I'm officially

that blogger and that mom.  I no longer have (and sometimes just choose not to) time to take pictures and definitely not post.  I'm sorry if the foster moms try to read this and I've been totally neglectful.

So what's happened....hmmmm.  I don't even remember my last post.

So, the kids started school a week ago....yeah, I've had a hard time catching the younger 4 together to take a school photo.  I finally grabbed Chase as soon as football practice was over (after school) and took their pictures.  Jaemin was invited to his FIRST birthday party.  I was SO excited for him.  And at the party they had the biggest fireworks display I've seen outside of our city fireworks.  WOW!  Jaemin is usually petrified of the things.  But, of course, he wanted to go to the party and didn't want the other boys to really know.  He did AWESOME!  He covered his own ears and didn't need me to for once.  I asked him when they were over if he was okay and he was so proud of myself.  He said he was good and he wanted to see more next year.  That's huge progress and what a hurdle he overcame in one night.

Today was Kaelin's official birthday.  We had her party a couple of weeks ago, but she is now really 13!  I had 3 gold rings with opals, pearls, etc. from when I was a teenager that I had kept and she got to pick one those out for herself for her birthday.  It fit her perfectly.  Her hands are every bit as big as mine.  She's not perfect.  What kid is.  But, she's one heck of a helper around the house and doesn't let people do all the work themselves.  We can always count on her.  Can't wait to see what's out there for her.  She'll have a great life if she stays outgoing and keeps trying hard.  Ignore the bun square on top her head.  She really is a pretty girl.  :)

Jaemin and his best friend.  That's Jaemin's real smile and it's so GREAT!

The one I took this morning in case this evening's backup plan didn't work out.  We knew big college dude wasn't going to permit anyways, so just trying to get the high schooler.

The final picture.

 The 4 youngest when I said "one more".  I was actually the last.

Early Birthdays!

Their birthdays are not for a month and month and 1/2, but with school, volleyball and football, we decided it would be best to have their combined 10th and 13th birthdays now.  They had friends over and I took them to town to swim.  Came home to pizza and then family joined us for ice cream and cake.  The cake took a little tumble when someone pulled out in front of Brian, but it still was good.  The girls had such a good time and went outside for a quick silly string fight.  The girls were all great!

We're waiting for their real birthdays to give their presents from us.  I don't want their real birthdays to go by and risk everyone forgetting.  Great girls.

L♡VE

I love seeing them like this.  It's not often, but just listening to something together and eating popcorn.  Hope they remember these sweet sister moments.

The Party

All graduates deserve one last party from their parents.  We tried to keep it inexpensive by getting decorations at Dollar Tree and Oriental Trading.  I thought it turned out great.  We kept it simple to avoid major stress.  He just wanted his Godparents, aunts, uncles and Grandparents, so that was it.  He said all of his friends had their own to go to.....such a boy.  A lot of the kids had left and my kids remembered we had silly string, so they had a quick silly string fight and poor Jaemin got hit hard....sometimes because he would just turn the bottle toward his own face on accident.  We barbecued some chicken quarters in the morning and picked up some Little Caesar's in the afternoon.  We really had nothing left.  But it was GOOD.

almost over

The boys went fishing Wednesday and caught quite a bit.  I don't think they took aNY pictures and the outfit gives the catch away to places like Wounded Warriors.  Yesterday dad came in and so did a little rain, so we went to Wonder Works.  A couple of things weren't working, but we still spent 4 hours there.  They liked Lazer Fury the best and they liked laser tag.  I even did the ropes course with them.  It was kind of the Science Center and the Magic House rolled up with a little bumper arcade.  The boys also did some pitching.  Chase is NOT a natural.  Cole has never pitched and immediately threw 70+ mph strikes.  I was pretty impressed.  Chelsi is a whole loto more of a dare devil than  I knew.   She would try anything....and Kaelin wouldn't.  Go figure.  Jaemin wanted to try more, but he was too small for most.  We went to the Wicked Wheel to eat.  It was pretty good. The waitress said she's only been there for two weeks, but we were her favorite table.  She  couldn't believe how neat and we'll behaved our kids were.  Always nice to hear.

Last night and today

We always try to go to mom and pop (local) shops and not much on chains to eat.  I can usually find coupons they put out just to get you to come in.  Most are small and very hard to find.  Last night we went to Busters Big Kahuna Cafe.  They had these sandwiches where the meat was wrapped with a flat jack (still don't know what that is) and all of them have slaw on them.  OMG was this GOOD!  Reasonably priced even without the coupon.  We'll probably go back there before we leave.  Tonight, we tried out Ramon's Pizza.  It's way out of the way, but it is by far the best pizza I have ever had.  The crust was so different.  It was basically a Greek restaurant, real small, with just a husband and wife running it.  So delicious.  I would eat something like that, often, back home.  If you ever go to Panama City Beach these are our two absolute favorite restaurants.

We spent into the night at the pool last night and today we went to the beach, pool and then the boys wanted to slingshot and then we ate.  Cole said it wasn't as great as everyone acted, but he liked it.