Reds Game

Since we were out of town for Father's Day, we decided to celebrate it a week later. We spent the morning at home as a family and then headed to Mayberry downtown for brunch (yum! If you've never been, I highly recommend). A friend gave us tickets to see the Reds, which was a perfect treat for daddy on his special day. Usually when we go, we buy the $5 seats way up high, but these were great seats, right near first base only 20 rows back or so. We all enjoyed the game, even with the heat index over 100. And my sweet, sweet three-year-old was so worn out, all he wanted to do was sit on my lap. In the heat. And the direct sun. Now, that's true love. Afterward, we headed straight to the pool to cool off!

Trilla

Gramma bought a new horse, and we made it out this week to go meet her. The boys got to learn to lead Trilla, groom her and finally ride her. They had so much fun.

Fruits of Our Labor

The garden is in full bloom! Let the eating frenzy begin!!

Back to the Island!

We are not a family that often vacations with our friends, but this year, we headed back up to Kelley's Island with our friends from our small group at church. It was so much fun. There is nothing better for building relationships than to spend large amounts of uninterrupted time together. A and C loved having their friends up there, too. It was a great weekend full of fun activities and real, meaningful conversation. Here are a few shots of the boys and their friends. In typical fashion, I have pictures from the first day and the last day of the trip! for some reason I forgot to take my camera out throughout the middle of the trip. A huge thanks to Gramma the Great for letting us use her cottage for the weekend!

There has been so much going on around here and I haven't had time to sit and blog. But I want to get these memories down before I get too far behind.

A has officially graduated from preschool. His last week was so much fun as they had a play and a picnic. Here he is in his play. 

 This was part of our class gift to A's teachers. The kids used their fingerprints for the faces and then I made them into little people. I think they turned out really cute. And before you start thinking I'm all crafty, I borrowed this idea from my mom's preschool!

A's class at the picnic.

A and C with A's teachers on the last day of school.

The first week of summer, we ventured to the Cincinnati Nature Center with our friends. We had so much fun! We did a nature scavenger hunt through the woods, then we saw tadpoles in the lake and ended up at the Childrens' Playscape where the kids got to dig in the dirt, play in a waterfall and go creeking. What a great place! We'll definitely make our way back there again before the summer is over.

My boys had gotten a set of hockey guys for Christmas, which they have loved playing with ever since.  This summer, I decided to increase the fun by creating our own rink. I put a 9x13 pan in the freezer to make a rink. The kids play hockey on it until the ice has melted too much. Then we refreeze it for later. It has been hours of fun!

Photo shoot update

I have a link to the webpage with more details on the photo shoot, but it is password protected. If you want more info, leave a comment or shoot me an email and I'll get you the details.

Adoption tax credit

Hey faithful few blog readers :)

You all know how deeply I feel about adoption and how passionate I am about helping kids without families find families. There is currently a bill in the House that would establish a permanent tax refund of up to $13,600 for adoption expenses. This wouldn't cover the entire adoption by any means, but it would make adoption an option for many families that could never consider it because of the expense.

Please take a few minutes to visit this website (http://www.house.gov/), find your representative (you can search by zip code if you don't know who it is), and ask them to co-sponsor House Bill HR 4373. It takes only a few minutes, but the passing of this bill would be a monumental step for the orphan crisis.

:) Thanks!