Summer Sundays

Our church has 4 service times and a couple of months ago we randomly attended the 5 pm service after being out of town for the morning services. We really enjoyed the "feel" and decided it would become our regular time slot. It has completely changed our Sundays. We feel that the service allows us to observe the Sabbath better. We spend family time together. We have a leisurely breakfast together. We rest. And then we go to church fellowshiping over a delicious turkey burger before attending corporate worship.

The service ends around 6:30 and with summer it's still light for a couple ours so we headed out for more family time.

We headed to Rite Aid for ice cream cones!

Braids and Cookies

Lily was born with a pretty good head of hair. Not the most we have seen, but enough to put clips in at a pretty early age. We have yet to cut her hair. There just hasn't been a need. For a long time I was afraid she would lose the curls if we cut it. I'm pretty sure the curls, or at least the waves, are here to stay. And I can see a new layer of baby hair at the top of her forehead. On Friday, with the help of Curious George, she sat still long enough for me to braid her pigtails. Twice! I was kind of impressed. The Mitchums have two boys. And while they all played really well together, the boys were lacking in girl toys. The scooter would have to work for a baby doll stroller.Lily was checking out Collin's two right shoes . . . of two different pairs. But he was happy so it didn't really matter. After dinner I brought cookies out to the table for all of us to munch on. Lily doesn't eat a lot of sweets, and is typically fine without them, so I didn't offer her a cookie. Cooper, very proudly came up to me at the table to tell me he gave Lily a cookie. What a good little "sharer." He was very proud of himself. She ate the chocolate off the top and then passed the soggy cookie over to me. Time always goes by too fast when we hang out with old friends, but we'll take what we can get. It's so nice that the kids entertain each other. We had such a wonderful time!

Paraguay Comes to Riverside

Lily's international friend, Bailey, came out to play on Monday. Okay, so she's not exactly international, but Bailey has really only live in Paraguay. But she came over with her Mommy and her little sister for a visit.

The girls played inside for a while, but outside is always more fun.
Miss. Stacy helped the girls practice their shapes. Fun and educational!



During lunch, Baby Boston hung-out in the swing. Bailey was really just waiting for Boston to get out so she could play with the swing. After they left, I found every possible buckle, buckled.

Hugs good-bye. Lily was a little confused by the Paraguayan hug, but Bailey didn't miss a beat.
Can't wait to see everyone again before they have to go home.

Lily and The Garden Hose Video

Garden Hose and Popcorn

Most evenings we eat dinner outside.

After dinner I typically water the garden. After spending time at Grandma's house, Lily has become aware of how fun the hose can be.

She dumped buckets and buckets of water on her head. She took drinks from the hose.

But her favorite was allowing Daddy to spray her with hose.

It wasn't exactly hot outside and it took some convincing to get her to finally come inside for a bath.

Once washed and dried she wanted to put on her new night gown from Grandma - the one that matched Beebee.

We then went upstairs to watch Curious George before bed.

But when you watch a movie, you have to have popcorn.

And if you have Atkinson Popcorn, it has butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Mmmmmm!

Foster Care Update

It's been six months since we attended the first orientation with the county. We are making progress but at times it feels as we are in the same place we were in December. Of course this isn't true, it's just a slow process. I support the process completely; back-ground checks, home inspections, interviews, references, etc. I want what is best for all children during the process. I also know that the county is understaffed and doing as much as they can with what they have.

When we first completely orientation, we were under the impression that we needed to receive approval from the state before we could begin the county process. When we sat down with the state representative, we found this wasn't true. We were supposed to be working with both agencies at the same time. I had delayed an already slow process. But we received our state license in early May and sent everything to the county a few days later.

The blessing in disguise (well, what God knew we actually needed,) was that if we were in the middle of our 11 weeks of preparation courses, or if a child had been placed in our home, we would not be able to do all of the exciting things we have planned this summer. (You'll have to stay tuned to find out what happens this summer!) We trust God's perfect timing beyond just this summer as well. That is so much easier said than done. I am impatient and at times, restless. God has given us a desire for a family. We are so excited for what the future holds. I am trying daily to remember the blessings God has given us; WAY too many to list here. And I am enjoying my time at home with just one little one, and I think she is, too.

This week we found out that some of our references have been contacted; a small step in moving forward. We hope to be contacted soon to sign up to start our course hours. Maybe in six more months we will be waiting for placement. Or better yet, celebrating our new addition(s)!

Manhattan Beach Library

On Wednesday night after Kevin got out of class, we headed back down to the beach to walk the path alongside to beach front homes. Many were stunning! Others, you could tell the property was most likely held through multiple generations and was not going to be sold so that a new monstrosity of a home could be built.

