New York City

 Mark's parents came to visit a few weeks ago.  The kids were so excited for the visit; mostly because they wanted to see them, but also because we were finally going to visit NEW YORK CITY!  Sadly, the day was a lot colder then we were hoping.  We left Jaxon home with Heather.  We parked and took the subway to Times Square first.  It was scary even with 4 adults and 3 kids--too many people. 

Grammy and Katie on the subway

The characters were a little scary.  They took a picture and then 10 of them harassed us for money.  Later Marcus saw some super heroes and Mickey Mouse and was so excited to go say hi, they weren't interested when I told them I was out of cash.  Marcus was pretty disappointed until we walked into Toys R' Us and Batman, Ironman and Spiderman all greeted him and gave him hi-five.

 

 

 We hung out in Toys R' Us for a while and then ate lunch (pizza of course).  After lunch we slowly walked to Central Park.  Along the way we stopped at Crumbs to grab some cupcakes to eat when we got to the park.

The park was a nice break from all the noise and commotion.  After cupcakes, we climbed rocks and played at the playground and then walked until we were freezing.

Some random dog the kids stopped to pet.

When we were numb we headed to the car and drove home to our little Jaxon.

Katie

Poor Miss Katie has been to way too many schools in her short life (someday we will stop moving around) but it doesn't keep her down.  She has adjusted to her new school like a pro.  She has good friends, sweet girls who are kind to one another.  She loves her teacher (probably because  her first name is Katie as well). 

Katie won a citizenship award for being kind and caring and being an example to others. 

 

Last month Katie and her class went to see a play at the local theater.  I was able to go along as a chaperone.  The play was about the Ugly Duckling.  I don't remember the original story very well, but in this version the mother and siblings were SOOO mean to the 'ugly duckling' because he was different.  Partway through this I looked down and saw Katie crying.  She was so upset that the mom was not stopping the siblings from being mean and that she herself didn't seem to love the 'ugly duckling'.  My sweet little girl, with only adopted siblings, didn't seem to understand why this would happen.  I myself was livid by the time the play was over as the 'ugly duckling' after proving himself worthy was rewarded by finding his "real" mom and not staying with the duckling family.  Katie was so excited to see the play but walked out with tears streaming down her face.  As sad as she was, I was so proud of her for recognizing this behavior as wrong. 

Katie and Lily at the theater

On a more positive note, Katie's school does a word of the day everyday.  Each kid writes a sentence using the word, the winners get to read their sentence over the intercom.  Katie won her first week at school with Mark helping her with her sentence.  A couple of weeks ago she decided she was going to try it by herself, so after me helping her understand the definition she made up her own sentence--steering far away from any hints of help I offered.  She won!  Her sentence was; "I am garrulous, I don't know why, I just like to talk".  To top it off, she tricked both Mark and I by sadly telling us she did not win and then laughing at us when we tried to comfort her.

Katie also won a principal's award for her grades this last quarter.

Katie and her friend Lily

Katie and her teacher

Our new life...

 WARNING this is going to be a long post...

We have finally started to feel a little settled here.  It has been harder than we expected.  I think the twins especially have had a hard time.  I didn't put them in preschool here for a variety of reasons and they started missing structured activities and their friends.  Heather came back with me from Christmas to be my part time nanny so she is with them three mornings a week, they have fun doing school and crafts with her.  Also, in a effort to help them find a social life, I signed Addy up for ballet which she is LOVING.

first class

I also signed both of them up for Gymnastics a couple weeks ago and that is a highlight of the week for both of them.  The greatest part is that there is a great play area at the gymnastics place that we can use because we are paying for the class.  We have spent quite a bit of time there waiting out the rest of winter.

Our first friends here are a family with 4 yr old boy/girl twins and a 5 1/2 yr old girl.  Perfect combination for all my kids to have a friend.

Eva and Addy

Marcus and Eli

The snow from Nemo lasted for a while, I built the kids a great ramp to aid their sledding.  Sadly, they were not interested in sledding past day 3.

We had a fantastic Valentines day.  Kids get so excited about every holiday (today we all wore green to church for St Patrick's day, and Katie kept asking why they weren't saying anything over the pulpit about the day).

Katie and Jaxon getting her cards ready for her friends.

Valentines Day Katie got up early and got dressed in her carefully planned outfit. (She made the crown in art class at school.)

Addy also had her outfit planned out days in advance (her pants have little hearts all over them, and her hair clips are hearts).

Marcus didn't really care what he wore, but we put some red on him.

I promised the kids we would make heart cupcakes when Katie got home from school.   Poor Miss Addy got sick at some point and fell asleep while we were making them.  Katie wrote her a note and left it on her.  (It said; "Dear Addy, I hope you feel better soon.  I'm so sad that you are sick on Valentines day.  You feel asleep.")

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Addy woke up in time to eat a cupcake for dinner.

In my effort to help Marcus and Addy not be so bored, I have had to step up my game.  (Thank goodness pintrest has come to my rescue.)

We made puffy paint one day.  They had way more fun mixing everything together then they had actually painting.

Jaxon, hanging out, being the angel baby that he is while we worked

Last week Katie had a snow day and  I came downstairs to find this.  The kids had decided to follow a recipe in the Fancy Nancy Beauty Salon book and made a foot scrub.  They also tried to make a honey/banana face mask, but luckily I showed up before that happened--I told them that would have to wait until it was warm enough for us to do it outside.

We have also been having a lot of dance parties around here.  Marcus likes to put Bob Marley on the CD player and the kids dance forever.

Marcus has spent a lot of time working on his moves, he has some pretty good ones.

Mark's sister Emily (and Mike and Rosie) came to visit last week.  We had so much fun hanging out with them.  The kids loved having Rosie around.

Rosie watching the kids dance, trying to figure out what they were doing

Marcus put a bracelet around the mop and called it Rapunzel, he ran around with it like this for two days.

Last Sat was a nice day so we headed to the local park to play for a while. 

And lastly, Addy is just getting funnier and sassier each day.  Every thing that comes out of her mouth is entertaining.  A couple days ago I was doing a reading lesson with Marcus, afterwards we headed to the kitchen to start lunch and I found Miss Addy had already prepared her own lunch--apple, tangerine, and spinach.