Mia's First Day of Preschool

Mia's birthday is October 29 and here in the state of California the cut off for school is December 2. Therefore, Mia could go into kindergarten not this year but next, but because she is so young for her grade, we have chosen to keep her out till the following year. So, Mia will have 2 years of preschool (this year and the next) before heading to Kindergarten. Anyway, we decided to put her into my school district preschool. It is a progressive new preschool model through the public schools that includes a class of half special ed kids (mostly speech delayed kids) and half regular ed kids. The great part about this program is the regular ed kids like Mia get all of the interventions the special ed kids get like speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and others as well. Our district and others in the country have done studies on the students both special ed and regular ed that come out of the program and they score much higher than their peers in different preschool programs. It works well for both special ed and regular ed kids and both benefit, therefore when my district said I could enroll Mia in our preschool, I jumped at the chance. There are limited number of regular ed spaces available and they only go to Upland residents but because I work in the district, they gave Mia a spot---yaaaa!!! So, all that to say---- Mia started preschool last week--yaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

Picture before we left

She was so excited about going to school.

Heading through the gates

Mia and her new teacher Mrs. Moderager-- and yes, Mia pronounces her name perfectly-- I still cant.

Mia in line with one of her friends from Church who happened to be put in the same class. Mia was thrilled!!!!

Walking to their classroom

A captive audience as Mrs. M explains the plan

Mia loves puzzles and was so happy there were tons to play with in their classroom

Mia and Addy working hard :)

Mia now has one week of preschool under her belt and she is so happy. She told me tonight as I was putting her to bed that she loved Mrs. Moderager and wants to go to her house to play. Too cute!!!

Bass Lake

We have been at Bass Lake, CA for the last week. It was a great time with my family- Brad, Amy, Kids, my parents and Cass. Way fun time camping and hanging out on the boat.

The little girls in the raft- they loved it sooooo much!!

We found this tadpole that was half way to a frog. It had just grown little tiny legs but was still very much tadpole- ish.

Ethan and Owen floating out on the raft

You cant see from my horrible pictures with my phone, but the kid found a log and were floating around on the log.

Mia met another little girl and they played on the beach together.

This is the rock slide- the kids loved it.

We had a great time. This is a family tradition and we will continue to do this for many years to come!!!

An Update on Finley-- we are soooo excited!!!!!

My agency emailed me this update today and before I opened it I totally thought it would be the pictures I got a few weeks ago but much to my surprise, they were all new pictures with new updates. I am just thrilled and am still in shock with all the great info I am getting on our little one.

We got updated sizes and I am happy to say Finley is smaller than our Mia. They are one year apart in age but Mia is very petite and I worried Finley would be larger than Mia. Turns out Finely is currently 2 years 9 months and is 35 inches which is in the 13th %ile for height (Mia is 37) and weights 29 pounds which is in the 52nd %ile for weight (Mia weighs 29 too but at least Mia gets to be taller-- she wants to be the big sister). So that's it. Here are the adorable pictures of our precious little girl. I can not stand having to wait to get her. At least the orphanage looks like a wonderful place which makes me happy!! Here are the updated pictures of my beautiful girl!!!

I love seeing some personality!! She looks so happy and what a colorful and happy place she is in! I think she is on her bed.

Just precious!

I cant get over how cute she is and what perfect features she has!

What is that-- San Rio?? Not sure and I'm not sure what she thinks either.

Love the look on her face-- too cute-- a little mischievous!!

Playing with a little lady bug thing-- all the beds had one in the larger pics before I cropped them. Must have been a gift from someone.

Absolutely perfect features-- look at those lips--perfect!!

And there you have it!! My perfect little girl. She is amazing and I feel so blessed to have all this info and pictures of her. It is so special but I have a feeling we might have a bit of a dry spell for a while since we have been getting so much info-- but we will see. The orphanage looks amazing so hopefully they will keep the pictures coming!!!

Rincon Beach California

We just came back from Rincon Beach California which was just awesome. You literally park on Pacific Coast Highway and you are on the water-- right there-- out your door. It was great fun! We met Kevin's brother Greg and his family there and we had a great time. Please know, all of these pictures were taken with my cell phone so they are poor.

Mia in the sand

Mia and Auntie Lynsee

Kevin with the BBQ

The kids boogie boarding

This is how close we are to the water-- that is our trailer.

Mia walking on the beach

Finley Haoyi-- cant wait to get her home!!!

Daddy and Mia playing in the sand

Thought the picture was cute but it was such poor quality that I turned it black and white and it was better

Owen with his boogie board

Owen and his hole-- The boys and Kev dug it ealier and Owen wanted to be in the hole when the tide came up. I didnt get a picture of it but he was in it when the tide came in and he got soaked-- just filled up with water!!!

Mia and her "king crab" as she would call it. She is not scared of anything-- nothing-- slugs, crabs, fish, nothing.

Pretty girl

Lots of rocks at Rincon so many spend hours making these rock structures. The boys and Kev built many of these- they were cool!

Awwwww!!

Kaitlyn with kelp

Ethan

Another poor quality pic but looked cute after I turned it sepia

The view from our door

Kylie and Molson

Kaitlyn

Owen

Kaitlyn

We had a great time!!! Its so nice to be away!!

Cool Party

The boys were invited to Carson's birthday party yesterday and since we are great friends with Carson's parents, Mia and I crashed (Kev was at work). It was a total boys party with a jumpy water slide thing, tons of swimming and a sleepover. They had a blast. My pal Lia also was there taking pictures with her totally cool camera-- here are some of them!

At the bottom of the water slide thing, a bunch of mud began to form. Because the boys are boys, guess what they did???? Yes, roll around in it-- love it!!

My beautiful boy!!

Jake and Ethan jumping off the waterfall

Ethan thought he was so cool!!

Could not love this picture anymore!! It is so adorable. This is Owen and Judah who is his best friend from school. they are so darn cute!!!

Owen making a splash!!!

Mia and Ethan jumping. Mia is so brave. That little girl is not scared of anything. She wanted to jump off the 7 foot+ waterfall by herself but I would not let her jump unless her brothers jumped with her. By the way, she is now swimming on her own but I make her wear a floaty unless I am literally right beside the pool. I'm so happy she is now water safe.

My other beautiful boy!

Thanks tons Lia for all these amazing pictures of the kids-- You take great pictures!!