First day of 2nd grade

Once again I am so far behind on blogging. I keep Facebook updated much better than my blog, but since this is basically a journal of our life this is the one I should keep updated better.

Kristen started 2nd grade and she's having a great year. She loves her teacher, and has made some new friends. One thing they are doing is having cooking classes...although they don't do actual cooking with a stove or heat :) They have made purple cows (vanilla ice cream and grape juice), and fruit skewers (watermelon, grapes, apples). At the end of the year they will put together a cookbook with all the recipes they made throughout the year. She loves cooking anyway so this is a lot of fun for her.

This week she is the "star student" in her class. She took pictures of herself that will be displayed, she gets to be the line leader all week, and gets to make some of the decisions on some things they do this week. She's really excited about it.

She also decided to take Cheer & Tumbling again this year...the same class and same teacher that she had last year. She couldn't even do a cartwheel when she started last year, and now she wants to learn to do a back walkover and then a back handspring. We'll see how that goes :) Several of her friends from the class last year are taking it again with her, so those girls are having a blast!!

Our Summer Vacation

This year for our summer vacation we decided to do kind of a "Staycation". We didn't stay at our home though, we went to Texas and stayed at my parents and did things around Fort Worth and Dallas all week. Kristen really wanted to go to Hawaii this year, but she didn't have quite enough saved up for that :)

It was VERY hot all week. Here is Kristen trying to cool off after digging for dinosaur bones at the Fort Worth Children's Museum.

One day we went to the Dallas Arboretum and the flowers were absolutely beautiful. I changed my camera settings and forgot to change them back so most of my pictures there didn't turn out. But this picture of this cutie turned out just fine :)


Can you see the theme of the week...trying to stay cool!!


We went to visit my aunt and uncle and Kristen decided to try out the riding lawnmower. She's not really dressed for yard work :)


At the Stockyards in Fort Worth, we watched the cattle drive, shopped some, ate some barbeque...


...and went thru the Cowtown Cattlepen Maze. Talk about HOT!! Middle of the afternoon, no breeze at all going thru the maze....whew!! We were supposed to find 4 letters, M A Z E, but after 30 minutes Kristen and I gave up after finding only 3 letters. We could see where the 4th letter was, but just couldn't get to it and we were dripping in sweat.



There we are, coming down the stairs after finding one of the letters.


While eating lunch this nice clown was going around making balloon shapes for the kids.





This is the Marty Leonard Community Chapel, on the grounds on Lena Pope Home. This little chapel is absolutely breathtaking.





The day we were heading home we stopped by my cousin's house because they were having a cookout with some of the family. Kristen LOVED playing with and helping feed her cousin.






We did so much more, too much to even list. We shopped some, and went to some great restaurants, then shopped more, and ate more. And then we shopped more and ate some more. We had to keep our energy up so the heat didn't get to us.

Swimming Lessons

Kristen has always been afraid of the water. While she was with her foster family I only received one update that told me anything about her personality...and one of the things on that update was that she hated baths and cried when she got her hair washed. Some things don't change. Well, she doesn't cry when she gets her hair washed any more, but she still doesn't like it.

And swimming? Well, she's terrified of getting anywhere near deep water. We've worked to get her a little more comfortable in the water, but it's been a slow process.

This summer I enrolled her in a two-week swimming class. She went every night and it was geared towards kids who weren't comfortable in the water. I talked to her about trying to get her head under water. She was having none of that!! She doesn't even like the water in her face :)

So I offered her a very hefty incentive to go under water by the end of the two weeks. Her response?

"I think you and I both know that's never gonna happen".

And it didn't. That little stinker can't even be bribed :)

Recipe for "Margarita" Dip

Don't let the name fool you, this dip is kid friendly :) And it is SO quick and easy. Cool and refreshing and perfect in the summer.

"Margarita" Dip

1 pkg. (8 oz.) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup frozen limeade concentrate, partially thawed
2 Tbsp. orange juice
1/2 cup thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping

Beat cream cheese, limeade concentrate and orange juice in medium bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Gently stir in Cool Whip; cover.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Serve with cut-up fresh fruit and Nilla Wafers.
(I served it with cherries, nectarines, and apples, and got the mini Nilla Wafers)

YUMMY!!!

Cheer & Tumbling

I am so behind on blogging...this summer has really been busy. We've been having lots of fun. I'm going to try to catch up a little over the next couple of days. School starts in three weeks so I need to get my act together :)

Kristen finished up her Cheer & Tumbling class in May and they had an end of year showcase and pizza party. They showed us the things they had learned, then we had the pizza party and their teacher handed out awards to each of the girls.

Kristen received the "teammate" award. She said Kristen was always very sensitive to the other girls. She was always the first one there to help if someone got hurt, and always helped the other girls if they didn't know where they were supposed to be standing in the formation.

This class taught just the basics...cartwheels, round-offs, backbends, etc. But Kristen couldn't do any of those things at the first of the year. She's decided she wants to take the class again this next year and continue to improve on what she's already learned. Hopefully she'll be doing back walkovers or even back handsprings by the end of next year :)

Birthday Party

Last night Kristen had her 1st slumber party...to celebrate her 7th birthday. Some of her friends were able to come celebrate with her for a little while, and two of the girls spent the night. We had pizza and birthday cake, and they played and giggled and had a great time. Kristen is so happy that her friends came to celebrate with her.

Anna, Hannah, Kristen, Bethany, Abby, Landis

Princess Carriage Birthday Cake

The Birthday girl making a wish.

Opening presents. Landis, Abby, Kristen, Anna, Bethany.

A group shot, including her cousin, Hope.

Beautiful girls!!

The next morning, blowing bubbles and playing with sidewalk chalk. Anna, Kristen, Bethany.

Father's Day Wish

Kristen tells me quite often how she'd like a dad, and a brother or sister. I joked a while back that maybe one of her friends would have a single dad that we'd meet one of these days :) So a couple of weeks ago she told me something as she knew Father's Day was coming up.

"Mom, I really would like a dad for Father's Day. I've been looking for a grown-up boy for you, but nobody's interested. And some of them are brown, and they don't like white girls".

Guess I need to get to work on my tan.