Today was the last day of school. Inga was very sad saying goodbye to her friends and teachers, but she gets to go out with the girls from her class to something called Medieval Times where you can go to a castle, eat a four-course medieval meal (with your hands/feet, of course) with "royalty", and watch real live jousting with trained horses and "knights". She just finished a whole year of studying the Medievel Ages so this is my treat to her for a year of hard work. She also had a medieval feast at school, which will hopefully help prepare her for the real thing tomorrow.
Elena had her birthday party today. I've decided to give each gender a specific year for parties: this year the girls get birthday parties, and next year the boys get to have birthday parties. That way I don't get too worn out throwing the parties, but the kids know their turn will come and they won't have to wait too too long. I've also discovered that I'm not too bad at throwing interesting parties, which is nice. Maybe I can be a legitimate mom after all.
Dan is at school finishing grades and clearing out his room. It has been a long four years with St. Stephen's and we are finally done. Not having a job to go to from here has us all a little worried, but God is good and I can't be too concerned when He has taken us through so many miracles and hard times to bring home our kids. I would just like a little sneak peak ahead to know what to expect, though. Just a small one.
Dan also graduated recently, last week if my sense of time isn't too stretched out by now. Oh, it is--it was two weeks ago. Ugh. Anyway, the graduation ceremony was great, the trip to Idaho was a breeze (which I wasn't expecting with all the kids and 6 airplanes and two rental cars because we couldn't all fit in one vehicle--why don't places rent out 8-passenger vans, what is wrong with people?--and sleeping at Megan and Michael's little apartment on the last evening). I met some of Dan's professors and a lot of Megan's friends and we got together with the Mileurs who are currently in Idaho at the moment. Someone who was taking pictures at the graduation asked
if we could come to the studio and have our photos taken professionally by him so we all trooped down there Friday morning and took lots of pictures, then he came over to our hotel and his kids swam with our kids in the pool. I hope he got some good photos, because we don't have a professional photo of our family since Lissy came home and it would be great if these turned out and we could order a few.
All in all it was an incredibly refreshing trip, which was just what I needed.
Sam adores Michael, by the way.
I'm going to play in church on Sunday, for the first time in...years. It feels good to practice. I'm playing the first movement from Bach's second partita. I like it because it's dark, and that's my mood recently. I've also started writing a lot over the past year, in comparison with the year before that, anyway. I've added about 150 pages to my book, which may not seem like a lot but I revise as I go so it's a little more work than you might think. I think the final number of pages may be somewhere around 400, which when translated to publisher layout may just about equal 700 pages. That's too long if I want to publish it as one book, but I don't know how to turn it into a trilogy or a...what do you call it when you write two books? Anyway, I really like this book, I just don't know how to make it good enough to be marketable. I have a number of friends reading it and giving feedback, and it's a wonderful way to learn but I am only learning how much more I still have to learn before I think I'm good enough to sit back and say, "now I am ready to say this is finished; I've done the best I can."
Elissa is walking all over the place now, and is starting to say individual words. She consistently says: more, night-night, bye-bye, pizza, please, cookie, cereal, Mama, Dada, Inga, banana. It's soooo cute!! I've never really had a kid go through this little child phase. All of my kids have come walking and talking; it was just a matter of learning English. Elissa came essentially as a newborn, and I have had the opportunity to watch my child grow from virtual infancy up until now, where she is just about at the two-year old developmental level. Including the tantrums, I might add. Those are fun. I am so pleased with the progress she's making. She laughs and giggles all day long, and is usually quite easy to take places because she likes her stroller and she likes interacting with people now. She's a lovable little girl, and I can't imagine my life without her. She will most likely go to school next year, in a class specially for kids like her who need a lot of educational support and therapy. I visited the place she'll go and saw the teacher she'll have and I think she's ready and it's a good fit for where she is. This year the class size was four kids to one teacher and an aid. Elissa will also most likely have a one-on-one aid to help her with walking and snack and toilet training. She'll go to school from 9-12 every day, and if we want to she can even ride the bus (in a carseat) to and from school. It would be the short yellow bus--but I don't think she'll notice the stigma.
Annie comes on Monday, and we're all looking forward to it!
By the way--I saw that Samantha was "following" my blog, which I think means it will show her when I next post to my blog, and that is what inspired me to go ahead and post again. Thanks, Samantha!
On Friday afternoon Elena had her first birthday party, and invited several girls from her class over to celebrate. One of the games involved trying to drink from a cup like Lena. It was pretty funny! 
On Saturday evening Inga went out with a couple of friends in her class to Medieval Times, a castle near Washington, D.C. built into the Arundel Mills Mall complex that hosts people for a medieval meal. While you eat they put on a show for you with a story line involving kings and kingdoms and amazing horsemanship. There was a lot of sword fighting and jousting involved, and each section had a particular knight to cheer for. Ours was the yellow knight, and when he won the competition he received a white carnation from the princess which he threw to Inga's friend. Inga insists that he looked at her when he threw it, but he missed. 
On Sunday evening Dan and I went to a crabhouse and ate crabs steamed in Old Bay seasoning. It was quite the experience; a lot of work for a little bit of food, but great fun with friends. We saw some other people we knew there, too. Amazing that we have lived here this long and haven't done this yet. We are told we need to introduce our kids to this sooner rather than later, or they might get grossed out by the crabs. I can understand that...it was a little much like biology lab! Afterward we went over to our friends' house and introduced them to Dr. Horrible, which they appreciated appropriately.
