The Eldest says, "Hey, I think we should read the Easter story together tonight as a family before bed." Great idea!

The Middle says, "What I really want the Easter Bunny to bring me is an electric scooter!" Hmmmm.

The Little One says, "What Easter bunny? He not coming to my house! I no like him, he scary to me!"

Happy Easter!

A quick jaunt to the beach was just what the doctor ordered! What can I say, we packed only what we needed to lessen the load coming and going. We took just the right amount of food, not bringing any home with us. I had my camera minus my favorite lens which, incidentally, is being repaired - the children are glad that the lens is on the outs....Pryce sang notes of joy when he realized that I would not be able to harass them with picture taking on the beach. The children had their bathing suits, a change of clothes, scooters, money to spend at the Lollipop Shop, books, and Legos. The sun was shining bright. The temp was delightful. There were children visiting the island as well which made great company for the boys. MK was happy as a lark pretty much doing whatever she wanted to do.....not to exclude her ballet. She practiced ballet a good bit on the beach.....she has been walking on her tiptoes since her performance last weekend. Me, well, I sat back and took it all in. I love to watch....and, if something strikes my interest, I love to listen to fellow beachgoers' conversations. For instance, the elderly couple beside us. I observed them with their glasses of wine and their chairs for comfort. The boys were off playing ball with some other children, within eyesight of course. And MK was hanging out with me. MK decided she wanted to use a shovel so I told her to go ask the boys if they would mind her borrowing it. She began to walk over (on her tiptoes no doubt) and inevitably walked right in front of the elderly wine drinking couple. The elderly lady began to ooooh and ahhh over MK and she commented to her husband how cute MK was. It was at this point that I desperately tried to listen to their conversation as it pertained to MK. The couple could clearly see that I was not Asian. And they could clearly see that the boys were not Asian. The man stated that "the little girl is adopted" and the wife came back with, "what do you mean she is adopted? Haven't you seen that Kate's children? you know, from that show? the one with Kate and eight? They all look Asian but their mother isn't!" and then she continued to tell her husband how the dad on the show was Asian but the mom was not and the children all favored their Asian father.....and then the wine drinking lady went on and on about dominant genes and heredity, etc., etc., etc....that poor man got an earful! Quite comical actually. Then today we met a family on the beach. The boys spotted some others playing baseball on the beach and off they went to join in. MK and I stayed behind and watched. The mother of the other children came over and we began to talk. Turns out she is an attorney and she had a lot to say. She even offered me the following account of her cousin's adoption....apparently the cousin adopted a little boy domestically as an infant. The child is now five years old. The parents have not told the 5 year old child that he is adopted!!! Ryan said, "Gosh you should have really shocked her and said that we weren't really planning to tell Mason-Kate that she was adopted!" Why would you NOT tell a child their history??? And again, I state, adoption is what you make of it.

Meet Pryce. Every January he begins to ask when the pool will open. And everytime we go to the beach, no matter the month of the year, he finds his way into the water. The water being cold is a mere detail to him, he never finds this as an excuse not to get in. I took the above photo at a distance to show that even the Canadians were not swimming! It was all Pryce, and Pryce alone! And one more special thing about Pryce....he is a sensitive soul. Love him and his heart to pieces. When he wasn't in the ocean or playing baseball, he was busy finding pieces of sanddollars along the shoreline. Finally, he found an intact sanddollar. He carefully placed it in a bucket with water and continued to play. When it was time to leave, he refused to take the sanddollar out of the bucket stating, "I don't want it to die. I want to take it home." The tears came as I told him the little guy would die in a bucket. His response, "No it won't, not if I have saltwater in there." I told him we could place it back in the ocean - of course, that was not a good idea So, what is a mom to do? Well, lets just say that we drove 3 hours back home with a sanddollar in a bucket with saltwater and beachsand that fit very nicely, thankfully, in one of my cupholders!

He even convinced MK to get in, sort of.

He was missing Colin so he came back up to our towel and thus began the inevitable dirt bombing.

Meet MK. She never wants to wear clothes. And gasp, I didn't even pack her bows to wear at the beach!

She does like to wear her "bathing soup"....she can say bathing suit but, admittedly so, I love to hear her call it her "bathing soup." (And take note of the sand all over her.....I thought back to two years ago when this same little one wouldn't even place her feet in the sand without shoes on! She said more than once, "I love da beach. It's my favorite!" I am so thankful that we are able to visit the beach often - it's my favorite too!)

