Summer 2012!!!!

What a fantastic summer it was!!  Not only was the weather amazing, it was busy busy busy!
We started the season off by spending the weekend up in the Adirondacks with our local FCC chapter.  Its a wonderful group, and we have met some really great people that I hope will be life long pals.  Little Miss has met some great friends too. Every year they do a weekend up north, and the girls from China range in age from 15 to 3. It's really neat to see them gather in the groups of friends, and form these connections of people who really "get" what its like to be adopted from China, or Korea.  We had a great time, and this we we only did 1 night, but next year...I think we will shoot for the whole weekend! 

 Traditional Chinese dinner prepared by the group, here are the girls making won tons

 Then in the first week in July our first visitors from AZ came to see us.  It was wonderful to see them, wonderful to connect again to someone from our old life.  We still miss it so much. Erin and Megan were just what the Dr. ordered for homesickness. 
We got to show them where we life, show them what the true upstate is, and show them where I grew up!  They got to see what life is like here for us, and I think finally understand the draw of why we came back.  

Recital and Graduation

Off to a great start! Summer started with preschool graduation  in June and the dance recital. 

 My girl in her glitter dance makeup.her favorite part! 

Dancin Fool! 

Was a VERY LONG day...and of course very hot, in an auditorium with no A/C..do the math on that one! 

The big pre-school grad! 

It was a great start to the summer.  It was also a very long 2 weeks!  Seems like everything was happening at once! We ran around like crazy people for that last week.  Vacation and friends from AZ were coming,  just what we needed to unwind! 

Princess Birthday Bash!

5 years old!!  How can that be???  She is soo happy to be 5 and today started a new countdown chart to count down to when she turns 6.  Really?  I am not over 5 yet!!  All and all it was an amazing weekend.  She decided on a princess theme, and wanted everyone to dress up.  So about 4 weeks ago we started looking for a dress.  All the dresses she liked from the online sites seemed to be wedding dresses.  Could this be from her watching Say Yes To The Dress too many times with me??  Who knows, but there it is.  All the ball gown wedding dresses we found were pretty pricey to say the least.  Then in one of my middle of the night brain storm ideas I thought....Ebay! So at 2 am I get up and fine a gorgeous dress that I believe will fit the bill.  Magenta bodice with 4 layers of toul that had magenta flower peddles sown on, looking like flower peddles that fell. The best part?  It was $18!!  Needless to say I whipped out the credit card and voila!  Princess-ballgown-wedding dress! Perfect twirl factor.

We worked for 2 weeks on the decorations, and considering I am not really all that talented with the crafts...I think we did ok!  Pinterest gave me some fantastic ideas!  Including incorporating he castle with the decorations! Because we made so many the decorations, we really saved some moola!

We had 12 kids all together and although under protest...some were princess's and some were pirates!  We had 2 boys who really didn't feel up to playing the Prince Charming role...and 2 girls who weren't feeling the princess role..so they came as pirates too.  Little Miss got over it.
I worried that I didn't have enough games planned, but once the sun came out, and the kids saw the yard and the woods..we were all set!  We did play pin the horn on the unicorn, and we dug for buried treasure, which was a huge hit!

On Sunday...we had party #2!  The family!   Another good time was had by all, and Little Miss was very good, and said her please and thank you's and was gracious about all her gifts.  I was a proud Mama!   Was nice for the all the family that was able to be with her for the first time on her birthday.  I really missed my Mom and friends from AZ though...seemed weird not having them here.  Life changes!

On the day of we did cupcakes at school then miniature golf. All in all..it was a blast!  It's hard to imagine that each birthday gets better...but it does!  Mom and Dad had just as much fun as Little Miss.
Just what we dreamed of, 4 years ago...

Easter and a Broken Arm!

Spring is officially here, and after a wonderful day hanging out with friends in the first garden party of the season, we get the phone call.  Samantha landed hard on the trampoline.  She's crying and says her arm hurts.  We drive like maniacs to get to her, and there she is laying on the couch..saying it hurts to bend her arm.
I am not seeing anything highly unusual, but she doesn't seem to be using it much.  So we call the Dr., "just in case", and she suggests an x-ray and what do you know??  Hairline fracture.  So after our lecture from the Dr. on the dangers of trampolines and small children, we get a very pink cast, and have a little bit sad girl.

