Easter Weekend Recap ~ 2 weeks home!

I know, I know.. Have I dropped of the face of the earth?! I don't think I ever imagined how busy I would be and how fast time would fly by. Things are going very well at our house right now. I say right now mostly because it is night-time and that is strangely our best time of day. Mornings are hopefully improving. Now that school is in the picture I don't think there is much option and thankfully we don't have a fight over going to school with Victoria.


My boys are doing better. The dramatic change really threw them. It's funny because they immediately were head-over-heals about Victoria. They have loved her from the moment we skyped them and told them she said she wanted us to adopt her. They never had to even meet her to love her. Kids are amazing. My kids are very amazing. I kind of think they are magic. They are somehow softening Vika up and opening up layers of her fun personality that I don't think we ever would have seen otherwise.

I think I should back up with what we have been doing since I last posted. I have a few pictures from our annual Easter Egg Launch.  I think the total number of colored and boiled eggs that came to the launch was around 16 dozen.  That's a lot of eggs.

 Ethan was very excited about going.  He loves this tradition.

 That was a very fun morning. It was very cold but is always worth it. This year was different in the sense that there were breaks in the launching. The kids played other egg games with the Easter Eggs.

Vika wouldn't try to launch any eggs unless we absolutely made her. She is funny because she really seems very comfortable around my extended family. Ethan did much better at his launching distance this year. Ezra loved it, but I think my child that has the most fun and laughs and giggles and loves it the most is Mason. He's not fond of the waiting around for his turn part of things, but when that boy gets to launch an egg off a cliff he laughs until he turns blue. It's priceless.

 
 The whole family there for the fun.  I still don't feel like I am old enough or smart enough to have 4 kids.  I keep hoping that comes soon!

For Easter we woke up and the kids found the baskets that the Easter Bunny had hidden. Ethan was really the only one who had any idea of what in the world was happening. He found his 2nd, Spencer found Mason's basket to show Vika what we were doing wandering around the house following the kids with cameras! She found Ezra's and got really excited about knowing where his was. It took her a while and a lot of hints from Spencer, but finally she found her basket. The Easter Bunny did a great job this year.  Ezra was mostly interested in the eggs that were hidden.  He found some of those fast and discovered that there were treats inside of them.  We couldn't get him interested in hunting anymore after that.

 Ethan was very excited to find his Easter basket.  It was a very fun morning.  I love spending fun times together.

 Even though she is very new to all of this, Vika sure kept up with the other kids (mostly Ethan!) all of the Easter traditional fun we have.  All of the money she and Ethan found in their plastic eggs they decided to put in their 'Bunny fund.'  O great.

 Ezra couldn't slow down enough to wait for me to take his picture.  This is as good as it gets for him when there are presents or treats involved!

 All of the kids with their Easter Baskets.  Awww.

A few days before Easter Vika was trying to show Spencer the Easter tradition she wanted us to try. It was a bread-type thing called Paska. I really am very confused with what it really is actually. I thought it was bread, but now I am thinking that there is a bread and some sort of cheese sculpture thing that accompanies it and the cheese is what is called 'paska.' Honestly I have no idea. I found a recipe from a fellow adoptive parent who already made it and said it wasn't too hard and after we had breakfast Sunday I attempted to make it. It wasn't hard at all, but it sure took a lot of time~! I was excited with how they looked and was hopeful that I got it right for her. She seemed pleased with it before we left to my sister's house for dinner. Naturally after dinner when we started cutting it up she refused to try it or have anything to do with it! I'm just hoping I get points for the effort somewhere!  This is what it looked like just out of the oven.  I forgot I would end up frosting it when I was busily decorating the tops. 

 Complete with egg white frosting.  Not particularly a sweet cake, but it tasted like bread with frosting and I suppose that's what it's supposed to be!

Monday Vika started her first day of high school.

She actually admitted her nerves as we walked in. We were a bit late, but that didn't really bother her. We found a map and went to her first class. Her schedule is a very elective-filled schedule with barely any content, but honestly the education of anything other than the English is not what I am going for! She started the day in Foods. Her other classes are Drawing, Aerobics, Seminary, Chorus, and 3 English as a 2nd language classes. We walked to her class and I walked her in to introduce her to the teacher. It was pandemonium in that room. They were separated into groups making scones and at one point we got to witness the smothering of a grease fire. That is one way to instill confidence in a mother who is really unsure of leaving her daughter in a classroom with no way to communicate with anyone!

I left her there with a group of students and went back to talk with the counselor who is helping us with Vika. He made arrangements at my request to have a member of the student council be assigned to Vika for the day to walk her from class to class and make sure that she doesn't get too lost! I really think that will help. The girls who are befriending her seem very nice. She had a great first day from what I could gather from her when I went to pick her up. I know she was terrified because when we came home she dropped. She literally slept for 4 hours! I was relieved to know she enjoyed herself.

The rest of the week has been pretty routine which honestly feels nice.

We have had our moments with each of our kids where we have to win the battle of wills, but it's feeling more normal. Not totally normal, but more normal.

I am enjoying being home for my days rather than going to work and leaving my Ezra with a babysitter for the day. He is so funny and fun to be with. He gets so excited about everything. I love it. Mason has been stressed at times, but he is doing great. I went to his school with Ezra for a little visit and we were able to watch him in his 'pony-walker.' That boy can sure cruise around the halls at school in that thing. I am still very sensitive and emotional so you know I cried at the sight of him. He is so darling and so inspiring to watch. I just think when I see him that if he can live his life with a smile on his face, I have no room to complain. Too bad I still do... Something to work on I suppose.

Ethan started his baseball season. I really think that he only kind of likes it, but he does it and we love to watch him. He is such a smart kid. He loves to tell bedtime stories lately and I am loving hearing his imagination come through.

Ezra is my child who loves to have his picture taken.  We have had some fun times together.  He especially loved driving Big Bird at Walmart today.

 This face is one of the reason's I am not missing Ukraine.  They don't have this face there.

 Ezra wanted to tuck Mason into bed tonight.  I suppose he is taking over for Ethan now that he is sharing a room with Mason.  Ethan decided that 3 brothers in one little room was too much for him.  He wanted some space so he moved downstairs to his own room.  Mason sure misses him.  I'm sure he understands though.

Someday Spencer and I will spend more than a fleeting moment together. I'm sure by then we will have another crazy thing to be blogging about! It's been a good week and I hate to admit the weekend scares me, but I'm sure we'll do great. I'm still in the one hour at a time mode. I'll make it that far though, I'm just sure of it!