July, please slow down!

Does anyone else think July is going way too fast? I know it is only the 8th, but with so much planned over the next two weeks it is going to be over before I know it.

Some updates:

We tore down the playset that was here when we moved in and built a new one, it looks so much better. We cleared out a lot of branches and trees in our backyard to make room for D's playhouse. We are working on the patio under our deck in hopes of hanging a hammock and fixing the walkway.

We had our last home visit from our foster care case worker! She is hoping to have our home study down and submitted by August!!

D and I are getting ready to go to NY to pick up my mom and then have a road trip to VA, NC and OH. We look forward to seeing friends and my brother!

D past the orange band test at the pool and can go down the slide and swim without me in the pool (in the shallow area).

D got her hair cut, it is the shortest it has been since she was 2! She wanted to go shorter, but I had to say no to that!

We are closing in on our one year anniversary of living in Michigan! Hard to believe. I am hoping to put together a list of things we love about living here and of course the things we miss about NY!

Have a great July everyone! I will try to post when I get back from our road trip!

Oh what a busy month it has been......so far!

D graduated from preschool!! Where has the time gone? She has loved every minute of preschool, starting with her time in Tokyo, her two years at Big Flats Preschool and finishing up here in Michigan. We can only hope she enjoys the BIG school just as much!

We finally met our social worker from Oakland Family Services. We look forward to getting to know her and getting our certification. We still have some items to complete, and they still have some checks that they have to do. She will be back out to our house in a few weeks to go over our autobiographies.

We have begun to work on the backyard, starting with D's play set. The wood pieces need painting, so we started taking it apart only to discover we need to replace some of the boards. We are hoping the rain will hold off this weekend so we can get some of it done.

We are headed to Corning on Wednesday! Nathan has business and D and I hope to catch up with friends and spend time with my parents and Grandma.

Memorial Day Weekend!

Had a fun and busy Memorial Day weekend! Celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary, planted some flowers, started our garden, swam, and enjoyed dinner with friends! Now a short week filled with lots to do; pricing and setting up for rummage sale, finishing father's day gifts, groceries, school, etc......

Delaney's 2nd Book: Cinderella and the Prince go to the Ball

Metamorphosis

We decided to give into the commercial hype and order some butterflies (or really caterpillars) for D to watch transform. Our little cup had 5 in it (I forgot to take a picture), food in the bottom, and tiny holes in the top. We predicted maybe we would end up with 2 surviving. We watched the caterpillars double in size, and then start changing from the larval to the pupal stage. About a week for so later the chrysalis become darker, a sign that the butterfly would be emerging anytime. It was very exciting to watch, we kept checking to see if there was a butterfly and finally there was! And to our surprise all 5 caterpillars became butterflies! Thankfully the weather warmed up and we were able to release them to live our their short lives.

Spring has finally Sprung!

D's quote, "Disney World, you sure tired me out!"

We had a fun long weekend in Orlando, we used up the two remaining days we had on our tickets. The weather was hot, but we didn't mind!

We left Michigan early Thursday morning, so we were able to get to Orlando with enough time to eat and swim. We went to Universal City Walk to enjoy a margarita at Margaritaville in celebration of Cinco de Mayo.

On Friday we headed to Epcot, Nathan was the only one of us that had been to that park before. I did some research and got some tips from friends on what to see and do. We headed right to Soarin' to get fast passes and then headed to see Crush and the Seas with Nemo ride. It started to rain as we were in riding Soarin', but it wasn't too bad and it kept it cooler out for a little while. D was able to do meet and greets with Mickey, Minnie and friends as well as Snow White, Belle and the Beast. She always enjoys getting her picture taking with them. N and I road on Test Track, it was fun. We all enjoyed wandering around the countries and eating in Italy. While we were there the International Flower and Garden Festival was going on, the flowers were beautiful (pictures on facebook) D's favorite was the Tangled display, she loved hearing the music and thought for sure Rapunzel was up there in the tower. We had to go see it twice!

On Saturday we decided to go to both Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. We really wanted D to see the Festival of the Lion King show and also Finding Nemo the Musical, both are great. She loved them both and has talked about the Lion King a lot since.

We headed to Magic Kingdom after lunch, D wanted to ride the Buzz ride, see the parade and the show at the castle. We were able to do all of them as well a few other rides. Then exhaustion set in and we headed out of the park to have dinner, swim and pack!