Where are my brudders? Part 2

Today was a special day for the Kovach boys.....First Day of School! What does that mean for the little girl at home?????

Control of the TV for the first time in almost 6 weeks! She could watch her two favorite shows: Sesame Street and Calliou without having to tell someone to turn their computer game down or to stop playing their drums! She sat with her bowl of nice cold watermelon in the recliner enjoying her quiet time!

Then she realized that she hadn't seen Phillip today! Here came the question? Where's Phillip? He's at school today! Oh ok...back to the watermelon! She knew that Stephen was at school because she got up to go "catch the bus" with Stephen! We stood at the bus stop and waited with him! I almost got teary eyed when I told Fred "Do you realize that in just two short years, we will be standing here with Hope to get her on the bus for school?" Then we will have an elementry student, a middle school student and a high school student!!! That just about brought me to tears!!!

When the bus came, the lady asked if Hope was starting school today!!!! I quickly said no...in a couple of years. Happily was able to walk back across the street, we sent daddy off to work and realized...."HEY us girls have the entire house to ourselves once again!!!!" It was nice! We did a little bit of cleaning, watched Sesame Street and Calliou, ate watermelon, cleaned a little more, ate lunch, read a story and took a nap! It was nice!!!

They will all start filing back into the house shortly! And so ends the quiet day for the Kovach girls!

I will have to get my camera out and take a picture of the new hairdo for Hope!!! We went on Monday to have back to school hair cuts done! I decided to get her hair all evened out! She had about 3 or 4 different layers of baby hair in there! I'll wait to tell you more when I get the picture up!!!

I YUV ICE CEAM!!!!!

I have to share this story as it is very cute! Phillip is in marching band and they were having a parent preview night this past Friday to show their families that how much they had accomplished during the week at band camp.

Each family was supposed to bring a dessert to share to go along with the ice cream! So Hope asked me why I was making bownies (that's how she says brownies). I told her so that we could take them to school to go with the ice cream! So she asked when the brownies were done could she have some "ice ceam". I said no, we will have ice cream at school.

So off to school we went that evening. As soon as we got to school, she asks "Can we have ice ceam NOW?" I said no, we have to wait until the band comes. So when the band came on to the field, she asked..."Can we have ice ceam NOW?"....I said no Hope. Once the band in finished playing, then we can have ice cream! I do mean as soon as the last note was cut off...she came running over and said...not so quietly by that point.... "WE HAVE ICE CEAM NOW!!" I told her yes and she didn't hear the rest of what I was going to say...she just about took out grown people for her ice ceam!!!

I asked her if she wanted cookies to go with it, she looks at me, rolls her eyes and says no mommy I just want ice ceam!!! So needless to say she loves her ice ceam!

We went to do some back to school shopping and we saw some friends so she told them that she got to have ICE CEAM at Phillip's school! That I do believe was the highlite of her day! If you notice even on her shirt in the picture, it has an ICE CEAM cone on it! On Saturday, we went to the mall to get some back to school clothes for the boys since I can no longer just buy them clothes because they are so tall and seem to keep growing! After we were done shopping, we went to Chick Fil A and you guessed it...had an ice ceam cone! For the first time, Hope didn't want hers in a cup...she wanted a cone like everyone else! For the first time, she actually ate the cone. She thought that was neat to be able to eat the cone! She has never wanted to eat the cone before!

And yes, the band did a wonderful job!!!!

Where are my brudders?

Mom, Where are my brudders? That has been the question of the morning for the last two days!

Stephen is at camp and Phillip is already at band camp Hope! She has been a little lost these last two mornings!!! Stephen left for Kids camp early Monday morning and I don't know that she was fully awake to know that she was with me when we dropped him off!!! Phillip is at marching band camp this week! He has left the house by the time Hope wakes up these last two mornings! I think this is kind of preparing her for what happens in 22 days!!!! SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION!!!!! I know that she will be a little lost once school starts back because she has had a wonderful summer with the boys being home! She has enjoyed the frequent wrestling matches she has with Phillip, watching Cinderella for the millionth time with Stephen and the laughs watching each other be silly!

She has enjoyed having them play in the back yard to play in the little swimming pool although some mornings were so chilly I'm surprised that she and Stephen were even in the water! But I always got It's not really that bad mom!!!!

It seems like this summer is coming quickly to a close!!!! But not done yet!!!! There are still adventures to be had!!! So off we go :o)....

Reunion time!!!!!

What a wonderful weekend we had in St. Louis!!! Our adoption agency, Children's Hope International, had their 15 year reunion!!!! It was awesome!!!

We were also able to have a mini reunion of most of our travel group! We had 5 of our 9 families get together this year and have a time of getting together and letting our children have a wonderful time of playing together! It was neat to see how much the Fuling Spicy Girls have grown over the last 2 years!!! They are all just beautiful!!! After the first inital shock of getting together, it was awesome to hear the giggles and laughter, screams of delight, watching the hugs shared between Fuling sisters that share that common bond of Fuling as their home!

