Adoptive Families Colombia Reunion

This past weekend the three of us headed to St. Louis to attend the CHI Adoptive Families Colombia Reunion.

On Friday we had time to visit The Magic House which is a very cool children's museum in St. Louis. Elkin had a great time going from one interactive display to the next.

Here he is playing a big wheel that made music when you touched it with a metal bar.



Elkin's favorite part of the museum was the play auto shop. He got to change tires, fill up fluids and all that other car fix-up type stuff. Here's him and Papi filling up the anti-freeze.



I thought the coolest part of the museum was a little town they had set up. In it was a bank, pizza shop, water works, post office and grocery store. In all of these shops kids could pretend to be citizens or work at these places. They could be a waiter, get money out of an ATM, deliver mail or take on pretty much any role they wanted. Here's Elkin using the self-checkout to get himself some groceries he picked out. He was pretty disappointed to find out there wasn't actually any food in the containers!



On Saturday we went to a park for the reunion. There were around 20 families there who have adopted from Colombia! We had a great time meeting people who had followed our journey as well as people we have been blog stalking! It was great to talk with everyone and watch the kids all play together.

Elkin played ball quite a bit...



and liked chasing the bubbles.



Here is the group photo with all the children who have been adopted from Colombia and Guatemala or having siblings who have been. (Elkin is front row center in the green shirt - he doesn't look too happy right here - he had quite a meltdown right before!)



You can tell these kids are used to having their pictures taken - they all stood there so nicely just saying "CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE" while everyone got their pictures in!



We had such a great time and we can't wait to see everyone again next year!

Independence Day

This Independence Day we celebrated Elkin's first year as a US Citizen! Not surprisingly Elkin thinks that every flag is a flag to tell the race cars to race. Here he is with the little flag we bought him earlier in the week.



Elkin & Papi wore matching shirts - I may be a little biased but don't they look cute!?



Before we indulged in the wonderful dinner that Papi & Grandma made, Elkin helped shuck the corn from James & Rebecca's garden so we could have some for dinner.



We also picked some of the beautiful zinnias from Grandma's garden.



After dinner we all had fun playing with Elkin's new sprinkler!

Here's Grandpa & Elkin...



and Papi, Elkin & Rebecca.



We ended the night with some fireworks which Elkin LOVED! He was a little scared of the dark and the bugs but thought the loud noises and bright lights of the fireworks were great!