This year we did a nursury rhyme theme.  Rani was bo-peep. I had to have her outfit custom made because she wanted hot pink and black! LOL  Baby Vee was a sheep, Finn was Little Boy Blue and the other boys were the three blind mice.  It wasn’t quite as good as the Wizard of Oz theme from last year but it was still so cute!

Can you believe I am sending my oldest three to school? Neither can I! Here is a post I wrote on Crazibeautiful about it

To School or Not to School

The school is only part time. It’s a great middle ground for us. So far they are really happy there. The school is called Benjamin Franklin Homeschool Academy. It’s a little red brick school house. There are only 7 kids in Xanders class and 6 in Sully and Rani’s class!

Update from Today:  Rani is doing really well at school.  She is cruizing through her work and is finally getting a handle on reading.  I’m so happy with her progress!  I have decided to keep her at home next year now that she has found her groove.

On August 27th, Rani, Ollie and Finn started dancing again at Starz Unlimited. Finn is doing only clogging this year and Rani and Ollie are doing both clogging and ballet. Poor little Virginia wanted to dance so bad! She sat outside the door crying and if anyone opened it she ran in and started tapping one foot like she was dancing too. Two more years little baby!

I am so proud of my sweet girl for choosing to be baptised. It is not a decision she made lightly, and out of all of my children to be baptised, she was the most sure and the most excited. She made promised to live as Jesus did and to take his name upon her. She looked beautiful. The photo with Dad was taken on her baptism day and the rest of the photos were taken today of the dress my mom made for her. I also took some of the two girls together. Virginia is wearing her blessing dress from last year. I can’t believe it still fits!

Rani’s birthday was a wonderful day.  We did our usual gotcha day ritual.  We were amazed at how much she has grown.  We admired the tiny clothes she was wearing when she came home.  We painted our feet and talked about the day we first met.  Baby Vee got to participate this time.  She wasn’t too sure about the feet painting but we still had fun.  We ended up being so busy that we didn’t do pictures until later that night so Rani’s paint had nearly worn off and I didn’t even think of taking pictures of their feet together. Oh well, maybe next year.

We had friends over for a party later that night.  Here are a few pictures from that day. The litte blue eyed girl is Rani’s little friend Alena.

Here are her birthday pictures. Can you believe how small she is? That’s my dining room chair!

She has been talking a lot about what her life would be like if she had stayed with her first mother.  She talks mostly about how much she would miss us and miss living in America.  She can’t quite grasp the concept that she would never have known us.  I just listen to her talk and when she gets weepy about missing me, I hug her and tell her how much I would miss her too.  I tell her I’m so happy that God wanted her to be in our family and I’m so happy that she’s here with us.  That seems to be what she needs to hear so she jumps up to play. 

Here are a couple of pictures I took of her yesterday.  We wanted a picture that showed her earrings and she wanted a picture of her standing on her head, her latest pasttime.

Today’s Modern Mother