Checking In

I'm way behind on blogging because my free moments have been wrapped up with planning a certain 2 year old's birthday party, designing that same little guy a Halloween costume, and working on Foster Care training. Add in Bible Study Fellowship, that I started a couple weeks ago with some friends, and working at my old job (a furniture showroom) on Saturdays and you'll see why I'm one busy gal. Still, I shall vow to be better!

Lots to update and share...first, Rylin's playroom was featured on my most favorite design blog Ohdeedoh! I seriously had a mini dancing celebration when I saw it for the first time! I am so honored it was chosen and it has inspired me to continue with a few other creative projects. I also joined Pinterest (as if I needed something else to do) and I've been collecting all kinds of ideas. More to come on that.

As I mentioned, our Foster Care training has been pretty time consuming. We finished our last night of six week PRIDE training last night and still have a few more days of other kinds of training in the next two months. When all training and paper work is complete, we will start our homestudy...hopefully to be approved/certified by the end of the year. I'll be adding some info for those interested to the side of the blog that includes all our requirements. They are quite extensive, even more than with our domestic adoption ,but the process is actually shorter.

Rylin has been active as ever and enjoying Mother's Day Out! Can hardly believe he'll be two in less than a month!

Summer Wrap Up

You may remember our Summer Bucket List. Has it really been three months since we made it?! Well, we have done some seriously fun things, and although I'm sad our summer is over, I'm definitely ready for the cooler weather and fall activities! So here's some pictures documenting some of the fun we had...

cooking out with friends

Pump It Up Jr.
Sonic Happy Hour (we did this one more than once!)

Spray Park

Turned our office into the playroom

fig preserves...yum!

homemade ice cream (also done more than once this summer)

the beach!

...and lots more that I didn't document with my camera but still great memories!

First Day Of Mother's Day Out

No I haven't been dreaming of this day for weeks. It is nothing like me to order a matching backpack and lunch box well in advance. I definitely didn't stay up several nights before sewing a coordinating nap mat. Or did I?

Yesterday was Rylin's first day of Mother's Day Out. To say I was more excited then he was, is probably an understatement. We met his teachers last week and he got to play in the classroom while Jordan and I went to orientation. He pretty much made himself at home and went straight to cooking at the play stove. I said a little prayer that he didn't scare the teachers with his boundless energy as we left him, and they were still smiling when we picked him up so I suppose he was on his best behavior. We'll see how long that lasts!

It was fun preparing his little lunch and packing it in the morning. I have recently become a follower of This Lunch Rox. She makes all kinds of creative and healthy lunches for her kids and the silly themes she comes up with are right up my alley. Makes me think of notes in my own lunch box, peanut butter sandwiches and ice in my milk...yuck! My Mom tried:) I went easy on the first day. (didn't want his teachers to think I'm going to be the high maintenance mom)

He was such a big boy carrying his backpack in the door. Then as soon as we got to the classroom he realized what was going on. Not a happy camper, but that didn't stop me from making a quick escape. I set out to tackle the mile long list of things I had to do while not caring for a almost two year old. I even managed to finish them all thirty minutes before I had to leave to pick him up, so I sat down in our living room chair and sighed. A mother's work is (almost) never done!

When we (Jordan had to go with me) finally picked him up, he was happy to see us. He got a little report that he had laid on his mat good and LOVED music time....and that he made his teachers smile a lot!