Eli's Author Celebration

Eli had his first author celebration at school last week.  The kids have been working on writing books the past few months and the parents were invited to celebrate and view their child's book.  Each student got to pick their favorite book that they had written and read it to us at the celebration.  Here is what Eli chose as his favorite book. 

 It's called, "The Cars."  

He dedicated the book to us :)

 Toyota

 Ferrari.

Lamborghini.  Hmmm...  Eli has some expensive tastes. He better keep doing well in school if he wants to get either one of these cars :)

Volvo.  He dedicated this page to me because I drive a Volvo.

 Bug.  Gotta love the face on the driver. 

Mini Cooper 

I love this book because it's totally him.  It may not be this long novel with these detailed pictures, but it's a book about what he loves, cars, and he is so proud of his work.  I also love seeing how kid's spell words phonetically.  

I took a look at some of his other books and just had to take a picture of this one.  It's called Dead Chicken.  The second page shows a picture of two fried eggs.   Where did he come up this book idea? 

He is hilarious. 

This next book is about our family.  This first page says, my family loves to play games.  I love the caption of Eli saying, "I love my family."  I also love his pictures of us. 

My family loves to eat Pizza. 

My family loves to cook.  The picture is funny because that is Eli giving a karate kick to Zoe.  Zoe is not happy with the picture because she looks angry and she is getting kicked!  John and I are looking oblivious to the situation!

Here is Eli with his bean plant.  He is proud because it is growing so big.  He is doing a great job taking care of it.  I wonder when this item is coming home and where I am going to put it?

Here is the toast at the end of the party.  The kids got some apple cider and are toasting to being authors.  

When his teacher asked the kids what their favorite part of the celebration was, most kids said, showing my parents my book or reading to my parents.  Eli raised his hand and said, "the apple cider."  If you look closely you will see that Eli is not paying attention to what his teacher is talking about but focusing on that apple cider in his hand.  That's my boy :)  Love him!

My Wednesday date..

Every Wednesday since school started this has been my dinner date.  Isn't he the cutest?  Zoe and John have soccer practice from 5:30 to 6:45 and its just Eli and I.  We sit down at the intimate kitchen island rather than the big dining room table and I light a candle to make it a bit more special.  Eli gets to have his favorite leftovers and I get to eat whatever healthy mom food I am craving.  I love easy nights like that!  He opens up and tells me in detail about his day.  Normally when I ask about his day I just get, "it was good" or when I ask what he did in school he tells me, "nothing."  So you can see why I love this time with him, as he gets very detailed.  He even told me a joke last night that sadly I did not get right away!  It was a knock knock joke and you had to spell CUP, so I spelled it and didn't get the punch line so he told me to spell it again, slowly, so I did, and then I got it!!  Silly 7- year-old boy humor, it's sad how it goes over my head!  Do you get it?


Last night was the last of our Wednesday dinner dates as it was Zoe's last soccer practice.  It's bittersweet because I am happy that soccer is over and that we can all be together at dinnertime, but I will miss my weekly date dinners with Eli.  


I am realizing that it's so important to get that one on one time with each child.  They need that time where the spotlight just shines on them and they are not rushed with their thoughts. I am going to make sure that I make more time with each one on a daily basis and be really present for that time that I am with them. 


I got thinking about all of this today when I ran into a mom I know at the grocery store.  We were talking about kids and how they grow so fast.  She has three kids and her two oldest are in college.  She said the hardest part is dinnertime because it's so quiet with just the three of them.  She misses the chaos and noise of a normal family dinner.  That made my heart melt and I realized that I sometimes take our family dinners for granted and rush through the meal to get to whatever else I deem important that night.  


Sometimes we run into people to get these messages.  Our universe is amazing as we are led to what we need to hear or see.  If we are open to stop and talk more or take pause throughout the day, we will hear those messages.


This was my message yesterday, be present with my family and friends more and slow down. This time will go by in a wink and I want to know that I was present and really got the most of that time!

The day after birthday ramblings...

I love mornings like today.  The sun is shining, the air is crisp, the window's are open and I can hear the birds and bees going about their day!  I love it when the kids get off to school and its all quiet in the house.  I can blast my favorite music as I go about my morning and sing at the top of my lungs.  Its the best :)  

OK, what's wrong with this cake?  Darth Vader defending a graveyard?  Daddy trying to take a bite before the candle is even blown out?  He He!

