Summer Winding Down

Somehow next weekend will be labor day and summer will be over.  The hot days might not be gone yet (hope not!) but the pool will be closed, no more trips to the lake and Auden's preschool will be shifting to their regular school year program.  It surely went fast!

We had a great summer but as usual it was very busy traveling the majority of the weekends.  We got to Keuka Lake a lot this summer since Nana and Pappy have a boat to keep there now (very lucky!).  It was super fun spending time with the Sherrock family at the lake when they were visiting their grandparents who happen to have a house there as well.  And Auden and his cousin Reegan had wonderful quality time together for the annual McCormick family lake weekend. 

We had a Philadelphia wedding in early July for one of my sorority sisters that brought us back to our very own reception venue- Knowlton Mansion!  It was really nice to be back there and Cody and I did a lot of reminiscing and wandering around parts of the Mansion we never had time to during our wedding.  We recently had in August my cousin Kaitlyn's wedding in Point Pleasant, NJ which was on the water and beautiful and we got to have lots of fun with the whole McCormick clan.

The Hansen (Cody's mother's side) family trip this year was in Holden Beach, NC in the beginning of July.  We had great weather and awesome accommodations.  My mother-in-law found a brand new house on the island with 16 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms, yes, that is correct.  It was beautifully decorated (think pottery barn beach style), had a nice pool with a tiki bar and was right on a private beach.  It doesn't get much better than that!  And a wonderful bonus was being able to meet my childhood friend Jessica in Myrtle Beach since she doesn't live too far way in Charleston, SC.  Her adorable two little boys and Auden got to play on the beach for a little bit then we grabbed some lunch before heading back to Holden Beach.

While we were on vacation Auden really honed in on his swimming skills.  He has been more or less teaching himself how to swim this summer and it has been really something to watch.  He loves being underwater with his goggles on, so forget teaching him how to dog paddle above water.  We are trying to get him to use his arms more because right now he is pretty much just swimming under water and kicking.  He has no fear when it comes to jumping in the water and even learned how to dive on vacation!  He can swim about eight feet by himself right now but you really have to watch him because he thinks he's better than he is, haha.  I signed him up for proper swimming lessons at the indoor pool this fall (instead of doing them right now at our swim club) so he doesn't loose all the good skills he's acquired this summer.

Auden turned 3.5 years old on August 12th, which is easy to always remember because it's Cody and my anniversary (7 yrs!).  Every six months we mark his height off on the inside of the linen closet door and wow- did he grow since his birthday in February!  Two full inches to be exact.  That is still average for his age, so basically it's just amazing how fast toddlers grow through these years:-)  Auden is still enjoying his new preschool Appletree.  He comes home every day with his legs two shades darker from dirt and a bucket of sand we have to dump out of his sneakers.  So I'd say he is still enjoying the awesome playground at Appletree too.  We are looking forward to the regular school year starting after Labor Day where he will get a new classroom with a new teacher and their day will be a little more structured and will sneak in some more learning while having all that fun.

So goodbye to Auden's sun-kissed blonde hair and ice cream stops along I-95, we'll see you both next summer!  

Care package #8 and program update

I was excited to put together this month's care package because one of my "friends" in my agency that I met through facebook is hand delivering the package this week to Eastern Social Welfare Services (ESWS).  She is  travelling to go get her little girl finally and is taking care packages for several of us waiting families.  ESWS is the Korean partner agency my U.S. based agency works with and is where Grant goes every month for his well visits.  Sending it with someone in our agency on their trip to Korea is a lot nicer because you don't have to deal with a two month lag time that usually occurs if you send it through our U.S. agency (therefore making it difficult to plan correct clothes sizes and seasons).  Also, when we send directly with traveling friends we can slip in some goodies for the foster mother and treats for our child which our U.S. based agency doesn't allow for some reason.  Now that there is a steady flow of families traveling to Korea to get their kiddos, I hope to be able to keep sending packages this way.  Typically, traveling families have one big empty suitcase on the way to Korea because they are going to fill it with any clothes/stuff their child comes home with as well as souvenirs on the return flight.  So, it isn't an inconvenience for them to fill it with care packages on the way there.  And you get to feel like Santa Claus when you get to ESWS:-)

Since my friend will be arriving a few days after Grant goes into ESWS (goes in on the 20th usually) this month, he won't get this package until September 20th so I wanted to make sure I sent fall clothes.  I went through Auden's old stuff and found a couple of my favorite long sleeve shirts along with a pair of jeans and navy pants.  Hopefully they should fit Grant well.  Grant's growth chart is very similar to Auden's, he is just a little bit heavier than Auden was at his age.  I threw in a cute Vera Bradley (I heard that brand is popular in Korea) small pouch along with Starbucks Instant Iced Coffee for Grant's foster mom.  I'm sure Grant is used to getting toys every time he goes to ESWS from our care packages, so I was able to squeeze in a couple toy cars for him too:-)

And the end of last month we received super precious 15 month pictures of Grant!  It was the first time we have seen him standing up in a picture and could see his cute little legs!  His foster mom dressed him in the adorable OshKosh B'Gosh plaid overalls I was hoping so badly to see on him.  Every month I love this woman more because it's like she can read my mind.  His bangs grew in from his hair cut the month prior and his hair looked so nice.  I'm thankful we got these pictures at the end of last month because right after we got them ESWS announced they would not be sending picture updates for two months in efforts to work really hard at getting files ready for submission to the Ministry (government).  So far, they have been doing just that and the process (knock on wood) has been starting to move faster.  Thank God.  I hope they can keep it up.  One would think after the Ministry sees the same forms over and over they can start to move quickly once they know what they are doing with the new law and requirements.  If they can keep up this pace we hope to be in Korea right before Grant's second birthday in April.  Fingers  and toes crossed!!!