Tag Archives: Lena

Geocaching and Mario Karts

November 22, 2011 Molly 3 Comments

This is my first post, a while ago Molly asked me to explain more about geocaching. Somebody once defined it as using multi-million dollar satellites to find tupperware containers in the woods. That really sums it up pretty well. A geocache is some sort of container such as a Lock&Lock container, an ammo can, a pill bottle, or some other container that somebody has hidden. It might be in a park, on the side of the road, on a hiking trail, in a crowded city, anywhere that they want to place it that is legally allowed. After they’ve hidden this container, they post the coordinates on geocaching.com and the coordinates can then be downloaded to a GPS. Once they’re in your GPS, it tells you which direction to go and how far away it is. From there you just follow the arrow, and once it gets close to zero then the geocache should be close, most of them are within about 30 feet of where the GPS puts you. A lot of the containers in the woods are larger and covered with rocks or pieces of wood, the ones in urban locations are usually smaller. Once you’ve found it they contain a log that you can sign and some of the larger ones also contain toys that can be traded. More information is also available here.

I’ve found that what works best for the kids is to look for ones in parks that are larger containers because they can find them much easier and they also like to trade out little toys. I also prefer walking in the woods to a crowded spot in the city. Winter is really the best time to go because there’s not all the bugs and growth. We’ve been doing this for almost five years now and we’ve found over 1000, but we haven’t been that active recently. Last year we found 71, and we’ve found 85 this year, you can see our profile here. This is a picture from February when we went to pick up our dog from Texas:

Also, here’s a video I took last night of our kids and their cousins in the basement. We were using their plasma cars, and it reminded me of Mario Kart. The video is a little hard to follow because I was trying to hold the camera and steer with the same hand. Look for the crash around the 10 second mark:

Adoption

Biology

November 17, 2011 Molly 10 Comments

I was just googling a celebrity– don’t remind me of all of the things that I REALLY need to be doing with my time. I saw that this celebrity has two siblings and on her wikipedia page, it listed them as her “separately-adopted siblings.” I’ve never heard it worded that way before, but I figured out what it meant… two siblings who are both adopted but not biologically related.

Next link I clicked was a page with a Q&A about this celeb. “Are so&so real brother and sister?” That question breaks my heart. “No” was the answer. Heart break. Because we are familiar with this question.

I know people say that there are no stupid questions, but this is one. Especially asked in front of my kids. We don’t usually get it worded this way. But, all the time, we get asked, “Are they brother and sister?” My answer depends on how interested I am in the person asking and my own mood. “Yes.” OR “They are not biological siblings.” or maybe “They don’t have the same birthparents.” Really none of your business, buddy.

My kids are real siblings. Real, fight over toys just to fight, sit as close to each other as they can to watch a movie siblings. They’re who’s turn is it to pick the story? no, it’s my turn! siblings. They’re it’s okay, I’m here, hold my hand siblings. They’re through the fire and out the other side siblings. Biology has nothing to do with it.

My kids are very young, but their bond is deep. When they left the orphanage, the one thing that they got to take was each other. Not a single physical object or piece of clothing, not their language, or their culture. Just each other. Wouldn’t you love and cling to that person dearly?

So, yes, if you are still asking, they’re real siblings.

Eleven months ago, exactly.

Last month.

Last week, watching a movie. No one else had been on the couch and she had been leaning on him right before I got the camera.

Edited to add: I had someone ask me this question literally hours after I wrote this post, in those exact words that I mentioned above (are they brother and sister?). Just to be clear, I don’t think this question is rude in certain contexts, including the context that this person asked me in. Friend to friend, talking about the adoption process– it’s appropriate, although better language is “are they biological siblings?”. However, this is rude if you just met me AND/OR in front of my children. They ARE old/smart/fluent enough to understand those words.

Fundraisers, Second Adoption

Made with Love

November 11, 2011 Molly 2 Comments

Reed and Lena wanted to do their own fundraiser. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t their idea, but they were really excited about it when I asked them about it. They picked out the colors and the shapes for these Christmas ornaments and painted them, too. I did a few of them– any of the ones with stripes and the KU one. But the rest was all Reed and Lena.

Do you need a little ornament made with lots of love this holiday season or know someone who does? We are sending these out for a donation… $5-$10 is the suggestion.

Stars.

Globes.

Hearts.

Apples… for your favorite teacher?

If you’d like to purchase one, you can make a donation to the shirts for Helen chip-in at the right and email me your shape and/or color preference, along with your shipping address. I will be shipping them out until next Thursday and then I will not be able to ship them again until the first week of December.

Thank you!

Everyday Life

Beautiful Fall Day

October 31, 2011 Molly 3 Comments

Today was a beautiful fall day. The Kansas River was so low that you could walk across much of it and there is an island in the middle of the river. This island has a geocache on it and Aaron and Reed love to do geocaches, so off we went.

Standing on one bank, looking at the island.

Standing in the middle of what is normally the river.

Playing in the sand.

I love this photo.

Bushwhacking through the woods on the way back. Ladies led the way!

Looking at some mushrooms on some logs.

Do you see Lena, mountain climbing up the side of the levee? Yes, that is a nice gravel path that you see to the right. Yes, Aaron and I took that path. Yes, she insisted on crawling up the levee by herself.

Everyday Life

The Preschool Halloween "Parade"

October 28, 2011 Molly 6 Comments

Today was the Preschool Halloween “Parade”. The kids all dressed up and walked down to a nursing home and a bank. I didn’t try to explain Halloween to my kids ahead of time. Instead I went with costumes I thought they’d enjoy. Actually, I thought that Reed would really like to be Buzz Lightyear. I figured I’d do something easy for Lena. But, then I got an idea…

Toy Story theme! My kids LOVE Toy Story. It is one of the first movies that they would sit down and watch. Reed could be Buzz, Lena could be Jessie, and oh, what the heck, I have cowboy boots already, I’ll be Woody…

(I forgot to put my hat on before this picture)

I was the only person (including the teachers!!) over the age of 5 to be dressed up. Oh well. My kids thought it was hilarious.

The kids had fun. Of course, the kid who most enjoyed it was Lena. She really liked being with the big kids and singing their songs. She tried very hard to do the motions and sing the words with them. Reed did not want to participate at all. I asked him about it later and he told me that he wanted to watch everyone.

Thank you to my mom and sister for helping us put the costumes together! My sister borrowed the Buzz costume from a friend of hers for me. She also sent us the boots. My mom found Lena’s chaps as well as some other cowboy stuff at a thrift store for us and also got me a dollar store cowboy hat!