Family time

I've got some back tracking to do to catch up on some events from earlier this month. Every summer the Mod family has a reunion the first weekend of August. The attendees are P's paternal grandmother, his dad's siblings and spouses, and whatever cousins are able to come. Usually it is a camping reunion, but this year it was just a picnic - which was perfect for me. It's not that I don't enjoy spending more time with the family, but at this point in our lives I don't love camping, and since I'm always on kid patrol I rarely have the opportunity to converse with other adults since I'm either following the girls, playing with them or at least visually following their every move. It just doesn't lend itself to catching up, as virtually any conversation longer than a minute or two gets interrupted. This year proved to be no different in that arena.

We did have a fun time though. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to find that there was some Polynesian entertainers performing. It was a small group of performers called the Polynesian Legends. At first they were just playing some Hawaiian music, but then there was some dancing, and finally a fire dancer.

Here's C & M trying their hand at the hula.

I believe this was a Tahitian dance. The dancers picked out male participants from the audience. P was pleased to have been chosen until the girls started pulling the shirts off of the males and there was no way to gracefully exit. He was mortified to be shirtless in front of the small crowd. It didn't make him feel any better when I pointed out that he was actually in better shape than the other two men. The extreme farmers tan coupled with the weight of his keys in his shorts pocket pulling his shorts down below his underwear waistband was a nice touch : )

The Samoan fire dancer put the lit end in his mouth and then proceeded to light the other end with his mouth!

Naturally, the girls' favorite part of the reunion was the playground, and more specifically, this tire swing. They must have spent a few hours on this thing!



They only swung with this girl for a little bit. Then a girl M's age came to join them and a boy came with her and offered to push them. My girls had to take a break to eat and then when they were done they promptly went to find Naomi and Michael again so they could all resume swinging. Naomi's mom asked Michael to not push it so it would spin while her daughter was on it, so a few times he suggested the littler girls climb off so he could really push C so it would spin. Both M and Naomi were happy to oblige, so he'd push C wildly for a bit, and then they'd get back on. At one point he asked C how old she was. He was surprised when she told him five. "Oh, " he said, "I thought you were seven." He then informed her that he was eight. While he was a great kid, this glimpse into my future with the girls kind of scares me!

The day after the reunion the girls took off for the beach. P was asked to help out for a few days with a scout high adventure camp out, and those days happened to fall on the days that I work. Since I work long days, we'd have to get a babysitter for nearly 12 hours a day and I just didn't think that would work. When P asked my parents, they graciously agreed to take the girls. I had already planned to go out to the beach with the girls on Wednesday, so they'd be taking the girls three days earlier than planned and then I would come out to join them. This was the longest we have been away from both girls at the same time, so it was also the longest my folks have ever had them together. They have often taken one at a time, and they quickly learned that two is a different ball game altogether! The girls had a good time, but grandma and grandpa were tuckered out, particularly with all the bickering, by the time I arrived to relieve them. Hopefully we haven't ruined our chances of them taking both girls again in the future! We missed the girls immensely, but it would be nice to have an opportunity to spend a few days together just the two of us sometime.

P and I didn't get much of a chance to enjoy our time without kids. However, on Sunday night we did go over to our friend's house for dinner. I have to say that I had more fun than I have had in a long time since I wasn't on kid patrol. When I heard fighting or crying, I knew it had nothing to do with my kids. I was able to engage in adult conversation all night long without interruption. I actually went home that night feeling totally exhilarated.

Here's some visitors the girls saw while at the beach.

Grandma and Grandpa took the girls and I to the county fair while we were there. The girls loved their balloon butterflies.

And we saw the largest cow I have ever laid eyes on!

The same cow.

Good times!

I'm going to try to write another catch up post before I leave for the beach tomorrow, but I'm not making any promises.

Play date

We had a play date Thursday with someone near and dear to our hearts. Many of you may recognize her if you visited us last summer.

I was shocked when I first saw her at how tall she has gotten. I doubt that she remembered that she had once lived with us, although I do think we seemed familiar to her. (She does have a photo album that I made for her of the time she spent with us, which she used to look at quite frequently, but not so much anymore.) She and M played quite happily together the whole time. Perhaps she felt a special connection to M since they had shared a room. I really don't know. How much can a two and a half year old remember from 10 months ago? We last saw her about six months ago, and at the time she was very unhappy about my being there. I think she was afraid that I might take her away. The same thing happened for awhile when Neo went back to his home too, so I knew not to take it personally.