And then there was the lone ladybug. I was sitting in my sweatsuit behind all of my beachwear clad children and this is what I found, a ladybug, literally right beside my foot. Hopefully this is sign of good things to come :)

The Talking MK

MK always talks. Always. And if she isn't talking, she is singing loudly. We were in the car on Saturday and she was doing her usual singing, talking routine that turned into, "Mom, mom.....MOMMYYYY." I said, "What MK?" and with a little grin on her face she said, "I talk too much!"

On the way to church, MK said, "I dying for drink, Mommy." I ignored her as I always do the first time when she doesn't ask with her manners. She said again, "Mommmmmyyyy, I dying for drink!" I sat there thinking good grief you are only three and you are telling me you are "dying" for something to drink.....I just don't remember the boys using such strong phrases at the age of three. I calmly said, "Mason-Kate you need to ask nicely." She said, "Please, I dying for drink!" Throwing the "please" in there was her asking nicely but not exactly what we were looking for - we did laugh though.

We were doing MK's homework last night. She has a folder with different pages of words and pictures she is supposed to say. She likes to turn the pages by herself. Out of habit, I went to turn the page when we finished the first one and she said with a huff, "Mommy, I am three. I can do this." OK.

I went to pick her up from Sunday School. I noticed some black stuff all over her face, mainly around her lip area. I said, "Mason-Kate, you must have eaten something really yummy today." Her teacher replied, "Oh no, there were four of them who decided to use the crayons as their very own make-up." We are positive that MK was the instigator. She very proudly showed me how they used crayons on their faces to apply their make-up on their lips, their foreheads and their cheeks....the same spots that we had applied make-up the night before for her performance.

Roar Of Love

At the age of 3, the boys were both involved in Gymboree or Kindermusik or something so I thought it only appropriate to get MK involved. Gymnastics would have been my choice simply because there is a lot of movement and I thought MK would enjoy it. MK had her own thoughts. She insisted on ballet. I know nothing about ballet but decided that I would follow her lead because, honestly, I know nothing about gymnastics either. We decided on a local dance studio that is well known in our city for their production of the Roar of Love. The Roar is a ballet based on CS Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This production is held once a year and is essentially the "recital" for the dance students.

Last night was the big production. MK's debut was perfect, she danced, she smiled, she did her ballet hands, she twirled and, as quickly as she made her appearance, her scene was over. It was one of those "don't blink or you will miss out" kind of debuts....short and oh so sweet. We were all so proud of her! And, the boys, well they were taken with the entire performance. They were a little reluctant about attending the ballet. There were two components that led the boys to believe the ballet was a stellar performance - 1) the ballet was based on a book that I read to them last year and they have seen the movie - they loved both and it made it easy to follow the ballet. Plus, there was a little sword action involved. 2) some of the music was from Star Wars - you know that you have possibly seen too much Star Wars when you hear the theme music playing and can recall the scene from the movie where the music was used. They were most impressed. My parents, Ryan and Emma were pleased as well. I think they all expected a recital yet it was a production full of very talented dancers. Ryan has even said to me more than once how he just was not expecting it to be that big. It really was amazing.

**MK is the little one in the center, tiny pic I know but it gives the feel of the show.

Curtain call.....well our little dancer was not so pleased during this portion of the show. Remember, our little one is not even a fan of people singing to her on her birthday....she does not like loudness. Couple that with the fact that it was 9:00pm, well past her bedtime and she was not a happy camper, AT ALL. The curtain call began and I had been told by another mother that the little ones would not participate in this portion of the show. However, to our surprise, they did, in fact, participate. MK, our precious little Cherub, looking so sweet and delicate in her costume, came out on stage holding hands in a line with her fellow Cherubs. She got to the center of the stage and that is when I saw it, the lip. The lip was poked out, the chin was quivering, the tears were streaming and the louder the clapping and cheering got, the more upset she got. I could read her lips as she was screaming, "Mommy! Mommy!" It was a most pitiful sight. Realizing that this was not an ideal situation and that our little ballerina was scared to death, I quickly stepped out and met her as she was coming off stage. A big kiss and an even bigger hug later, she was all good and ready to go get a celebratory donut from her favorite "Krisme Kreme."

This morning came and our little Cherub awoke. The first words out of her mouth were, "I cry and cry because I no like that clapping sound!" That, and she made us promise not to clap for her at her ballet class ever again.

