Take Me Out To The Ball Game...

Last weekend we took the kids to their  first baseball game! They all had a good time! We ended up meeting up with a few friends too. All the kids, even Dane, got their faces painted and all ate a hot dog. What's a baseball game without a hot dog?  The kids all said that the hot dog was that was one of their favorite parts of the game! The Whitecaps won which made the day even more exciting. The kids were able to run the bases after the game, only I lost sight of the 3 older kids in the crowd so I wasn't able to get their picture  :(  But here are the few that I do have.

Sunny Days

Chicago Korean Festival

About two weeks ago we spent the whole weekend in Chicago. We had a really great time despite the rainy, stormy weather on Saturday. Since it rained we ended up missing most of the performances that we wanted to see, but we made the best of it by meeting up with some friends, staying inside a great little Korean restaurant and eating lots and lots of good Korean food.

rain, rain go away!

Bulgogi,  jobchae, mandoo, gal-bi -it was all so good!

waiting for the rain to stop

Soon after we finished eating, the rain let up just long enough for us to hear the Korean anthem (and for Joel to get soaked running to the van while we huddled in a bus stop waiting for him).

Korean Anthem

The hats we bought for the girls came in handy with all the rain.

two cute girls

Sunday proved to be a better day. We started our day by meeting up with our friends and with some face painting for the kids.

face painting and a new friend

Played some traditional Korean games.

Can't remember the name of this game but it is similar to hacky sack.

Tuho- popular game with the rich. It is similar to horseshoe, which you try to get the stick into the pot.

Nol-Ttwigi -popular among females. It is played during holidays & festivals. Participants stand on their side, then jump up, forcing their partner into the air. 

Alaina and David giving it a try.

While the kids played games, Dane was happy to sit on the curb and watch, while drinking some kind of Korean kids drink.

Dane & his drink that he LOVED!

We ate some Korean street food.

smelled so good!

And watched two very good performances.

Gwanno Mask Drama- it is a speechless, musical drama.

Traditional Korean drumming

We bought a couple traditional Korean items for the kids and decided to call it a day. All in all we had a really good time soaking up all the culture. It was a good experience to be the minority and not understand what some were saying to us. It was definitely worth the trip!



Detroit Zoo

A couple weekends ago we took off to go to the Detroit Zoo. We hadn't been there in awhile and we were really looking forward to it. We got to our hotel and it was really, really nice. We let the kids stay up way too late, they were having too much fun swimming in the pool- Joel and I were too!

We got up early Saturday morning, had a great breakfast, packed up and headed a few miles to the zoo. We got there and it was so HOT, miserable HOT! The kids were whining and the animals were all hiding in the shade sleeping, I was wet with sweat.  And did I mention it was HOT!?

Luckily for us we were meeting up with a gal and her family that I met online, adoption brought us together. I know it sounds crazy, but in adoption world it really is OK! We met and immediately the kids were all friends. We felt like we had always been friends with them...it was so nice to finally meet them in person!

Anyways, we ended up buying the kids some frozen lemonade (because it was so very hot) and made a quick loop thru a section of the zoo. And we were out of there! We ended up going with our newly met friends to her parents house for some pizza and a swim in the pool. By the time we ate and changed into our swimming suits it felt like the temperature had dropped 10+ degrees and it was getting cloudy. Before we knew it the kids and our husbands were swimming in the rain. It didn't matter to them, they were having a great time! Pretty soon the kids were getting noticeably cold and we had to call them out of the pool. Of course they were so COLD that they had to have hot chocolate!! Who would have thought in one day they would be so hot that they needed frozen lemonade to being so cold they needed hot chocolate?! 

So, the zoo was a big bust but thankfully we met up with our friends and had a great time hanging out. Meeting them was totally worth the trip! 

Favorite Summer Time Pictures...so far

Livi and the biggest fish of the day

David and Grandma

David the fish

David baiting his hook

Alaina and the tree daddy and grandpa pulled out of the water

Having fun on the raft...

The girls and Dane cruising around the lake

Doggie kisses

Dane... I love, love, love to see that smile

Dane and Daddy

Grandpa sleeping with the dogs

Alaina, Dad and David swimming in the rain

David and all the fish. See them all?

~Sisters~

craziness

Family

Happy 2nd Birthday Dane!!

It is so hard to believe my littlest man is now 2. It seems like time flew by yet went so slow too. How is that possible??

It felt so good to celebrate his birthday this year and felt good to have a party too. Last year, when we celebrated his 1st birthday, the world just did not feel quite right. And it really wasn't.  Dane had to deal with some tough stuff this time last year...he lost everything he knew; his world was rocked to it's core. This year though it was different. The world felt right, not quite perfect but very, very right (in a perfect world there would be no sadness).

We had a party with extended family a couple days before his actual birthday. Dane was showered with gifts and lots and lots of love. We had a great dinner and lots of fun! It was a good party!

Some of the Aunts, Uncles and Cousins

Happy Birthday to you...

On Sunday, his actual birthday, we were up north at McCoy lake with my mom and her husband soaking up all the sunshine and swimming we possibly could (and fishing...boys). Like always we had a wonderful time as a family and an even more wonderful time celebrating Dane's birthday. We had a yummy lunch and of course cake. The kids had a blast decorating the cake with gummy lifesa*ers for swim rings, gummy fish and turtles, blue frosting and teddy gr*ms for people. It was a McCoy Lake cake!

The extra candles on the cake are for Dane's birth parents. We want to be sure we honor them on this day. I can't imagine living my life without my son. We pray for them often, especially on Dane's birthday. We are so thankful for them and their choice to chose life.

Opening his gift from Gma and Gpa

McCoy Lake cake!

We ended the night with a drive home and some more celebrating. This time we celebrated with just our family. Dane opened his gifts form his brother and sisters and our gift too. Since we did not have ice cream with his cake earlier in the day we ended his birthday with an "ice cream dinner" with friends.

Loving his gift from his sister

His gift from us

Now, they all have one!

All in all, we had a fantastic weekend celebrating a wonderful little boy - our son!

In addition to her birthday gift for Dane, Alaina wrote and sang Dane a song...it was soooo very sweet! I have tried and tried to uplaod the video with no luck :(

We are blessed with wonderful children and family!