It's Super To Be 6 !!!!!

I almost felt guilty sending the kids off to school early this AM, after the exhausting, birthday celebrating weekend we had. I bet the kids could have slept until 10.....EASY........

It started with a cupcake party at school. After months of ohhing & ahhing over the various offerings from the local grocery store bakeries & ice cream stores, when it came down to decide, Jami decided she would most like to help me make chocolate / chocolate chip cupcakes with cherries on top. So that's what we did....


On Saturday (her actual birthday), Lindsi had a school event & we had a lot running around to do. Jami picked a local Mexican restaurant for her birthday dinner (Mom, shesays, they make the best chicken fingers & french fries!!). Then it was back to home, where she opened her gifts from Lindsi & I....



On Sunday, it was off to church & then over to the bowling alley for a very fun birthday party. Between cousins, classmates, & friends, we had 14 bowlers. The kids had a great time. Jami was over the moon excited & could not help smiling all afternoon.



Even Ian (my nearly 11 yr old nephew) couldn't resist the bowling. Despite the fact that he BROKE his arm in 2 places at school on FRIDAY. They will see if the swelling is down enough to cast it today. It's a wonder what drugs can do!!!!


Then, it was over to my parent's house for some swimming & a cookout with family & out of town friends. We left about 9:30. Even though we live only a few miles away, Jami was sound asleep by the time we got home.

What a wonderful weekend we had celebrating our very special girl!!

Photo by Kris, but I couldn't help borrowing it....=)

A Spring Weekend

Every spring, I take pictures of the girls in one of our area fields of wild flowers. Only this year, the flowers are just not FANTASTIC.... The fields are dull & not very plentiful. I'll keep my eyes out for some new, better spots...but my old faithful fields, are just disappointing this year.

My parents have some in one of their fields, so I thought I'd start there. However, Lindsi wasn't too much in the mood.....




If I'm being honest....before she walked off....she wanted to show me she was taking off her cochlear.......so there would be no chance of her hearing me calling her back...


Oh well, I still had a willing poser........=)




When I came back up to the house, I found HER, in a better mood.......


The barn cat had 5 kittens on Sunday....hoping to get some good pictures soon. She had them way under a group of bushes, so kind of hard to get back there. Here she is....


So far, my only shot of the kittens....2 grey, 2 black, 1 tiger.....



We have a birthday in our house on Saturday...so stay tuned for some fun weekend pictures!!

Spring Break has Sprung

Ah....the girls are back in school & all is quiet around the house this morning, after our fun filled spring break week!!

No big vacation, but fun times.

The first day of spring break, we met up with our dear friend Miss E & her parents. We had promised Miss E a trip to Build A Bear for her birthday...which was in Jan!! It was a first for my girls too. Very enjoyable & a quick lunch afterwards with their new stuffed friends ended the day in grand fashion!






On Wednesday, we picked up another special friend & spent the day at the beach.........What Fun!!
Kiddie pool, Building sand castles (the girls even "won" tiny trophies for their efforts), jumping in the waves, looking for shells, playing on the playground. We ended the day with ice cream cones before driving home. The water was COLD, so only ankle deep wading on this trip.







We celebrated 3 family birthdays this week as well.

Fun times with our friends & family!!

Family Day #8

Occasionally, it is fun to reminisce about how different my life was 8 years ago. I had a job that allowed me to travel at the drop of the hat. I was in a steady, realtionship with my boyfriend of a couple years. I was excitedly, anticipating, becoming a mom.

On this day 8 years ago, we started in Beijing. We had already spent several days touring in & around Beijing & we were now looking forward to our quick 2 hr flt to Nanchang, where we would get our babies that evening or the next morning.

SNOW! More importantly, flights in Beijing were becoming snowed in! We waited hours in the terminal before out flt for Nanchang was finally re scheduled to depart. It was an uneventful flight. Upon arrival, we gathered our luggage & piled into the vans that would take us to our hotel. Once in the van, our guide, David, told us that the babies were waiting for us at the hotel. We would have approx 15-20 min after check in to get our things together & then we should plan to meet in the conference room.

Whoa..after a long 14 month wait...we were now speeding towards the goal.

Meeting Lindsi was surreal. She never cried. She was full of laughs & giggles. She seemed absolutely delighted with everything going on around her. She was a Mama's girl from the first moment I held her. I'm glad I didn't have a crystal ball that day, or know everything we would face together in the coming year. It was a hard first year.

