Collin's first day of Kindergarten!

http://thestoryofcollin.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-baby-is-kindergartener.html

The Odd Life of Timothy Green

Must see movie!

We (my mom, Collin, Brylie and I) ended our mini-vacation by going to the Movie Tavern to see "The Odd Life of Timothy Green". I had seen the trailers and thought it looked cute but I'm not real big into movies. Don't get me wrong, I like movies, I just don't get to go that often and when I do it's usually a kids movie so nothing to gush about.

I knew there was an adoption theme so quite frankly it made me a little nervous taking Collin without checking it out first. But, he seemed excited to see it so we went. About a quarter of the way through the movie my mom looks over at me and says "this is the story of your boys". At the time, it miffed me a bit because Timothy had just grown in the garden-not really the way I want to explain adoption to my kids. They were born just like every other child. I have a real problem with that type of explanation and to be honest I spent the next few minutes anticipating the conversation I was going to have to have with her regarding that issue.

As the movie went on, it seemed Timothy was their dream child and although he was "different" and well, odd, he was still all that they had wished for and met all the criteria on their list. In my book this equals y-a-w-n...I was bored. But then came the unexpected.

I was going to issue a spoiler alert but I don't want to ruin it for anyone. I will just say for any parent that has ever adopted a child, especially internationally and/or transracially the message in this movie is powerful to say the least. I don't think my 5 year old took much of anything away from it but you never know. As anyone with young kids knows, their thoughts come out at very peculiar times. You may think they didn't notice something but a month later they will talk about it like it just happened.

I actually think this movie is much more for the parents than it is the kids. As parents, we put so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect and to have the perfect family. This movie highlights the fact that the "perfect" family may not look the same to everyone but it doesn't mean that it's not perfect or that it is any less than perfect if it doesn't fit into everyone elses mold.

I will say when I walked out of the theater I thought to myself, that was the story of my boys and my family that I happen to think is perfect!!

That is all I will say about it for now because I want everyone to go and see it and see what you think!

**One last note...I had to find out who wrote this movie. Come to find out it is Ahmed Zappa, yep, the son of Frank Zappa.

VBS

Collin got to go to two sessions of VBS this summer. He went to one at his friend Carter's church and one at Noni and Pops church. He had a great time!  Brylie and KC were at the second session as well. Here they are at their finale...

Of course, Tyler has to get in on the action. Music starts and he just starts groovin'!

Summer Fun!

Lazy Days...

 Birthday Parties...

Old Friends...New Friends...

Swimming Pools...Popsicles...

 Baseball...                                                           and wagon rides!

Pinball Pro

Rally Cap

Clippers FUN!

The White Sox Walk the Field...

Collins' t-ball league got to walk the field before a Clippers game. You must understand this was a major happening in Collin's life! He loves the Clippers and to get to go out on the field is just AWESOME as he would say!

I mean look at that face coming off the field!

And then to top it all off Collin's super cute friend from school was there waiting for him at the top of the steps. Aren't they adorable?? Not that I'm trying to fix him up, they are way too young of course, but say in about 20 years or so they reconnected it wouldn't break my heart!  LOL!

Even Tyler had fun! My little dancing fool!

Marshall Islands Midwest Reunion

We attended our first reunion for Marshallese adoptive families. We have been to many Guatemalan reunions but we don't know nearly as many Pacific Island families so it was a nice opportunity to make some new friends. The reunion took place in Carol Stream, Illinois which is a suburb of Chicago.

We figured since we were going to Chicago we might as well kill 2 birds with one stone and hit a baseball game. The White Sox were out of town but the Cubs were playing at home so we headed to the historic Wrigley Field!

I got us a pretty good deal on parking online but the walk was a little longer than I thought. It would have been no problem if it was just Wyatt and I but we had Tyler and Collin and somehow managed to forget to bring the stroller.

So we ended up taking our first pedicab ride. It was nice to sit down and let someone else do the work but for what it cost we could have paid to park a block from the stadium. Oh well! It was fun!

I spent the majority of the game walking Tyler around the stadium because he refused to sit still and was kicking and bumping people. It took me most of the game to figure out we should have bought the cheap tickets because no one was sitting there and we could have an entire row to corral little "BamBam". But, the boys got their "first game" certificates to add to their books and we can mark another ballpark off the list. Tyler had a blow out and I had packed "light" meaning no extra clothes, so he got a new Cubs outfit. And last but not least, the Cubs won so we got to sing the Cubs victory song and watch the "W" flags wave. Oh, and we HAD to have Al's Beef after the game (Wyatt's Choice). Tyler slept through that momentous occasion-kind of wish I had too!LOL!


Next, we headed to the reunion. They had a Polynesian show with dancing and music which Tyler and Collin seemed to really enjoy.

As a matter of fact, I think Tyler was hoping to become part of the show! He does love to dance!

Helloooo Ladies!

We had some fun playing in the pool.

I'm gonna jump!

We reconnected with some old friends...the Warren's were in Majuro with us. They actually had to stay several weeks longer than we did.

Collin and Grace checking each other out.

We met some new friends!

Tyler had an admirer-he was the sweetest kid and completely scared to hold Tyler but he got the hang of it and they became good buddies!

And what is a party without cake??

                                                       And some goofy Collin faces?!?!

So it was a successful trip...until the ride home.

The kids rode in style...

While Mama rode with a blanket over her head! I ended up getting sick the morning that we left to drive home. Needless to say it was not a fun drive home!

All in all it was a nice family getaway!