Second Thanksgiving Dinner

About a month ago Luke was telling Tetyana about Thanksgiving and what our traditions were. Here is what he said:

"Every year mom cooks a whole bunch of food with turkey and stuffing and we eat on the big table in the dining room. It is so good Tetyana, just wait!"

So when the idea came up about going to the beach for Thanksgiving we weren't sure what to do. We are working hard to establish traditions for our family and I really didn't think Thanksgiving was that big of a deal for Luke. After listening to him explain it to Tetyana we realized the way we celebrated Thanksgiving was a big deal to him.

Taking the kids to the beach was a surprise and we didn't tell them until we were packing up the car. At the beach we planned to eat a Thanksgiving dinner that was prepared by a grocery store. I knew I had to make Thanksgiving dinner at home also so Tetyana could experience the way we always have done it....the way Luke told her about.

Yesterday I made our traditional Thanksgiving dinner and we ate it at the big table....just the 4 of us. It felt perfect. We video taped the kids telling us what they were thankful for but you can't hear the audio very well. Here is a picture of my new apple and potatoe peeler and our first real family Thanksgiving dinner picture:

Hunting For Sand Dollars

On Friday we went to Caladesi Island to do a little shell hunting. Coach Mark kept telling us how many sand dollars he heard were on these beaches and all any of us could think about was finding sand dollars!!

Before lunch we hunted up and down one side of the beach and didn't find one sand dollar. We got a tip from another shell hunter that we were headed the wrong way, so after lunch we started down the opposite side of the beach.

Luke was the first to start finding sand dollars and the next thing I knew everyone had some but me! I was dead set that I was going to find a sand dollar if it meant missing the ferry back! They were pretty tricky to find but once you found one you could spot them right away. Here is how they looked in the ocean...see it there in the center of the photo? I ended up finding about 6 sand dollars and can't wait to hang one of them on our Christmas tree when we decorate it!

The next thing I knew Luke and Johnny found 24 sand dollars!!! Can you believe it? Luke had 2 handfuls of these beautiful shells! He was the master sand dollar hunter! Here is Johnny, Luke and Coach Mark with their findings....

Thanksgiving Week

We have had a great Thanksgiving week. We went with Luke's coaches family to Dunedin Beach from Wednesday to Friday. The kids had a great time playing and we all had a great time just relaxing. Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving Day...

This is the four of us before we feasted!! Tetyana could hardly wait to eat!!!

Here is the kids table.

Here are Luke and Johnny being silly as boys will!

Tetyana loved all of the food but didn't like the "sauce" (gravy) on her potatoes. Has she never eaten mashed potatoes and gravy? She pigged out on the turkey which wasn't a surprise because she adores chicken.

The men went to a hockey game Wednesday night which left Tetyana and I free to find something for the girls to do. One of my oldest and dearest friends lives in Tampa, which is next door to Dunedin, joined us for dinner at PF Changs. Yet another first for Tetyana and again she loved the food....see a pattern here? It was so great to have a girls dinner with Becky and her daughter and catch up with each other.

I will fill you in in the next posts about what the rest of our week entailed....we have been busy as usual!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and eats a ton of turkey and pie!!!!

We are excited to share T's first Thanksgiving with her. I know she will eat a ton!

Have a great day!

Championships

Can you believe it???!!!!! The Texas Rangers are going to the championships!!! We were undefeated until todays game but this one didn't count toward the championships.

The boys have had 4 games this week and it has been the coldest week ever!!! Last night they played at 7:30 and had to be back at the field today at 12. They played a good game but they lost by one run.

There has been so much controversy this season because our Coach has had such great teams for 4 seasons. They are calling him a cheater and a liar and it is so not true!! He is a great guy and is very dedicated to the league. His poor wife never sees him!!

So, the championship game is the first week in December. We are ready for the season to be over but we are also sad. If they really split up the boys who Mark has been able to keep together I will be really sad. We have met some great families that make going to the games so much more fun.

Go Rangers!!!

Shuttle Launch

When Drew and Luke went camping with the Boy Scouts they were able to sit directly across the water from the launch pad where the shuttle took off. They said it was so awesome. We usually see the shuttle take off (when we remember) but they said this was even better than they imagined.

They were able to see the part of the shuttle that drops off into the ocean and the big ball of fire. Look at moon to the right of the shuttle. Aren't the pictures cool!!!

Life In The Orphanage

As Tetyana learns more English she has been able to tell us more about her life in Ukraine or "Krain" as she calls it. When we visited her at the orphanage we were so impressed with the facility and they way they took care of the children. Boy, were we misled! Don’t get me wrong, she was cared for and to this point has never said she was abused there or that she really wanted to leave. I am not even sure she knew this was an option since they have not had any families adopt from her orphanage or group since before she was placed there. The orphanage was clean and they had running water and heat but there was a big show put on for us during the weeks that we visited.

