Kays7th birthday

After weeks of counting down, the BIG DAY was finally here, Kay's 7Th birthday. We had a fun filled day planned and Kay kept trying to cram more into it (pinatas, cake and ice cream AND cupcakes, games, streamers, balloons, the list of items a 7 year old wants to do on her birthday is long and doesn't end.

In the end we landed on ... 6 girlfriends, a Chinese buffet lunch, a visit to the beauty salon for hair and nails and then home for cupcakes and presents. I think these photos say it all:)

Kay is busy planning next years party which will be hard to top this. She fell into bed and the last thing out of her mouth was "Daddy, how many more day's till my next birthday?"

Happy 7Th Kay we love you!

Billy's Gotcha Day

Happy Gotcha Day Billy!!

It is hard to believe that we came home with young William 4 years ago. He is still very into cars, trucks and making Lego cleations. Just the other day Bill asked " Dad when can we go to a real race track to see real race cars race?" I guess we will be on the Nascar circuit soon. (actually in Billy speak it would be "Dad when can we go to a leal lace tlack to see leal lace cals lace?" Yes, he still cant say his r's, they all come out l's)

Bill is all ready to go to kindergarten this fall and looking forward to meeting new friends, which for Bill is a daily occurrence. " Hey Mom can we go to that kids house where we played Lego's?" " You mean your cousin Solomon's?" Yeah that kid...

Billy is a great cuddlier, loves hot dogs; Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches have been kicked to

the curb. He now is all about electronics, just like older brother Jim and God help us loves Justin Bieber and it has become very annoying I mean how many times in a row can you listen to Baby Baby Baby, all right.... Bill loves to ride his bike, go swimming and playing Tee-Ball. He often practices Tee-Ball by pretending to hit the ball and then running around in a circle, very cute. Bill still has one major developmental need, which is eating without having Mom or Dad help him and he is starting to make some head way we will see.

This Gotcha Day was extra special as it marked the turning point. He has not officially lived in the US longer than anywhere else, until now that honor was held by India:) (7 months in Korea, 1 year in the US, 2 1/2 years in India and now 1 1/2 years back in the US - where will he go next?! :))

We had a traditional Gotcha Day celebration complete with cupcakes and sparkling apple juice served in an adult glass and Billy coined his new phrase HIP Hip Hullay!! (Rember our issue with r's) The below clip does much better justice!! Bill we love you and we are blessed by you and we are blessed you chose us! AND thank you to all the people in Korea that love him and made the best choices they could for him; his birth mother and father, his foster mother and family, his social workers and doctors/nurses, you are all amazing people and our lives are better because of you!!

click here for the video =

Chicago here we come

We loaded the kids into the family truckster and headed off to Chicago to visit the Reagan's and the Pieffers, a now annual trip that is full of great kids play time and fabulous adult conversation and food (and drink:))!

We arrived on Sunday afternoon just in time to take the kids to the pool and attempt wear them out ofter 6 plus hours of riding in the car. During the ride interesting debates centered around what DVD should be played and how many more days until Kay's birthday. (the countdown became a daily event starting about 3 weeks prior to her birthday, I think she takes after Tracy)

We interupt this blog to bring you breaking news that Kay Marie Jeon Murphy has lost her second tooth!!!!

The pool was awesome and the kids had a blast. Strange small world fact: the pool they belong to is the same pool Tracy's mom lifeguarded at in high school. do do do do do... (twight zone theme being played...)

Then it was back to Jan and Chris's place for Seafood Cataplana for the adults and some kid protein, fruit and vegetable for the kids! The kids settled into the nights routine of a movie, more debating DVD's, choosing sides and then forming a team to talk the mom's and dad's into ice cream and a movie. Who says team building isnt an important developmental need!

The adults found time to catch up enjoy a nice glass of wine and relax. Jan and Chris are great hosts and we have a ball every time we hook up. I suppose it helps that are kids all get along and spent many months together in the same daycare, hence the team building experience. They keep threatening to move back to MPLS and we would LOVE it! In fact, we'd even help pack and move them:) (and we have a nice house already picked out for them about 2 miles from us in the same school district, not that we like hanging out with them or anything)
Monday we were off to the Brookfield zoo for a tour of the new bear exhibit and to again wear the kids out. It was hot and the zoo was not too crowded so we had the run off the place. The kids are all growing, well really only Jet and Jimmy- Kay, Billy and Charlie are still waiting for a growth spurt as you can see by the arm length comparison, a little known tool used to determine the height, weight and intelligence of any child. Again, small world fact, the Brookfield zoo was a favorite of Tracy's during her childhood. The dolphin exhibit rocked then and it does now too!

