Our last swimteam meet was on Tuesday - way to go C and P! They both swam their little hearts out and made their parents (and, of course, little sister) very proud! Our team went undefeated this season which makes for an extra bonus :)

Switching gears, my father retired from his banking career on Tuesday. My mom retired last year after teaching for 33 years - she was ready, maybe a little sad, but definitely ready and she really hasn't looked back. My dad, however, he left his office on Tuesday with his arms crossed. I would say that he is pondering this whole retirement idea and time will tell if it agrees with him. Whatever the case, he was beaching it two weeks ago with us and now he has made his way to his mountain retreat. We are looking forward to having him around more for baseball games, swimmeets, and all that other good grandparent stuff - yay! Love you, Dad!

Adoption Friends Cookout

We are so lucky to have found a group of families locally that have adopted internationally. There are children from China, Guatemala and hopefully Ethiopia soon :) Amazing. An added bonus to this group is that there are families with both biological children as well as children who have been adopted. It is nice for the boys and Mason-Kate to be exposed to families who are just like theirs. We gather together once a week for lunch and also meet once a month for dinner. Yesterday our group had a pool party and being that MK is more than comfortable in the pool, she felt the need to take it a step further and jump off of the diving board. Warning: The one picture looks as if I am pushing her in....not the case indeed. She took it upon herself to climb onto the board and proceed forward to the end of the plank. I merely helped her from behind so she was sure not to hit her head. If I had gotten too close, I am sure I would have been reprimanded. One of her fav phrases lately is "no, mommy, me do".



"Awww, man, what did I just do?????"



In MK's words "Mommy, me haircut daddy!" Jaida decided to have her dad join in as well.



Some of the many children who attended....thanks again, Noelle, for hosting! Great fun!

Brothers

As most siblings do, my boys have moments of arguing, not often but it does occur. Sigh. Being that they are boys and boys tend to be more physical versus mouthy, a usual hit or push can take place if their arguing escalates. And when that does occur, I inevitably intervene. After all is said and done and the mishap has been taken care of, I will sit with the offenders and ask them how that particular situation could have been avoided. I want their answer to be something to the effect of they should have used their mouths not their hands to solve the issue, I want them to come up with a verbal plan to solve their disagreements. I preach this to them, communication, even when they are having a verbal argument, I will have them sit together to devise a plan on how they can work their troubles out and they are not allowed to get up until the plan is presented to me and I agree with it....and I don't help them figure it out, it has to be their own plan. They are taught to use their words. Well, yesterday we had an interesting day. I have noticed that on the days that we choose not to do school, our schedule is wide open, routine is not in order, that is when the arguing most likely is to take place. So, for what I felt like was all day, I had two children who were just not choosing to get along and, quite honestly, it was making me a little weary. Nobody likes arguing. For weeks, Ryan and I have been planning a baseball celebration for the two of them. We had gotten them a gift, planned a special dinner, picked out a baseball movie to watch together, yummy dessert, it was supposed to be a lot of fun. Well, gift opened, children play for what seemed like one moment and then the last straw broke. They were sent to their room, told to sit on their beds, told that the party was cancelled, tears were shed, complete and utter disappointment was felt by all but for different reasons of course. Well, Ryan and I talked, decided that taking the party from them was a bummer so he suggested we have them come up with a reason that it should continue, they had to tell us why, after all of the fussing that had occurred in one day, why should we allow their party to continue. One brother said that he didn't even think they deserved to carry on with our plans, they had been fussy all day and their behavior, he knew, was unacceptable. The other brother wailed. We told them to keep thinking. A few minutes went by, Ryan and I are downstairs waiting. The boys appear. The spokesperson of the two says they have a reason that the party must go on......"Well, mom, you always say that we should use our words and that using our hands will get us into trouble. Today, as you will take note of, today, we used our words a lot. We did argue but we never hit or pushed or pinched....we used our words and that is why we think our party should go on." HMMMM.

SURPRISE!

Guess who surprised us today???? Little Colby James just home from China with his forever family....he is a cutie. Obviously MK agrees. During Colby's visit, MK could do nothing but send texts out to all of her friends to let them know about her new handsome little friend!

Something isn't right here....

We often find MK looking like this....she will take off her clothes, put on shoes backwards, find a hat or two and add the socks as a "dress me up"....I am assuming this is a girl thing.