When we parked at the library garage that evening, I knew what Lily and I were going to do the next day. Lily has only been to the library once. It's difficult to get her to understand that we can't just pull books off the shelves, that we have to be quiet, and we don't run.

The library was standard. An older giant square room with four walls. To me, it didn't seem to fit the rest of the upscale, slightly hoity-toity town. But it was clean, the staff friendly, and very well designed for children. There were two large rugs to define reading areas, a nook with puzzles and blocks, two computers set aside for children's games, and three tables for projects.



We spent just a little bit of time reading. Although Lily loves books and stories, there was way too much to explore for her to stay in one place. We found a section of Curious George books, a current favorite, and she was occupied through almost three books. We also found a Cars book featuring Tow-Mater, but it was a little long for her liking.



We found to toy corner with blocks and puzzles, not because she was interested in the toys, but because she is fascinated with other children. Unfortunately, they weren't really interested in her.



But the crayons and the Minnie Mouse coloring page was her favorite. I tried to get her to color with two at a time, but when she started screaming, I relented; I couldn't really pull a screaming time out in the middle of the silent library. Parenting fail. She pulled all of crayons out of the basket. But she was occupied and at least she was was practicing her counting. Insisting she needed all of the crayons, she attempted to color around the crayons that covered her paper. However, when she decided she was ready to change activities, I reminded her we needed to clean up first. That stubborn little girl began to scream and as I tried to quickly pick up all of the crayons and whisk her outside to "discuss" how we play and clean up, I spilled the basket on the floor and whacked my elbow really hard. Meanwhile, she throws herself down, being careful not to hit her head, and continues to scream. I finally get her outside, we discuss and repeat that we have to clean up and she repeats over and over "no screaming." I guess this week at home we will be practicing picking up. Sigh. Tears were dried and we went back inside once more for one more short puzzle.



We walked around the library fountains while eating our snack before we headed down to the beach. We walked in the sand, and she thought it was fun. However, when I put her toes in the water, she practically climbed up my legs to get away from the wave. She hated the water. She clung tight while we were near the waves.





Once we left the shore line she walked for quite a while in the sand.



She has always like the dirt. Water? Not so much.


At home, I am used to seeing other stay-at-home moms when we do our shopping at activities. What struck me as interesting in Manhattan Beach were the number of nannies I found at the park and the library. I realized the first woman at the park was a nanny when she kept referring to herself as Miss. So-and-so to the child. The second woman could have been a grandmother, but if she was, from what I gathered, she watched the child daily, and had a weekly routine of parks and activities, and she greeted the other nanny with familiarity. But then at the library there were two more! It was just an interesting observation. The other thing that I hardly ever see out here in the Inland Empire were the professional dog walkers! One woman had 8 well behaved pooches attached to her "walking belt." Between nannies, dog walkers, dozens of evening runners, the oodles of very expensive cars, and the giant beach front properties, I had a a mini-culture shock.

Polliwog Park

On Wednesday Lily and I headed to Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach. We visited the botanical garden, took a walk around the park paths. There was a little lake with ducks (and seagulls of course) and turtles and the biggest koi I had ever seen.
It was a standard playground but I was excited to see the toddler playground was gated all the way around prevented children running in or out.

She even spent more time on the slides than her usual favorite, the swings.

But in typical Lily fashion, she really only wanted to climb the stairs of the amphitheater.

Up and down. Up and down. Up and down.

Los Angeles Natural History Museum

On Tuesday Lily and I headed into L.A. to visit the Natural History Museum. Who knew you could barrel through that thing in two hours? I guess when you don't stop to read anything it moves pretty quickly.

In the hall of mammals we identified the animals and imitated their sounds. But the dinosaur exhibits were all the rage with the visiting school groups. And while Lily couldn't care less about dinosaurs (in fact, she cried a little when I pointed to the giant skeleton above us,) she wanted to be where the children were. Below she watched through the glass as a boy tried on the baby triceratops outfit. She grabbed a tooth of the model t-rex and then promptly walked away.

The museum had a visiting butterfly exhibit that I was pretty excited to take Lily to. I paid the extra for our pass, waited in line, and pointed out butterflies and caterpillars. She was much more interested in the mobiles set up to recognize exhibit donors.

She is a sweet girl, though. She loves earrings and always touches them and says pretty no matter how simple they may be.

One good shot with a skeleton in the back.

You think she is roaring like the tiger but it is actually a yawn. This was our last exhibit and she was ready to go.

We took advantage of the picnic area to eat our snacks before heading back to the hotel for nap time.

Her first juice box and she sucked that sweet nectar down before I could break out the goldfish and blueberries. Mmmm, sugar.