Jan than drove us to the hotel we were staying at before our journey to Costa Rica, more on that later. The Peiffer's arrived to take us to dinner and Johnny came along to watch the kids so we could have more adult time and visit with Carl and Jackie. It has become another tradition when visiting with Carl and Jackie the four of us have to go to Pappadeux's. This is a great Cajun style restaurant complete with something called ettofey(sp?), it is a side dish containing craw fish, cream, shrimp and several other yummy ingredients and when placed on the top of a piece of blacken fish creates something close to nirvana. It was a great dinner and again relaxing to be able to visit without 10,000 questions relating to the need of the moment (aka kids). Carl and Jackie dropped us off, Johnnie did a great job with the kids however they were still awake because they were "too excited to sleep" because we were going to Costa Rica in the morning......

Congradulations Graduates

In 1979 I graduated from High School and then went off to College and now 30 years later I have obtained a BS in Business Management. I must say that I am proud of having achieved this goal.

The time in India offered me the chance to go back to school via the University of Phoenix and their on-line program. I started in June of 2008 and finished in February if 2010. Then over the weekend of June 25Th Tracy and I travelled to Phoenix to attended the Graduation Ceremony.

The whole thing was crazy - from being delayed in Minneapolis, arriving to the Arizona Biltmore right in the middle of the 2010 Kappa Kappa Gamma national convention, to standing in line with 1400 other graduates. I was surprised to see that many people and looking around realized that everyone in the room had one thing in common, achieving the dream of a college education. There were Grandparents, people from the armed forces, mothers, fathers and other stay at home parents like me. There were several groups of father son, mother daughter and brother sister graduates. The experience was incredible. Tracy spent most of the time fighting off tears. It was so moving and unbelievable how hard ALL these folks worked to achieve this milestone. Many of them were the 1st people in their families to graduate and the energy of their families in celebrating this success was touching. Honestly, it was a once in a lifetime experience. If you EVER get a chance to go to a U of Phoenix graduation, do it! It'll totally change your view of what a major milestone graduation is for much of the population.

Condelezza Rice was the commencement speaker and GW Bush's brother came and spoke about the Point of Light foundation (they have a new agreement with UofP that's trying to connect online students with learning volunteer activities - pretty cool).

I am thankful to Tracy, Jimmy, Kay and Billy for the support and understanding during the many times I was stressed out trying to meet one deadline or another.Without their love and support I am not sure I would have made it. The support and encouragement from all our family and friends is also greatly appreciated.

My name is Tom Murphy and I am a Phoenix!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCx9CJQcBfY

The Annual Fishing Trip

It is an event that thank god only happens once a year, except the year I had back to back trips that landed me in the hospital, but that is another story.

Lake Vermilion, 4 hours north of Minneapolis nestled in the woods outside of Tower is an amazing lake. The lake is 14 miles and is full of my favorite fish, the small mouth bass. this fish pound for pound fights better than any fish out there, including the Mansheer! Jimmy hooked into an 18' fish and as you can see the fish is awesome.

The interesting aspect of this trip is that we have been doing this for several years long before kids. The oldest kid is Volkoff and he is 16. The participants are all great people and friends whom i would trust my family with and I do not even know there real names or what they do for a living. Seriously we have Punky otherwise know as the 7 footman, Rockin Rabes, Triple T otherwise known as TwoTone, Hoddady, Scrounch, Krigger, Jumping Joe, Doctor Barzackein and Jumping Jack don't eat no fat. 16 years thousands of fish, several kids, wives and not a first name insight. Is this unusual or are we?

This year we were right in the middle of the may fly hatch which for those of you who do not fish, this is not good. The cry nicer fish on was few and far between as the fish were busy eating the may flies and going into a food coma. No matter with pole in hand and ipod for the kids we pressed on. several times the bottom was caught and the frustration level of the kids rose however having kukkarays and beef sticks seemed to be the problem solver.

The place has several cabins and a main gathering place otherwise known as the bar. Billy whom runs the place is a great guy and let us take over one night to watch our slide show. The seven footer created a slide show with 260 pictures spanning the 16 years of the trip. It was awesome for the dad's the kids were unimpressed. The fish tales flew and the bonding continued.

