Celebrating the 4th

We celebrated Independence Day at the lake this summer.  It was a wonderful few days full of swimming, BBQ, and relaxation.  {And quite a few games of Skip-Bo.} 

Caroline is getting very brave in her swimming.  She's been swimming at the pool some this summer without her floaties, and now she is venturing with this new skill in the lake.  She was even jumping off the pier and swimming to the ladder without her floaties.  She loves swimming and tubing!

The highlight of this year's celebration was seeing the fireworks the city shoots over the lake.  Last year, we didn't want to keep Caroline up that late, so we missed out.  This year, we took the boat out, found a good spot with a view of the ball field from where they're shot, and dropped anchor.  It was so much fun being out there with all of the other boats and enjoying the show, even it was past a certain little one's bedtime.

Our fearless Captain

Mimi and Caroline (and Stripes)

 

Aunt Stephanie and Mamaw

 

Anchored and waiting...


...and waiting.

Show time!
{It is REALLY difficult to get a photo of fireworks when you are on a rocking boa, but there ya go.}

Pensacola in June

 

Neither Philip nor I am really a beach person.  Maybe this is because we both grew up on the coast and are a bit disenchanted with the sand, salt water, and heat.  Maybe we would've been non-beach people no matter where we were raised.  Either way, we both prefer a mountain or a lake setting.  

However, it is truly fun to watch your kids enjoy the beach!!  And this little girl does enjoy it.  The sand and salt water do not bother her a bit.  She loves it all!  Swimming, building demolishing sand castles built for her, looking for shells, catching tiny sea creatures in her bucket... the possibilities for joyful moments are endless. 

 A weekend in P'cola with the fam usually involves some grilling out, which we always enjoy.  This time we all spent some time watching Philip grill and Caroline play in the baby pool (since, or course, the beach wasn't enough water play for one day).

 

We also squeezed in a trip to see Brave, the new Disney Pixar film.  Very cute; if you haven't seen it, I recommend it.  I wouldn't say it's my favorite Pixar film, but still definitely worth a poopcorn-filled visit to the theater. 

 

Carolinism

"I'm just like Pop; I work at home.

Playing is my work.

I work hard.

I'm going to go work right now."

Water Fun

The summer is in full swing here in Alabama.  What better way to cool off then to spend some time in the water?  We love going to our neighborhood pool when it seems too hot to do anything else outdoors.

 

Another favorite place to cool off is Mimi and Pop's lake house.  We spent Memorial Day weekend there with family.  There was a lot of time spent tubing, boating, jet skiing, and swimming. 

I am so glad Caroline is going to be able to grow up enjoying the water in the summer.  I have great memories of Lake Martin from my childhood.  Thankfully there will be many more opportunities for memories to be made at Logan-Martin Lake!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happenings as of Late

Things have been busy around here lately (do they ever truly slow down when you have kids?).  Here are a few pictures of our Spring so far.  

Caroline's dance "recital" was fun to watch.  She was more concerned about staying on her "X" that getting any of the steps.  She kept looking down to make sure she hadn't strayed.  At one point the little girl next to her was crowding her out of her spot, but Caroline firmly stood her ground.  We have a rule follower on our hands, just like her mama.

She got the "Big Hand" award in music class for the third tome this year.  She brings it to me all of the time and asks me to read it to her.  She is so proud when she gets it, she can barely wait for the carpool teacher to buckle her in before she says, "Mama, let me have my folder!  I wanna show you something!"

Painting is always a big hit.  Painting a Tinkerbell picture in Tinkerbell jammies is the ulitimate.

Our latest gluten-free venture: pizza.  No, the crust is not made from some non-wheat flour.  It is made from cheese.  You read that right.  Two types of cheese and eggs.  It was very rich and very yummy.  A small piece goes a long way!

Fundraising Galore!

We have been fundraising like mad lately!  At least, it seems that way to me.  Until just recently, we hadn't done any fundraising for our adoption.

The first thing I did was to sell hair bows. So far, this has brought in about $500, and I still have lots more ribbon to make some more bows!  (Let me know if you want some!)

Next we held a yard sale.  Actually, it was a selling palooza, consisting of selling some things on Craigslist and e-bay and having yard sales two Saturdays in a row.  We had only planned on one big yard sale, but our neighbor had advertised one the weekend before ours was scheduled, so we went ahead and pulled some of our wares out.  We had lots of people donate items for us to sell, and we made about $2000 altogether, which was much more than I had ever anticipated!  Caroline enjoyed helping by selling chocolate covered pretzels.

Next on our agenda is a Thirty-One party.  My good friend Lorrie is a consultant, and she generously offered to have a party for me and donate all of her earnings from the party to our adoption fund.

I have truly been humbled by the generosity of others through this process.  We've had friends and family make donations.  I had one neighbor whom I had never met write me a $20 check at our yardsale, and only buy a children's book.  Several others said, "Keep the change."  Lots of friends, both here in Birmingham and far away, have told their pals with little gals about my hair bows.  It's truly neat to see so many come together to help us bring our child home.

So why all the fundraising?  I'm not going to sugarcoat it; adoption is expensive.  In total, we will spend about $30,000 during this process.  A lot of that we have already paid over the past 5 years.  Our final fees, which are due soon, will total $9,500.  We also have to fund a trip to Colombia for 3-4 weeks.  In the end, though, our family will grow by one, and the 143,000,000 orphans will be less one.  Praise God!

Fishing at Mimi and Pop's

We spent Easter Sunday at Mimi and Pop's house, and we got to enjoy the newly built pier. Matt, Philip, and my dad had spent the previous weekend working hard on the pier, getting it ready for jumping from and tying the boat to this summer. Pretty soon the water will be up, and we can christen it with the first jump. For now, we enjoy fishing off of it. The fish weren't biting that night, but Caroline was enjoying casting and reeling in all the same.

And, just because, I'll throw in a picture of her all dressed up.  What a cutie.