Keree's 7th Birthday Extravaganza

We surprised Keree this morning with breakfast in bed. We made Keree close her eyes as my Mom sat her plate down in front of her and then we told her to open her eyes. It was so cute when she raised her hand up to her chest and goes "this is for me".

 Banana slices, apple slices, carrot cake muffin and chocolate milk

 After alot of giggling, over getting to have such a special breakfast in bed, she finally blew out her candle.

 

After we got dressed, we decided to use all the freebie birthday coupons she got. First stop was Build-a-bear. She had gotten a $5 coupon from the company but we ended up spending a little more (it was only $3.34 more). She ended up with a Cardinals t-shirt, Cardinal button-down shirt and some girl scout underwear all for KittyKitty. Once the Store Girl heard it was Keree's birthday, she also threw in some hairbows and gave Keree a special sticker. Keree was beyond thrilled and couldn't wait to get home and dress KittyKitty.

 Our next stop was Toys R' Us, where she had a $3 gift card. Our first stop was by the front desk. Keree got to pick out which birthday crown she wanted, of course she choose the pink princess one. We were disappointed because usually they give them a birthday balloon but they were out of helium and balloons. Boo!! Then they made the announcement on the store intercom that a special birthday girl was there. She just giggled anytime someone wished her Happy Birthday.We walked and explored the store. This was the first time for Keree to see one of the dancing dolls, so she had to try it out. It was so funny watching her dance with the doll. She finally decided after alot of thinking to get Tiana's Royal Turtle ride, plus it was on clearance for $3.22. (So we only paid 52 cents with tax).

Our final stop before heading home was to Pizza Hut. Keree had her monthly Book-it certificate, so she got a free personal pan pizza. While Grandma and Mommy got chicken alfredo pasta since neither one of us are feeling that great.

After lunch, Grandma and Mommy took at nap, while Keree played with some of her birthday gifts. Once we got back up, it was time to open presents. From us, Keree got some new tennis shoes, a winter cat headband, some stickers, a Brave hair set and a Spiderman bath chemisty set. Plus she got this really cool Brave card with a poster inside.

 Keree's Godmother and family got her the Secret of the Wings, Silvermist. Can you not see the excitement! She went crazy over her new doll. 

 Her Uncle N's presents are being delayed by Amazon and will hopefully arrive soon. But he did call, sing Happy Birthday and talk to her. Then he arranged for a very special birthday call to come at 6pm. So we got ready and then we sat there and waited.......and waited......and waited for the phone to ring. Finally at 6:01pm, Keree got a very special call from Mickey Mouse. He wished her a Happy Birthday. I taped the call on video because she was amazed by the whole thing.

 Then finally it was time for cake or cookie. Keree picked out a gigantic chocolate chip cookie with lots of frosting and M&M's on top. Of course, with Keree's current Fairy obsession, Tinkerbell also graced the cookie. We ended up all being so tired and not feeling well that we ended our night without eating a single bite of cookie. But before she went to bed, she did tell me that she had a great birthday and was so happy I was home.

Cookie Time

Today was the official start of the cookie selling season. We were suppose to be selling in front of a store but through a series of events, it didn't happen. Well, I still had to pick up our twenty cases of cookies. So we decided to sale them door to door instead. This way we didn't have to worry about delivering them to our relatives who would of normally bought them from us since we don't know when we'll be moving or how long we'll be in the area. We ended up selling 50 boxes in one day, so I think that was awesome. We probably could of done more but we had super cold, rainy weather moving in and it was killing Keree's legs.

 

 This evening, Keree opened up her very last Christmas present. Ok, it was already unwrapped but she hadn't opened the box yet. My Brother's girlfriend, got Keree the Monster High Create a Monster design lab. I wasn't sure if Keree would like it because whenever we go down the toy aisle and she sees the monster body parts, she tells me that they creep her out. I was sort of excited to try it but after reading the directions, realized it was going to be messy.

 I wish they could of figured out a better way with the water that is used to apply the tattoos. But Keree thoroughly enjoyed herself. She loved putting the tattoos on the dolls. And she loved picking out what went on her face, arms and legs. Still all I could think was it's so messy but then I thought, man, I wish we had another doll to design.  