The weather finally broke and what fishing trip is not complete with a jump into the lake. Jimmy had fun swimming and catching crayfish of which we now have one as a pet named Gordon? Next year the trip will take on a whole new deminsion, I will be bringing Kay!

Fathers Day - In perspective

So, to put into perspective how much we value and love Tom 'the father' in our little family...I am currently writing a quick blog on a break at work while Kay colors away at my desk... why you ask?

Tom is on his annual fishing trip with "the boys" - his buddies and all his buddies sons (ages 6-16). Tom took Jimmy on Saturday and headed up for a 4 day testerone invested fish fest, leaving me a single mom with 2 high energy kids, daycare, summer school, homework, piano lessons oh... and that little thing called work... I had a babysitter scheduled to watch Kay from post summer school bus drop off until I got home work. She called at 11am today and canceled. SO...That's how we got here and it got me thinking about Tom and ALL that he does for us.

Tom is our main caregiver, cook, housecleaner, chauffeur, medic, BFF, doggie daycare, landscape artist and electrician. He spends his days in an array of activities that would make me certifibly ADD. He drops everything at a call for help from friends, the kids friends and other stay at home parents. He's the one that picks up treats when the room mom forgot them, buys a luncable for the kid who forgot their lunch on the field trip, picks up "stray" kids at the bus stops when their parents cant get there in time and in general is at your disposal if you need a helping hand.

He's also the parent that lets the kids eat spaghetti tacos (gross I know), buys them a donut each Thursday as he takes the car to get cleaned and lets them make "forts" in the living room as they are watching movies. He clips their nails ( a job I detest) and fights with them to take a bath.

Tom is quick with hugs, wit and a helping hand. We love him and we couldnt do any of what we do without him!!

In the words of the kids...
Kay "he's smart and funny and cute and I have him wrapped around my little finger"
Jim "he plays football with me and he likes sports"
Billy "he's a good Daddy"
Nikki "woof woof"

We love you TOM!!! Enjoy your fishing trip, you deserve it:)

better late than never!

Things have been a bit hectic around here since school got out (needless to say). Why is it that changes routines is such a big exhausting change?! Well its not an excuse, but it is the reason why we are behind in our blogs so .... back up 2 weeks ago. My mom (Bunny) came to visit.
She drove into town from their cabin in Michigan, hitching a ride with my Aunt Lynn (her sister) as my cousin Dan (Lynn's son) lives in St Paul and just got tenure at the U of M (way to go Dan!!!Yippeee!!!) Lynn wanted to come into town to help Dan celebrate and we jumped at the chance to see my mom.

She got here"just in time" for Kay's 1st grade, end of the year picnic AND the last day of school. Lucky her. I think this might be the last time she visits on that particular weekend:) The picnic was mass chaos of over stimulated and sugared 7 year olds (and a fair number of their equally over stimulated and sugared younger non-school age siblings). Screaming, giggles, chasing, etc all culminated with Kay and 4 of her friends locking themself in our car. Finally cooler heads prevailed (Mrs VanBatavia - Kay's teacher) and everyone was rounded up and hustled inside to clean their desks. That's a whole other story. Kay is a pack rat to begin with, can you imagine what came home after a full year?! Yuck.

We also got to spend a lot of time with my Mom's side of the family - dinner/family playdate with Lynn, Dan, Sara, Lola (8) and Astrid (5). Good good girl fun. They locked themselves in Kay's room (notice a trend here) and proceded to play with tape, paper, scissors, glue, sparklers, sissors and stickers until we called a time out. Clean up from this adventure was equal to the task of Kays desk. Yuck.

My mom's cousin also organized a cousins family reunion (all my mom's cousins live in the MPLS/St Paul area). They have a gorgeous house in Bloomington and while my kids were the only kids in attendance, they managed to entertain themselves with yard games (and lots of candy & sugared soda - again another theme. I wonder if any of this is why we are having a hard time adjusting to our summer schedule...huh... something to think about....).

We also headed down to the Minneapolis Marathon to see our good friend Annemeik finish her 1st marathon EVER! I love the end of marathons, they are so inspiring. You just have to cheer all those folks on and I always get a little teary (wonder what's up with that...).

My mom was a great help; watching the kids, making salads for the family reunion, reading with Kay, letting Jimmy talk "at her" about football ad nauseum, etc. You know, typical grandma stuff. While we missed having my dad here too, it was fun to just hang with grandma.

Maybe we can make it an annual event?