In the beginning, the resposibility was overwhelming. Once on my own with her, I remember thinking, OK, we've made it a whole afternoon, then a whole day, then a whole week, then a month, without any life threatening disasters.

Happy Family Day Lindsi!!!! Oh how we love you & are so very lucky to call you "ours"!

How do I Love Thee.....

Admittedly, I think I have ONE of the best Mom jobs around. I say one, because I know several other moms who are raising absolutely AMAZING kids as well. It's easy to love on these 2. They soak it in & return it effortlessly every single day. Not every single moment...but every single day...



Recently, report cards came out. For the first time EVER, Lindsi had straight A's. I was / am so proud of her. She works so very hard. I'm happy that she will finally get to participate in the special honor roll celebrations.

Jami, also did very well, getting all E's (Excellent). While I see Jami learning, she's reading books aloud to me now & at the start of kindergarten, she could only read a handful of words. So far, she grasps everything easily & moves at a quick speed through her work. She's not seen "Challenging" yet.

So, as a reward for their achievement, I took them to see the Justin Beiber movie yesterday. It was better than I anticipated. We all liked it. I never could figure out the whole "Beiber Fever" phenomenon. After the movie, I can tell you, it's 10% natural talent, 20% hard work, 70% Marketing Genius. It should be required viewing for every marketing student. This is how you do it.

Beiber Movie on Sunday......




Ice cream on Sat....Yum

MMmmmmmm...Cherry...Her Favorite!


It's Valentine's Day...now...go....... spread the LOVE!!!!

Fun Times with our Friends......

We had just an AWESOME weekend last week. I think primarily because we spent it UNHURRIEDLY with a lot of our friends. It was a very BUSY weekend. Thankfully, everyone was feeling well & in a GREAT mood.

On Fri, Lindsi & her friend took part in a Cheer leading Clinic put on by the FL Gator Cheerleaders. This is the second year we've participated. I couldn't talk Jami into doing it...maybe next year. Besides, I think Jami has figured it out that if Lindsi is off doing something, THEN she has MOM all to herself.......

Somehow, even though Jami did not participate, she managed to get into all of my pictures...lol...







On Sat AM, the girls cheered together at the morning game. Jami's coach was really sweet & let Lindsi be a "Guest" cheerleader.....I was too busy helping my Dad learn the ins & outs of his new Christmas camera & I took NO PICS of my own. I have to teach him to download them now.....=)

In the afternoon, we went to our FCC Chinese New Year celebration. So much fun, & a nice time to visit with many friends we had not seen for a little while...The highlight was Lindsi getting chosen to be the Dragon Head this year!!



Don't you love these shirts? they have 2 hugging Panda's & they say: Best Sister Ever... We've outgrown our Chinese silks, but this (I thought) was just a perfect alternative. Found them at The Child*rens Pl*ace $5 each.

And, On Sun, we went to a very special little friend's birthday party, that was held at the Natural History Museum. Lots of fun & different things to do there...


Fun Times...

Is it 2011 Already? Where have I been??!!

Those of you who follow me on FB already know that 1 month ago today, I was having emergency major surgery. Surgery that has a recovery rate of 4-6 weeks. I was able to get myself up & out of bed in record time, but there are many aspects of the recovery process that just take time. I continue to feel better every week, but I still do not think I am at 100% recovery....yet.

I was so thankful that this happened over the holidays for many reasons. Primarily, my teen niece was able to come stay with my parents & help entertain the girls. Being the holidays, my parents avoided the stress of the school schedule, homework, or extra curricular activities. However, that meant they did have to entertain 2 active girls EVERY DAY. That's a big task if you are not accustomed to it.

The girls were thrilled that I got out of the hospital on Christmas afternoon. And, thrilled again when I got my driving privileges back just in time for cheer leading & dance to resume.








I've sort of been a SLUG lately. I went back to work 10 days post op (but only because I work from home & could nap as needed). Last week I had a sick child home with me all week. I still have to unpack our stuff that we got for Christmas....it's slow going. Thankfully, I don't stress over stuff like that...it will get done when it gets done.

I leave you with a few Christmas pics & the girls with their cheer leading activities. They both are enjoying the cheer leading a lot!!