 And finally, here is Keree with her finished Monster. Right now, she's calling her Miss Monster.

Robotic Bugs

    This morning, we had to run a few errands and of course we ended up in the clearance aisles. We found a few other presents for upcoming birthday's and next years Christmas. I am a firm believer in not playing full price. Thank goodness, I'm pretty sure we are finished with presents except for Keree.
     Now Keree was thrilled because on a back bottom shelf, she spotted a Christmas Hex-bug. Now, Santa brought Keree a hex-bug in her stocking. He wasn't sure if she would like it but thought it was cool since she's on a JRFFL league through Girl Scouts. She didn't open it till New Year's eve but we had so much fun playing with it, that she really wanted another one. What I liked the most was that it was on clearance and instead of paying $6.99 for it, we got it for a little over a $1. She spent the entire afternoon building mazes for them to race around and stuff for them to run into.

Keree holding her Hex-bugs that she named Dasher and Dancer

Second Day of 2013

Well today was the 2nd day of the new year and what did we do......well I spent the day packing. Not only packing away Christmas decorations but also packing to move. I'm excited about what this new adventure is going to bring us but I'm also really having bitter sweet memories of this house. I mean it's the place I brought Keree home too. But I'm also glad not to have to worry about all the problems this house has either.

 The most excitement of the day we had was this little guy. Being that we live in the country, every so often we have a visitor get into our house. Well this guy was brave, we caught him actually sitting in our chair. We grabbed our Christmas cookie tin and trapped him inside. Keree didn't want us to kill him but she sure didn't want him inside the house.

 So I took him outside to the road's edge. He wouldn't move, so finally I sort of tossed and dumped him out. He sat there for a minute and then ran across the road. Since they always say, if you see one, there are more, once I got back inside, I sat quite a few traps to catch any more of our unwanted visitors.

On to a New Year....

When 2012 started, we really thought that this would be the year when our luck had changed. That by the end of this year all our troubles and worries would have faded away. Honestly, every year we start with those hopes and dreams.....well the year turns out worse than the previous year. So this coming year, we have no expectations. We are just happy to be together and even though we know we have some major life changes happening in the next few months, we are ready for the adventure. Because as long as we are together, that's all that really matters!

Our day started off by saying good-bye to my Baby Brother. We were sad that he had to head back to Michigan but we had got to spend 11 days together over the holidays. We made amazing memories together as a family. And to tell you the truth, life is more about the memories and time spent together.

 As for the rest of our day, we had a few errands to run and had hoped to beat the incoming snowstorm. Well we got caught up in the Clearance aisles (have a great start on next year's Christmas presents), so we got caught in the snow. It started snowing around 10am and will continue into tomorrow. We probably would have more snow on the ground in these pictures, if we hadn't used most of it for our snowman the other day. Once we got home, we spent some time packing, talking to out of town family and just relaxing (which isn't something we have done in the past few weeks).

I had hoped that Keree would make it till midnight this year, but that isn't the case. It's 10:50p and she's been asleep for about a 1/2 hr. And I have to say, I'm not sure I'll make it to midnight tonight either. Happy New Year's Eve Everyone!

Movies & a Christmas Party gone wrong

Our morning started out with the Cans film festival. We donated enough cans so we could see two movies at the Theatre. Which as you know for us is a real treat, since Keree has only seen 2 movies so far on the big screen, Tangled and Brave (at the drive-in). We were so excited that we got to see Wreck-It Ralph and we got to see Brave again. I just love getting to see and hear her reactions to movies on the big screen.  I also gotta say that I loved Wreck-It Ralph and can't wait for it to come out on dvd so I can see it again!

 

 After our 4+ hours at the movie theatres, we went home and got ready for our annual Homestudy Adoption group Christmas party. Well, we purposelessly got there late. I was to the point of us not attending these group gatherings anymore but felt that since this maybe our last year and after some intense pressuring by my Mom...we compromised by showing up late and leaving early. Now the Christmas party was in full force, the little kids were watching dvds, while the few older kiddos (Keree and a few others) were coloring and talking about Santa. Now, Santa has always made an appearance and it is always a big deal because he brings the children one special present. Well this year, he didn't make it. What was worse was they gave a very awful excuse why he wasn't there. I'm so thankful that Keree was move involved in what she was doing than listening! I cringed at the thought because if she had heard what they said, it would have been our last year of secrets.

