last day of 1st grade

Fail.  I threw out the shirt he wore on the first day because it was getting shabby and I forgot we needed to save it.  Luckily, Oliver basically wears the same thing everyday so we picked the closest match. 

                               

most of the shots are him refusing to
stand and look normal

for the last few weeks of school
Oliver has been riding his bike to and from
you know, because he's 7 now

Lydia isn't in school yet, but I always
sneak in a chance to see how she's grown also
No pictures of them together because she likes
to sleep late now...that's my girl

Where did our toddler go?

Cheers to summer vacation! We have exactly two months off and then it's on to 2nd grade and ::sniff:: preschool ::sniff:: We have a really fun summer planned and are looking forward to the adventure.  Games begin Monday when Oliver sets off to Kansas on his first solo flight...he's soooo excited. 

Happy 7th Birthday, Oliver!

Our boy is 7.  He's growing up so fast.  It felt like a minute ago I was in Moscow trying to get a terrified baby/toddler to take a bath. 

Last year we had his birthday party early so we could have one last party in Kansas City before moving.  Last year on his actual birthday the moving truck showed up.  Happy Birthday, you get to sleep in your bed tonight.  :-) This year, less eventful, and we like it that way.  We celebrated with a little pool party at our neighborhood pool with a few friends.  It was lovely....company, weather, food.

I read through last year's blog post from Oliver's birthday, and pretty much all remains to be true.  Oliver is a super extrovert and loves people, he doesn't always interact appropriately with people, but he loves them. He is still doing gymnastics and recently moved up to the next level. He loves to play toys and planes, trucks, cars, and legos remain to be his favorites.  Oliver is doing well in school, reading is his best and he struggles with math...maybe that's the proof he isn't actually related to Jim or I.  ;-)

Oliver is beginning to be a bit more independent, kind of.  He's trying to get himself ready for school a little more efficiently...less of me dragging him to the bathroom to and more of him crawling their himself.  We got Oliver a new bike for his birthday.  The person that might appreciate his bike the most is Lydia, she gets to sleep in while he takes himself to school.  In other independent news, Oliver is taking his first solo flight in 13 days, off to Kansas City to visit Aunt Melissa and Uncle Joel and the rest of the KC crew.  He's super excited. 

Cheers to 7. Today we celebrate with cupcakes at school, shrimp scampi for dinner, and an hour and a half of gymnastics class. 


 Birthdays past....

2

3

4

5

6

7

Happy 5 Year Family Day!

We celebrated Oliver's 5th family day like we usually do, spending time together doing Oliver's choice activity.  He picked adventure city an amusement park for little kids age 1-9.  It was perfect for him, and Lydia liked playing there too.   He loved the rides and he enjoyed riding them over and over and over and.... We ate his choice dinner, shrimp scampi and cake with ice cream for dessert. 

Like every year let's look at some baby Oliver.  Have you seen these photos before?  You probably have.  Previous to age 20 months my collection is pretty sparse.  Oliver always enjoys looking at his "baby" pictures.  He never remarks they are the same ones, he never comments on how there are so few.   I wonder when will he start asking more specific questions about his biological family, his stay at the orphanage, reasons he was there, etc. These are all things we've shared with him, but he's not the kind of kid that needs to talk about it much.  Oliver's basic view of adoption is.... my first family couldn't care for me the way I needed,  I went to an orphanage, orphanages are places that take care of kids that need a family, being in a family is better than being in an orphanage, mom and dad knew that so we decided to adopt, the agency helped us find each other. 

Our first photo of Oliver

I left a camera at the orphanage, this is one of the pictures they took

Busted out!!! 
A three hour ride from his orphanage to my hotel

Sweet baby's passport photo

Saying goodbye to Moscow

--------------------

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Adoption remains firmly seated at the top of the list of hardest things I've ever done.  It's okay to do hard things. He was worth the work.  He was worth the hoops.  He was worth the jet lag.  Worth our time and heartache and money.  His life is important and special, all their lives are important and special, orphans are waiting for someone to come along and realize that. 

This James Blunt song came out after Oliver's adoption, but I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking yes, all that. 

