Cake eating contest???

So I look over and these two sweet princesses are eating cake like they are in a contest! They both giggled at each other and I couldn't help but laugh too. So instead of stopping them I took a picture.

What a great weekend we had. The weather was beautiful. Dan and I took over 200 pictures on Sat alone and probably just as many on Sunday. I had such a hard time picking photos for this post since there were so many great ones. I was going to post about our whole weekend but since I wanted to include so many pictures I will just stick to Saturday.

We started our Saturday watching William's Football game. After the game we went to the pumpkin patch with Dan's cousin Bill and his family. We also meet up with Bill's wife Nancy's family. Katie had a great time since she had so many kids to run around with. We took a hayride to the pumpkin patch. Katie had a great time looking until she found the perfect pumpkin. Then I decided I was going to pick out a pumpkin for myself.....well just as I looked down to pick a pumpkin I noticed a little tiny ladybug on the pumpkin's stem. I called for Dan to take a picture of the ladybug and realized this pumpkin was not for me but for baby sister. So we got a pumpkin for baby sister.

After the pumpkin patch we went to Maddie and CJ's birthday party. Karen, Kevin, and family are one of the families from our adoption group. I know I have mentioned before how wonderful our adoption group is and how lucky we are to have such a great group of friends who are like family to us. Katie quickly changed into her Belle princess dress and joined the rest of her "Princess Posse" for the party. MA(aka Kate) and PA(aka Dan)PARAZZI enjoyed taking photo's of all the kids. Happy Birthday Maddie and CJ. Thanks for allowing us to be a part of your day!

Then we headed back to Dan's cousin Bill's house for William's birthday party. Off with the Belle dress and back into regular clothes for Katie. We helped celebrate William's 6th Birthday! Happy Birthday William!




William at his football game



Katie and Mommy on the Hayride






So fun to twirl in my new skirt my Mommy made for me.



I love this photo. Kate with Lotus and Lia looking at the fish in the pond.



Reflection of Kate and Lia in the pond




Princess Katie



Photos of Maddie and CJ's Party



Birthday Girl Maddie



Birthday Boy CJ. Don't you just love that face!



Happy Birthday William!

Flashback Friday and more.......

I think this is such a great idea that I am going to copy it from my friends. On my "Flashback Friday" post, I am posting a few photos from Oct 2006 and Oct of 2007.

Today we are also celebrating the one year anniversary of our paperwork being logged in China for baby sister. Who knows how many more years we will wait but right now we are happy to have one year of waiting down!

So, as Kate says.....and so we wait.....and we will.....




Katie Oct 2006 19 months old



Katie Oct 2006 Learning to make funny faces.



Katie Halloween 2006



Katie Halloween 2007

POKENO!!!

Once a month in our neighborhood some of the woman get together for Pokeno. We each bring a $10 gift wrapped in a brown paper bag. Each game whoever wins POKENO picks a gift or can steal someone elses gift. At the end we have a cover-all and we each put in $5. We usually have about 10-12 players so the pot is usually $50-60. It's a great girls night out. We rotate who hosts and we have about 15 woman involved so you only have to host about once a year. When it is your turn to host you supply the snacks and drinks. It is a GREAT time. I captured a photo of us playing pokeno tonight. I won once and stole a Starbucks Gift card from Wendy......sorry Wen!

Harvest Moon Festival

Last weekend we celebrated the Harvest Moon Festival with our local FCC group.

The afternoon started with an adoptive Mom and her 14 year old adopted daughter speaking about their experience volunteering in an orphanage in Wuhan, Hubei Province. They volunteered through Half The Sky Foundation and spent 2 weeks this past summer in China.

Then they had crafts and games for the little ones. The games were organized and run by the older girls.

Next was story-telling time. The "As They Grow" group acted out a story for the little ones.

We then enjoyed a Chinese buffet dinner. After dinner was a talent show. It was so cute to see the children perform.

What a great day!

Matalida-tini's with friends........

Yesterday my friend Kate had a Matilda Jane trunk show. The children's clothing line was awesome but spending the afternoon with girlfriends was even better. I finally met Lisa in person. She was just as great as I thought she would be. Kate, Lisa, Laura, Karen, Deb, and myself enjoyed great food, conversation(without a child hanging on me interupting ;)), shopping, and MATILDA-TINI's(kate they were great)!

The afternoon went so fast! I could have talk with these woman all night.

Thanks Kate for a wonderful afternoon!

Georgia......last but not least.

Well I wanted wrap up my posts about our Georgia trip. There was so much to blog and so little time.

Saturday(9/20/08), we went to Grace Ingram and Mac's soccer games. In between games we went to Roswell Park. We met Susan, Kara, and Emma. The kids played and we had a picnic lunch.

Grace Ingram's soccer game



Roswell Park



Sat afternoon we went to the Purple Hippo. It is an arts and crafts place that the kids can make their own artwork and crafts. It was so much fun. I think I had as much fun as the kids. Well maybe not as much fun as Maddie who decided to paint herself purple.



BEAUTY SHOP....Carolyn put rollers in the girls hair. They all pulled them out except Mac. Katie only left the top roller in.




Sunday we stayed at Carolyn's house. The kids played while I got an embroidery lesson from Carolyn. I got some great tips from Carolyn. I am just about ready to use my new embroidery machine. I have my software lesson in 2 weeks.

Sunday night we left at 7pm and arrived to Roanoke, Va at 2am. Then we drove the rest of the way to PA Monday. We got home about 5:30pm.

We had an awesome trip and hopefully we will be able to do it again someday!

9 Happy Years!

Dan and I were married 9 years ago today. It was a beautiful October day. We had a beautiful cermony and a wonderful reception.

9 years later.......we are happy, healthy, and have an amazing daughter.

Happy Anniversary Dan! I Love you!