 Now as I said, the kids each get a special gift from Santa. Usually we get this amazing reaction from Keree over her gift but I think because it wasn't Santa that handed it to her....it just wasn't the same. Plus since she knows how to read, she was trying to figure out why Santa had went to Toys R Us for her gift, instead of just making them at the North Pole. We ended the evening with a group shot, this was the lowest attendance I have ever seen for a Christmas party, there was only 8 families there.

Happy July 4th!

Today was the hottest 4th of July since temperatures have been recorded in our area. I have to say, I'm sick and tired of all this hot weather, today is something like day 21 of 98 degree weather and hotter. It's also like  day 7 of 104+ degree weather. It was sort of a weird 4th, this is the first 4th of July since Keree's been home that we haven't attended a festive parade. Since my Bro had to leave today, we opted to stay home so we could spend our last few minutes with him and The Girlfriend. It was a nice and very short visit. 

Keree is really going to miss her Uncle. Especially since we found out that he won't be home till Christmas this year. My Bro was trying to figure out how soon and how often we could come and visit him. If it was up to me, it would be every other month just because they have an amazing Vietnamese community there and do so many community and heritage activities. 

 Keree is pretending to be a tree in this picture.....Why you ask? Well she thinks if she stands there long enough that a bird will think she's a real tree. She's determined that one day she will have a wild bird, probably a Robin, land on her.  

 By the end of the day, we had sweated thru our clothes, so Keree put on her Americana dress that my Mom made her. Since our cell phones will not work inside the house, we have to sit outside in the front yard to talk on them. So while out there we called Keree's Great-Grandparents to check on them with all the heat. I really wish they lived closer because it would make checking on them alot easier.

1st Day of Summer Break

Well as Keree would tell it, today was her first day as a 1st grader. So to celebrate the first day of summer break, Keree and my Mom fixed orange cinnamon rolls. I can't believe that this was the first time we had made them since Keree came home and she's 6 now. My Mom use to make them at least once a month when my Brother and I was growing up. It was such a treat to have them on a Sunday morning, to wake up to that ooey-gooey smell. After breakfast, we headed into town to meet up with Keree's homeschool pre-school teacher from last year. At the end of last year, before we had our last meeting, Ms. Jen had her baby. So, we have been trying literally for a year to get our schedule together and see each other. We sat and talked together for almost 3 hours. We talked about the struggles Keree went through this year, about how advanced she was over the other kids and how I'm seriously going to withdraw her from public school. I know people think I'm nuts when I say this as a Single Mom, that I want to homeschool my daughter but with the kindergarten year from hell, where she literally learned nothing in the public school system and basically would have wasted a year of education if I hadn't been teaching her when she came home from school. Ok, ok, so I'm totally off topic and seriously that could be a whole series of posts. So after our visit, we headed home. We spent today as a down day, we watched some cartoons, we love Wild Kratts, we worked some math problems, almost finished a entire workbook just today, and played outside for a short time before the skeeters started biting. Once inside for the night, we mellowed out and talked about what we wanted to do this summer.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Of course, this morning we had to wake up a little late. Which of course, I planned on leaving the house by a certain time and we were almost 15 minutes late leaving. But I guess I should learn that I pad our arrival time by alot, so we aren't late. We ended up having enough time to grab some breakfast and still arrived almost 45 minutes early. Today our Daisy Scouts had a Ballet and You session, so they could earn their dance patch. There was only suppose to be maybe 20 girls and limited to 2 Adults per troop. Of course, as we have found out with our new, improved council that was not the case. There was almost 45 girls and I can't even tell you how many adults. Being of course a stickler for the rules, our 3 girls had 2 Adults and me and another Mom waited outside. We did get to go inside for a short time to watch the girls perform. They were so cute and listened so well. I

have to brag that the 3 girls who are very active in the troop are so well behaved. After they finished up their dance, we gathered the girls together and the Leader (aka my Mom) awarded them with their Girl Scout week patch. We then all gave our good-bye hugs and see ya soons before we headed home. By the time we got home, all the St. Patrick's day parades were over. I was a little

