HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

     The girls and I started the day early by making blueberry and regular pancakes and sausage for Daniel.  We let him sleep until 9am since we weren't doing Sunday School and he was actually going to stay home from church with Amelia since she's been sick since Friday afternoon.  We gathered all the little gifts except for one that we forgot until the afternoon and the girls headed in to wake him up.  I went to get John Mac while they woke him up.  He opened his gifts and then had breakfast in bed quietly while the kids and I ate in the kitchen.  He was really lazy, because he ended up going back to sleep.  Edi and I got ready for church and when we got home he had gotten back in the bed after lying John Mac down for his nap.  Can you say LAZY!!!  Anyway, it's his day!  He, Edi, and John Mac went to his parent's house for lunch while I stayed home with Amelia.  She and I tried to nap, but she wasn't wanting to nap today, so I dosed while she watched TV in our bed.  The other 3 got home later afternoon and John Mac went back down for a nap while the rest of us relaxed and watched TV.  Daniel did decide to go for a bike ride around 6:30pm and rode 12 miles.  I think all in all he had a great Father's Day!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO OUR GOD IN HEAVEN, DANIEL, MY DADDY, AND MY FATHER-IN-LAW! 

He Loves Blueberries, he had to have one!!!

All his Gifts!  (his mix CD from Amber is missing from the picture, because it's in his car already)

Amelia's Preschool Creations, too cute!

The butterfly Amelia made for him with my Mom at a local pottery place!

Edi's gifts!  She also made him an e-card online at Disney.com and emailed it to him on Friday and told him not to open it until today, it was really cute!

Local CAS Family Picnic

     Back in February of this year another adoptive mom from our agency and I started back up a local adoption group for people in our area that are working with or have worked with CAS(our agency) along with a few other adoptive families that did not use CAS, but it is an adoption group, so all are welcome.  We now have 17 families in our group from surrounding counties and we have a great time.  Once a month we have a Ladies Night Out and then last Saturday we had our first Family Fun Picnic where we were able to meet the families behind these wonderful moms and moms-to-be.  We had 10 families in attendance.  Our group consists of families from all areas of adoption; still doing paperwork, home study phase, waiting, already placed, domestic, and international adoptions.  We had hot dogs, hamburgers, and all the fixins'.  We had the gathering on my family's land in the field by our ponds and barn.  Here are a few picture from the day.

Angels, Relays, Recitals, Programs, Awards, Picnics, and More...........

     I cannot believe that it's been so long since I last posted anything.  We have been so busy since the beginning of May that I've hardly had time to breathe.  I'm going to try and recap the last 6 -8 weeks in this one post, so hold on tight, there will be a lot of pictures!

ANGELS AMONG US
   In late April we participated in Angels Among Us which is an event held at Duke University Hospital and all the money raised goes towards the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke.  There is a 5K Run and a Family Fun Walk.  You can visit this link to an older Blog Post about our reason for participating in Angels Among Us.  Go Team Jogging for Julie!

RELAY FOR LIFE EVENTS
   We participated in 2 Relay for Life Events, one in May and one in June.
   The one in May was about 1 1/2 hours away from our home and it was for a new friend of mine named Brooke.  Her husband works with Daniel.  She is 30 years old, has a 3 year old, and has just begun her 3rd year of cancer. The cancer is called Adrenocortical Carcinoma (ACC).  She is an amazing person with a great, positive attitude and a remarkably strong faith.  You can visit this link to learn more about Brooke and her story.  
   The one in June was for our Church Team.  We Relay for a lot of different people we know and this year I had t-shirts made for the kids that list the people they know that have cancer now, in the past, or have passed on due to cancer.  I hope that it will help them put a face to this terrible disease.

RECITALS
     Edi plays the piano and the violin.  In April she had her piano recital put on by the Academy where she takes.  We also went out to eat with my parents that night.  In May her piano teacher put on a recital just for her students.  Also, in May she had a violin concert at her school where she takes once a week during school.

PROGRAMS
     Amelia has had several programs and fun things that happened at Preschool over the past several weeks.  The first was when her class put on a circus performance for us over in the Town Hall Meeting Room.  Everyone dressed up and they put on an entire Circus.  I only got one picture because I videoed the whole thing.  I may try to post some video from it later.  Also, they had a Mother's Day breakfast the Friday before Mother's Day.  On the night of the last day of school they put on a Luau Performance and Graduation.  She is moving up to the 4 year old class next year.

AWARDS DAY
     Edi had Awards Day at school.  She was in 3rd grade this year which in NC means you start getting A, B, C.... grades and you take the EOGs(End Of Grade Tests).  She made A/B Honor Roll all year, She was a STAR student(good conduct) all year, Met her AR(Accelerated Reader) Goal all year, Passed the National Physical Fitness test,  and raised the most money in her entire school(K-5, 700+ students)  for Jump Rope for Heart and for the 4th year in a row.  She has been the top money raiser all 4 years in school.  She received these awards during the 3rd Grade Awards Program.  Then they went back to the classroom for class awards.  She was 4th in her class for Accelerated Math and read 3,742 minutes this year in Accelerated Reading.  Then they had an ice cream social. The flowers are the plants we planted for her teachers, we also did 5 pots for Amelia's teachers.

CAS PICNIC
      In May we joined other adoptive families and soon to be adoptive families from of agency(Christian Adoption Services) for a picnic and fun at Dan Nicholas Park in Salisbury, NC.  It was a great day and fun to see old and new faces.

RANDOM FUN OVER THE LAST SEVERAL WEEKS



AT HOME IN THE KIDDIE POOL

PIANO MAN

CHURCH FLOOR WRITING
     We are building and adding on to our church and before we put the carpet down everyone was able to write their names and such on the floors. 

MY OTHER KARATE GIRL
     Now that Amelia is 4 she can take Karate with Edi and Daniel.  Here's some pictures from her first class.

 


EVEN BOYS LIKE BABY DOLLS
      I know he will want to kill me someday because of these pictures, but they are just too cute!