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Last Week of July

Bubby came to visit on Friday night and watched the children for us while Patrick and I met w/ a counselor who specializes in families who have adopted older children. It's kind of like "Nanny 911" or adoptive families... Over the summer we spent a day at an adoption/family bonding clinic in Charlottesville. They interviewed Patrick and I, observed us with the children, and now a counselor will be coming a few times a month to show us the tapes and give us parenting tips. Parenting in itself is a demanding job, but parenting children with a history of neglect and institutionalization presents it's own challenges... so we figure we can use all the advise we can get! Thanks to our parents for helping us out with this program.

Margaret and Abby had a girl's week while A.P. was in Fredricksburg at Bubby and Grandfather's house. Since they work full time, he attended camp during the day... and one day they took the kids to a Nationals game!

I love this pic! We're still in the driveway... about to set off for our trip to MD and we had to bring "Bouncey ball" the beta fish with us for the long weekend! Noah and the outdoor cats got to stay home, but we were worried that Bouncey would get hungry and lonely while we were away.

Unfortunately, we got stuck in horrible traffic Sunday while we were coming home from MD. A storm knocked a huge limb across the beltway and were sat there for hours on end... Then the car started making funny sounds, and we realized our rusty muffler was dragging.

Margaret had a doctor's appt. on Monday that I couldn't cancel... so I had to have the Expedition towed and we had to take a shuttle to the doctor's! Then Enterprise picked us up and gave us this rental car for the day. The girls thought the adventure was pretty cool... I was less amused by it all! But hopefully, my car will be in better shape to make the trip to NY this week.

We bought too many bananas and they were starting to go bad, so I searched some cookbooks and found a recipe for banana cake, banana filling and banana frosting! We made two cakes... and I am no Fanny Farmer! It's been two weeks and we still have leftovers in the fridge... oh well...

Six Flags and weekend trip to MD

Annapolis Harbor... so HOT!

The Heelen cousins visit at Nana's. Water playground was relief from the horrible heat.

California Taco... we all love it!

Merry Go Round

Love the tea cups!

The kids earned free tickets for Six Flags by reading for six hours... so we made our annual trip to MD to Six Flags this past weekend. We went Friday and Sat. It was a million degrees! Abby loved the Carousal the best. Margaret loved the Antique cars and AP loved the pirate show and roller coasters the best. The water park playground area was just what we needed to cool down... did I mention it was absurdly hot out!?

Pops was out of town for a wedding so we got to stay at his house and it worked out great. On Sunday we hooked up with Anne and Sean and Carley and the kids played together. We got stuck in horrible traffic on Sunday after a major thunderstorm knocked a tree branch across the beltway... then my muffler fell off... made it home, but what a pain... glad Patrick was with us and driving!

Tea parties, dress up, playing house, doctor...

Girl fun this week while AP is at Summer Quest day camp at EHE. We also went bowling again, picked out new dress up clothes at the thrift shop, had a couple of doctor's appt.s and continued to organize shelves, files, drawers, closets, etc... It's amazing how disheveled things get during the school year... it takes all summer to sort, weed and organize all of our stuff!

Abby

AP attended Summer Quest day camp last week at EHE. Margaret spent the week at Bubby and Grandfathers, so Abby and I had the mornings to ourselves. On Monday, she had an MRI. The procedure went well... since she has Central Sleep Apnea, they had the pediatric anesthesia team do her IV and they put it in after she was asleep (they used a gas mask). She wasn't even aware that she had "an owwy shot." After the procedure she was boneless for a couple of hours... I was by myself and it was REALLY difficult carrying all of our stuff, and her, and getting the food in the cafeteria, etc. Next time, I'll definitely need help...

Unfortunately the MRI came back showing that the decompression surgery did not make enough space for her brain. She is still having some pre-surgery symptoms, so we are disappointed that we have not put this chapter behind us... please continue to pray... specifically, we need her spinal fluid to have enough room to flow around her brain... if that doesn't happen, she could need further surgery (more risky than the first)... She is going to have more tests done over the next six months to see if there are any improvements...

A princess party with Princess Genevieve at the Fauquier Library... Abby "just LOVED" Princess Genevieve. She was a bit shy, but very willing to pose for a picture and even showed the princess how to curtsy.