Each day we visited Tetyana she had on new, clean clothes and she would be in a different outfit for the morning and afternoon visits. She now tells us they wore old clothing and that the clothes she was in and the other kids were in when we went to see her group were only worn when we were there!

She also told us they used a squatter toilet not a regular toilet like the one we used during visits.

The director told us they showered/bathed each day but T says they only did once a week. No wonder why she asks me why she needs to take another shower after 2 days. She isn’t used to being washed so much!

Even though they showed us all of the food they fed the kids, I am waiting for her to tell us that there was a limited amount. She has food issues that we are diligently working through. If she doesn’t see a snack in her backpack for school she will nearly have an anxiety attack. Also, she is so thin. They had to have only fed the kids small amounts.

When we toured the orphanage, they showed us a gymnasium, dental office, psychology play room and told us they had a pool. Tetyana said she had never seen any of these places and they did not have a pool!

I guess this is why they told us there was Chicken Pox in one of the groups and we would have to visit in a tiny room. They didn't want us to see what was really happening there.

Report Cards

It was report card time a couple of weeks ago and I am so proud of my kids!!! Tetyana has been working so hard. She and I do her regular homework that is assigned by the teacher then we do about another 45 minutes to an hour. I am using Hooked on Phonics and some free educational websites to work on reading and math skills (please leave me a comment if you know of some good sites). Although she was in school in Ukraine for nearly a year, I am not sure what they were teaching her. Her math skills were nonexistent and obviously she had to start all over in reading.

All of her skills were at grade level on her first report card except reading, which we expected. She will get more one on one attention in the classroom as well as go to the reading lab once it begins for further reading support.

She gets very frustrated when she is reading and most days when she melts down into tears I have her take a break laying in her bed to recharge. I am so not used to the tears. I do make her work hard and expect a lot out of her. Yesterday her teacher called me and told me how proud she was with Tetyana’s reading. She said she read a short story extremely well and couldn’t believe her progress. When I told Tetyana what her teacher had said, I asked her why did she think she was doing so well. She didn’t have an answer but I told her it was because of her hard, hard work. That our work together was paying off!

I would like to have her catch up to her peers at some point. She is so tall and she is starting to make comments about being so much older than the other kids. I want to protect her from hurtful comments kids may make in the future. She is already different because of the language. I just don’t want kids to tease her. It would break my heart!

Luke did fantastic! He brought home straight A’s. He has never done this before. He has always had a majority of A’s but also some B’s. He rarely likes to work hard and says “Mom, what are you worried about? A C is average and it’s okay to be average.” It drives me insane!!! I am such a type-A and like things done completely and perfectly. He could careless if he grew up and worked at 7-11. The hardest part is, he is so intelligent.

This year I told him and myself (and everyone else so they would hold me accountable!) that I was going to back off. That if he failed and had to repeat the 4th grade then this was the best year to do it in…not in middle school. I guess it worked. I have not pressured him to study for spelling (he has not brought home less than 101 points on every test), ready or complete his homework. His teacher agreed that he is a hard kid to figure out and is still trying to figure out what motivates him. He also told Luke that he will need to continue to work hard and not just expect that he will earn straight A’s in the coming quarters.

For now, I am thrilled with both kids academic progress!!!!

Scouts

Both kids have really been enjoying Scouts. Luke earned his Bobcat badge recently as well as many other badges. He also was voted in by his troop as the “Denner”. This makes him responsible for helping to set up before the meetings, clean up and a few other general responsibilities. I figured since he was new to an existing troop he would not be voted in this time. But it was a tie between he and one of his good friends. The power is rushing to is head and he is “commanding” Cole (his friend in Scouts and school) to do or not do all sorts of things! When I finally told him that he didn’t have power really, he still went about bossing his friends around (in a funny way). “Cole, you may not eat anymore Big Mac’s while I am the Denner!” I am sure Cole is staying away from Mc Donalds!

I took Tetyana and her troop on their first field trip to the children’s theater. We saw “The Not So True Tale of Robin Hood”. It was really cute and they even made reference to Girl Scouts and cookies!

I think this will be my first and last year as a leader. First, the Girl Scouts as an organization does not provide much support for the new leaders and many parents use me as a babysitter and don’t realize how much time I have to devote to planning and holding a meeting. I had one mom just not bring her child to the field trip without calling to let me know. When I emailed her that evening to ask if her girl was going to return, I have still not received a response! I had the hardest time getting anyone to volunteer to be the cookie parent and still don’t have a camping parent. But they all want their girls to participate in these events. Can you tell it really bugs me!

