9 Balloons and a Cheeseburger.

Henry happily celebrated his birthday with a balloon for each year and a big chocolate cheeseburger cake.

And a beer.

(no worries, it was root beer)

Which complimented his favorite dinner menu of real cheeseburgers and watermelon. 

When asked how it felt to be 9, Henry's reply was 

"...so far, it feels a lot like being 8."

I'm sure he will keep us posted when things eventually kick into 9th gear for our little dude.

Henry G. Summertime 2013

The Monster in my Kitchen.

Now that the kids are back in school I had a chance to look back over some summer photos with the realization that we had a ton of stuff going on around here.

Most notably, our entire kitchen and a few other parts of our house were gutted to make room for the beginnings of a renovation.

After our hardworking and kind contractors left one evening, I turned this heap from our kitchen into a cute monster thinking that it would be kind of fun for the kids.

But it didn't really work at all... 

The contractors arrived long before the kids woke up and I chickened out and removed the googly eyes before these sensible, strong guys noticed and bolted. 

My valid fear was that they would decide not to work for a crazy lady and quit on the spot. 

And as you can see, I really do need those fellows to return to my oh so homey kitchen and do just a smidgey bit of trim work.

Better to fake a little sanity then risk scaring off good contractors. 

HALLELUJAH! Rosie goes to Kindergarten!!!

Rosie happily, joyfully leaped onto the big yellow bus and straight to kindergarten early this morning and I was just as giddy as she was.

She was fired up because she FINALLY got to be a kindergartener.

(a leader amongst the younger preschoolers)

and

RIDE THE BUS,

(with the big kids)

and I was even more excited that Rosie was allowed to

GET ON THAT BUS!

Which was quite awesome.

Sadly, until you get to kindergarten, your mom (or pop) is required to drive you back and forth to school.

My dear considered this to be boring and babyish.  

And since I have had a kid younger than your average kindergartener for 17 YEARS, I have spent many, many hours driving back and forth, not to mention waiting for various kids in car line.  

But no more...and if I may praise the lord...

Hallelujah!!!

I could not be happier to hang up my keys and leave Miss Rosie's school transportation to the bus professionals.

Thank you dear bus driver and thank you Rosie for being the most excited first day kindergartener ever!

Friends through Guatemalan Adoption/Mammoth Cave Weekend

Check out this gang of 25 fun kids.

Most were born in Guatemala within a few years of each other, a few are homegrown with Guatemalan born siblings, and one little Ethiopian gal made it to the party.

This crew happily invaded the world renowned Jellystone Park at Kentucky's Mammoth Cave and had a great time of it.   

Here are Lily, Ryan, Rosie and Jamie posing at the campground with some of the unique, classical statuary.

I couldn't tell you where Henry was at this point...

 

 ...but he reappeared later during the tour of the awesome Mammoth Cave.

As an interesting side note... our tour guide told us a true story that happened during a field trip to the cave when she was nine years old. Apparently, one of her teachers was too wide to pass through this area, got stuck, and had to hike back to the cave entrance.

Woe be to that poor teacher whose unfortunate mishap is a part of both third grade history and now Mammoth Cave tour lore.

Here is my cute husband wearing his brand new bat sweatshirt and smiling in the middle of an area called Tall Man's Agony.

I loved the historical elements of the cave... the candle burn graffiti on the ceiling.

Looks like F. Rowe visited the cave in 1839 and took the time to make his mark before going. 

I thought this so very interesting.

Back at Jellystone Campground, the kids all had a fun and bouncy time jumping on a giant trampoline. 

Miraculously, no one was injured.

Everyone had a great time, but Jamie and Henry loved their Guatemalan adoption inspired weekend most of all.

As Henry pointed out to me "technically Mom, you and Dad shouldn't even be invited because you weren't born in Guatemala."

While this is true, I told him that technically, since neither him nor any of his Guatemalan pals had jobs or drivers licenses, they still needed their parents for planning purposes. 

Which is true now, but before too long this won't be the case, and when this happens, I really do hope that our Guatemalan born kids maintain those friendships of their birth country.