It was great to see her again and for the girls to get to play. C and M have been dying to see her, but it just hasn't worked out to get together any earlier this summer. It was also good to get brought up to speed on her case, and I am pleased to learn how things are moving forward. I was stunned to hear the update on her biological parents and it brought me to tears as I realized how naive P and I had been. Our trust was totally betrayed and we're angry to think how we were lied to, right to our faces, by the man we tried so hard to help. I don't know how I could have survived that blow if this case had still been a part of our daily life. Just one more confirmation that we did the right thing for our family by pulling out.

Anyway, back to more positive things. She is progressing and is in the process of being adopted by her current family. We are thankful that they welcome contact with us and that we can see for ourselves how well she is doing.

C said

The girls each get to spend a full week by themselves with Grandma and Grandpa at the beach during the summer. C left for her week yesterday. I talked to her for a bit last night before she went to bed, and she said a few things that really cracked me up.

While talking about how much she loved and missed us she said "Apparently, I really love you a lot, Mom."

Later she told me that they had taken her to McDonald's and gotten her a cheeseburger AND an ice cream cone. I jokingly complained that they were spoiling her, and what was I going to do when they sent her back? She replied, "I don't know. You'll just have to figure that out for yourself."

Mean girls

I have had numerous conversations with C about being nice to others, how important it is to always say things that would make people feel happy instead of sad, and how it makes us feel when others say unkind things to us. These conversations have come about because either she has been mean to other kids, or because the neighbor girls across the street have been mean to her. I have recounted to her of how sad and lonely I was in the 1st and 2nd grade because my classmates made fun of me. She has been very interested in these tales and has asked many follow up questions such as what they would say, why, and specifically who would say them.

C has a stuffed animal that was named after the orange tabby cat that we used to have. I bought it for her the night before we had to put our beloved Meow to sleep three years ago. Recently C saw fit to rename her stuffed animal. The new name is not terribly pleasing to me.


The picture is of C and her favorite stuffed animal, Stacy Rose. That's right, she gave it the first and last name of my childhood tormentor - the ringleader, no less. It doesn't matter that Stacy and I made peace with one another and, while we never became great friends, we got along just fine all the way through high school. C doesn't know that part. All she knows is that this is the girl who made me cry and tell my mother that all I really wanted for my birthday was to have a friend. Nice. I guess we have some more work to do on learning empathy.

P's 20 year reunion

This weekend was P's 20 year high school reunion. It doesn't seem possible that we have been out of school for that long! I really like that his reunions are very low key and they always have a family event. I have yet to attend one of mine as they seem more centered around alcohol and don't have a family function.

Friday night was the alumni only and he had a great time. He's a very social creature, so really, how could he not? I believe he made a point of trying to talk to every one there. Saturday was a picnic at a park, with his restaurant providing much of the food, and of course, P was cooking. As luck would have it, it fell on the third day in a row of 100 degree temperatures. Despite the heat and the barbequeing, P made the rounds and was very sad to see it come to a close. He hates that he'll have to wait another 10 years to see many of his classmates again. There's really only so many people you can carve out time to keep in touch with, and in my opinion, he has done an exceptional job of keeping up with his core friends from high school.

The girls had a good time too, although the heat and not enough sleep caused them to be moodier than usual. They tolerated being dragged around and introduced to grown ups that they had no interest in. Most of the kids there were older, but there were enough young kids there that they had a good time playing. I don't know how they could stand moving that much, but I just tried my best to keep getting water into them.

As for me, awkwardly following my husband around and being introduced to people I don't know and won't cross paths with for another 10 years is not at the top of my fun things to do list. Factor in the sweltering heat and keeping up with tempermental kids and, well, you get the picture. It was nice to see the couple of the people that I did know, and I did meet and converse with a few people where we had adoption in common - so I enjoyed that.