After the CHI reunion, we all headed to the hotel for some rest and time in the pool!! Needless to say, Hope didn't make it to the pool!!! She was wiped out! She slept from the time we got in the car from the reunion to the hotel, in her stroller for a while, crawled in the bed and slept for a little while longer. Then everyone came back up starting to get ready for dinner!!!! So she didn't get to swim, but had a wonderful time at dinner, eating mac and cheese and chicken fingers and let's not forget the vanilla ice cream that was quickly turned into a chocolate soup by all of the girls!!!! It was YUMMY!!!!

On Sunday 4 of the families headed down for breakfast and then headed out to the St. Louis zoo!!! It was fun!!! We saw all kinds of animals and a group of silly monkeys that seemed to follow us everywhere full of giggles and laughter!!!! Then we had to make to walk to the front gate and tell one family "Until next time" because they had a plane to catch. Then it was back off for more exploring and trying to find the missing elephants!!!! We had some lunch and stood in front of the cool air mister for a few minutes and then off again on the hunt for elephants!!! Once we spotted them, it was MISSION ACCOMPLISHED for the Fuling Spicy Girls family!!! Then it was off to the gift shop and on to the car and on to the highway headed home. Hope was asleep before we got to the highway!!! I'm sure others followed quickly!!!

We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for dinner! It was fun watching Fred try to teach Hope how to play checkers!!! She came up with her own rules for this game with daddy and lets just say they changed often!!! So she proudly came back to the table declaring victory over her daddy!!!

It was a wonderful time visiting with everyone!!!!
I'll get pictures up soon!!!!!

My funny girl!!!!!

Hope was sooooo funny yesterday!!! Every now and then, I will light a candle on the kitchen table. This one smells like peach cobbler!!! (reminds me of my mom!!) Now that Hope is catching on to the concept of birthdays, she came running up and asked...."IS IT PRESENT TIME???" I told her no, it wasn't present time....that I was just lighting a candle...it was no ones birthday. Then my sweet girl ran and got her playdough and made a playdough cake!!! She quickly informed her brothers that this was mama's cake!!!! I guess she knows that mama's birthday is next on the birthday calendar!!!! I don't know how she knows that...probably because she is soooo super smart!!!!

We have also gotten out the swimming pool!!! She is a tough girl...because the water was pretty cold! Yesterday she was walking in the water and she tripped and fell. She was worried as she was still in her clothes...no swim suit yet...so she went on playing. Then today she and Stephen went out this morning and got back into the pool!!!! It was very overcast and not very warm at all around 10:30!!! They both looked at me when I asked them how in the world were they able to stand it in that water???? Stephen says...Mom..it's not that bad once you get used to it!!! I guess once you go numb...it really doesn't matter how cold the water is huh???

Happy Birthday America...a little late!!

The beautiful Stars and Stripes coming in!
My handsome boy!
My Military Boy! He's planning on going in the Navy as a chaplin!!!!

Playing a fun game!

Riding in the wagon with her best friend!
Didn't make it to the fireworks!!!

Happy Birthday America!!!!


On Wednesday July 4th, America had a birthday!!! Our church has a wonderful celebration for America's birthday! They have games, watermelon, music and lots of fireworks!!! Just about the entire city shows up!!! This year there was over 80,000 people there! This was the 11th year that our church has hosted "I Love America!"

A fun time was had by all!!! We hung out with some of our good friends all day! Hope refused to take a nap because she was just afraid that she would miss something!!! Well I had to leave to go and sing...and wouldn't you believe it...she went to sleep and missed the fireworks!!! We brought in a picnic lunch and our shade tent and chairs, sunscreen and I think half the house!!!

The boys had a wonderful time hanging out with their friends!!! It was fun watching everyone have such a wonderful time! But we were alllll very tired yesterday!

We hope everyone had a wonderful 4th!

Mommy and Hope day!!!

Today was a mommy and Hope day! Both of the boys went to work with Fred today! It was a welcome break! Since school as been out, it has thrown Hope for a loop and her schedule!!! She doesn't think she needs to take a nap because "her boys" as she so calls them are still awake!!! So, there have been a couple of days that I didn't make her lay down!!! BAD MAMA...and a bad move!!! It got down right ugly in this house. She was tired, but didn't want to sleep, so every little thing got to her!!! She cried, she yelled, she got mad...so I would sit her down away from the boys and she would fall asleep!

Today we have watched Cinderella 3, colored, made peanut butter cookies for "her boys" for when they come home, had lunch, picked up a few things, played with the cat and now she is napping!!!!

She was thrilled to have gotten another "birsday" card in the mail! She has really enjoyed getting some mail these days! She has been singing the birthday song most of the day today! Her friend Zoe also had a party on Saturday and so today she has been singing Happy Birthday to Zoe and Hopey!!! It has been very cute!