July is the month of birthdays at our house--Sariah, Dallin, and James all turn one year older. Having two children who are adopted also means that July is the month of birthmother letters, photobooks, and packages. What this really means is that July is the month of WORK for mom. It's a good kind of work, of course... but all the cakes, all the gifts, all the birthmom packages take TIME. Lots of time! Hence the reason why I haven't been blogging. I had visions that summer would mean I could blog more, but I think it's been even less! I have lots of topics in the works that I would love to write about, but when that will happen remains unknown to me. My life is about to get even more complicated in the next week or two, so blogging may have to continue to be a very last priority.
The good news is that my homeschool planning is almost done! I definitely hope to blog about those plans very soon! I am 98% done with Dallin's year and about 65% done with Sariah's kindergarten. What a difference it makes to be a second-year homeschooler instead of a first-year homeschooler--everything has gone so much quicker this time around.
Sariah itching to open her presents.
The princess doll cake--our huge compromise! Mom was not willing to do Barbie, Cinderella, or anything else remotely related to Disney. Luckily Sariah thought this generic doll cake was acceptable! Can I just say that I could write an entire post on the "I hate Disney and Barbie" topic (if only I had the time)? It was very tempting to cave this year to my sweet daughter's pleas for Barbie and lamentations over the Disney dolls that all her friends have. But in the end I continue to feel that it's so important for SOMEONE to stand up to these mega companies who inundate our kids with their incessant advertising. Disney will NOT get my money if I can help it! My daughter will NOT be a naive victim of their marketing ploys. I just wish more parents felt the same way about companies spending millions of dollars in advertising to capture their children as future loyal customers. (Rant over!) So we got sweet little fairy babies and dollhouse furniture, and Sariah was happy. Though of course her favorite gift was the two teeny bottles of nail polish I compromised and got for her.
Dallin wanted a minotaur cake, which I was kind of dreading putting hours into making, until he saw this pirate treasure chest cake on the Family Fun website. Now, he honestly doesn't care one whit about pirates, but he does care about money, and this cake was full of it, of the chocolate variety. I thought this cake would be so simple to make, but in reality it was quite a challenge to put together (the cake was much more interested in falling apart than in staying together) and IMO it looks rather sad... but Dallin was happy, and that's all that matters.
I can't believe they are nine and five!
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