"This world is getting colder.
Strangers passing by
No one offers you a shoulder.
No one looks you in the eye.
But I’ve been looking at you
For a long, long time
Just trying to break through,
Trying to make you mine

Everybody wants a flame,
They don’t want to get burnt
Well, today is our turn"


Many times we are told that Oliver is so lucky to have been adopted.  Lot's of adoptive families don't like to hear that, we aren't anything special.  The truth is that all parties involved are pretty lucky. 

We are lucky to be a family together. 

Go adopt or foster or support someone who is going through the process. 

stinky feet, and how to fix them

Oliver has the smelliest feet/shoes...especially in the warm weather, and it's always the warm weather where we live.  

First I set a bench up in the garage right before coming into the house.  Your shoes may not come inside! I also put up a little IKEA mesh shoe holder.  Then we have our amazing new foot powder in a glass jar with a small spoon.  Essential oils should not be kept in plastic, which is why we use a glass jar for this foot powder. 

supplies

 Foot powder recipe. 

1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup cornstarch
20 drops of lavender essential oil
20 drops of tea tree essential oil
20 drops of eucalyptus essential oil

measuring

mix

Whenever Oliver comes into the garage he takes his shoes off, puts a small spoon of powder in each shoe and rubs some on his feet.  It works really well.  Once you begin doing it regularly the shoes start to smell less and less until it isn't actually necessary to powder every time you take your shoes off. 

So if you have a kid wearing those stinky stride rite sandals you must make this.  It's a game changer. Or if you're not a kid and you have stinky feet, you must make this.  

I don't sell oils, but I have friends that do if you need a hook-up, let me know.  I also purchase some from the Whole Foods. 

milk carton gingerbread house

I signed up to be a room parent in Oliver's classroom.  Lucky for me there are a couple other ladies with that job title also...since I'm not actually allowed to help in his classroom.  An application, a clear TB test, and a yes vote from the board are all required...as well as someone to watch the other kids I'm in charge of.  So yeah, I do work at my home and bring it to school. 

This Christmas season I signed up to make 25 milk carton gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate at their party.  I'm still a little confused why public school kids even have a Christmas party, but whatever, I just do the job I'm assigned.

You need

-milk cartons

-graham crackers

-butter knife

-serrated knife

-royal icing (the glue)

-I didn't, but you could totally use a fine tip piping bag to help assembly

Good glue is critical and this icing recipe might

as well be spackle

You’ll need 3 cups of powdered sugar, 2 eggs whites and 1/4 tsp of Cream of Tartar. Whip the egg whites until frothy, add the other ingredients, and whip for 7-9 minutes until the volume has increased and the icing holds stiff peaks. Put your icing into a disposable piping bag or use a knife.

I would have purchased the normal rectangle graham crackers

but someone else did the shopping and got these square ones. 

I started by gluing a square to each side.

A nice blob of glue frosting is required to get the roof on.

The absolute hardest part of this job is cutting these ridiculous triangles to fill

in the roof gap.  I recommend a fine serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion.

It was good if one triangle was perfect and the other broke

It was a miracle if they both stayed intact.

oh and a judgy assistant can be helpful

Here is where the piping bag could be useful.  I used a

knife, but I wasn't going for beauty, only function.

Add glue to the sides of the roof and squish on your triangle.

Glue together the top seem, call it done, and repeat 24 more times...

At first it feels like it won't hold together.  Do not fear.  This frosting

dries so hard this house isn't going anywhere. 

Cranberry Bliss Bars

I remember my first one.  I was at Starbucks in Beacon Hill grabbing a chai on my way to work when the Bliss Bar caught my eye.  It looked amazing.  It was amazing.  It's $2.75.  Let's make them at home instead.  They taste even better, cost even less, and are wonderful for sharing.  Get to it. 


The Bliss bars have 3 parts.  Bar, Icing, Drizzle.  Sometimes I skip the drizzle, it's really just for show.