bummed out that we really couldn't celebrate and honestly with as sick as we have all been, we didn't even make green colored food. In the evening, we were suppose to go bowling with out adoption group but lately I have wanted to distance myself from the group. I feel bad about it but I got roped into helping out with the group and things just don't feel like they are meshing. It's like the group is split in two by those who are hard-core religious and then those of us who just want our kids to be around other adopted kids. So, luckily we got hit with a really nasty storm, plus we all still awful from this virus we all have. I used the excuse that the storm was just to bad to go out in and we still felt sick. So we spent the rest of our evening together. We finished reading Keree's six books for her book it list and then she helped me sew on her new patch. We all headed to bed early because none of us was feeling that well.

Last Day of Winter Break

Well tomorrow Keree heads back to school. When I told her tomorrow is school, she screamed at me that she didn't want to go. I really wish I knew what was going on in that mind of her's sometimes. She loves to learn, she loves doing math and she loves reading when she's at home but she doesn't want to go to school and do those things. Honestly, after the class holiday party I could see why, it was pure chaos. But I really hoped that she would look forward to seeing her friends at least. We were also hoping that Keree would start back on full days and with the walker after break but that's not going to happen. We can't control the extreme swelling or bruising just from her walking on it for a short time. I can just hear the battle I will have tomorrow with the school. I honestly wish that they could go through something like this with their own kids so they would understand. They have made our lives so difficult and stressful over the last 5 months and it didn't have to be this way. It took me forever to get Keree to sleep tonight, it didn't help either that our schedule is out of whack. Our bedtime lately has been almost 1030-11p, when it usually is 9p. Guess, I need to head to bed also, so I can be prepared to battle.

Day Two of the New Year

My entire house woke up late this morning...by late, I mean it was 10 minutes till 9am. We had planned on having breakfast and then taking a few family pictures before my Brother head home to Ohio. But since it was so late, we skipped breakfast and captured a few family pictures since we didn't get any during Christmas. We were all surprised at how well they turned out since we had the camera sat on some boxes and the timer set. After pictures were taken, we helped my Brother load a few more boxes into his car and then said our good-byes. Being that he will be moving to Michigan before late spring, we know our visits with him will become less frequent. Well unless Keree has her way, she told me that she's ready for us to move and live with Uncle. Since we were starving, I decided to throw together a crustless quiche. Literally, I started off with a basic recipe and then started adding other stuff that sounded good. So our crustless quiche had spinach, ham, onions,

roasted red peppers and 3 kinds of cheese in it. I honestly didn't know how it was going to taste but it was so pretty coming out of the oven that I had to take a picture. Thankfully, it tasted as good as it looked. As for the rest of our day, Keree spent her time playing on her new ds that my Step-Mom got her for Christmas. My Mom and I worked on adding photos to the shop website. So not a very eventful day two of the New Year.

Four days to Halloween

So as for today, we spent the day working on Keree's Halloween costume. Of course, it's no surprise that she wanted to be Rapunzel, she's obsessed with her. We finished up her gigantic yellow braid and some signs to put around her wheelchair. I had really prayed that as soon as the cast came off she would miraculously walk with no assistance but in the back of my mind I knew that wasn't going to happen. It has truly been heart wrenching to watch my active girl be reduced to this struggle. We try not to dwell on the struggle but instead look at what she accomplishes everyday. Luckily, I'm not a Mom who tells her she can't do something, it may scare me to death but if she wants to climb the highest mountain, I tell her go do it. So we look forward to the next few days, filled with our annual Trick or Treat jaunts (starting tomorrow night).

