No Small Feat

Musical Monday 22

Unless your living under a rock you've heard of Kings of Leon and about every 20 minutes one of their 2 big hits are heard on the radio both on rock and pop stations.  Their latest album Only By The Night is solid.  You should get it. There are a couple of songs on there I am kind of obsessed with right now.  This is one of them.

Craft Services

There are a lot of things I enjoy about the weekends. Sleeping in, spending time with Brian and the kids, resting, staying up late, not having to go to work and did I mention sleeping in? But one of the things I've come to enjoy the most is arts & crafts Sunday. I don't know how it started but the kids just decided that every Sunday they want to do arts & crafts. I set them up in the kitchen and give them material to work with. Now that Mimi has some projects for first grade we incorporate those into our craft days and Max gets to make whatever Mimi makes for school.  This week was the assignment was to make a hat to wear to school as they are beginning Mad Hatter week in her class.  They were very proud of their creations. I'm just plain proud.

Musical Monday 21

You didn't think I'd forget The King, did you?  Thirty-Two years ago he died - or moved to Hawaii - or opened up a gas station in New Jersey.  He may just be in Louisiana going by the name Bubba.  Wherever he may be he is still a hunka hunka burnin' love.  And, yes, this is the Elvis I love best. Nudie suit and all:

Thank you, thank you very much...

My Beautiful Star!

Max's preschool assignment was to fill out a form "all about me" - in addition to the fave colors (Purple - how 'bout that, Julie!), fave animal (giraffe) and fave food (drumroll... pizza) was the question: "What makes you a star?"  The answer came out of Max's mouth so fast I asked him to repeat it to be sure he said what I thought he said. His answer? "Because Jesus makes me a star."  That answer made me SO proud (and envious) of him because inside this little almost 4 year old mind is the foundation of faith that I wish I had at that age (or even today!).  To be so assured and certain about Who God is, in my view, is such a gift and a blessing.  I hope Max retains this faith as he grows up and inevitably faces challenges and difficulties in life that test us.

The other answer that surprised me was to the question ... "what do you want to be when you grow up."  I honestly thought he'd say a garbage man (he's kind of still obsessed about garbage trucks) but his answer was this: he wants to be a Daddy.  He certainly has a wonderful model to look up to in that regard.

Shytown will never be the same...

This past Thursday Mimi, Max and I flew to Chicago with our friend Stephanie and her son Miles to attend the Second Annual Ethiopian Blog Union, a gathering of families who have adopted from Ethiopia that maintain blogs, such as I do (even though I haven't been maintaining it very well lately).  We had a wonderful time.  Stephanie was kind enough to allow us to share a room with her and it worked out great and amazed me at how effortless and relaxing it was for we socially-anxious types which I hope means that we really are destined to be great friends because she is one of the funniest people I know.  I bet you can't imagine 2 women and 3 kids in 1 hotel room and everyone getting along, but it's true!! It happened and it was beautiful:

Oooh so you wanna know where we stayed?  Why we were guests at the The W - the uber-chic swanky "kid-friendly" hotel (if your kid is over 21, that is). Thankfully nothing was broken and no signs were posted about us when we left.

This was the view of Lake Michigan from our floor.  Not the penthouse but not too shabby either, ay?:

In addition to all the other reasons I was excited to visit Chicago for this event was the particularly fantastic treat of seeing my dear friend Stacie and meeting her family.  Stacie and I became friends a while back through mutual friends on Facebook and we quickly bonded over our intense passion for adoption, Ethiopia and a little somethin' somethin' called Twilight.  Stacie is beautiful (inside and out), smart, thoughtful, quirkly and incredibly funny and I am lucky to know her. 

 

So what did we do?  We ate, drank and were merry!  We got to know families from all around the country whose blogs we followed.  We watched our children play and our children had the wonderful opportunity to see so many blended families bonded by love.  What else did we do?  Here's a recap:

Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier:

We went to Gino's East for authentic Chicago deep dish pizza:

 

We went to the Museum of Science and Industry.  Best part of this for the kids? For Mimi it was the rockclimbing wall (Max enjoyed that as well).  Max loved all the trains and planes.  Me?  Arthur Weasley's Invisible Muggle Car!

And then we went for Ethiopian food at Demera Ethiopian Restaurant.  It was full of food, families, music and tradition.  Mimi even participated in the coffee ceremony!  Most of the children wore their traditional clothing from their birth countries and everyone looked beautiful.  It was a wonderful and delicious way to end a fantastic trip!

Alas, like all good things our trip came to and end and we returned home.  The kids were happy to see Daddy, as was I to see him and I made one with the couch to rest while he made up for lost time.  Some say a vacation with kids is work but if that's the case it is the best job anyone could ask for!  I leave you with parting shots from the airport.  Mimi who showcases her "I hate early mornings" look while Max and Miles display their common knowledge for the three Cs: curiosity, climbing and comedy:

School is Cool!

Mimi started first grade this week.  While she was very upset that her BFF is no longer in her class she was very excited to return to school and is making new friends (while maintaining her established friendships during recess and lunch).  Last year she had a Hello Kitty backpack and we let her choose a new one for first grade along with a matching lunchbox:

 

Max will proudly tell you that he is now a Senior Preschooler and is not a baby anymore.  He wants to do homework all the time!  Seriously!!  I took him to the store to get supplies to practice writing out letters, number and shapes while we work with Mimi on her homework assignments.  He is not playing school but really concentrates on following the lines and writing his letters neatly and carefully:

 

I don't know if their thirst for knowledge will maintain this level of enthusiasm when they are learning algebra and biology but I they are definitely starting off with a great attitude about education.  But it's not all work and no play.  This fall Max will continue taking soccer lessons and Mimi will begin dance class. 

I was with Waldo?

I think this is the longest I've gone without writing a post since I began this blog three years ago and I am sorry for that.  It has just been SUCH a busy month and a half for me (and by busy I mean I was totally sucked into the Southern Vampire series followed by the The Mortal Instruments series).  

Last month I had yet another birthday *throws confetti*  Mimi, who proved herself to be quite the pro at blowing out candles at her own birthday party, helped me out. 

 

The kids both got rollerskates this summer so between that and their bicycles it seems the only time they ever came into the house was to eat and sleep:

 

We also added to our family.  Please give a warm welcome to Popcorn. 

As you can see he is guarded 24/7 by Professor Snape and Edward Cullen.  This is imperative given that Max has already tried to feed him ALL the fish food in one sitting, provide him better lighting by placing a flashlight directly against the glass and has attempted to pet the fish as well.

Oh and Max also raided Daddy's closet one night and gave me epic levels of cute:

And Mimi sported my glasses and proved once again that she doesn't have a bad look: