Catching up on the Month of June....and 5 months home!

Happy Kindergarten Graduation Andrew!

Andrew's graduation program

Receiving his diploma

The celebration cake with classmate photo

Enjoying the piece of cake with his photo on it!

Andrew and his teacher, Mrs. Wendel (above) and Mrs. Amy (below)

Congratulations, Andrew!

To start off the month of June, Andrew graduated from Kindergarten on June 5th! It is hard to believe his first year of "real" school year went by so quickly. We are so proud of his accomplishments this year. It is equally hard to believe that he is reading very well too -- he now reads us books at night! Hats off to his teacher, Mrs. Wendel and her Aides--Mrs. Amy and Mrs. Stephanie for giving him such a great start at St. Augustine. We were supposed to have a ceremony and picnic at the State Park tire park, but the never-ending rain we had been experiencing (we feel like we live in Seattle lately), moved the ceremony inside to the gym at their school. The graduates did a great job putting on a celebration show for their families, including singing several songs and even played a kazoo routine, which was very cute. We celebrated after the ceremony with cake, punch and snacks. That evening, along with the Goyette family, we went to dinner at Red Robin and back to our house for some playtime with the kids. We're very proud of you, Andrew!

The following weekend, we flew up to Albany, NY to attend our adoption agency's (Children at Heart) annual picnic. We met up with 3 of the families we traveled with in Kazakstan and all the babies were reunited. It was great to visit with everyone and to see how much they have grown and the progress each has made. Todd and Mary were so kind to host our group back to their home for dinner, which was super-nice as we got to spend more time together with just our group! Thanks Todd and Mary! The babies enjoyed playing with all of Kathryn's toys....below are some pictures of the babies together again. We discussed getting together in the Fall in Maryland, where the 2 families that couldn't make it to the picnic can hopefully join in. We want to keep the kids connected to each other, as they share a special bond and after all we went thru, we do as their parents too! We certainly hope we can continue this over the years to come and appreciate the new friendships we have made! Maybe someday we will all travel to Kazakhstan, once again, this time to show our children their birth country.

Adelyn and Kathryn get reacquainted (above) and (below) together
in Karaganda 6 months beforehand

Smiley Austin enjoying the picnic

Christina doing a great job climbing at the picnic playground (above) and

(below) a pic from the day Adelyn and Christina first met at the babyhouse Janice, the Director of our agency, we are very thankful to her and the CAH staff

All the babies happy together at Mary and Todd's

The third weekend in June, we spent at the beach in Ocean City, MD. We did not have the greatest weather, but had fun family time nonetheless. Adelyn started to really walk on June 19th and hasn't stopped since! We stayed from Friday to Monday at Rosemary and Mark's condo, so we were able to celebrate Father's Day at the beach--thanks Rosemary and Mark! We went to Rehobeth, DE one day and to the outlets for a bit of shopping --you can't blame a girl, there is no sales tax in DE! We had a delicious dinner at Nicola Pizza (sorry, Bill Barger that you weren't there to enjoy) and enjoyed a concert, a walk on the boardwalk, rides for the kids and homemade ice cream to top it all off.

Adelyn loves, loves, loves the sand

Happy Father's day Daddy! Daddy enjoying a big crab for his Father's Day dinner (crabs are really Mommy's favorite, so he was so nice to let Mommy pick crabs on his special day--they were huge and very good, so it wasn't too bad for daddy). You are truly a great DAD!! Adelyn gave Daddy a big Father's Day gift....she began walking on her own...now he gets to chase her.