Dad, when are you coming for your annual grandpa visit?

Antoher year down - otherwise known as "we did it"!

"We did it, we did it, we really really did it!" - Dora the Explorer

Wow, not sure what to say ... we did it! The MS150 this year looked bad on paper but was great in reality. The weather forecasts of rain and highs in the mid-60's lows in the upper 40's did come to bear but it wasnt that bad.

Tom is our unsung hero, he raced around on Friday and found us 1 of the only available hotel rooms in Duluth (turns out lots of folks were bailing because fo the weather but if you timed it just right you could grab their rooms - sweet!). So, yes we whimped out on camping in Duluth in the rain in 40 degree weather, but we did fulfill our traditional Little Angies mexican dinner with Dick, Cathy, Jan and Wendy. Its way too much food and the margaritas are way too good, but its a good carb building exercise for the ride (or so we tell ourselves)

We were debated what time should we set our alarm on Sat am ... 5:30? 6:00? The 1st shuttle was rumored to arrive at 5:00 but the course doesnt open until 6:00 ... what to do? In hindsight ,we shouldnt have worried.... all the hotel room doors started slamming shut at 5:00am as people were racing to catch that 1st shuttle to the ride. We managed to drag our butts out of bed by 5:30 and were grabbing a donut/coffee at 5:55am when the shuttle came for us. We scooted around the mass start and were on our bikes by 6:30am. Pretty good timing!

The ride both days was relatively easy; slight mist, mid 60's, wind at our back, cloud cover. Doesnt sound like good weekend weather, but it turns out its the best biking weather you could ask for. We virtually flew through the ride. Almost no soreness and no injuries - YEAH!

We got to Hinckley in record time and had our tent set up before the rain started. Thanks to a coworker who's on the MS board we also scored free VIP passes, so free drinks and food. Sweet!
We also holed up in the tent with People, US Weekly and Intouch - a good way to catch up on my celebrity trash. A good use of time if I dont say so myself.

Sunday we were back up and at them and on our bikes by 6:15am. That INCLUDED pulling down the tent and breakfast. Prettty darn efficient. AND, we were at the finish line by 12:00 - enough time to get home and actually have some family time.

This year was also a record breaker in terms of fundraising. Thanks to you, I raised OVER $2,200 for MS. That's an amazing show of support, I am so thankful and proud of you all!

Thanks for all your best wishes, support and vibes of good biking weather. They all came to bear.

Camping - otherwise known as "Angela is not a happy camper"

So after the trial run last weekend we took the kids camping. The Fishers had an ex-pat dinner and after the Loudamericans headed out to "the campsite"!

Tom was able to check in early so with Billy's help they got the campsite ready for our arrival. The camp ground was packed full and it was nice arrive after our evening party and get the kids directly to bed! (yeah right, after 20 min's of complaining "dont touch me", recapping our evening at the Fishers and uncontained excitement about fishing the next day .. we went "right" to bed)

Saturday was a great day the Millers arrived around noon, got their tent set up and Tracy and could not believe how much stuff they brought, I mean we were only staying for a couple of nights. I am not sure why we didnt just head to their house for a sleep over:) But, they were good sports and set up their part of the site in record time.

We headed down to the lake and the kids had a ball swimming with the other kids at the beach. Meanwhile Wade and Tom put the boat in and the fishing began. Kay was glued into the boat and went through about 50 wax worms in under an hour, at this point I was concerned about the bait lasting... But, she is surpisingly patient with fishing and did end up raking some good sun fish in.

Before we get to far into the weekend let me say... Carver park is a great campground and it is not to far from town. The campground is clean, the sites are big and if there is a draw back it would be there are no showers, but the beach is nice so there is that option. They have fishing piers, a nature center, naturalist sessions, paved bike paths, cross country running paths and even a 2 mile fenced dog run. Oh, and did we mention that you have to turn right at DQ in order to get to the campground. Pratically nirvana and everything Loudamericans would need!

Back to Saturday... it was a fun filled day and we had a great dinner, taco night of course! Tracy and Angela took the kids to the Amphitheatre to watch the show on pond life while Wade and Tom tried their hand at fishing. Several pan fish and a couple of bass were caught so we had fish in our future. The campground goes to all quiet after 10:00 and we were no different (for a change). The kids climbed in their sleeping bags and after about 5 minutes it was lights out. The adults visited around the camp fire waiting for it to burn down and then into the sleeping domes we went.

