Mickey's English singing debut

Mickey made his English singing debut in church yesterday. Sorry the sound isn't great. I really need to invest in an actual camcorder. Right now I just take short videos on my regular camera.

Dinner by Mickey

Mickey cooked dinner last night-beef taco skillet. An easy dinner, but man it was nice to have someone else who cooked it.

This is Caesar begging. Just thought it was a funny pic.

Sunday Afternoon Rollerblading

The kids wanted to show off their rollerblading skills for Grandpa and Grandma, so they took their gear down when we went over for Sunday lunch. The weatherman was off by about 20 degrees, so they had to bundle up in sweatshirts that they borrowed from their grandparents.

Fort fun

I walked into our living room the other day to find this mess, I mean cool fort. I was so proud of AJ for working with the girls on this and then they all watched a movie inside by propping a book up like a laptop. Imaginary play is something that has not come easily to any of our kids, since they weren't exposed to it as young children, so this was a big deal for AJ. Chloe narrates the video below.

Bears on Cloud-Nine

I came across this fun recipe the other day called Bears on Cloud-Nine. Its basically jello with gummy bears on top, but I made up some in little dishes to put in the girls' lunches. It took about 5 minutes to make them and they are super cute. The girls saw the end product and giggled with delight. All credit to Kraft on this one-http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/bears-on-cloud-nine-121453.aspx

A Special Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day really started out last night when we received a letter from Mickey (wrapped with duck tape and thrown down the stairs towards our bedroom). He wrote a message on the front and back of the letter expressing how he was happy that we were his parents and that we are nice and help him with his school work. This is a huge step for him and something I will treasure always. We had a few rough days last week with Mickey as he continues to struggle with his role as our son. All behavior is typical for older adopted children, but man, does it wear a parent (or 2 parents) down. Even after 6 months of being in our family, Mickey continues to battle fears that we don't love him and that everyone thinks he is a bad boy. We as parents continue to learn the importance of expressing our love 24/7 in ways the Mickey understands. This is the hardest part of adopting older kids is you have to learn how to parent/love a stranger who has been living quite well (in their mind) on their own without anyone parenting them. Such a Biblical portrait here that I don't have time to get into.

I started today with a lovely present from my hubby. He got my pearl ring fixed (again). My parents gave me this ring for my 16th birthday and I've broken the pearl in it twice (too much gardening and whacking it on file cabinets).

p.s. it is very hard to photograph your own hand. I took about 25 pics that made me laugh, but were not blog worthy. This is the best shot I got and it still makes my hand look extremely large.

We made up little treat bags for the kids. Not sure why b/c they each brought home sacks of candy from school, but it was a simple way to express our love and each child was excited to find their's after school. Glad I figured out the "fold a paper in half" trick to make a heart when I was a kid.

Today also marked the boys' 6 month homecoming. To celebrate, we took the kids to their favorite restaurant...the McDonald house (as AJ calls it). I know, I know, not the most romantic Valentine's restaurant, but celebrating with our kids was more important this year than going out to some fancy restaurant.

Hard to beat that smile!

AJ being goofy

The girls being goofy

I missed getting a picture of Mickey at McDon*ld's before he had to leave for soccer practice so here is a late night shot of us playing Connect 4, the gift we got for the boys to celebrate 6 months as a family.

Video Friday

Our world has been consumed with reading these days. Mickey is learning to read (& more importantly comprehend) English and the 3 younger ones are learning to read for the first time. The girls go to a great school where they are laying a wonderful foundation for reading success. Chloe was reading the other day while I worked on her hair (thus the crazy hair do) and I just had to record her working reading with enthusiasm when she sees and exclamation point.

(sorry for the dark video: stupid energy saver bulbs take FOREVER to get bright and well, our children are very hard to see in the dark)

Snow Day (AGAIN!)

So glad everyone got to stay home today to enjoy the whopping 2 inches of snow we got last night. Oh well, the kids had fun in it and I did get 1 report written today.

100th Day of School

Today was the 100th day of school for the kids. Mrs. Johnson threw a party for her class and asked the kids (ie parents) to be creative in wearing 100 things on their clothes. The girls had a great time because in the words of Chloe, "We didn't do any boring stuff today, just fun stuff."