To keep track of time, we  started a countdown chart.  3 weeks until that itchy cast comes off.  We had all kinds of people signing it, including...Rose Lewis who wrote "I Love You Like Crazy Cakes" , a favorite book in our house and among lots of kiddo's from China!

 3 weeks later, we go to the Dr's to get that itchy thing off...and the arm is not quite healed..seems it was a little more than just a hairline, so...after some pretty scary moments getting the cast off...we had to get another one on.  Big tears, and big disappointment.  So this time purple..and an ice cream breakfast to take the disappointment away..a little.

Easter came, and so did Gramp and Gram.  After spending all winter in AZ, they came back and no body was happier than Little Miss to see them.  Easter Bunny did great by her and we celebrated Easter as our house.  The septic backed up the day before, so our record of never a dull moment still stands!

Snow...and the lack there of!

Well, looks like we picked a good 1st winter back!  Yes and no.  Yes, it was nice not to have to deal with all the snickering from our southwest friends about us dealing with snow, but on the other hand...we were kind of looking forward to it!  We wanted to show Sam all the fun winter things to do, but alas..we had a total of 2 snow storms, that each yielded less than a foot and was gone in two days!  The first of the storms were in October!  So that doesn't even count as a winter storm! 

Sam's very 1st snowman...for halloween!

The next snow storm didn't happen until March 1! That storm daddy got to use the snowblower finally and Sam had a blast making snowangels and being outside. It was gone 3 days later.  That's it.  No more.  Once Sam got to do some snow fun..she went sledding on a local small ski hill.  

Today the grass is green, the birds are chirping and spring is here!  It's still March!!!  Very strange, yet none of us are complaining too much. 

I'm So Behind!!!

Ugh!  I am so behind on my blog postings!!  What can I say, the fall came, I got busy, then the holidays were over, and I got lazy...so  here we are at the end of our first winter in 12 years and I have not reported anything!

 Halloween: Pinkalicious! We made the costume..so proud! Then went trick or treating in the neighborhood I grew up in with Gramp. Was a very special night! 

 Dad and I at the Lake, Thanksgiving Day.

For those not here on the east coast, just so you know...it was hardly a winter.  Sam doesn't understand yet that snow is not a fleeting  thing in the winter, and it normally is around for more that 2 or 3 days. She did get to go tubing once.  Daddy took her with the FCA group (Families with Children from Asia) to local hill so to speak, that they have snow making and she got to experience the thrill of snow sports.  She's hooked.
Christmas was wonderful, it started off by the cutting down of a real tree..Samantha's 1st real tree.  Its still going strong on our back patio, the birds have used it all winter to eat our seed treats and rest a while.

 Before                                                                            After

Progress Report!

My little girl is doing so well, I thought I would write a little progress report.  Sometimes, I am concerned though...she does everything SO well.....TOO well? She is putting together 100 piece puzzles, she works on 500 piece puzzles with her grandmother, and she find things! She can also build things, AWESOME things with her lego's and blocks!

You tell her something once, she's got it.  Most of all...she is soooooo good! I over analyze I guess, but is she afraid to be bad?  Well, once and and a while she is, but she's repentful. (is that a word?) For example.  After she was in bed the other night, I decided to make popcorn and cozy up to Desperate Housewives for some chillaxing time.  She heard the popcorn, and started crying/screaming and wouldn't tell me what she wanted. So, I calmly went to her room and asked what the problem was.  More crying and screaming. I said, when you can calm down, and stop screaming, tell me what you want and I will listen, and I left.  After 5 minutes, she came out and asked if she could please have some popcorn.  I said, sure.  Screaming and crying will never get you your way.  Ever.
The next morning, 1st thing she said is, "boy I was really screaming and crying last night?  Thats not gonna get me what I want is it?"

She is writing her full name, very interesting in spelling and adding numbers together.  She is loving school, is enrolled in dance and we are taking a mandarin class! Love it!

The things that come out of her mouth are hysterical!

"Mommy, the ketchup just said something really rude to me!"
After having an evening with friends, "Mommy are you going out drinking again tonight?"

The fun goes on and on.