Summer craziness

Leah starts first grade tomorrow, and Hope kindergarten on Wednesday. We're still coming down from Leah's birthday last weekend, and truth be told, Hope's last month! I previously promised pics, so here are a few of late:

Asked what she wanted for her birthday, Hope said, "Jayhawks." A friend asked, "Jayhawk what?" and Hope said, "Anything!" My mom found a Jayhawk cake but when she said she wanted one I told her they didn't make them, so she'd be extra surprised when she saw it. She was. 

 Such a sweet picture. Five candles!

Leah's birthday; she asked to go bowling. Aren't these little bowling shoes adorable?

Leah bowling.

Hope bowling.

School starting means we have a new daytime routine. The girls are going to be going to before and after school care at school and will be at Miss Sheryl's, their previous in-home daycare provider's house, on school holidays and summers. That means I'll be feeding them breakfast before we leave for the school dropoff; Sheryl previously fed them. I saw this recipe on Pinterest - it's for overnight refrigerator oatmeal/porridge. The poster has really cute pictures with Mason jars but I'm feeling exceedingly accomplished to have made a batch (mandarin orange) to see how the girls like it tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

FLASHBACK!

The other day a friend added me to a Facebook group for moms who have or who are adopting from Russia. In a matter of days we were up into the hundreds, which is really cool! The group started making lists of those from specific states, and it turns out there is a local family who is waiting to travel to the same region we did; they'll be staying in the same hotel, etc. Brian and I spent some time today putting together some information about our experiences in the city and before the judge and the memories have made me even more nostalgic. This pic is from one of the endless days from two years ago, getting ready to leave the hotel with Hope's kukla (doll) along for the ride, and sunhats on. It was wicked hot but we also got really dirty looks from Russians if we didn't have their sunhats on.