pull the other down fairly - no more "I'm bigger than you advantage"! Although this is not something I would have thought to teach my boys, it was a great thing for them to know! Suddenly, I am seeing more clearly just how wonderful it is that we were created male and female and how much we need both.