Kaleb's Journal

I already posted Kayla's journal. Here is Kaleb's.

My Summer

By

Kaleb Cassel

     This summer was awesome, but three highlights were Carnival Victory, Key West, and Cozumel.

     Carnival Victory is a cruise ship. It has a waterslide and a pool. On the waterslide I went fast because I was laying down. At the bottom of the slide there's water. At the pool I swam underneath the water. I played with Kayla in the water. We had fun on the Carnival Victory.

     At Key West I ate Key Lime pie. I went on a bus and learned about Hemmingway. I also went to the Eco Discovery Center. I saw the nurse shark and little fish. I also went on a playground. The swings were a little hard for me to jump out of. I saw an iguana. At the beach I splashed the girls. I played and had fun at Key West.

     In Cozumel, Mexico, I bought a guitar and maraca. I met a Mexican with feathers. He really looked like a parrot.

     These places were fun to go to. I had fun this summer.

Here are some photos to go with his highlights.

More Rapunzel

The youth center where the girls performed Rapunzel posted many pictures, so I am borrowing some since theirs are much better than mine. We couldn't use flash during the show itself, but they got lots of good ones without. I am in need of a new camera, so if anyone has one they love, please leave me a message. If you didn't see the Rapunzel videos, please go back a post.

Waiting to go on stage. The kids did a good job of sitting quietly behind the stage when it wasn't their turn.

The girls really liked the guy from the children's theater. He played Frenchy, the narrator. I suppose he plays it because it's a large part with lots of line and solos, and it would be too difficult for any child to do. He was a really nice guy. The girls were sad to learn that the same group doesn't come each summer, so he won't be back :(

Today is Jasmine's half birthday. She's 12 1/2. Coming up on 13 too soon!

Rapunzel & Quinceanera

Here are two videos from the play.

Friday night was the performance of Rapunzel. Kayla was an ogre, and Jasmine was Monique, Rapunzel's mother. In the real version, they are peasants and that's what they were in the play. I am used to Tangled where they are the king and queen.

Both Kayla and Jasmine did a good job.

Jasmine is in the gray shirt, purple skirt. The children's theater brings all the costumes with them, and I think this costume was for a bigger Monique.

She smiled most of the play. You could tell she was having fun with it. Jasmine felt a little more stressed.

Three happy ogres.

Madame Gothel with Rapunzel's parents.

Today is a friend's quinceanera (15th birthday celebration and there should be a squigly line over the "n"). Jessica and Jasmine were going to go, but Jessica wrote down the wrong day off on the work calendar and has to work a double today. So Tyler went with Jasmine.

Oh the drama of getting ready.

Jessica had been eyeing this dress in a store but wasn't sure she'd ever have a reason to wear it. She was watching to see when it was marked down. She was going to go get it then, but she never did. Then this week it was marked down to $9.99. It started at $110!! But there were only a size 0 and 2 left. I decided for $9.99 I'd get it and put it away for Jasmine. Ha! There is no putting it away. It's cut "tight" and the size two barely fits her. So we bought it Thursday night and she's wearing it today to the party. (Jasmine had a physical Friday and is 58 inches and 91 pounds so she's not very big).

I love this picture of her waiting. It has been pouring all day, and they were hoping for a little break in the rain. Didn't happen.

She's wearing a tiara because I'd just re cornrowed her hair and put in bright beads before we knew she was going to wear this dress. The party is semi formal, and she was just going to wear a purple church dress.

I pulled the braids and beads to the back so they wouldn't show from the front. They almost cover her scar.

And they're off. Ty decided not to wear the poncho, but then he went out and opened up the van, helped Jasmine in and shut the door for her, so I know he was soaked! 

Ty and Rick are off to some sci fi/fantasy thing in Pensacola tomorrow. The rest of us were going to go to a new beach after church, but it looks like it is going to rain all day tomorrow too.

Thank you to those of you who left comments for Kayla on the last post. She read them all today.

Two more days until school starts!

Update: Here are two pictures from the party.

Kayla's Journal

The kids wrote six journal entries this summer. Here is Kayla's newest one.

Highlights of the Summer

By

Kayla Cassel

     This whole summer was very amazing. But the three highlights of my summer were Carnival Victory, Key West and the bay. I had so much fun with these three things that I want to tell you about them.

     On Carnival Victory, the cruise ship that my family and I went on, I went down the water slide. At the end of the slide I landed in water. It felt like I landed in a little pool. I went to kids camp. I played Just Dance 2. Another day I played video games.

    Key West was a beautiful town. It is the most southern of the Florida Keys. I went to the wildlife preserve and fed the turtles and saw two iguanas. While there I ate a key lime pie. I went to the beach. I went in the water and ran on the sand. I got a shirt that had turtles on it. To see Key West I went on a tour bus with some of my family. I went to a park and went through some big rings.

     At the bay I played with the Millers and the neighbor boys. I went on the tube. Also, I swam in the water. And I went kayaking. I had so much fun.