The kids were up and at 'em early, 7:00am, so we were to. The day started with coffee and sausage and eggs and back to the beach. The boat went in and we were back to fishing, even though the weather was not so good. Our friend Vidiya and her two kids paid us a visit and we headed off to the Nature center for a program on snakes, yuk! But, as you can see - the kids were fascinated! The afternoon was spent in the boat and Vidiya's kids, who have never been on a boat or fished before were great and each of them caught a fish, which has to do with the skipper of the crafts ability too - not only to fish but think like a fish and therefore locate them for others! Caden caught his 1st bass and was practically jumping up and down for hours about it. He could stop touching it, poicking it up, talking about it, asking about it, showing it to people .... can you tell it got a little old? But, I suspect its a moment he'll remember for his lifetime.

The evening was set for steak, salad and a great adult meal when out of nowhere the worst storm in Angela's memory came to pass. On top of her dislike of bugs, bad weather and a 18 month old walking time bomb, Ang hit her final straw and bailed on us after dinner with a big smile on her face. She went home with promises of returning the next day fresh, showered and happy(er). She took a car load of stuff home with her and it was amazing. She had a full car and still Wade had a tent, sleeping bags, food and beer. I have no idea how they got it all in on one trip the day before!! The rest of us braved the elements and had S'mores and a big campfire. The kids played football (with live running commentary by Jimmy of course) and a live feedback survey - Justin Beiber or Bruce Springsteen? EVERY person that went by our campsite - kids, adults, park rangers, police, etc... were bombarred by Jimmy asking "Justin Beiber or Bruce Springsteen"? The final result? People over age 19? Springsteen Under 19? Beiber. I rest my case....

The kids feel asleep even faster than the night before. Getting used to the tent or did Mom and Dad find enough to keep them busy and exert energy, who knows?

Breakfast was fish and it was great. Nothing beats home made fish batter, poached eggs, strong coffee and deep fried fish all before 8:00am, you have to love that!! Except for Caden. After all his excitement about catching and cleaning his fish, actually eating it? Not so much... The more for me I say!!!! We broke down camp, Angela returned for Wade and Caden and we packed them up (again to a full car - how in the world did they do it in 1 trip?!) and headed home.

It was a great time and Tracy and Tom are now thinking the kids are ready to try camping in another zip code!

Jimmy & Jacob G "doing" Justin Beiber

Once a month, Mr Barry (music teacher) has a talent day. It seems that Jimmy has participated in these before with less success than he would like (twinkle twinkle on the piano and an acapella version of ee nee mee nee my nee mo by Justin Beiber). So, here was his chance, the last Talent Day of the year...

Jacob and he have been practicing Baby Baby by Justin Beiber in recess, during lunch, on playdates, etc. Jimmy was to play drums with Jacob singing. (Jimmy would practice by beatboxing ... too funny).

Tom was "finally" allowed to attend the performance with the caveat that "he's outta here when I'm done".

Here's the proof (very lousey video quality but pretty good sound...) You cant really hear Jacob but Jimmy is rocking...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO-h7mAAy8w

Camping and the Gymnastics Spring Show

This past weekend found Tracy and I going on a "test run" camping trip. The Millers offered to watch the kids while Tracy and I took the weekend off. We are planning a family camping trip over Memorial weekend and we thought it would be a good idea to test the equipment first (and how the dog will "react"), turns out it was a good idea.

We loaded the boat with all our stuff and headed out Friday after Tracy got home from work. We dropped the kids at the Miller's around 6:00 and headed towards Afton to the campground. However our first obstacle - the roads were closed and we ended up going all the way north to 94 only to go east and then travel south along the Saint Croix back to where we started, not fun. At 8:00 we put the boat in and at 8:30 were took it out again because it would not start.

Meanwhile we had packed our equipment for boat camping not backpacking, which is what we had to do (now) because of the boat issue. We arrived at he campground and got organized to carry our stuff the 3/4 mile trek to the campsite. Tracy had the tent,sleeping bags,camp chairs and Nikki while I had our clothes, cook kit, and food. It was a brutal workout and we were lucky to run into some really nice kids who helped us out (she was avoiding prom because her boyfriend just dumped her so her older & younger brother decided to take her camping to get her mind off of it. They were pretty cute) We finally made it to our campsite around 9:00, it was getting dark and there was someone on our site and he had a fire going with our wood!

The camp staff helped move him to his spot, Tracy started setting up the tent, for the first time, and in the dark, while I made another trip back to the car for the cook stove, lantern and water.

