Build a lot of FUN!!

When Uncle Tom and Tammy came to see Lia's play on Friday night, they brought with them gift certificates to one of Lia's favorite stores - Build-a-Bear! So after waiting very impatiently for today to arrive and Chloe to finish her nap, we headed off to the mall to see what treasures we could make. Lia ended up making a pink unicorn and Chloe made a velvety soft bunny rabbit. They both put sounds into their animals so when you press the hand on Chloe's bunny it giggles, and when you press the foot on Lia's unicorn it makes a "magical" sound. The lady gave Chloe a little red heart and told her to kiss it before she put it in the bunny. You'll see a picture of her doing that. And Chloe so loved the idea of putting a heart in her bunny that she went over and got another one and wanted the lady to put that in too (which she kindly did). When I told Tammy about that, she said, "Chloe is wise beyond her years because two hearts are always better than one." Good thought Tammy! Chloe just found the whole building a stuffed animal process facinating. She loved giving the bunny an air bath so we had to do that several times. And of course, both girls took their animals to bed with them - so cute! Thanks for the great day at Build-a-Bear Tom and Tammy!!!

After Build-a-Bear we went to the carosel. It was Chloe's first time on a real merry-go-round and she LOVED it!! It was really hard to get a good picture of her because it was moving at a good pace. And of course, Chloe won't smile on cue yet anyway.

Mittens the kitten

Well Lia was in her third play this week. She played the role of Mittens the kitten in Pinocchio. She had about 25 lines to learn which she had memorized by about her third read through. Not only did she learn her lines, but she learned a lot of the lines that the other actors had : ) She did a fantastic job and looked just adorable in her costume!! And we were lucky that lots of our family and friends could be there to cheer her on! Thanks everyone : )

It's so fun to see the talents that God has given her unfold as she grows up : )

Let's pretend.....

Today Jane came for the day to play with Lia. They had so much fun! If I had a dollar for every time I heard them say, "let's pretend _______ (fill in the blank).....well I'd be rich by now : ) Here's a cute picture I took of them. It's so nice that Jane lives close enough that they can hang out together. We feel very fortunate!!

The talent show videos

America's Got Talent

Last night we had a talent show with our co-op friends. The kids were amazing and put on a great show for all the adults!! Unfortunately my camera battery died so I couldn't get pictures of all the acts. But one of the other dads took a lot of pictures and he said he'll e-mail them to me so if I get more later, I'll add them. But I did manage to get a couple pictures of Lia and the group of kids. Lia did a hula hoop routine as well as a song on the piano. And she did an amazing job with the hula hooping! I got a little clip on my camera's video before it died which I'll post out here. But little Miss Chloe kind of stole the show with her inpromptu dances during everyone else's performances. She hears music and she feels she MUST dance!! I was able to get her on my camera before it died too which is good because she was so cute!! I'll post the video clips separately.

Fun with friends!

The last two weeks have been filled with visiting with friends. Lia's good friend Alyce was in town visiting her grandparents last week so we spent a day with them by the water. We also had Vacation Bible School this week with Lia's friends Celia, Emma, Skye, Jack, Abby and Alisa. And not only did we see those kids from Mon - Thurs. this week but we'll be seeing them later tonight for a talent show. I'll post pictures of that tomorrow.

This morning we went to see Chloe's friend Kate. As you may remember, Kate is the other little baby that was adopted from Chloe's orphanage. The little girls played with Kate's water table just splashing around (even though it's a little cool today). Kids always love to play with water!! The girls had a fun time together even though in most of the pictures they aren't smiling. Neither one of them will smile on cue at this point. They even consented to give each other a kiss when we left - just darling!

And of course what friend could be as good a friend as your sister? Lia and Chloe always have fun when they are together!

One year ago today

Well last year on July 7th, after three long years of waiting, we finally got our referral for little Miss Chloe. I so remember that day. Not being 100% sure when the day began if the package our agency was receiving was for sure referrals or not. Then getting an e-mail telling us that the package had arrived and that it definitely was referrals and that we would be getting a call soon. And then about 3 p.m. getting the call that our daughter was here! I remember being so excited that she was from Chongqing just like Lia. We feel SO INCREDIBLY BLESSED by God to have such wonderful little girls. I often remind Lia that God had a plan for us to be a family since the beginning of time. That's very cool to think about.

Anyway I always have a picture of Lia and Chloe's referral picture to the right side of my blog. But today I thought I'd post this other picture that I didn't send out last year. This is what we refer to as "the digital hair". You'll notice that they had just taken the other picture of Chloe and cropped it down and then Photoshopped "hair" on her head. At first we didn't realize this and we were wondering what was going on with her hair. But then when we talked to Karin and Steve (who have Kate the other baby from Chloe's orphange) and we saw their referral pictures where Kate had the exact same digital hair, we realized what they had done. So when we were in China we showed this to our guide Michelle and she thought it was the most bizarre thing she had ever seen. So she specifically asked the orphanage director about it and he said that they thought American parents would want to see hair on the babies so they had to look all over their small town to find someone who had Photoshop and could alter the picture. Michelle told him that American parents wouldn't care if babies had hair or not. Anyway, the picture is totally good for a laugh and will be great to show at Chloe's wedding some day :)

July 4th - America's birthday!!

Well the 4th of July parade was really fun this year because Lia actually got to march in the parade with her theater group. As you can see she was dressed as Minnie Mouse and I kept hearing people say, "look there's Minnie Mouse - she's SO cute!". And she was!! : ) Chloe did very well although she was so tired. She got to ride the ponies with her big sister and when she had to get off she started to just sob. I felt so bad taking her away but it was way past her nap by then. We also got to see our friend Laura the Elephant. We didn't get to ride her this year because by the time Lia got done marching in the parade the line was too long. But we did get to see her eat her watermelons at the end so that was fun. Lia so loves Laura the Elephant!