Summertime – When the Livins’ Easy

August is slipping away from me as I type tonight.  I swear yesterday was August 1st!  Thankfully, here in Michigan, school doesn’t start until AFTER Labor Day, so we still have a couple weeks left before the big start of PRE-SCHOOL.  My big dilemma over that is which one to send her to – we applied to two and got accepted at both.  Decisions, decisions. 

The fun continues this month.   I will be sad when this summer of fun ends!  I will also be exhausted… but sad!  This month’s update (let’s face it, that’s about my average these days…) has some good, and some sad. 

My little tiny town had it’s yearly festival in early August.  This is a DO NOT MISS event in the town each year, and I am very pleased to report that the committee outdid themselves this year!  We had a fabulous time!  Friday afternoon was kids events:  picture the main street of a town closed off, tons of FREE kids events and perfect weather.  Tati invited her cousin Mary up for the festivities (ok, in truth, Mary’s mom and Tati’s mom wanted to catch up!), and the girls played perfectly together as usual! 

The events included a Princess Tea Party:

Kids Games and Train Rides:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a magic show featuring Ronald McDonald (did you know he was multi-talented?).  And where was the child that was scared of all the characters at Disney? (minus the princesses)  Nowhere in sight.  She walked straight up to him and said hi.  If there would have been smaller children in her way (there weren’t, thankfully), they may have been stepped on.  That girl was ON A MISSION. 

Finally, we wrapped up the weekend’s events with a marching band exhibition (hey, we love music!), a parade AND fireworks!  And the fear of fireworks?  Ready for this?  Sitting down?  No tears, no screaming – and we actually got some “ooooh beautiful” comments!  WOW!  She loved them!  Here she is making faces with mama at the parade.

 

A week later,  Tatiana and I  went to our adoption agency’s (Lighthouse Adoptions, Inc) summer picnic/family gathering.  It was a blast!  Lorien has a knack of picking the hottest day of the year for the gathering (well, it is August), but this year she was super smart and picked an inside location – Xtreme Bounce Zone!  Great choice!  Tati had a BLAST – and it was perfect since it was just Lighthouse kids.  No huge 15 year olds jumping on top of tiny 3 year olds! 

In addition, we shared a minor milestone while on our “trip” to the picnic.  Since the gathering is about 2 hours from our house, we left later on Friday night and stayed at a hotel near Ann Arbor.  When T sleeps at “Gramma Darlin’s” house she has an Aero-bed made for young kids.  It’s sides are slightly raised so kids don’t roll out.  I purposely didn’t bring this along so we could try out her first night in a big, big bed all by herself (knowing that if it backfired, this hotel does have a pack and play or 4).   I try to choose a hotel that has a slightly separated room, either a suite of two rooms or a faux-suite where a small wall divides the spaces.  For this reason, SpringHill Suites are my friend!  I was getting our things situated just after we arrived to the room when I heard MASSIVE giggling from the other side of the wall – and this is what I discovered: 

You’re catching the downward side of the jump.  Yes, in her adorable sundress.  Not very ladylike, but TONS of fun.  We have plenty of years to be ladylike!  Bring on the fun!

So, after seeing this, you can imagine that I was a little afraid that sleeping would NEVER commence.  However, this is what I got at bedtime: She was a pro!!  She slept great, didn’t roll out (yes, that is a 6 pillow wall surrounding her – hey, I *had* to do something with all those pillows they gave us!) and was in general, an angel!   So then it was onto the big event – Bounce Zone!  Here’s the princess in action:

  

 

 

 

 

We had a blast!  Tatiana was in her glory and mama loved talking with other adoptive families!  Next year we’ll have to try to plan our schedules and have some more time to chat!

In other news, the morning after we returned home from this event, we received some very sad news.  The mother of Tatiana’s BFF at daycare was murdered the night before.  This is very hard for me to type, because it is still fresh and sad.  Horribly tragic, horribly wrong.  Two of the most beautiful children have lost a mother at the tender age of just barely 2 (last week) and 3.  They’ll likely never remember her.  If it’s in you, please pray for these gorgeous kids.  My heart breaks daily for them.  (On a side note, while VERY, VERY shocking, I don’t live in Cabrini Green.  I live in a tiny town and aside from last year’s double murder that you may remember from a previous post, there hasn’t been anything like this happen in 15+ years. )

I think that’s enough for now.  War and Peace may have been shorter than this post.  It’s closing in on 1am and I am wide awake.  Mama had a dynamite girls only weekend in Las Vegas with some very long term friend (notice I didn’t say OLD).  We were celebrating a certain milestone event for the year.  Yup, we’re all turning 29.  Again.  And again…. repeat another 9 times.  But more on that later!