Things I've been doing to keep my mind off the fact I am NOT on vacation...

Internet shopping for all those things I didn't think I'd have time to buy before we left...(Zappos is so cool! I ordered these at 8:00 Thursday night and got them Friday morning!)
Watching the moon rise, and thinking how much cooler it wold be in Mexico...
Hiking with the family...
Rewashing and repacking...
Generally counting the days until Tuesday...

The vacation that wasn't...

We are supposed to be sitting on a beach in Mexico. Right. Now. But when we got to the ticket counter (after a looonnng line), they told us that we could not go to Mexico with Grace because she only has a Chinese passport. Now, I'm sure we should have checked this out more, but our travel agent said it would be fine. We had the certificate of citizenship, the Chinese birth certificate and the adoption decree. She assured us that would be fine. And even Cameron (and me) crying about it didn't help. So we went directly to the U.S. passport office for a long day of waiting for a passport. Well, the San Francisco passport office rocks! after only an hour and a half, we will have a passport by 6:00PM. The bad news is that all the flights are booked. we could go standby, but I can't go through that again and not get on the plane! So we leave Tuesday. It's no the end of the world...Here is a picture of us watching a movie on the DVD player at the passport office!


Don't we look happy??
This is costing us a thousand dollars-ugg!

What have we done?

Last week Cameron went to Basketball camp. He seemed to like it, but maybe I should have known something was up, because when I picked him up he would be laying in the middle of the court.But when I asked him, he said he liked it. So I signed him up for a league. Onece a week, on a team. He started saying he didn't want to do it, but I thought he would be fine once he got there. Scott even took off early to see his first game. When we got there, and he saw how many people were on the bleachers watching, he started to cry and didn't want to play. So we watched for a while, and he did go in for a few minutes. I was sitting there cringing at how awkward and uncomfortable he looked and I said to Scott "You know, I hated team sports as a child". And he says "Yeah, me too". And I thought "Oh my God, what did we do??". Why do we push these things on our kids? Now I am not sure what to do. I don't want him to learn that he can quit anytime he doesn't like something...So I told him that we will go to all the games and at least watch and cheer for his team (who are all great basketball players and it's way more competitive than I thought). And never make him do it again!

Ahhh, Summer!

First time off the high dive!




And a cute one of Gracie

I am a crafting slacker

I haven't finished last months Get your craft on, which was flowers. And I haven't started this months which is buttons. I actually did do last months, but I didn't like the way it turned out. I made pillow covers with an Amy Butler fabric for our couch pillows. But I didn't use a pattern, and I don't like it. Here it is. Then I was going to do fun button hair clips for June, but someone already did it. I may still do it, because it's cute. I feel like I am either really motivated to do crafty stuff and get a lot done, or I do nothing....I need inspiration!

Oh, how quickly they grow...(No, not the kids)

The Kitties! Remember when they were so tiny? They are growing by leaps and bounds. They get into everything. yesterday,I opened the pantry and found this. I don't know how long they had been in there, but apparently, they decided to go to sleep until I let them out! This weekend, we will surrender "Happy" to his new home. I feel immense guilt about this. They love each other so much. But I promised him to a friend, and we really don't need two cats. We will get to visit and maybe even have "Kitty play dates"!

Fun in St. Louis

Home and Happy Father's Day!

We made it home safe and sound. The kids were really great travelers. I think next time I will get one more DVD player, thanks for the advice! What a fun way to kick off summer! Great friends, seeing fire flies (for the first time), slip n slides, lemonade stands, going to the top of the Arch, and seeing huge Clydesdale horses. I have a ton of pictures to upload, when I find the time.
Happy Father's Day to my Scott and my Dad! Dad, as usual, your present is on it's way!

We made it!

It wasn't nearly as bad as I feared! The kids were great. FYI...Direct on Southwest does NOT mean Nonstop. I knew it didn't take five hours to get to MO!

