We arrived home from California late Sunday evening.  Thankfully the children had Monday off from school so we had the blessing of a day to recoup and regroup before our next big adventure.

Our friend Daisy was in town.  Maddox and I could not wait to spend a moment of time with this sweet girl and her mama!  We arrived at the Ronald McDonald House just in time to see Daisy with some of her favorite friends, the therapy dogs.  The dogs and their owners were super sweet! The girls enjoyed playing with them, playing games and having dinner together!  They have become the sweetest friends and it is a beautiful thing that I am sure Maddox will cherish in years to come.

 Next up, Maddox's last day of second grade!

 Maddox attended the new charter school, SAIL, this year for second grade!  She has loved every.single.minute minus the super early wakeup calls to be sure she arrives on time!  Her teacher, Ms. Teagarden, was also her ballet teacher when she was a bit smaller.  She has made some of the sweetest little friends and grown so much.  We were thrilled to see that her initial scores on testing when she arrived have doubled at the end of the year putting this girl well above her grade level!  She is a light to all of her friends and they all gave her the sweetest farewell wishes as she packed her book bag and headed out!

 Summer birthday celebration for Maddox.....we found last year that celebrating her birthday with friends during the school year was a great solution to the summer birthday blues.  This allows her the best of both worlds....a celebration with friends AND then on her special day, a day of celebration with her family!  It's perfect in every way!  This year she asked for a roller skating party and her face was all smiles all.day.long.

 And then surgery.  It's been a long time coming.  Bone graft - most all cleft kiddos have to do it.  There is nothing pleasant about it.

 Bone from your hip taken and placed into the gumline of your mouth.  A six-ish week recovery.  No active playing.  No school.  No food that is not a liquid form.  Blah.

Of course, this girl rocked it!  She took it like a champ.  She never even needed more than Tylenol and Motin for pain.  She's been an amazing patient, though a bit sad at times which was hard for this mama to watch - my baby girl is usually the one who is picking everybody up and is happy more than sad.  BUT, six weeks later, she is doing so well.....just waiting for the all clear to eat chips!