I made it back to the site,, Tracy had the tent almost up, (impressive) and at 11:00 we had dinner, finally. We crashed and had a great night sleep and even Nikki had a good night.

Saturday , after breakfast found us back at the Marina, and no sooner did the service guy showed up the boat started, go figure. Tracy asked him are expecting rain? his response in about 10 minutes and the next 2 hours found us in the car, in the campground parking lot, waiting for the rain and lighting to stop. The afternoon ended up nice but hot. We took the dog for a long hike through the woods along the river and Tom was able to fish and catch a few.

Dinner was several hours earlier than the night before! We packed out most of our stuff after dinner and headed back to the camp to read books by the campfire/lantern. It was another nice night. Sunday morning we had breakfast, cleaned up camp and packed back to the car. The weather was super humid and hot and I was wondering when we got back to the car why I evened bothered putting on a clean shirt!

The kids were all amped up when we got back and the Miller's were ready to see them go! Jimmy was off to a birthday party while Billy and Kay were preparing for the Spring Gymnastics show. It was held in the gym, which is a huge two room pole barn complete with no air conditioning and several hundred sweaty kids while the temp was pushing 90 and the humidity was out of control. Our friend Sandy met us there and we watched as the kids one by painstakingly one, performed at Olympic levels on the floor, rings, parallel bars and the horse.

Kay and Billy had a ball and the similes when they were awarded a trophy are priceless! as they keep saying "this is my FIRST trophy" I like their confidence in the future:)

Kay's school play and Billy's creative side

The ending of the school year brings many surprises to us parents, what are children have learned and how well they are actually doing both educationally and socially and nothing tells a parent more about their kid then an appearance in the school play.

This year, as well as last, the first graders at Meadowbrook Elementary were proud to present "Rumpelstiltskin " The class takes one day out of the year, a drama coach comes in and they spend the day learning about acting. The drama coach stated it is fun to teach kids how to act, because it is pretend and uses their imagination, which comes easily with kids.

The roles are identified, costumes created and "let the show begin" Kay was the first born to the Queen and the one that was supposed to be given to Rump in exchange for the room of spun gold, however as we know that was not the case. She was great in her role! She goo goo'ed and gaa gaa'ed to beat the band. She did tell us the next morning that she did not want to be the baby and thought the casting call she answered was for the Queen. Either way we say way to go Kay!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Billy has been bust creating or as Bill says "cleations". Bill has a special calling as a Lego cleator. He as you can see has a special hat and glasses that tap into his cleative energy and allows him to cleate many a masterpiece. (The kid walks around Tom's uncle Don's fedora 1/2 the time, I swear he's channeling some old man somewhere).

Imagination and expression are truly blessings the kids give us.

THE BAD WITH THE GOOD

This past weekend had one of Tracy's least favorite events along with one of her most favorite ones. The school carnival and Mothers Day were the bookends of our part weekend.


The carnival is a combination of kids on too much sugar and the adults on 'ignore the kids' mode which results in total chaos and raises ones blood pressure. The events are all great for the kids, pop bottle ring toss, throwing darts to pop balloon's, cake walk and gym skills set test. There are many other events these are just the ones our kids were interested (ie obsessed) in.


The food this year was a much better production than last year and the overall organisation was key. Hot dogs, tofu veggie dogs, cotton candy and a new addition and always a crowd pleasers, cheese curds. Of course by the time Jimmy was ready to eat the hot dogs were gone. (reading in between the lines...minor fit)


Tracy spent most of the time working in Jimmy's room with Billy on the pop bottle ring toss whilst Kay and I worked in her room on the dart and balloon event. Jimmy was on his own with his friend Jacob (supervised by Jacob's dad) and they together terrorized the carnival goers, or whatever two 8 year old boys can do.


The evening ended with our neighbors Kristin and Craig and their kids for dinner post carnival cocktails and good conversation. There are now only 364 days until the next carnival!


Mothers Day was a very nice and quiet family day. Tracy was able to get a 2 plus hour bike ride and an hour dog walk (side note: she is in full training mode for the MS150 and we are are proud of her and it is still not to late to make a pledge).


The kids all made nice and inspiration cards for Mom as well as gave gifts of incredible art, written prose that is not only descriptive, but it almost brings one to tears and Billy brought home flowers. Nikki even came through with a gift card for a Mother's day massage.