Bar
-2 sticks of butter, room temperature, or you know 20 seconds in the microwave
-1 1/4 cups of brown sugar
-3 eggs
-1 1/2 tsp vanilla
-1 tsp ground ginger
-1/4 tsp salt
-1 1/2 cups flour
-3/4 cups crasins
-6oz white chocolate chopped into chunks

Icing
-6oz cream cheese, softened
-3 cups powdered sugar
-4 tsp lemon juice (I just squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lemon and call that good)
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-sometimes I need to add a splash of milk to obtain the correct consistency

1/4 cup crasins

Drizzle (so you can look fancy)
-1/2 cup powdered sugar
-1 TBS milk
-2 tsp shortening

Directions

1. Oven on 350* Line a 9x12 pan with foil or grease it.

2. Beat the butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, add vanilla, ginger, and salt. Slowly add the flour.  Dump in the crasins and white chocolate and mix gently. 

3. Bake in a 9x12 pan for 35-40 minutes

4. While that's cooking make the frosting.  Beat the cream cheese with lemon juice and vanilla, then gradually add the powdered sugar.  Set aside until the bars have cooled, then spread the frosting on.

5. Sprinkle the frosted bars with crasins

6. Make the drizzle by mixing the powdered sugar, milk and shortening.  Drizzle over the bars with a fork or use a fine tip on your piping bag. 

7. After everything has set cut the bars into rectangles and cut each rectangle on the diagonal to make triangles...because while it will taste perfect in a rectangle shape, it's just not right. 

What's under the tree?

Last week I got a request to share what's under the Christmas Tree for the kids.  Almost everything was purchased from Amazon so if you decide you need something from the list it will still arrive before Christmas....well before if you have prime.  The only thing I hate about Amazon is how quickly they make my recycling bin fill up. 

Confession.  I purchase things for the kids that I want to play with. Also, for us, it's not a quantity thing.  We don't buy them a ton of stuff, but what we do buy is good quality toys that should last a long time and hopefully hold their attention for a long time. 

Oliver, age 6

A set of 60 unit blocks made by the always wonderful Melissa & Doug.  Unit blocks are the basic blocks that every kindergarten class has had, before academics completely took over.  I pretty much think they are the perfect toy, a castle, a house, a garage for cars, a zoo, ramps, endless options.  Oh and I was lucky enough to catch these blocks on lightening deal so I got them for $35, which is a total steal. 













Snap Circuits.  Setting up circuits to get stuff done, like a fan and a siren, and a flashing light.  


Lego City Police Crooks Hideout  This swamp police series is Oliver's favorite set of Lego books, and he has a few of the smaller sets that go with it, so I think he'll really enjoy this.



One thing Oliver specifically asked for was a doctor kit.  He saw a doctor kit in a teacher store magazine, but it was one of those little kits with all plastic instruments and I wasn't sure it would hold his attention that long.  So I hit facebook to ask friends what should go in the kit, then I hit amazon and purchased a bunch of real, but cheap, doctor tools. I found a doctor bag and put everything in it and wrapped it up as one set. 

Lab Coat, yikes the current price is much more than what I got it for.
Reflex Hammer
Blood Pressure Kit
Ace Bandages
Otoscope
Eye Chart  Eye Occluder (the thingy you cover one eye with while testing the other)
A doctor bag to carry it all in
Oliver has some x-rays on his amazon wish list

Flatbed truck with off road vehicle.  These Bruder brand trucks are the best, their price is the worst.  Amazon is NOT the place to find these.  If TJ Maxx has one around Christmas time, I buy one, if not, I don't.  Last year he got the mobile crane and he loves it still, so I'm pretty sure he'll enjoy this.  I loved that I paid $29 for it, not $77. 





Lydia, age 3

A set of 60 unit blocks made by the always wonderful Melissa & Doug.  Because 120 unit blocks will be way more fun than 60. 













74 piece set of Magna Tiles.  Lydia got a 100 piece set for her birthday last year.  Everyone likes playing with them, we needed more.  Combine a target gift card, a coupon code, and target RedCard savings and we got them for a great price. 




This set of windows, doors, and fences, to go along with the above blocks.  I've been told they work together. 



Playmobil playground.  Lydia is really into playing with figurines and acting out different events and I really think it's helping her speech. 




and a few small sets of playmobil people

Mom & kids

Lady with puppies, puppies!!

Boy driving a car


I can't wait to play!  Is it Christmas yet?  We are celebrating Christmas on the 24th since that's the day Jim officially has off.

                                                                              last year