Owls and I love you's

I don't think I ever documented the fact that we decided to wait and send C to kindergarten in the fall of 2012.  His birthday is only about a week before the Maryland kindergarten cut off and I had originally planned on delayed entry but decided to give homeschooling a shot this past year anyway.  He was simultaneously going to a preschool program (nature school) two days a week.  Based on how his transition into that program went...plus everything I had read, heard from others, and my just plain "gut" feeling, we went ahead and stopped official kindergarten at home and are letting him have another year as a preschooler.  Well, sadly (or rather not sadly...for those of you who know how it went down we would no longer want him there anyway) C is no longer attending nature school.  He has been fine with it and hasn't even asked about it once since I told him that we wouldn't be going back.  For that I am very thankful!  The whole situation was a big mess and I was afraid the outcome would hurt my little boy's sensitive spirit.  But, he's doing just fine.  Between now and kindergarten I'm making a more conscious effort to have some focused "learning time."  Although, with my kiddo the more work I do to disguise the fact that he's actually learning something, the less it feels like work for him and the more enthusiastic he is.  It's tricky business.  ;)

Here are lots of pictures, plus some bonus videos, of our week of Owls and I love you's.

Gathering "o" items in his backpack during our letter hunt through the house.

Sorting his "o" objects into categories.

 Fingerprint owl project.

We made lots of yummy owl snacks throughout the week.

Another fun snack!

Pinecone owls!

Working on his shapes owl.

Not pictured are all the owl books we read.  We had a ton from the library!  We also read some Valentine's books and talked about the upcoming holiday.  Which he keeps calling Thanksgiving. :)  Here he is with our heart crayons!

 Our final owl snack...

 ...owl pellets! 

 Showing off his Valentine's heart owl and his shapes owl.

And here's a peek at some of the games we played during the week...

Showered with Love!

While back in KS, my mom and sister-in-law hosted a welcome home (soon!) shower for our lil' peanut!  Everything was so nice.  It was such a special time and I was truly blessed by the love and generosity of my family and friends.

I love all the grandkids' pictures on the mantle.  My personal favorites being the 2nd and 4th ones from the left. :)

The lovely table.  The buttercream icing on that cake smelled so good, it took a lot of reserve not to dig into it before my guests arrived.  

Yum!  It tasted as good as it looked (and smelled) :)

I'm so glad we got that surprise update and my mom put out his most recent picture.  Most of the guests at the shower had last seen him at one year.  We used his 1st birthday picture for the shower invitations.  They couldn't believe how much he'd grown!

With the hostesses.

I got a lot of wonderful books, both about Korea and adoption.  I am so excited to have them to share with lil' peanut (and C!)

My mother-in-law graciously agreed to sew a crib bedding set for me.  This diaper stacker was the final piece.  I will have to take a picture of everything and post it.  It's adorable. 

As I was admiring my diaper stacker I was joking with my mom and asking her how the blanket she had planned to make was coming along.  Every time I asked her about it on the phone her response was always "Oh, I've gotta get started on that."  Well, she showed me!  It was the very next thing I opened up!

More great books!  Little Critter's Me and My Little Brother which C has requested many times at bedtime since we got it.  And Jin Woo.  I actually found this at our library awhile back.  A page or two into it C looked up at me with a little smile on his face and said, "Wait a minute...is this book about me?"  ;)  It does mirror our own story rather closely and I was so happy to receive our own copy!

Me and my little man!  He was pretty interested in all those presents and thought maybe he needed to stick around to see what was inside.  A trip to Uncle Jason's house to play video games won him over though.  He was happy to go as long as we promised to save him some cake. :)

A huge thank you to my mom and Debra for putting everything together and hosting such a wonderful shower.  And, of course, thank you to each person who came.  It was a pretty great thing to be surrounded by my loved ones while we all celebrated our baby's life and looked forward to his homecoming together.

KS-Day 4

B turned 4 about a week before our visit.  My brother and sis-on-law graciously planned her party around our visit.  I know C was so happy to be able to go!  (I'm sure the fact that it was at Chuck-e-cheese contributed a little bit) :)

Hubby getting his Rapunzel tattoo that B picked out for him.  I don't really have anything to say about these two.

 Me and the birthday girl!

C spent most of his time playing this racing game.

 This was while we were singing to B.  I love her little smile.  So cute!

Ahh!  Squishy baby love!

My folks keep baby M during the day, so her parents were no where around when we left for the airport to come home.  I semi-seriously considered the logistics of taking her home with me.  Ha! 

Even hubby really liked her.  And he is generally not impressed by babies.  ;)  If you liked C's previous Puss in Boots performance, then you will want to watch this!



KS-Day 3

We spent most of the day Friday at my in-laws house.  When we got there I put my purse in their bedroom to keep it out of the way of everyone and never went back in to get my camera out.  The house was full with aunts and uncles and cousins.  There were several boys ranging in age from about 7-14 I think and boy did C love hanging out with them! 

We headed back to my folks' house for dinner.  After we ate, C made good on a promise he'd made to Uncle Jason that he was gonna "make a man out of him." 

B helped, and I think they did a pretty good job. :)  What a good uncle...letting our kid beat up on him!

Having a little rest after their wrestling match.





KS-Day 2

Thursday morning I snuck away for a couple hours to catch up with some friends.  I left C at my parents' house where he spent the morning hanging out with his cousins. 

After lunch we headed to the main event of the day.  Zonkers!  This was another place that C said he wanted to visit while we were back in KS.

I remember the first few times we took him when we lived in KS and he wasn't even tall enough to go on some of the rides by himself.  Now look at these two big kids, riding rollercoasters like it's no big deal.  He literally jumped for joy when I told him that he and B could ride all by themselves.

Hubby flew from Tampa to join us for the weekend.  Yay!  Baby M goes on record as the first baby in our family that didn't freak out when they met hubby!  He has a way with the little ones.  Haha!

 Some of hubby's family joined us too...like my other sweet niece.

Zonkers was a big hit!  With everyone.  Several times when I looked around the place to survey what everybody was doing I would find either my dad or my husband playing one of the arcade games.  Alone. :)  We went to dinner that night with my in-laws to the Elephant Bar and Grill, a place I definitely miss.  Yum!