The Family Beach Trip

We just finished up our annual beach trip with my parents, sister's family, my aunt and cousin, and, the word that comes to mind is TRADITION.....it is a family tradition to make this trip, one that was started by my great-grandmother many, many years ago. We always stay in a rented home at a beach south of Myrtle, we always eat many good eats - big breakfasts, large lunches and huge dinners, the women always do a day of shopping, there are movies to be seen, water parks to be attended (this was even done by me as a child though the parks now are much larger), music trucks (aka ice cream vans) to be chased, fireworks to be fired (as well as watched), trips to Painter's Homemade Ice Cream, walks on the pier, and waves aplenty to be ridden. This is always our trip in a nutshell, tradition. What makes the trips, though, are the memories that are had each year as my family joins together under one roof for one week. The memory that will stand out for the 2009 trip will be the encounter with the not-so-pleasant motorcycle driver. Said encounter did not define the trip by any means but gave us an extra laugh all the same. Beyond that we enjoyed:

Good times in the water

Playing with the cousins - even little Jay decided to get acquainted with the sand

Fishing for minnows and walks on the pier....

*A friend made this "pillowcase" dress for MK the summer before we received her referral.

Though Ryan is in none of the above photos, he was there having a well deserved vacation. He is such a good daddy and husband....Happy Father's Day, Ry!

Our Week

Our weeklong re-cap.....

• Monday began with school followed by swim practice and piano and then closed down with a bang around 10pm following an exciting baseball game win enjoyed by C's team.
• Tuesday began with another round of school followed by swim practice and then....well, then, I decided that it would be such a wonderful treat for my 3 children plus a friend to enjoy a homemade treat....DONUTS. Only, I didn't have the ingredients. So, off to the store we went, friend and all. While there, I get the shocking news that "friend's" parents are getting divorced. This was a curve ball, this family is one that we know and love and are sad to learn of their struggles. I paused to thank God for my marriage and my husband and my family. With ingredients in hand we come home, and I proceed to make said donuts....an hour later, with my house smelling greasy and fry-ie, donuts are served, for lunch no doubt, and much liked. We closed down day 2 of the week with a swim meet which we WON!
• Wednesday began with our last official school day of the week, the boys took their first "test", and each scored a 100. They can now officially name to us the 7 continents, 4 oceans, place them each on a map and they have acquired the knowledge of 7 states and capitals as well. Then onto swim practice, our last golf session and a 7:20 baseball playoff game....phew! What a game it was....keeping in mind that this is little league baseball, this game was played in the big time....tackling at homeplate, coaches getting thrown out, ankles getting sprained....my OWN baby getting the ball pitched into his HEAD. **This is a side note for me that may or may not interest those reading but humors me nonetheless....so Ryan, MK, Pryce and I are sitting behind homeplate, first inning of the game. Ball pitched, ball hit, pop fly....ten kids rushing to get one ball = someone getting hurt, kid down on the field, coaches scampering around to assist....me, well, I made note of the fact that the mother of this child wasn't on the field and never did go to the field....what kind of mother does this?! So I say to Ryan that the child's mother should be on the field and Ryan's response was "B, mom's don't go on the field, the coaches will handle it"...fine, but I still thought the mother should be there. SOOOO fast forward a few moments, our team is batting, up comes my little man. C is in position, ball is pitched, ball hits C in the head, HARD. Who is on the field BEFORE the coaches can even get there???? The father of my child, the one who had just told me that "moms don't go on the field"....so when the excitement dies down, I state this to said father of my child and his response was "well, it scared me....I just heard this 'crack' and I knew it wasn't good"....new rule learned, moms are not allowed on field when child is hurt but dads ARE. For those of you who know Ryan, he is the calm one of the two, the one of us who doesn't worry, so for him to jump up the way he did was startling in and of itself.....turns out, C has a busted up lip, he took his base, scored two runs and his team went on to win their game in double overtime against an undefeated team, 10-9. So exciting! ****Another side note, I painted MK's nails for the first time today. Oh my goodness, she was so thrilled! I had planned only to paint her toenails. I painted all ten of those and she promptly popped her hands down for me to paint her fingernails. She walked around all day with her hands out in front of her admiring the beauty. Love it!
• Thursday we traveled with our friends to Atlanta to visit the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. The boys LOVED it and can't wait to go back. Also, our friends, the Metcalfs, arrived home with their latest addition, Colby. The boys asked to go decorate their home as this is something they remember people did for us, so off we went....so much fun! Can't wait to meet the little guy!
• And finally it is FRIDAY! Yay! A day of rest. Hopefully.