Memorial Day

I feel like I'm so behind on everything. I want Keree to have this awesome summer, full of fun activites but between the work, shows and general life and family drama....I have no time for the fun stuff. We got to see my Brother for a short time today before he headed home to OH. I hate that everytime he comes home he seems so stressed out that he can't enjoy himself. So, I fixed a huge lunch - bratwursts, spatzel casserole and turnip fries. I've eaten spatzel while I lived in Germany, so I was excited to fix it myself. Needless to say, it's so much better in Germany! Otherwise the turnip fries is a twist on traditional fries made with potatoes. They were ok, I will make them again and try adding some seasoning to them instead of just tossing them in light olive oil and parmesan cheese. Before my Brother left, Keree and him played outside. We found this awesome doorway toss on clearance for $1.49. It's perfect to put on our outside flag holder. They spent a good hour seeing how many point they good get, how far they could throw and tossing them from the front and back. For the rest of our day after my Brother left, I worked on business stuff. I know I've said it more than once but there isn't enough hours in the day. When I woke up this morning, I honestly thought about taking Keree and going up to the Memorial Day observance at the family plot (my Dad's side of the family) at the cemetary. It's a little weird to think that it was the first time in 60+ years that our family wasn't represented. I know my Grandpa is looking down on me, shaking his head that I didn't go but right now, I'm just not ready to go up there. Right now, I can't get pass the pain, heartache and disappointment from that entire family. But since it's Memorial Day (aka Decoration Day) , I remember the service members in my life, who I have lost - my Uncle Tootsie who served in the Korean War, my Uncle L'mont (US Army Infantry) who served and was killed in WWII, Uncle Sherman (US Army), Cousin Wayne (US Army) and my love, Dominic (US Navy).

Helicopter Seeds

It was a little on the chilly side today. But Keree still had fun playing with all the helicopters that are around our yard. 

 Keree also found an Easter egg that we had missed on Sunday. The Easter Bunny had told us how many he and Ms Easter Bunny had hide, But obviously he got a little careless (like he just tossed them in the middle of the yard and didn't count them, instead of hiding them like Ms Easter Bunny did!)

Rainy Monday

This morning we woke up to a dark, dreary and raining morning. Keree was excited to head to school because she knew it is going to be a short week for her. Plus the upside, they are celebrating the Week of the Young Child. I'm not sure if it's just tri-county wide that they celebrate or if it's national? So last week they sent home a list of activities, today's was to make a classroom banner. When I dropped Keree off at school, I then ended up spending my entire morning running errands. I was in search of some lime green zebra ribbon and every place I went was out. So when I came to pick Keree up the summary outside said that they worked on their classroom banner, which they shaped like a kite, they played outside and worked on their songs for the end of the year program. Keree said that they glued feathers and shapes on to a kite shape. She said that then when they went outside, most of her friends were jumping into the gigantic puddle on the playground. But she was so proud of herself that she followed the rules and didn't jump in the puddle. When we got home, I remembered it was Muffin Tin Monday. So while I worked on the tin, Keree and my Mom stayed outside for a short time. My Mom said that Keree decided to check her mailbox and was disappointed that there was nothing inside. I guess she had gotten use to her Great-Great and YeYe sending her something almost everyday last week. Since I hadn't participated the last few weeks, I really wanted to make Keree one. So using what we had around the house, I was able to pull together a loosely themed Easter tin. So first up is a funky chick, I used a slice of bree cheese and broke a sesame seed breadstick cracker in half for the legs. I then used some edible markers for his eyes and beak. But once those were drawn on, it needed something else, so I colored the cheese in yellow. Next up is a strawberry filled jelly marshmallow. I picked them up a few weeks ago and Keree thinks that they are really good. Next was a pink snowball with a chick and bunny pick added to it. Because I knew Keree doesn't really like them, that meant I got to eat it. Plus being pink, it was just a great, springy color. In the next row is some organic peanut butter with a apple on top. I cut the apple in the shape of a kitty cat and then used some color sugar to emphasize the eyes and mouth. Up next is a Bunny shaped sandwich. Since Keree isn't fond of bread, I found some mini pita pockets last week. I stuffed it with slices of turkey meat. I then cut some cheese ears out and drew a bunny face on the pita. And to round out the tin, Keree is an olive lover and request them at almost every meal. So a tin wouldn't be complete without them. Keree was excited to see the tin. Of course, she mistakened my Bunny sandwich for a cat, which was disappointing but she ate it all, except the snowball of course. As for the rest of the day, it's the final push to finish stuff before we head out in the next few days for a show. I'm a little bummed that Easter fell so late this year because we are missing all the Easter egg hunts this weekend. But there's no way around it because business is business but still I'm sad that we will miss all the fun we do have at them.