I can't believe our summer is almost over and school is starting in just over a week! Here's how we've spent the last 4 months:
- Everyone had a great end to their school year. Chloe Grace worked very hard in first grade and finished the year finally reading on grade level - so proud of her perseverance!
- Jarod and Madison had only a week off when school ended and then started strength and conditioning camp through the school district. They went Mon-Thurs mornings for 2 hours from mid June until the end of July.
- Jason and Madison went to summer camp the week after July 4th. The older three kids have all been going since they turned 9 and LOVE it! Madison sang Carrie Underwood's "Inside Your Heaven" Thursday evening at the camp talent show. She did so great. She's been taking voice lessons for the last year and is showing such amazing growth! Jason only showered twice the entire week and didn't brush his teeth at all...I guess that's part of the fun for a 10 year old boy when he's away from home for an entire week!
- Jarod went to camp the week after Jason and Madison. It was his first year at senior camp (it's divided with junior campers age 9-13 and senior campers 14-18). He had a great time! The camp is held just outside Austin, about 30 minutes from our house. His friends from Dallas all come here for this camp, so he always looks forward to camp week.
- Madison attended a volleyball camp for 2 days (4 hours each day) at the end of July. The camp was actually 3 days long, but she had strep and missed the first day. She loved it! She played volleyball at our local YMCA this spring for the first time. Her coach was wonderful and taught her so much over the course of the season. She plans to try out for the school volleyball team.
- Jarod went to football camp for 4 days (3 hours each morning) during the first week of August. He played football at school last fall for the first time and really liked it. His position last year was defensive tackle. He hopes to be on the offensive line this year, but he won't know for certain what position he'll play until they start practicing next week.
- Sophia has grown by leaps and bounds! She's getting taller and gaining weight. Her hair has grown so much since we met her! Her English is astounding & she's talking as well or better than 2 1/2 year olds that have been exposed to English their entire life. She loves to sing. She has an amazing memory and doesn't forget a thing! And the child is LOUD! She has 2 volumes, loud and louder! She's incredibly sweet and has definitely changed all our lives in such a short time.
- Two of our kiddos have summer birthdays - Jarod turned 14 in June and Chloe Grace turned 8 in July. Jarod had two friends over to go to the movies and spend the night. Chloe Grace asked for Oreo cheesecake for her birthday. I bought one of those Jello No-Bake mixes and we crushed Oreo cookies to add to the cheesecake filling. We decided to make mini-cheesecakes in muffin cups. We only added the crushed Oreo cookies to about 2/3 of the filling, we left the rest plain because not everyone in our family likes chocolate.....ahem....Jarod....Anyway, Chloe Grace ended up not liking the Oreo cheesecake and eating the plain ones with Jarod! But she had lots of fun helping me make them. I'm not always as patient as I should be when the kids want to help me in the kitchen because the mess drives me crazy! I took a deep breath and determined to let her do as much as she could and she loved it!
- We all trekked up to Irving for Westside's youth lectures the last weekend of July. The lessons were so good & the singing was amazing...the 3 hour ride each way, not so much! We left at lunch time on Friday & grabbed burgers on the way out of town. Sophia ate and then slept most of the trip there, so it wasn't so bad. She woke up about 15 minutes or so before we got to our hotel & had to go to the bathroom. Although she's been doing pretty well not wetting her pants, I didn't want to have an accident in the car so I put her in a Pull-Up. She cried and cried that she had to go potty. Finally I told Steve to just stop in a mostly empty parking lot. Guess it's a good thing she was used to using a squatty-potty in China 'cause in the parking lot it was!! The last 20 minutes of the drive home late Saturday afternoon was brutal! We left Irving a little before 4 pm. Sophia fell asleep almost right away until about 20 minutes from home. Then she cried that she wanted to go home and begged to get out of the car seat. We were all relieved to get home & out of the car!
- All the school supplies are purchased. Everyone has new shoes and a new first-day-of-school outfit... although Steve tells me all the time that boys don't wear "outfits" ;) Next week I *plan* to have everyone start getting to bed earlier. While I detest early mornings, I am looking forward to the routine the school year provides.
