She did it!!!!

Katie had her last dance class Tuesday night. Katie wanted to start dance class last fall after watching my dance recital DVD all summer. She was insist that she wanted to go to dancing school like the girls on the recital DVD. I tried to sign her up at my dancing school and they didn't take anyone under the age of 3. Katie was 2 1/2 at the time. I told Katie she would have to wait until next year. She still insisted she wanted to go to dance class. I asked Miss Toni again about signing her up. She told me I could sign her up and see how it goes. She told me not to push her if she didn't want to do it. I told Miss Toni that I would never push her and she is the one who wanted to join. So we got Katie her dance outfit, ballet shoes, and tap shoes. Except for a couple of time that she didn't nap during the day and then fell asleep on the way to class the year was a success. Tonight and tomorrow night is the dance recital. Katie has been talking about the recital all year. She knows that she will dance on the stage and everyone will clap and then she will get flowers. She is very excited. I will post all about the recital this weekend! Her is a picture of Katie practicing in class and a picture of Katie with Miss Toni. Did I mention that Mommy is in the recital too???????

Rain Rain Go Away.....

We spent Sunday at 2 GREAT parties. The first party for was Paige who turned 5. Her party was at Veteran's Park in Hamilton, NJ. Katie just got on the playground and the rain started coming down. Luckily the party was under the pavilion and we were able to continue to celebrate with Paige. We will definitely meet Paige at the park for fun on that playground another day.





The second party was for Jade who turned 3. Jade is from the same Orphanage as Katie and part of our adoption group. The rain was coming down but that didn't stop anyone from having a great time. There was a petting zoo with a nice big tent over it to keep out the rain. Katie LOVED the baby chickens. She fondly called them "Boo Boo Chickens"(Donald Duck calls his chicken boo boo chicken on one of the episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) and she was so excited to hold the boo boo chickens. There was a llama, goats, sheep, rabbits, a tortoise, a millipede bug(which was gross), and chickens. The best part was feeding the baby sheep and goats a bottle. It was really great to watch the kids with the animals. They loved it!

Little Ears

So everyday Katie says something that makes me laugh. She is so funny. I am trying to remember it all and blog about it.

This morning Dan and I were having a conversation and of course she is right there taking it all in. I keep telling him watch what you say around her because she is taking it all in and storing it up to use later. Anyway, Dan and I were talking and Katie is repeating what I am telling Dan. I told him forget it because I don't want her to hear and repeat want I am saying. So, I tell Katie "Mommy and Daddy are having a conversation" and she says "Can I come??". It was funny to me. As I type it I guess you just had to be there.

The moral of the story is I need to watch what I say around little ears.

Mother's Day

I am so lucky to be the Mother of such amazing little girl. She is truly a wonderful, funny, strong willed, energetic little girl. A bit whiny lately but I am hoping it is just a phase. I look at her everyday and thank God for her. I am so thankful and grateful for everything that lead me to be her Mother. I always knew in my heart that I would understand what the plan was for me. I longed to be a Mother and couldn't understand why it wasn't coming so easy for me. Now I have my answer and it is my amazing little girl. We had a great Mother's Day. She happily announced "Happy Mother's Day" Mommy to me and it brought alittle tear to my eye. I am a Mommy.

We celebrated with our family. Dan, Jeff, and Rudy made an amazing Surf and Turf dinner for our family. It was a wonderful day to share with family and friends.

After I was done reading bedtime stories to Katie, she started to say her prayers. She likes to include all of her family and friends in her prayers every night. She will add a few different people here and there as she remembers someone she saw that day. When she was done we rocked in the chair for a few minutes like we used too. I said a silent prayer for Katie's Birth Mother and hoped she somehow in her heart knew that Katie is loved. I thanked her for giving birth to this amazing little girl. I am honored to be her Mother.

A weekend spent with friends

We shared an amazing weekend with wonderful friends. When we made the decision to adopt from China, I started looking online for information about Chinese adoption. I found some yahoo support groups that were just for Chinese adoption. I started to meet people online that actually lived in my area and who were in the same stage of the adoption process as us. One of these families was the Olson family. Kim and I became fast friends as were waited for our daughters. We shared hopes and dreams. We started to attend waiting family meeting together. We made friends with other Mom's who were waiting. We registered for our baby showers together. By the time we got the referrals of our daughters we had 5 families in our "group". The Olson family got there referral the month before us. I was so excited for Kim and Gunner and couldn't wait to see little Hannah MingMei's face. She was a beauty. We celebrated with the Olsons and celebrated again when we got our referral of Katie Min Min. We followed each other trips to China and had first playdates together when we got home with our daughters. At the end of 2006 The Olson family moved to Virginia. We were sad because we would miss them but we knew we would remain friends. We shared so much together. Our adoption group as grown to over 10 families and we are lucky enough to get together often. Kim stays in touch with us via our own groups yahoo group. But we don't get to see her very often. I was so excited to plan a weekend get together with Kim and Hannah. Kim and Hannah arrived on Friday afternoon. We went to Sesame Place for a few hours. We met up with some of the families in our group. Then Friday night Mimi watched the girls and we had a much needed girls night out with Kim. Saturday we hit the church carnival to "hop" on some rides as Hannah would say. The girls had a BLAST! Then back to our house for a cookout so our group could come over and spend some time with Kim and Hannah. It was Kim's Birthday so we celebrated with some yummy deserts and we sang to Kim and surprised her and the girls with some magic candles. Since it was so close to Cinco de Mayo we had a "Fiesta" theme. I challenged some of the older kids to a hula contest.....Could they hula while wearing a Mexican Hat and shake maracas? Hannah Whitty and Brady were able to do it!!! I tried but was not as good as the 7 year olds. Sunday morning we said our goodbyes. I would love to make this our "First Annual" Kim and Hannah weekend(Gunner is more then welcome too)!

Sesame Place and St Joe's Carnival