Luke is away this weekend with Drew at his first Boy Scout camping trip. He has never been camping before but it is right up his alley. He would live outside if we let him. Hopefully Drew will have a good time…oh yea, I am going to Vegas to visit my best friend!!! Tetyana is staying at home with Paula where she will be spoiled rotten!

Halloween

The kids really had a great time on Halloween. This being Tetyana’s first Halloween, we decided not to throw our annual Halloween party but to take her and Luke Trick or Treating. We started the evening at a friends house where we had pizza and the kids played some. Since it was a baseball family, most of the kids were boys. Tetyana didn’t mind (this is a whole other post) and jumped right in. The kids ran around for awhile and then we began Trick or Treating. I swear they looked like a swarm of bees! They would all pile on to a porch and get their candy and then all at once they would run off to the next house. I don’t remember doing it this way. I remember checkout out the new candy I got and walking to the next house. One year, we did go on roller skates. After we did their block or village as they are called in our community we decided we wanted to Trick or Treat at some of our friend’s houses and then our street.

The poor woman in the pink shirt didn't know what she was up to when she opened her door to us. I asked her to take a picture with Tetyana since she was the very first house she was Trick or Treating at. She was very nice and agreed!

I don’t think Tetyana could believe her good fortune. Free food and it was CANDY! My kids don’t get many sweets so this was a real treat for them. We got home around 9:15 with some very full bags and tired feet.

Over the next couple of days the kids sorted and swapped their candy and then it was time to give it to mom. I had them pick out their absolute favorites and then tossed the rest. I hid their favorite candy away. Funniest thing about it was, they never asked for it again until just yesterday. They think they want it so bad but really didn’t miss it.

It was a really fun night for all of us!

Tetyana's First School Program

Tetyana's first grade class, along with the other first graders put on a Fall program last week. The classes all chose a fall holiday and dressed up and sang songs that represented the holiday. Tetyana's class did Halloween.

The kids practiced for about 2 weeks and they were so excited to have their show for friends and family. Here are some pictures from the program...

I have noticed when Tetyana doesn't know the words to something like the Pledge, she over accentuates the words. During practice for the play her teacher noticed the same thing and that she spent a lot of the time yawning. She was better and not over accentuating the words but we did catch a lot of yawns....

I guess singing really takes it out of her!

The whole first grade did such a cute job!!

Where Do I Start????

Life has been crazy this past couple of weeks!!! Between sports, school, scouts and Halloween we have been a super busy family. Let me back up a few weeks and I will start with baseball.

Luke's team is undefeated. This is the only team in his league that is undefeated! Feels a little like last season....some of the same players, same coaches and thank God, some of the same parents. They make the games so fun!

Luke is in a weird place in baseball this season. When he first started playing, he had absolutely no idea how to play. He became really good at hitting and was usually the 3rd or 4th in the line up order because he was always good for at least a base hit which would move everyone around the bases. We used to call him "Hollywood" because he would round the in field just to give his fans a little wave. Well last season we were in Ukraine for most of the season and when he came back he was just off. No mojo, no Mr. Hollywood. This is our first season in the AA league which means the kids pitch the entire game and not the coaches. For the last 4 games when Luke is up he just stands there...won't swing the bat. Sometimes he ends up walking but most of the time he just strikes out. When we asked him why, he told us he was scared because there were 2 outs and he was up. We explained to him that if he just stood there the bat would never hit the ball and he would be out, but if he swung at anything that looked good then he would most likely hit it. Drew took him to the batting cages and he started swinging again! He did really great. Today when he got up we told him that he better swing! He did. He struck out once and walked once but at least he didn't just stand there.

He has really started to like the fielding part of the game and wants to be in field, in the thick of it all. But his coach, who I will say is a great coach and guy, rotates him outfield a lot. This, on top of the hitting slump, has Luke really discouraged. We have been working with Luke, telling him if he doesn't ask for what he wants in life he may never get it. He asked his coach last night at practice to be the short stop and today he wasn't given the chance. He pitched on inning and was on 2nd base once but the rest of the game he spent in the out field. What do you say? It is so hard to see your children disappointed and experience real life.

He has been pitching a lot more than he ever has. He really is just beginning, but the intensity is so great to watch. Especially because Luke rarely focuses on something so hard. This is a bad picture but you can see in his face how hard he is concentrating.
The picture below is Luke getting the game ball. He got this one for pitching a great inning and for a great play at 2nd base.


The season is about 1/2 over and we are getting ready to enter the playoff games. It would be so great if we made it to the championships again and won!!!