Pool fools

My Mom picked up an inflatable pool for the girls (OK, truth be told, TWO pools for the girls, one for our house and one for theirs) and Brian got it set up today. To say they are excited by it is an understatement. The one for our house is giraffe-themed and comes complete with a slide and a sprinkler/fountain thing out of the giraffe's nose. It's too cute. Leah, especially, seems to be our fish and I can't wait to see how she does when I (eventually, someday) get her in swimming lessons.

The girls went to their first birthday party yesterday! Adorable Eli turned 4 last week and the girls got to go celebrate at an indoor play place at Eli's "Jedi training camp"-themed party, complete with tie-fighter cupcakes made by my friend (and Eli's mom). The girls had an awesome time and came home with favor bags with inflatable light sabers and their first waterguns. Brian had so much fun playing with them that he made a run to Walgreens to buy a family set of 4 larger water guns.

Isn't this an awesome shot of long-banged Leah?

Sweet

How cute is that? Leah is no longer a preschooler, as she "graduated" on Wednesday evening. I scoffed at the idea of crying until our sweet girl waved at us from her spot on the stairs and started singing along to the music.

Today's funny is that Hope thinks Brian and I are totally yanking her chain about the ice cream truck. She's convinced we're making it up and teasing her! We've never bought ice cream from the neighborhood truck (I mean, who has cash?) and she heard the bells today and we told her what it was. She still doesn't believe us! It does kind of sound fantastical, I suppose!

Mother's Day, Tangled, friends IRL

Oh my goodness, is life ever busy. Between work, daycare, preschool, errands, laundry, lawn care, holidays and other daily joys and hassles, sometimes I don't know if we're coming or going. It seems were all either going full-force or are dead asleep; it doesn't seem like there's anything in between. Sometimes I tell myself it will calm down as the girls get older but something tells me it just gets different as the girls get older. Oh, well. I can relax when I'm dead, I suppose!

I won't go ultimate-emotional and write about my first Mother's Day, but suffice it to say it was a. long. time. coming. The day was really wonderful. Brian came down first and sent the girls up with cards (I'll spare you the picture of me in bed with them, but we wanted to capture the moment). When I came down to coffee brewing already I found a lovely bouquet of flowers on the table. Leah had made me a sweet tile painting at preschool (it's a flower, she proudly told me) and I opened that. After church my parents came over and we grilled hot dogs and watched the girls play in the ladybug "fountain" - otherwise known as a sprinkler. It was about 95 degrees that day. Today, one week later, it's in the 50s.

After so many years of wondering if this would, finally be the last year of not being a mother, I'm happy to say that we've left that phase of our life behind. I'd much rather take the challenges of life with two girls 11 months apart than the challenges of trying to get pregnant and the challenges of the adoption journey.

The girls' latest obsession is Tangled, the modern Rapunzel movie. They still clamor for Toy Story movies, but I'm really happy to add in Tangled into the rotation! Right now they're playing doctor (the baby needs a shot, then a band-aid, then some more medicine); it's such a hoot to listen to them pretend-and-play and see what they come up with.

Our other recent bright spot was meeting some great friends IRL - in real life! I have found a sisterhood of fellow adoptive mothers or those in the process of adoption, and we're all spread across the country, connected by the computer. First it was an online forum and now it's via a private group on Facebook. The women I'm proud to call sisters are simply amazing and I wouldn't have made it through our journey without them - we consider each other aunts for every new child who comes into families biologically or through adoption - domestic, foster-to-adopt, international, etc. And yesterday I got to hug one of my friends in person! It was great to meet Tiff and her husband and daughter and to play with them all. We're blessed to have friends like this in our lives.

Getting ready to open Leah's present, made at preschool.

 Look at my sweet girl.

My first Mother's Day flowers.

Giving Killian bites of pancakes.

Giving Killian some bites of pancakes.