I'm baaaack. My most crazy time of year has come to an end and summer is in full swing. The end of the school year is always so exciting... and so hectic. I'm sooooo glad it's over and I can enjoy my time at home. So much has happened over the past month or so.....


We celebrated Luca's 4th birthday with a Spiderman party. He loved every minute of it!


A much overdue WELCOME to sweet baby Kate who joined her wonderful family through the miracle of adoption. She is so tiny and beautiful. Congratulations to our dear friends!




Hero graduated from his first dog training class. He is pretty good at "sit", "drop it", "stay", "come", and "leave it". By pretty good I mean that he will usually follow the command provided that there are absolutely no distractions. I think he has doggie ADD. He has started the second set of classes which are a bit more advanced.... how to behave when someone comes to the door, walking on a loose leash, etc. He is the only dog in the class that needs to be occupied throughout the whole class... the rest of the dogs sit there or lay down until work time. Not Hero, in order to keep him from crying or barking (because he wants to play with all the other dogs) I have to distract him with toys, treats, petting, etc. He is a great dog but I am looking forward to when he is a bit calmer. We found out that Hero is "a digger". That dog can dig a hole so deep he disappears! Really cute but also really messy... especially because he is white! Hero is bathed pretty regularly. So much for our "low maintenance" dog.



The Wings won the Stanley Cup and being the huge hockey fans that we are we let Adrian skip school and go to the parade downtown. Ron and Adrian made a "Stanley Cup" out of styrofoam and duct tape to take with them. I am so happy Adrian got to experience it!





We celebrated Adrian's 9th birthday with a bowling party. The kids had a blast! Luca actually got a strike! Perhaps the most exciting part was the.... tornado! Yes, tornado. We took cover in our private room we rented, ate our pizza, ate our cake, and opened presents. Meanwhile all of the scoreboards were changed to the weather channel. Pretty freaky. We were fine but there was some pretty bad damage in areas close by. Adrian said that this would be a birthday that he will never forget!


My brother and his fiancé had their wedding shower. It was really beautiful and fun. They are such a cute couple and I am so happy that my brother is marrying Niki! I love her!



Ron's parents came in for the weekend. We had such a nice visit. We went to the Detroit Zoo. We originally planned to go to the Toledo Zoo but due to horrible road construction we changed our plan. The zoo was great... perfect weather, not too crowded, and the animals really put on a show! The peacock was my favorite. He just stood there for the longest time while people took his picture! The gorillas were really cool too. They sat and posed for the camera so human-like. The zebras were "wrestling" which made everyone laugh.

Adoption Update...
Referrals for June can a couple of weeks ago. CCAA completed 8 days.

The earthquake in China was yet another blow to thousands of people. After such horrible winter storms and the aftermath of that, the earthquake was just so sad. It is amazing to feel a connection to a group of people whose heritage, language, and culture I don't share or to a place I have never been. Hearing the news of the earthquake, I felt different.... I don't know how to explain it... but it impacted me.

I had intentions of starting on Eden's bedroom this summer. Instead, I am turning her room into a playroom for the boys. I figure I still have a few years before I will be bringing Eden home and the boys really need somewhere to play where the dog can't eat their toys. I packed up her dolls and few decorations I had in the room already and put everything into her closet.... or "shrine" as Ron calls it. I tossed around the idea of actually packing EVERYTHING up and putting it in totes in the basement... but I go to depressed. I have our countdown calendar hanging as well as her million outfits. At least I can still go in there and think about her.

That's all for now! Have to get back to my crazy boys!