DTC!!!

So we have met a VERY big adoption milestone...Dossier TO China!!!  Woo hoo!  The dossier is essentially all of the loads of paperwork that we have been completing for months now. We sent it all to our agency and they authenticated it and had it all translated into Chinese (which takes a  long time!) and once they received it all back they were able to finally overnight it to China!  It was officially sent on Friday, August 24.  It should take about 2 weeks for China to log us into their system, and then that means we will officially be on the waiting list for the referral of our child!  It's a big relief to have all of the paperwork completed and on its way to China.  Now we just need to say lots of prayers that we can be patient while we wait for our referral!  I have no idea how long that could take, I'm waiting to hear back from our agency.   I'll keep you all posted! :)

Back to School Celebrations

 We had a few different back-to-school celebrations to celebrate going into kindergarten!  My mom had a little party for the kids.

 Jackson thought it was hilarious to put this cup on his head.  Mom had cute alphabet gummies in the cup.

 I wish I had taken better pictures of the cute cupcake toppers.

 She read a fun book for them.

The kids all got presents for back-to-school.  Yes, they're spoiled! :)

 Here's Cooper's book worm!  We had probably 50 more books to add to it.  I hope he loves to read this much as he grows up!

 Here's Jackson's.

 I just thought this was cute-we were on our way to Ben and Eliz's house for a back-to-school party and Ben called to tell us he lost a tooth.  Even though we were on our way there they talked to each other the entire way!

 
Jackson actually likes playing with doll houses- I had to snap a picture of him playing with Elise at the back-to-school party.

 Cooper put these glasses on and a shirt over his superman shirt and called himself Clark Kent.  Yes this has nothing to do with the parties, I just thought it was funny.

 I had a little back-to-school party for Cooper, Jackson, Ben, Eliz, and our friends Zach and Henry.

 Cooper's dessert of choice is mud pie-he chose it last year for our end of year celebration, and now again for the back to school party!

 Eliz, Henry, Ben, Cooper, Jackson, and Zach.

Jackson's Very Hungry Caterpillar Party

 Hopefully this works ok, the pictures got all out of order and so now they're formatted differently!

Jackson woke up the morning of his birthday party and when he went potty, found a surprise on the mirror!  He then came out and admired all the decorations.

 Ben and Elizabeth came over a little bit early and so we took a quick picture before the other guests arrived.

Here come the decoration pictures!  Be prepared, there are a lot! :)

Here's the dessert table.  This was the kids' take home present.  They filled their box with candy.  The parents loved me I'm sure!

 I got these cute printables on etsy, the same place that did the invites.

 Part of the food table.  I really lucked out with the decorations-the canvases on the shelf there were in Ben and Elizabeths' nursery.  Also, between my mom, sister, and I, we have quite a few of the stuffed Very Hungry Caterpillars, and a bunch of the books!

 Ryan had the great idea to put a dohnut hole in the ice cream cone for the "on Saturday he ate through one ice cream cone." I tried to use as much food from the book as possible, but definitely didn't use it all.

 My cute boys!

 I of course found this idea online!

I think Ryan thought I was nuts when I was painting these cups, but it was so easy and cute! :)


 So my idea was to have these look like a bunch of very hungry caterpillars, but it didn't quite work out that way. 

 One year for my classroom I had a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme, so I had already drawn all of the fruit that is attached there on the tablecloth.  It came in very handy!

  Random pictures of him throughout the year.

 One of the games we played was "find the caterpillars."  It was a hit!

 Here's most of the kids from the party. A few still hadn't arrived, but we got the majority of them!

  The next few pictures are the games we played.  "Pin the food on the caterpillar" (I luckily already had the caterpillar made from my classroom), I read a book I made him for his birthday: The Very Hungry Jackson, aloud to the kids, and then we played a version of musical chairs.  The kids stood on papers on which I had written different colors of "3s" and "Js".  When I called their particular number or letter they received a piece of candy.  Lots of the kids were 2 and 3 and they actually were able to play!  The last activity shown is a few kids doing the caterpillar hunt.

  The birthday boy waiting patiently for lunch!

 A bunch of very hungry children!  ha ha!

 I took off his shirt for the food.

 Yes, I did end up making his shirt.  My original intent was to buy one off of etsy, but my plan didn't work out and I waited so long that I didn't have time to order one.  So I saw one online that someone painted and decided to try it.  I just printed everything out in the size I wanted and then put it underneath the shirt so I had a template.  I just traced it all!  I used a sharpie for the letters and just regular paint for everything else.  I don't think it's washable though, which is why there was a shirt change for lunch!

 We ended the party with presents.  A hug for Elise!

 Here's Jackson with his friend Holly.

 Jackson with Nikolas.

 Jackson and Ally.

 with Ashlynn.

 and Henry.

Jackson had a blast which means it was a success!