Headed to Missouri

What is in Missouri, you ask? My very best friend with her 3 children, the third I have not met! I was very excited. I thought I was prepared. I bought a DVD player, with two sets of head phones. I bought coloring books. I bought lollipops. I bought a new Leapster L Max cartridge. Then I looked at my itinerary. Do you know how long it takes to get From Ca to Mo??? Five hours and 20 minutes. Five Hours. On a plane with a 5.5 and 3.5 year old. By myself. How did I not know this? I mean, really, I thought it only took 4 hours to get from the West Coast to the East coast. I think I might need more lollipops...

Now back to our regularly sceduled programing...

We went to the Haight Ashbury Art Festival today. It wasn't quite as,er,family friendly as I though it might be. But it was still fun. Here are some pictures...

Since I am taking a break from my own blog while visiting my sister, I decided to hijack hers. Lisa and Scott are out and I am babysitting, so there is nothing she can do about it. Mwahahahahaha! I have some photos to upload, but here are some highlights of our trip so far:
-Coming up here to visit was definitely the cure for the doldrums I was feeling at home with nothing to do. It has been Go, Go, Go since we got here! I don't think I could keep up with this family for more than a week.
-A couple of days ago on a visit to Target, Gracie had a COW over I can't even remember what and was so busy screaming she forgot to tell us she had to go to the bathroom and when I picked her up she peed all over me. Lovely. She continued to scream for another twenty minutes and people were staring at us and I had pee all over me for the rest of the day until we went home. Fun stuff.
-Today we went to the pool and Gracie laid her towel on the chair next to me and said "I'm gonna sit right here and have another beer in Mexico." Ha! (If you aren't into Country music, it is a song by Kenny Chesney of the same name)
-In the car, the following conversation took place:
Gracie: "When you gonna grow a baby in your tummy Aunt Shell?"
Me: "Oh, Aunt Michelle can't grow a baby in her tummy. My babymaking parts are gone."
Cameron chimes in with : "Well when are you going to China to get Sophie?"
Me: "Not for a long, long time."
Cameron: "Why don't you just take Gracie?"
Me: "Gracie, would you like to come live with Aunt Michelle and Uncle Joe?"
Gracie: "Yes!"
Well O.K. then. I guess that's settled. Now I just have to get Lisa and Scott to agree! :)
-At the pool today I sat in the sun and watched the kids swim for over two hours and forgot to put sunscreen on(Smacks self in forehead) and I got FRIED. Duh! I forgot to put sunscreen on Cameron too(I'll make a great Mother someday), but luckily he wears long shorts and a swimshirt so it was just his face that got burnt.
-Right before bed Lisa and Scott's dog slammed Gracie into the stair banister and she hurt her shoulder. She was crying when I put her to bed and I came upstairs and she cried for forty minutes before it occurred to me that her arm might actually be injured and I went down to check on it. I thought she was crying because she didn't want to go to sleep. Yeah, I think I might be up for an "Aunt of the Year" award.(Her arm turned out to be fine. She said she was crying because she wanted her Mommy. I am such a caring, sensitive Aunt.)
-I have tons of photos to post, including some cute kitten pictures and some Monkey Lovin'. You'll just have to wait and see.

Hmmm...it is much easier to find things to post about when it isn't my blog. I may have to hijack Lisa's blog more often!

Pre-K Graduation...

WIth Aunt Michelle and Papa




Today was Cameron's Pre-K Graduation. I can't believe he will be in Kindergarten next year! Time flies, I tell you. I cried. Something about those cute little kids singing does it to me every time...

Somebody stop the (Birthday) Maddness!!

Is is the season? Is it the weather?? We have seriously had 2 or more birthday parties every weekend for the past two months. I, for one never need to see Safari Run, again. And the presents! My God, the presents! What kid needs 30 presents for their 4th birthday?? Not mine! I don't have room in our house. We have always kept our parties pretty low key. At a park. With a treasure hunt. No bounce houses,clowns or ponies over here. But it's getting hard to keep up, when the kids are invited to these kind of parties. And the pinata? Really, who thought of this? Hey, I know, let's get 30 kids hopped up on sugar and then give them a baseball bat.. And watch them trample each other to get more candy than they could possibly eat in a year. Sounds fun! So I made a deal. I told the kids they could have a party at one of these party playhouse type places if they have it together. Their birthdays are 6 weeks apart, so it seems reasonable. I'll let you know how it goes...