He might love it here.

I LOVE THESE KIDS.
(This is mostly a photo dump of my favorite people under the age of ten disguised as a blog post. I included some updates to make it more official.)

First of all, they all know the entire Vitameatavegamin commercial. So, there's that.
We have about seventeen videos to prove it. Fourteen are Brynn.

THIS ONE: 

Reading a story to her little brother... 

Reading... anywhere. Everywhere.

In fact, she recently got grounded from reading. For reading. Again.

I realize how it sounds and really... reading?!.. but she reads SO much that she does nothing else. And when you don't stop reading to take care of your responsibilities (room, clothes, school work...) and then you get caught reading at 3am (again)... You are sentenced to book-less days (yeah right, but we try because it is OUT OF CONTROL). 

And if she has a life ahead of her full of book crimes, I think we'll be okay. 

Side note: We are looking for summer camps "outside the box" if anyone has suggestions....

And also, we just had an entire conversation about our county and the local Board of Education. You would have thought I was talking to another parent. Nope, just our average nine-year-old.

THIS ONE: 

Lets baby sister cheat at UNO.

Is (finally) sleeping through the night with the help of a sleep mask. We have tried everything under the sun, who knew the answer was right there in the dollar aisle at Target?

And just started playing basketball for the first time. I LOVE watching him play. (Is this what Michael Jordan's mom felt like?!). He plays with so much heart! I mean, sure, that heart knocks over a bunch of kids (he's huge, what ya gonna do?), but he picks them up after he knocks them down. He got the Sportsmanship Award to prove it.

Also, at the crack of dawn, he and the other one come down stairs dressed in their "fancy clothes" ready to "tango".

Those two.

Completely different kids than they were six months ago. Completely.

She, by the way, can spell "frozen" with Barbie dolls. 

Squint, you'll see it.

She blows me away.

With her heart and her little talented body.

"Momma, all I ever want to do is sing and dance on stage for lots and lots of people."

I know you do. 

See you on Broadway, baby girl.

^Did her own makeup^

And then there's THIS ONE:

Who sings karaoke 16 hours out of the day.

BEST GIFT EVER.

Her little karaoke machine can pick up radio stations or play off our iPod, or can be used to yell, "Guys! Sing!" one hundred times a day. It is the sweetest thing.

I'm not sure what happened, but at some point around the turn of the new year, she decided she was gonna leave that baby stuff in the dust and move on to bigger and better. I can't even explain it, she's just so much more little girl. The way she acts, the ways she talks, the way she plays... She will correct you if you say "What?" instead of "Ma'am?" and she will whisper "No ma'am, An-gay (Anna Gray)" right before she dumps a full cup of water out of the bathtub.

She's starting preschool in two weeks (And FYI, she only qualified in motor and speech/language. Her cognitive, social/emotional skills all fell in the "average" range for a typical 3-year-old). I was a wee bit teary visiting her classroom yesterday. I mean, her backpack will be as big as she is. 

Come on home, sweet boy. There's plenty of fun left to be had with you!

Cupcake Tuesday!

Our first Cupcake Tuesday was a hit! We sold every cupcake I made (not a single one was eaten at our house, believe it or not) and received rave reviews!! Thank you all so much!  If I need to increase the amount I'm making each week, I will :) Also- I will have flash sales (like Sunday) pop up from time to time. Usually that's because I have a custom order and have some left, so quantities will be limited.

Phone pic of Double Chocolate Chip with cream cheese icing and they were amazing. Truth.

On to today! 

Today's cupcake is Cookies and Cream, with cream cheese icing (I'm hooked!).

It's a white cake base with chunks of cookies baked in. My new favorite cream cheese icing on top and sprinkles of cookie crumbs! Again, I left none to taste test so fingers crossed ;)

As a reminder they are $10 for a box of four cupcakes. I can meet or deliver in our area after lunch. They will be available for 24 hours or until they sell out, whichever comes first.

**DISCLAIMER: My day just went haywire... such is the life when you are in process to adopt! I need to drive to Gallatin and Nashville to pick up the last of our paperwork for USCIS (Immigration) and get it in the mail asap. All of that will be done this morning, but as we have a fancy invitation for tonight, my cupcake delivery hours will be just a little more restricting than last week. 

Also, you may have noticed the "Adoption Sale" album I shared on FB. We are cleaning out and selling anything not nailed to the floor basically. I have just started unpacking boxes and have barely scratched the surface. I won't post everything (there is SO much), but am trying to post a variety to at least give an idea of what I have. If you are looking for a specific size clothing, PM me- I may have it even if it isn't posted yet! I was planning on most of the clothes going to consignment, but if anyone wants to look thru them first, you are welcome to. 

I fully anticipate being hidden from your feed soon. You are absolutely going to get tired of me, I realize. We have so much work to do in a short amount of time, and need to work to make the first $6,000 as soon as humanly possible to pay our agency fees. Hang in there! There really is something for everybody at one point or another! Today, it's cupcakes! Who wants 'em?!

Thank you, sweet friends!!

Seven!

I can hardly believe it. 

They're seven.

That is SO much older than six, right?

It's probably no surprise that we talk about birthday parties year 'round. They had already decided they were going to have "separate" parties this year and after seeing the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Brynn knew exactly what she wanted: A parade in her honor. Who wouldn't?! She's pretty convinced she's a princess anyway (not the sweet Disney kind, but the kind who gets stuff done), why would we not bring out all the bells and whistles to celebrate her?

There were several jokes about her getting what she wants, but come on... it's her BIRTHDAY. It doesn't hurt to make a girl feel special every now and then. So, a parade she got. In the middle of January. And she loved every second of it. 

Her friends brought over their bikes, scooters, ride-ons, etc. We decorated them downstairs and lined them up in the driveway. We were outside maybe a total of ten minutes, but it was cheerful ten minutes!

I thought it was cute and she was thrilled :)

Inside for glitter, hot chocolate, and more glitter with 50 of our closest friends (it was pretty packed burning up cozy).

Cale has known for six months that he wanted a "Boys only" sleepover. So all the boy's at Brynn's party just stayed over. First of all, I knew he'd loving having a bunch of boys here. And he did. He was the happiest boy! We were worried that other people touching "his" stuff, going in his room would upset him... these things are pretty important to him. He was amazing. He offered up everything he could think of, mediated the occasional GI Joe tug of war, and never ever stopped smiling.

Second of all, how come nobody told me that boys are so much fun?! This was seriously the best group of boys ever. Love them all!

The cookie pizza... So I baked the cookie that morning, but didn't have time to decorate before Cale's basketball game, Brynn's dance class, and the parties. I put all of the TMNT/Cale's party stuff in a corner of the kitchen for later. I was a little worried about my (precious) 4-yr-old niece getting ahold of it, but figured she'd be too busy with the parade. I come in from the parade, and there's my TWENTY year old brother cutting himself a piece of "pizza" and pouring a cup of "Leonardo" Sprite. Bless it.

By the way- Cale thought it was the coolest thing ever that I made it look like a real pizza with a slice missing, so joke's on me!

At bedtime, the ninja turtle party became a glow in the dark party. This is when C came over and said, "Okay, I'm tired. They can go home now." Um... sorry, Buddy. That's not how a sleep-over works. Once he got his spot on the couch, he was good to go though.

I still can't believe they were all that good.

HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS TO MY BEAUTIFUL BABIES WHO ARE NOT BABIES ANYMORE (But as Brynn says, will always be MY babies)!