Playing soccer with her big brother. She takes it VERY seriously! She was goofing off and Coach Patrick made her run around the house twice! She carries a water bottle and everything!

The latest thing is to get mad whenever a stranger talks to her... if she thinks she's in trouble, she will hide under something... and if she is really nervous, she pretends she is a cat and licks me- great. These pics are from before her MRI and she was getting frustrated by all the people talking to her...

She's been attending "Making Marks," an art class for toddlers.

We also took the kids to a signing program at the library in Bealeton and a luau story time at the Culpeper Library. And, we've been hitting the pool at least once a week. Fun stuff. Wish summer would never end.

4th of July

Giving grandpa Mac his Father's Day present finally! The kids painted an apron and decorated a bag for him. They painted scenes from Camp Cousins on the apron except for Abby who painted three "voles" b/c Noah had captured some that morning and she scooped them into a bug carrier and carried them arond all day, not realizing they were no longer alive!

Pretty girls at Goldvein Park on the way to mom's house to visit Scott and his family for the 4th. AP went swimming w/ the neighbors instead.

Stopped at the Bealeton Library again to spin the wheel. The kids love to read, but the SRP gives them even more incentive to read all summer long. They really like to listen to books on tape, which makes life easier for me since they can be read aloud to and I don't have to be the one to do it all the time! Roasting marshmallows on Sunday night. We didn't go to the fireworks this year... we just relaxed at home. Sometimes we can see them from the house, but this year, the county must have cut the budget back and the fireworks weren't high enough to spot easily from our lawn.

Abby started her "Wiggles and Giggles" play group on Monday, and the kids started day camp at Culpeper Christian, so we opted to go to bed at regular time and not go out to see the fireworks

Abby was extra cuddly with Bubby on the 4th since Scott's family was there. The kids had fried chicken and played stomp rockets in the backyard.

Dad was in VA for the 4th helping us by babysitting the kids when we had a big appointment in Charlottesville for Margaret. Scott's family was in VA too and stopped in for a cookout on Friday afternoon. It was nice for the kids to have their cousins here. We spent time w/ them at mom's house on Sat.

Here's some other pictures posted on our PicasaWeb account:

June flew by!

Raspberries are harder to pick than blueberries, but according to the kids, braving the prickers was worth it. All of Abby's raspberries went into her mouth... all of Margaret's went onto the ground... it took me an hour to pick the blades of grass out... Picking blue berries and raspberries, a tradition for us on the last day of Belle Meade... hot and sunny... kept Abby covered up but didn't think of myself... owwy sunburn on my shoulder for a couple days... wish we tanned like the big kids...

Spinning the wheel for the Summer Reading Program. Watched Bill Wellington sing some silly folk songs. Abby told him, "My daddy knows that song!" when he sang, "she'll be coming around the mountain..."

AP hated the clothes I picked out for him... but I thought he looked very handsome... this is a clue we were searching for and found on a mail box... he and I love this game the most!

Hot day searching for clues in F'burg for the annual Itty Bitty City... had to stop for ice cream... no more ff cookies and cream... so sad...

Remodeled Bealeton Train Depot. The kids held hands on their own- I didn't tell them to do that! ( I did threaten them that I won't take all three of them together on my own anywhere else if they didn't behave extremely well, though...)

Enjoying the pool at Belle Meade on the last day of camp. It's in a beautiful setting... if I lived there I'd never want to leave... Old Rag, Rappahanock River, they had to drag us out of the pool!

Kids night at Chick-Fil-A... Margaret wasn't sure if the cow was real or not... Abby set her straight!

We had visits from all of the grandparents during the month of June!

The big kids went to Belle Meade day camp for two weeks and Abby and I enjoyed all sorts of activities in town each day before we picked them up.

We went to Fredericksburg one Sat. to search for the Itty Bitty City clues. We didn't find them all yet, but we love hunting for the architectural features in town. It was so hot, but after we all started to melt down (Margaret, literally!) we stopped for ice cream to refresh ourselves.

We also spent June working on the house. We power washed, stained the porch, added a loft to the new shed, insulated the cellar, cleaned out the back porch and purged... it's amazing how much we've accumulated in the last 10 years... and we we're starting to look like an episode of "Hoarders." The projects are ongoing, and it's been a bit overwhelming... sometimes I feel like we're just moving junk from one place to another!

Check out our June slide shows on our PicasaWeb account at: