Yesterday we were in a store that had greeting cards. MK loves to look at cards, as do most children when there is nothing else to do in this particular store! Anyway, she picked one card up. It was a cute little card with a picture of a young girl dressed as a bride and a young boy dressed as a groom. The two littles on the card were standing on their tip-toes, leaning in and kissing. MK shouted, "Hey mom, look at this....that girl is adopting that boy!" I guess in her mind she saw love (kissing?) and associated that with adoption????

Amazing! We were fingerprinted last Thursday, August 5. On Friday, inpatient me, called the USCIS to see if our fingerprints had, by chance, been approved. The nice lady told me to call back on Monday. I did. And emailed them. The USCIS stated that we had been approved on Friday, August 6! Wow, ONE day! Our approval notice was in the mail and we were to expect it "soon". It arrived Tuesday, AUGUST 10! Side note: With MK, this particular part of the process took us more than 90 days!

With our approval in hand, and having had MK look it over with a fine-toothed comb, we took it upon ourselves to celebrate! We popped open our Cokes, said a little "cheer" and then made Coke Floats in honor of Baby M. We also threw in a few of our latest fav tunes and showed off our dance moves (or lack thereof!). It was a fun night for all of us!

Three cheers for Baby M!

Coke Float anyone?!

First Day Of School 2010-2011

One child said that the first day of school was great, or at least the reading, history, Latin, bible and individual time with MK was great. The "boring" stuff to him turned out to be the essentials aka grammar and math! MK was in all of her glory. She woke up asking when her school was going to start. She spent a thirty minute window with each brother playing games and reading books. Finally, it was her special time with mommy and we polished up her shape recognizing skills as well as her number recognition. During my work time with Pryce, I asked him to write today's date. He wrote "8-9-10" and then looked at me and said, "Hey, mom, look - today is 8-9-10! That is kind of funny!" Agreed. The boys finished off the afternoon with a much needed recess time while our little "owl" took a nap in her "nest." (That continues to make me smile today - what makes it even funnier is the part I didn't blog about - their little saying for ME!)

Day 2

Part of our homeschooling process is a group called Impact Co-Op. Every week, one day a week, we meet with this group of mothers and children. My guys go to an age/grade appropriate classroom and learn science, art and geography. It is a very hands-on learning experience and my children love every.minute.of.every.co-op.class! When co-op ended last year for us, the boys both sighed and said, "Aww, can't we just do it every week during the summer too?!" Needless too say, the boys were pleased to be starting back to co-op this year.

They had a fabulous day and came home talking non-stop about all of the things they had learned and the children they had met! MK had a great day too! So good that she immediately climbed into the car afterwards, looked at me and said she was not tired, asked for her music to be turned on, took a deep breath and she was out, total exhaustion!

Days 3, 4 and 5!!!

It is safe to say that we all had a very successful week and we are all happy to be back into our little school routine. It truly makes my heart smile to see all of them so excited about learning! Even MK is thrilled....she thanks me repeatedly for doing school with her!

The Owl In Her Nest

The boys just make us laugh. We were sitting at lunch today and Pryce said to Colin, "So, Colin, when the owl is in her nest, do you want to put on some old clothes and go play with Jackson and Aaron?" Colin told him no, he had "other" things to do. Then Colin said, "Well, you know, when the owl is in her nest we are going to watch the rest of Percy Jackson with mom and dad." At this point I asked, "So guys, what is the owl in the nest?" They matter-of-factly stated at the same time, "Mason-Kate is the 'owl' and her bed is the 'nest'....we came up with that months ago!"