The day ended with Mom's favorite dinner, Mexican, and what a fiesta we had. Kay made guacamole, and cut all the veggies while Jimmy and Billy watched sports center. Kay and Daddy cooked the shrimp and venison and Mom made the burritos to Jimmy's instruction, nice and crispy. We had a toast to all mothers everywhere - birth mothers, foster mothers, forever mothers, grandmothers, aunts, friends and women everywhere that "mother" in their own way.


Happy Mothers Day to all 'Mothers' everywhere.

Kay's rite of Passage

There is seemingly nothing more talked about in kiddom as the time one looses his or her first tooth. This loss triggers the beginning of a new chapter in a child's life and helps prepare them for the tough world out there.

Kay has been waiting patiently as Jimmy has lost 7 teeth and finally last week she joined the elite group of kids whom have lost a tooth. The amazing thing about losing your first tooth, is it triggers your gums to let go and many more teeth are suddenly loose, kids you have to love them :)

Presenting Kay Marie Jeon Murphy and her first lost tooth!

Mom's gone wild

Ok, not really ... but, we did have a great time!!





My LONG time friend Michelle and I have been threatening our husbands that we wanted to do a girls weekend to Austin TX for about the last 8 years. But, as you can imagine, 5 kids between us, work, travel, family (and India) came in our way. As Kay says 'dreams do come true' and we finally DID IT!

In mid-Feb I found frequent fliers to Austin, Michelle booked a hotel room and we promptly "forgot" about it. No pre-planning, no booking of tickets, no itnerary, in fact ... we settled on when and how we were going to get to the airport the night before. It was glorious to know that we were going on trip where every last detail DIDNT need to be planned because we werent going with kids (or husbands) we could do what we wanted and decide when we got there. That's a vacation! It was awesome to just hang with a friend & talk; kids, husbands, work, being female, getting old, gossip magazines, movies, tv, books, etc....

Day 1 - pedicures, shopping, walking along the river, tex mex food, plenty of margaritas and a Breast Cancer benefit with "The Donna's". They were awesome! We also learned (or reememberd) a major lesson in going "out". Nothing starts until 10pm. AND, as a female, you need to wear as few as clothes as possible. We had forgotten in our "mom-dom". But, we did make it until showtime and had a gas. (fully clothed and probably sticking out like sore thumbs in our conservative dress).

"The Donnas are an American all-female rock band from Palo Alto, California.[1] They draw inspiration from The Ramones, AC/DC, and Kiss.[1][2] Rolling Stone has stated that "the Donnas offer a guileless take on adolescent alienation; they traffic in kicks, not catharsis, fun rather than rage".[1] MTV has stated that the band offers "nothing more than a good old-fashioned rock & roll party". After gathering a cult following in the punk scene since their 1993 debut, the band achieved major label commercial success in the early 2000s and afterward.[2]"

Day 2 - Moving slightly slowly, we ventured to investigate the work out room, ate some great seafood and hung out on the capital lawn for an afternoon of gospel and folk music to raise awareness of the issues with Malaria (Imagine No Malaria). Then it was off to a quick dinner and the Steve Martin & his banjo concert with Steepe Canyon players (bluegrass).

"Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician, and composer. Martin was born in Waco, Texas, and raised in Southern California, where his early influences were working at Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm and working magic and comedy acts at these and other smaller venues in the area. His ascent to fame picked up when he became a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and later became a frequent guest on The Tonight Show. In the 1970s, Martin performed his offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before packed houses on national tours. Since the 1980s, having branched away from stand-up comedy, he became a successful actor, playwright, pianist, banjo player, and juggler, and eventually earned him his Emmy, Grammy, and American Comedy awards."

He was amazing, funny, great banjo player and they even finished the night with King Tut.

After that, who wouldnt be on the look out for a blues open mike night?! That was our next stop.... Local musicians wandered in/out of the bar, would get on stage, play a few songs, mix up the musicians, etc. Pretty cool local music.

Day 3 - We nearly sprung out of bed (compared to Day 2), workout, sat by the pool and then shopped. Austin has many many high end, artist furniture, jewerly and clothing boutique stores. Fun to look at but way out of our mom price range with $600+ skirts. We made it to the airport in time for 1 last beer, bought the most recent copies of People/US Weekly and settled into our seats for the trip home.

