Ariel's Birthday

Ariel turned twenty and said she wanted a party. She made her own cupcakes - aren't they adorable ? We played pitch a penny (won by Travis , Jay and Rosie) , put the penny in a cup, and of course Everyone's favorite - Sharks and Minnows.

Good, Bad and the name

This is the view from my lawnchair. So what could I possibly have to complain about? Look carefully at the picture and you might notice that two little faces are missing from the picture. We had expected to bring Simon and Jed (full name Jedidiah, meaning beloved by the LORD...also called Jedi by his brothers who are thinking of another meaning entirely) home at the beginning of the summer. We have two dressers full of summer clothes for them that will soon have to be packed away. We have been waiting since May for a piece of paper we expected to arrive in June from China. Still no word of it. So while life here is wonderful, there are two boys at orphanages in China who have waited a very loong time for their forever family to come get them.

Summer has been lovely. Ariel has been teaching the kids to swim. Rosie can now go under water !

My parents stopped by twice - once on their way North and again, for Jay and Lindsay's birthday, on their way back to Naples.

Good thing I was planning to try decorating their cake like one I saw on pinterest, because it crmbled to bits when I tried to get it out of the pan and after dumping a ton of icing on my heap of chocolate crumbs, not finding any twix bars, I surrounded it with twizzlers and poured M+Ms on top. At least my DILs will never have to be intimidated by my great skills in the kitchen!

Narnia

This week Dominic, Rosie, and Nellie were in Narnia. They love the movie and have cast themselves as various main characters in much of their play. In the stage version, they had to be satisfied to play an eagle and water fairies (nyads).

The props and staging were pretty amazing, so they were happy just being a part of the show. Considering that a year ago Rosie and Dominic still lived in a Chinese orphanage, the very fact that they could speak enough English to make it through the audition is impressive !

Andy, everyones favorite audience member, even got to experience the wonder of fog made by dry ice for a few minutes.

Everett played a very sweet Tumnus and a centaur created by to walk like a real horse.

Now that Narnia is over the kids are already excited about the next show. Dominic prayed tonight that it would 'come soon'. Earlier this week, Andy came in to the kitchen and announced "Only nine more days !". I asked, "Nine more days til what ?" "Nine more days until Wizard of Oz auditions!"

So mark your calendars for auditions on Aug 15. Hooray, it's a musical ! And it is going to be huge ! Tickets are on sale at the box office or at greatmountainmusic.com .

On the adoption front - we are still waiting for the next piece of paper from China. We had hoped to get it in June, we are still waiting. So are our sons.