What we have been up to...

It has been a great and crazy summer so far...

In between people visiting and us being gone, it has been a lot harder then I thought to take care of all three kids AND work, so instead of hiring someone to come in and help, Mark decided to stay home a couple mornings a week. (Wouldn't it be nice if it could always be like that?)

My normal schedule is to do something fun with the kids in the morning, lunch, put kids down for a nap, see how much work I can cram in while they are asleep for 3 hours (Katie goes to quiet time and then comes and hangs out with me while I work), get the kids up and hang out until Mark comes home. Somewhere in there I try to fit in Katie's reading lesson. I know that sounds nice and pleasant but there is usually a lot more drama involved when we are actually living our schedule--plus birthmothers and adoptive families don't normally respect my "schedule".

All of Katie's friends stayed in preschool for the summer and I considered it, but I am really glad I decided against it. Katie, Addy and Marcus have had a lot of fun together this summer.

I think having Katie home has helped with Marcus and Addy learning to speak, the beginning of the summer they knew words, but now they are starting to put together strings of words and can communicate most things. They don't speak like a 5-yr-old like Katie did at their age, but I'm not complaining because I am a sucker for their cute little voices and mispronounced words.

The kids in Katie's room with their blankies and "bear"," lambies" and "ahh ahh"

And, I feel like Katie and Addy have learned the joys of having a sister. Lately, Katie has been taking Addy to her room to play with whatever Katie feels like playing with that morning, normally dolls combined with princesses.

This is Katie dressing her and Addy for the day.

Marcus has been hanging out with me and playing with his trains.

We go to the pool a couple times a week. It's funny because the first time we took the kids to the pool this year, Addy and Marcus cried and both wanted me to hold them. Now they will put their faces in the water and do their own thing.

We have been to the free movies a couple of times; Katie loves it, Marcus and Addy are ready to leave about 3/4 the way through the movie.

Mostly we have spent a lot of time enjoying our house and yard.

finger painting

it quickly got out of control and turned into a slip-n-slide and the whole patio turned into a canvas--and it was harder to get up then I thought it should.

Our mini-garden; flowers, basil and tomatoes.

And, did I mention that we finally got to celebrate the 4th of July for the first time since we have had children. Our church has a spot in SC where they go every year and do a cookout and fireworks. Katie loved it, Addy was fine and Marcus clung to me, tried to curl into a ball and wouldn't open his eyes again until we were back in the car.