I highly suggest Austin but more importanlty, I suggest a nice weekend away with a good friend:)

Boy Scout Overnight

This past weekend the Scouts of Den 2, Pack 306, gathered at Baker Park Reserve for the annual overnight. Jimmy along with 60 other Scouts were prepared to pass one more test in the goal of yet another badge. The main focus of the trip, a simulated survival test.

The Scouts gathered pitched their tents and proceeded to compare who had the best snacks and more importantly, who had the coolest pocket knife. Ground rule one no sharing of pocket knives and number two no using the pocket knife outside of the base camp. Speaking of rules if you go into the woods you must have a buddy and two adults no exceptions.

The troop headed over to the main Lodge for the survival test orientation. The leader Betty described the details and goals of the experiment and teams were formed. The Scouts were given the choice of cool names or gross names, these being 6-10 year old boys you know the outcome, Jimmy and I were part of "Team Constipation". There are 7 items that you must have to survive, according to the experts one is oxygen,one is PMA, a positive mental attitude. Given the choice our group chose the following four items: matches, map, tarp and a campus. The experts say that the four items you need, besides the previously mentioned two are matches, map, pan and a trap.

We headed off into the woods to try and survive the afternoon heat humidity and the obnoxious behavior of teams constipation, zit, fart and barf. We made a lean to with the trap, started a fire with our matches, using the map as a starter and boiled water with the pot. We all managed to survive and astoundingly, according to Betty we were the only group she has ever lead that each team started a fire and boiled water.!

Back to camp for snacks, pocket knife play and relaxation. The scouts went on a snipe hike while the adults played washer toss. It is a combination of horseshoes and yard darts without having anything in common with either, quite fun. Dinner was made by the Webelo's being they needed to get a merit badge. If I were to be asked the merit badge would not have been given. Two cold hot dogs, some luke warm lemonade and a half of bag of chips does not count as a meal. The smores were awesome however and the boys all got a kick out of the ghost stories around the fire.

Lights out at 9:00 pm was strictly enforced so Jimmy and I headed off to bed. It was real comfy in the tent until the temperature dropped to around 34 degree's and we started to fight for the blankets and ended up at the bottom of the tent in a pile , OH camping. 6:00 am could not come soon enough for Jimmy or the rest of the camp. Scouts from my experience are quite self sufficient and it was made apparent a breakfast when we had pancakes with peanut butter because there was no syrup.

Cumalata Cumalata Cumalata Vista!!!

Ex-Pat Reunion

This past Friday we had the opportunity to re-connect with our Ex-Pat friends; some still living in Bangalore and others, like us, whom have repatriated back to the good Ole U S of A.

Larrie, Allison and their Daughter Jessie along with Stacy and her daughter Elise; Stacy's husband Alex and their son Preston aka Prestonio stayed back in Bangalore.

Jimmy and Jessie are great friends and had a ball hanging out and re-connecting, playing football, rollerblading and just being 8 year old's.

Kay and Elise are also great friends and both into "girly" things had Kay's room in a complete salon and were offering pedicures to all the ladies for the unbelievable price of 10 rupees!

The regular group of Ex-Pat's made the party a well rounded affair. The food was awesome - Mexican, which anyone whom has lived abroad knows you can not get outside of this continent!

The enchilada's, guac, chips and salsa were well received by all, and he margarita's added the perfect finishing touch.

We had great fun catching up with the news from Bangalore, is the bridge done?! How is the new Taco Bell? Is the Metro train running yet? What is the newest restaurant? Has Bryan Adams booked a gig yet? What other 80's rock icons have performed at the Palace rounds?

Wow, makes you want to run back to Bangalore get some Dosa and wait in traffic to get the 3 miles to the corner ice cream place or just stand outside your Villa and wonder, where is my driver?

Happy Gotcha Day

On April 10th we celebrated Jimmy and Hayden's 8th Gotcha Day. It is hard to believe that it has been that long and it is even better to know that we have such great and kind friends.
Jimmy and Hayden came home together and have remained fast friends, sharing their love of Korean food, basketball and now video games. We travelled to Karen and Jeff's for an evening of making Korean Food, Be Bim Bop, Kim Cheee, Mondu and great fun.

The kids had a blast and played and ate and the adults got to have some much needed adult time and conversation.

The tradition of cupcakes was replaced this year with an ice cream cake and let me tell you I like the new tradition! We are truly blessed by our kids and by the friends and family we have the good fortune to have met through this awesome experience known as Adoption.

Happy Gotcha Day Jimmy and Hayden we love you we bless you and we are SUPER glad you have chosen us!