Fun Times

Last week, we headed to Hannah's annual cleft clinic visit (and it's finally "annual" for us and not every 6 months! yeah!). It was a good visit and not too long. Everything is looking good. We got a good report from the speech therapists there - they thought Hannah was sounding very good. There are a few speech errors that remain, which I knew, but overall they felt like she was doing great. Her surgeon was also happy with how she was doing. Her hearing was not tested this time since she had good reports the last few times. They will test again next year. We were out well before lunch time. We will be going to see an oral surgeon in the next 6 months for a consultation on when to repair that last hole remaining in her gum line. Hannah's cleft dr. thinks it's still too early, but he likes to send his patients to the oral surgeon on the early side just so we know what to expect. But the fact that Hannah hasn't lost any of her baby teeth yet points to it being early for her still. When we go, they will do x-rays to see where all her permanent teeth are and to estimate when they will come in. The surgery will be planned to occur before her permanet teeth (on the top) are ready to come in.

Last weekend, we headed to Tuscaloosa to visit a place that holds great memories for me. It was our Wesley Foundation (campus ministry) reunion. It was fun to visit with some old friends, and the girls had a blast hanging out on the campus with the other kids.

Then, we headed to the lake for a few days, also with a couple friends from college and their families. We had a great time swimming, fishing, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, making s'mores, and more. The girls played in the sand, caught frogs, played with worms, and did a whole lot of giggling with their friends. And then at night, we adults put the kids to bed and then enjoyed hanging out, chatting, reminiscing about older days, and catching up on current days. You know those friends that you can seriously not see for a very long time, and then when you get together it's just easy and comfortable? I'm lucky to have some of those friends and enjoyed spending time with them this week. I guess I'm also lucky that one of those friends has access to an amazing lakehouse in her family! Fun times!

We have a little more fun planned in the next couple weeks - and then...(drum roll)..back to school! Hard to believe it's almost here.

Summer Fun

Some of what we've been up to in between dr. appointments and speech and OT (which actually we've had a whole lot less appointments than last summer)

Fun play spaces: Who knew if I just pushed the couch out from the wall and hung a blanket up...I'd have 2 whole hours to sit and read while these two happily amused themselves in their new play space!

Hannah enjoyed a week of "baton camp" (and no, not really a camp, but classes for a week) at a nearby church.

Vacation Bible School: Sadie wasn't actually old enough to participate this year and was in the nursery most of the time. But that didn't stop her from their end-of-the-week performance. She just marched herself up to the stage, squeezed in by Hannah, and acted like of course she knew all the songs and she belonged there.

Painting and simple crafts: We love to do this kind of stuff on those really really HOT afternoons.

Playing in the water:

Puppet Shows in the Living Room:

And this weekend, we attended Lifeline's annual China reunion. I had a great time visiting with old friends and making some new ones too. The girls had a great time running, playing, jumping, and swinging.

I love this sweet picture of Sadie with Lily, Lifeline's facilitator in China.

Hannah had a great time playing with our friend Quan.
Sweet Candace poses for a pic with Sadie.

More fun days coming soon...July seems to be our month for reconnecting with old friends..so stay tuned. :-)