     This summer was awesome.

Here are a few pictures to go with her journal entry.

 If you leave a comment for Kayla, I'll make sure she reads it.

More of the Same..and Different

Some of last week and this week looks like the rest of the summer, some is new.

A couple of days, Jessica took the kids to the pool without me. I'm still battling some sinus issues.

Tyler is only here to go on Fridays.

We got Jasmine signed up for dance. She has 6th-8th grde jazz on Tuesdays and teen hip hop on Wednesdays. She has male teachers for both classes, and they both auditioned for So You Think You Can Dance. One of them made it on the show. I don't know any of the details about that.

On Saturday Rick took the three youngest to Lowes to build the plane from Planes.

Unfortunately, Kaleb decided that since he'd built the car two weeks ago, he didn't need to listen to the instructions, and he ruined his plane. He's had a rough week, and this sent him spiraling down farther. I won't go into details, but it wasn't pretty!

This was Kayla's first time.

The girls with their finished planes.

We worked on projects this past weekend.

One project was taking out the bottom of a wall that had gotten very wet and was mildewed and replacing it with new sections of wall.

While some of us were working inside, others were outside weedwacking and carrying wet boards to the trash.

Then I sent Tyler to DQ to get treats for everyone.

On Monday Jasmine and Kayla tried out for the play Rapunzel. It is more of a comedy take off than the real story. They will practice all week and perform it on Friday evening. So it's not a long commitment. A good way to end the summer, although it means the end of our beach trips in order to do this.

Jasmine is at the left end in the bright pink shirt and purple shorts.

The auditions were informal with the whole group in a big circle. The directors would go around the cirlce and have each child say the same sentence or two. They did this several times. The age range is going into first grade to going into 12th grade. But there were only 3 15-year-olds and everyone else was 12 and under. The majority of the 63 kids were 8 and under.

Kayla was castas an ogre. (I told you this wasn't a true-to-the-story play) This is a speaking part.

Jasmine is Monique, Rapunzel's mother.  This is also a speaking part.

Lines had to be memorized by today, so two days basically.

We missed Jasmine's adoption anniversary in July, so we got Chinese for her today. Everyone had Chinese, but not everyone got in the pictures. Jasmine had already been our daughter for almost 3 1/2 years before the adoption was finalized.

As if Monday wasn't busy enough, I took Jasmine and Kayla to Despicable Me 2 for finishing their summer work. Jessica bummed along.

Today is Jessica's 22nd birthday. So we celebrated and then she went out with Hunter.

On the day Jessica was born, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. craving deviled eggs. Rick made some for me, so that was breakfast. I went to the hospital a little after 10:00 and gave birth to her by 11:00. Jessica and I don't mess : )

Hunger Games blanket from Jasmine.

Shirt and hat from my mom.

hat from Tyler

swim suit from my sister (this is for UNDER her wet suit :) )

tools from my brother

check from grandparents

gift card from Adam

shirts from us (she was with when I bought them because we'd seen them 3 for $10)

swim suit from us (again, she knew because she tried it on)

Sue Thomas FB Eye from us

Newsboys and Skillet from us

a black dress, denim vest and two pairs of sleep pants from us If the dress fits, I'll post a picture of it later. She was already dressed up to go out with Hunter.

True story--I saw this cookie cake and it was the only one they had. I remembered that a couple of months ago Jessica had mentioned wanting a cookie cake. I begged for a different color to no avail. When I bought it, it was plain and only had the gawdy pink around the edge. They added her name in light pink in large letters. When I actually looked at it, I realized it was the ugliest cake I'd seen in a long time. I needed something to fix it. I was hoping for mini minions from Despicable Me or something cute. Nothing. We went to the Dollar Tree. Still nothing, except that we got the #2 candles. Then I thought maybe I could add Nerds to decorate it and give it a confetti look. Jessica loved it!!!!

Yeah, okay, so Jessica is all dressed up, and he came from work in his T shirt and dirty jeans. Really? Hmm.

Today my step grands started school.

Phoenix started fourth grade.

Griffin started kindergarten.

I haven't heard from Jeff and probably won't, but I saw this picture with some others. The guys are on their way back from Afghanistan. The first group arrived back in July and they are staggering the returns with the last group arriving in September. I've written him a letter and am sending him a book I got him at convention. Don't know if I'll hear back, but I'm going on as though nothing is wrong.

The girls are hard at work on the play Rapunzel. We look forward to seeing that Friday. I'll try to get photos. We aren't allowed to take any during the play.

Unfortunately, Kaleb has started the habit of getting up before anyone else in the morning, going into the kitchen and eating all the treats or anything not in the locking cupboards. So he has been home with me this week. No trust = no privileges. 

We are less than a week from the start of school. I wish we had another week or two of vacation. There's more we wanted to do. Oh well. Next summer!

Those of you with adopted children, do you celebrate the day they came home or their finalization date? Or a different day?

The kids are writing their final journal entries of the summer about the three highlights of summer, and I'll post those soon.