I know I always state how busy we are but reality hit me once again when Colin made the statement, "Wow, tomorrow is Friday. Where did our week go?" I love the "always on the go" life that we have been given, never a dull moment. So, this week, what have we been up to? Well, for starters, the children enjoyed their first outdoor picnic of the spring season. All three of them loved spending time together playing and just hanging out. Of course, MK was in full force with her brothers playing "Clone Wars, Clone Wars".....she is well rounded. Basketball season is coming to an end just in time for baseball season to begin. When the boys were not chasing the big orange ball up and down a court, they were chasing a tiny white ball out on the field. And where was MK? Well, MK has her own little performance to do this weekend and we are all so excited for her. She will be starring in the Roar of Love ballet production as the most precious Cherub ever. She absolutely loves ballet! We went for a spacing rehearsal the other night, the entire family. MK was on stage doing her routine when she suddenly stopped, placed her little hand like a visor over her eyes, and peered out into the audience. Then she spotted all of us and waved the biggest waves ever. Three of us waved back. C made the biggest mistake by not waving. The moment she was done with her rehearsal, I scooped her up off of the stage, carried her down for the men in her life to oooh and ahhh over her when she suddenly put her hand up and cried, "Col-Col you not wave to me! Pryce waved to me, mommy waved to me and my daddy wave to me but not you Colin!" And with a big "hmmmphh" she was done and her point was made. That is our MK, always keeping us on our toes.

The dress up party before the rehearsal.....

Ta-Da!

MK is on the right. She did so good. She kept asking me on the way home if I saw her do both of her twirls and her ballet hands. She was proud of herself and she cannot stop talking about how Emma, Gran and Pop are coming to see her ballet. More to come!

Another little one united with their forever family! Our friends are currently in China adopting their baby girl, Cynthia. Yesterday was Gotcha Day for them and they are over the moon. Check them out at http://www.drakesofaugusta.blogspot.com/.

Our weekend, just like most weekends lately, was jam packed. Gone are the days that we used to nap when the kids napped and play while the kids played. Now are the days that we all go while the going is good and sleep when the sun goes down. Love it. Friday afternoon we chose to spend some time with just the boys. MK had a sitter who she loves to spend time with so she was happy as a lark. Saturday we had basketball games and baseball practice followed by a photo session with our babysitter. She just finished up a photo class at a local college and wanted some experience taking pics of children. Great for us as we needed some creative pictures to adorn the walls of the boys Star Wars themed room. With lightsabers in tow, we took a short walk and the picture taking began.

Following our photo session, we had our adoption group over for a gathering. We love having this group in our lives. It is good for all of us. The adults have adults to share with and the children all have each other. We are all same in that we have adoption as our common bond.

Big kids enjoying a game of soccer, little kids jumping and swinging, and the biggest kids chatting about life.

Our adoption buddies.....this time there were 6, next time there will be 9 - at least!

MK strikes a pose....

Mason-Kate was helping Ryan with laundry - you know that is what most dads do with their daughters, right?!!! In fairness, I was doing lesson plans and the boys were being boys and playing Rockband during this time. Anyway, MK broke out saying the pledge. Ryan realized what she was saying and he recorded it for us. Now, being that we are not so educated on how to do videos on the blog yet, I will write what happened.....so, it is MK standing all alone with Ryan video taping. MK has her right hand over her chest, she goes through the entire pledge, be it she was pledging to "the little flag" of America. Ryan asked her where she learned this and she said, "I don't know!" She then went on to say that she learned it in the "biiiggg gym" at her school down the "hallway." Ryan asked her if they had a flag in her room and her response, the ever so classic MK response, "Not so much!" The girl is funny. Pretty impressive though. Two years post Gotcha and she is reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Tonight we were in the car with MK. She loves to tell me that she loves me to the moon and back or to the store and back, etc. And she likes for me to reciprocate. I said, "Mason-Kate, I love you all the way to ballet and back." She laughed and said, "Oh, ok. You member I saw the peacock and Lucy and Tummus and Bambi? I saw them in the bigggg room with all those kids, member?" Last weekend Ryan took her to studio run through of her upcoming ballet production. The production is called the Roar of Love and is based on the Chronicles of Narnia hence the characters she was recalling. Anyway, she went on to say that she was sucking her thumb in the big room with the big kids. I asked her why she sucked her thumb and she responded, "Well, I was a wittle bit shy." I asked her if sucking her thumb helped and she said, "Well, no, not so much." That phrase seems to be key in her present life.