The most entertaining part of the day was on the ride to the park. P was already there, and we'd had to stop at a commercial grocery store to pick up more food for him so we were driving separately. The AC in the van has been broken, and we just coughed up the $500 to have it fixed - so I was telling the girls how VERY thankful I was for air conditioning. On their own accord, the girls decided to add to the list. C announced that she was thankful for our hearts. M chimed in that she was thankful for Jesus. Umm, yeah, me too. But at that moment I still had to stick with the AC. I guess I'm just the most shallow member of the family. What great girls I have!

Half year photos

The girls turn 5 1/2 and 3 1/2 this month, so it is time for their half year photos together. This time I decided to try a new studio and we went to Portrait Innovations. Their prices were pretty comparable to Sears, but I felt that the quality of photos we got was better. They captured so many adorable shots of the girls, both together and individually, that it was hard to only buy two poses. Maybe someday we won't have budget restrictions ; ) The only downside of this studio is that they don't post the photos online, so unless you buy at least $80 worth of pictures and you get a CD of the session, you don't have any way to see all the poses you didn't purchase.

 

M's first haircut

After four weeks of swimming class, the chlorine had really done a number on M's hair. Her hair is dry to begin with, but now it was just out of control. I've been reluctant to cut her beautiful curly locks. Initially it was because the longer her hair got, the more manageable it was, so I just didn't want to take it shorter again. As time went by, I became more emotionally attached to the idea of leaving her with all the hair she was born with. After all, she's three now, so what's the rush for her first haircut? Besides, when her hair is all wet it reaches all the way down to her bum, and how cute is that?! But now there was no denying that it was finally time to cut those dry, damaged, wispy ends - and it took some convincing to get P on board with it too.

So on August 1st I took my little girl for her first cut. Luckily she was already familiar with Naomi, who cuts both my hair and C's, so we didn't have to get over her shyness to get started. She only took off about 1 1/2 inches on the back, and less as she moved forward since that hair wasn't as long as the back to begin with. Because her hair is so curly you really can't tell much difference when it is dry - only those who know would ever notice the difference.

M loved her haircut and was very good the whole time she was in the chair. The rest of the day she kept asking "Is my hair still cut?" Unfortunately I don't have an "after" photo for you, because after sitting for so long there was no standing still for her for another picture - but it's not like you won't see more pictures of her soon anyway.




Nice bubble blowing in this last picture. I actually think it's pretty impressive that a 3 year old can blow bubbles. But if this girl doesn't have a piece of gum in her mouth, she asks for one every 30 seconds. (Or when she's really on a roll, and she isn't getting the answer she wants, the requests are seriously 5 seconds apart.) She's like a broken record. Same thing with candy. Sometimes the first words out of her mouth in the morning are "Mom, can I have a piece of candy?" I don't get it. Why does she even bother asking? "M, do you EVER get candy before breakfast? Stop asking me!"

Class dismissed

Last week marked the end of structured activities for the girls this summer as they wrapped up dance and swim classes.

I took time off work last Tuesday so I could see their last dance classes. I was a little worried because they got a new teacher at the second lesson, and she wasn't letting the parents in during class so I feared I might have used vacation time for nothing. Luckily parents were welcome for both classes. M's class is first and is an intro to dance/creative movement class. I have to say that I was a little disappointed. They did play movement games that the kids seemed to enjoy, but nothing that resembled dance. In fact there wasn't even any music until they did the hokey pokey at the end. Regardless, the kids were all adorable in their ballerina get ups.





C's class was an intro to tap and ballet. Before she started the class she was sure she wanted to be a ballerina, but then she decided it would be too hard. Eventually she started to get a hang of things so her frustration level decreased and she began to like class more. I think she remained disappointed that they didn't get any time to just let loose and dance. I was pleased with her obvious improvement in coordination. By the way, I didn't pick out her leopard print outfit. It's a hand me down from her cousin and has been in C's "dress up" clothes box along with several other dance outfits. She begged to wear it for her final day.




C had a hard time keeping her hands out of her hair in this class. I think it is because she had it in braids the night before and she feels so beautiful when she has the waves in her hair - just like her sister! Here's the braids for bedtime.



I didn't take any photos of the girls in their swimming classes. M passed her second class and her teacher said she was amazing. By the end of four weeks of swimming, M was ready to be done - even though she loves being in the water. So instead of swimming class, I'll just show you one of them playing in the pool in the backyard this summer. As usual, M is all wet and C is just barely.