The End of Summer

Overlooking Lake Michigan
Camping at Hoffmaster State Park
Finger-painting with pudding
Real finger-painting
Visiting the St. Joe Children's Museum
First day of kindergarten!

We had a nice end to this summer. Nate and the boys had a "boys only" camping trip. And I said, "woo-hoo!" They went to Hoffmaster State Park near Grand Haven. It is probably our favorite campground now. The sites are large, shady, there are hiking trails and of course the lake. Julia and I visited the campsite for part of a day. I enjoyed getting some things done around the house while they were gone.

One afternoon the boys wanted to finger-paint. Julia wants to be involved in whatever the boys are doing! I gave her some pudding to eat, I mean paint with. She did enjoy playing with the pudding for a couple minutes, but then she just started flinging it. And cleaning up the pudding was quite the process too. I don't think we'll do the pudding thing very often! I also took the kids to a local children's museum. I am always proud of myself when I do big outings like this by myself. Thankfully this museum isn't huge, so it's a little easier to keep an eye on them when they go 3 different directions. Unfortunately the museum didn't have a place for us to eat our packed lunch. But, the staff let us eat at their table in their kitchen- very nice of them.

I wanted to share a couple funny sayings from Isaac recently. The kids had balloons and Julia's accidentally floated away. The boys were a little upset that the balloon was floating away. I said that maybe someone flying in an airplane will see the balloon. Isaac then said, "Maybe Jesus will catch it." So cute. Another time I took the kids for a quick mall trip. We don't go to malls very often. Anyway, the boys suddenly noticed the mannequins. Isaac asked, "Can I touch it?" I said yes. Caleb and Isaac then asked if the mannequins were real, etc. I explained that they were just pretend. Caleb then asked, "Did they cut off people's heads and then make them?" What??? I then carefully explained that the mannequins are made in a factory and they are not real. The boys still stared at them as we walked thru the store. :) The other night Isaac said,"Why did the chicken cross the road?" His answer, "Because he had to go poop." Nate and I discourage bathroom talk, especially at the table, but we lost it. We were laughing so hard. The boys are in the stage that anything related to the bathroom is funny. How long until boys grow out of this stage, ever?

Julia is testing our boundaries these days. She just does things over and over that she isn't supposed to do. Gets a little tiring! We are doing time-ins with her. Where she has to sit still next to us for a minute. She also doesn't play with toys, which is frustrating. She prefers to follow us or the boys around. We're trying to weed out our toys so it isn't overwhelming and find toys that interest her. She does like to carry my purse or other bags around and say, "bye!"- very cute. For a long time Julia went to bed easily. The past two months have been difficult for her. She cries, talks, yells- just doesn't fall asleep easily. We tried going up every 5 minutes to pat her and say goodnight. (I read in an adoption book to try that technique when kids have sleep issues.) We also wake her up from her nap by 3:30 pm. For the past couple of weeks, she's been asking for water so we were giving her a drink and taking the cup away. She seemed kind of stressed about the water. So, we are now giving her a sippy cup with a little water in it and it seems to be working! She still doesn't fall asleep quickly, but she's just jabbering in her bed and not upset. I guess she just feels secure that the water is available if she wants it? Hopefully it continues to work! She is very social these days and loves to say "hi and bye" to anyone who passes by.

Caleb started kindergarten today! He was more nervous than I expected him to be. He is familiar with this teacher as his Young 5's class spent afternoons with the kindergarten class last year. Caleb told me that he was nervous about kindergarten because they do hard work. I kept reminding him that his teacher will help him and that he will do great. This week he has half days and then does normal full days starting next week. His class has 18 kids! We were shocked to hear that. He had 7 kids in his Young 5's class. I think Caleb thrives better in a smaller class, but this will be a good experience for him. He was miffed today because some girl brought pretzels for the whole class so he couldn't eat his own snack. :) I was excited to read that he will be memorizing the ABC's Bible verses. I learned those in kindergarten! You know, A- "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23" B- "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Acts 16:31," etc. I think this teacher will stretch Caleb, but he'll also enjoy kindergarten and learn alot. I still remember how my kindergarten teacher cut off my pencil eraser so that I couldn't erase my mistakes. Very upsetting for a young perfectionist. :) We are excited to see how Caleb grows this year!