Eli had a great birthday!  I am so happy it's all over to be honest!  Birthdays no matter how mellow they are, still require a lot of work.  You want to make the day special for your child or loved one and sometimes we get carried away.  I try and keep things simple knowing that the birthday child/adult really just wants my full attention rather than the perfect cake, presents etc.  But, then I want to make it special so I go a bit overboard and get all frazzled in the end.  Oh well, someday I will take my own advice :) I let Zoe take charge of decorating the above cake, and she did an amazing job, even though the gel frosting started to droop away (entirely not her fault, as it was very humid yesterday).   Since Eli has a birthday in October he always wants a Halloween themed cake and treats for school.  Below are the treat bags he brought to school to celebrate with his class (see Halloween theme?).  

I kept his birthday celebration simple as I have each year in the past.  I was originally going to have a big party and invite all of his friends.  I called around to some of the "favorite" party places and told them my dates etc.  Most were booked a month or more out already and Eli's list was getting bigger and bigger and the party cost was going up and up.  I thought this whole birthday celebration was then getting out of hand.  I mean, where was this mama that wanted to create simple parties for her kids?  I realized then I was getting caught up in the "competing with the Joneses'" and I did not want to go there.  I asked Eli at that point, what he really wanted, did he really want a big party where he would honestly pay attention to 1 or 2 of the kids out of the 15 he invited (I didn't really ask him this exact question) or did he want to have his first sleepover with his best buddy, who he has known since he was 11 months old.  He looked at me, remembering the birthday party he attended recently where he was ignored for the most because his friend had other guests there that he was excited to see (I mean this is what kids at this age do, they can only focus on 1 or 2 kids, they are not skilled in the ways of hostessing like us adults) and said, I want my best bud here for a sleepover.  That is what we did, and he will always remember that night.  It meant more to him than some big party at some random place.  He got to choose the restaurant for dinner that night, he chose CPK because that is truly his favorite place, got to plan the board games he wanted to play, and got to pick out the sugar cereal of his choice for breakfast the next day.  A note on this, Eli always begs to get those sugar cereals when we go to the grocery store, you know the ones I am talking about, lucky charms, fruit loops etc.  I told him a couple of year's back that he could choose any box of sugar cereal for his birthday each year.  Well, he chose frosted flakes the past two years, which I thought wasn't too bad.  This year he chose this:

That is one happy kid, wouldn't you agree?  

He loved it and still loves it as his afternoon snack.  His actual birthday was pretty simple.  We went to our family's favorite restaurant, DJ's.  They love Eli and Zoe so much as we have been going there weekly for the past 14 years.  This is our kitchen away from home and the owners are really like family to us.  We sometimes kid that we will have Zoe's rehearsal dinner there.   They put up the special "Happy Birthday" sign.

Dad and Eli at DJ's

Zoe and Eli pouring on the love!

We had dinner and then went home for cake and presents!  At the end of the day, Eli said, "I am exhausted, but I had the best day ever, thanks mom, dad and Zoe for making my birthday the best, I really love you guys."  

That is what we all want to hear at the end of the day, right?

Goodbye 6 and hello 7!

I can't believe this guy is 7 today!

He grew from this:

This is our adoption referral photo - 3 days old

Eli @ 3 months still in Guatemala

 Eli at 5 months in Guatemala

Eli 9 months still in Guatemala (Almost home!)

Eli's fist morning at his new home (11 months)!  Happy as can be!

Eli and Zoe; their fist morning together.  Look at their smiles!  Glowing!

The jokester!  I don't know where he learned that spoon trick but he pulled that out day 3.  

First Halloween

First Christmas!

To this...

Eli, you are so special to me for so many reasons...
Your truly one of the kindest & sweetest souls
You go with the flow and you're just so easy
You put others first
You are crazy funny & make us all smile :)
You're willing to try just about anything and always up for an adventure
You have such a zest for life
You care about every living thing; including every bug, tree, bird, you name it
You are so gentle natured
You wake up every morning happy and greet us all with that amazing smile
Everyday is a new day to you, you never hold onto the past
You live your life in the present 
I love you forever and I am so happy you chose me to be your mom!