The rest of our weekend

On Sat night we gave Sasha a bubble bath. Yep, those are bubbles in there and Sasha was not impressed!

On Sunday the 3-5 year old choir sang at "big church" ! Don't you just love how they are entertaining themselves as the preacher goes through the announcements and opening of the service. I wonder just how many people were paying attention to the preacher? LOL

Seriously, how long do you really expect 3 year olds to sit there and wait for their turn to sing?

Is hiking up her dress becoming a trend ?

I had to beg, bribe and plead with her to get her to even go up there with her choir. She is the only one who can't sing the words (some of the others just chose not to) but she can do all the motions (she is a signing master) I know she is frustrated because she can't sing the correct words and I feel bad for her on that account. I did speak with her speech therapist and she thought choir would be a great way to aid in her speech because of the rhythm. I felt a little bad "pushing" her but it looks like she had a pretty good time anyway ; )

Another CNY Party

Today was the CHI Chinese New Year party. We always go so we can see some of our friends who don't make it to the FCC celebration. It is at a local restaurant and is very low key

Here she is on the way with her sunglasses upside down and her new doll. It looks like the doll is praying but she is actually beginning a backflip : )


Don't you think sparkly slippers go with a pink dress!

The A to Z girls (Annslee, Zena, Zola and Zara)

East meets West ~ using chopsticks to eat french fries

Ice cream is always needed at a party

She was showing off her sparkly shoes to people at the table and I made the comment that I could see her undies too ~ of course that meant she needed to show them to everyone~ she is with the Mama of the Zs who do not show their undies in public!!

Just for fun: the cookies Annslee made for school

Yesterday I got my January gift from my Secret Buddy and it is my last one because she is now home with her daughter!!! If you haven't yet, you must go read all about her trip ~ it is one of the best travel journals I've ever read : ) I have a new SB starting this month but I will miss Lynn!!! Click HERE to read her story!

Ringing in 4706!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin) ~~ Gung Hay Fat Choy (Cantonese) ~~ Chuc Mung Nam Moi (Vietnamese)

No matter how you say it ~ Happy New Year!! Here's hoping 4706 is a great year for all of us!!


Here is some of our dinner food: noodles for a long life, tangerines/oranges for a sweet life, beer because Mama and Daddy want it and cookies because Annslee wanted them : )



After her nap we made cookies for school tomorrow. We are doing a CNY celebration with her class. We made cookies shaped like China and Vietnam!



I was putting a lantern together to hang and she thought it would make a great hat


While I cooked dinner she did some crafts

At dinner she drank out of her new Year of the Monkey cup she got today at the international market. She spotted it and started doing her monkey impersonation then wanted me to get a dog for daddy and a horse for myself. The sweetest part was her looking for a pig because we have told her that Malia may have been born in the Year of the Pig : )


Right before bed she opened her red envelope (ate the candy coins of course) then unwrapped her gift. It is a sweet doll that plays the Kang Ding Love Song and she was mesmerized by it

Just for fun ~ here she is modeling her Mardi Gras mask that she made on Tuesday


Linky Love :

Tet Traditions

Chinese New Year Traditions

Country Cookie Cutters ~to make the China/Vietnam shaped cookies : )

It wasn't all fun and games

Our FCC CNY party on Saturday night was by far the best one we have had yet. It was so much fun and there were so many families there. It was wonderful seeing children we have watched grow up and also new little ones who have joined their forever families. I also love that so many waiting families come and get a glimpse of what they have in store. Mia's Mama is on the committee so she had a lot of work to do and Mia's daddy was working so she was with us most of the evening ~ yep, our little twins : )

They enjoyed all the activities except one ~ the Lion Dance ~ I think the combination of the lion and the loud drums is what gets Annslee. Once we mentioned they would be doing this she started looking for it and worrying about it. The kids all got red envelopes to "feed" the Lion. Here is how she looked in anticipation of that......

Apparently neither of them liked what they heard heading their way

I couldn't resist snapping pics of her serious little face

Daddy took her away for a while and Mia ran to her Mama. I did find Daddy and Annslee and she and I "escaped" to the restroom ~ she took that time admiring her ladybug in the mirror : ) The lady who painted Daddy's face came in as Annslee was arguing with me about going into the stall to potty by herself. She had on a dress so I knew she needed my help. The lady laughed and asked where she was from. I told her Hubei and she said "Oh, those Hubei people ~ very hard headed" yeah, I know.... (I am sure those of you with Hubei Honeys can relate as well)


When we thought it was safe to leave the restroom the boys were out of their lion costumes. One of the heads was on the floor but she wasn't sure she wanted to get very close. She kept going over and looking in the mouth. (notice how she is nervously holding her foot...so sweet)

The girls dancing was a hit though. At one point Annslee and Mia were both trying to get on stage to join in : )

They didn't mind at all posing with these members of the Lion Dance troupe

* Just so you know we are all doing fine after the tornados last night. We were up until 3 am to wait for the "all clear" and we know we will do this many more times this Spring. Unfortunately there were many deaths so please keep those families in your prayers.

Here are a couple of pictures of the hail we got ~ Annslee slept through it : )

Super Fat Tuesday!

She got the sticker but she'll have to wait 15 more years before she can vote : ) Of course while I voted she was busy charming all the workers by waving and saying "HI" to everyone in her cute little Southern accent

We met up with Amelia and Jack at the local botannical gardens to do the art project for this week. The girls liked walking around and poor Jack just tried to keep up.

They used A LOT of glue, feathers and beads on their masks (well, the girls did ~ Jack had very little on his)

Here she is showing off her mask and beads

It was rainy today but 66 degrees ~ yeah, we found a daffodil already blooming

* new word ~ when we got in the car she said "Mama, beads?" I handed them to her and then realized what she said : )

* * I see the jealousy about the flowers but the flip side of that is that we currently are under tornado watch/warning... warm weather is Feb has its drawbacks too. Besides, we will get another freeze or two and that poor flower will pay the price!

More FCC CNY Fun

I know I am her Mama but could I be any more blessed~

As you notice, Annslee had her face painted and while she was having this done a lady pointed at Daddy and told him to sit down. She said "Money" and painted money on the side of his face in Chinese characters. We later found out that she was not suppose to be one of the face painters. She apparently just joined them at the table, grabbed a brush and started painting LOL

She also painted Mia's face. Mia asked for "flower" and she did the characters. I think Mia was expecting an actual flower....

I wanted to get a picture of their facepaintings ~ Annslee really wanted to show me hers

They enjoyed the facepainting, crafts, running around, dancing on stage and eating lots of good food

Here you can see Daddy's money symbol ~ I hope that lady knew something LOL

*scroll down if you didn't see the first FCC post : )

FCC CNY

We went to our big Chinese New Year party last night with our local FCC. Here is a brief preview (I took 118 pictures!!) but I wanted to at least post a few.

Our little model before we left home. This was the largest dress we bought in China (size 10) and I think she can still wear it next year too. It makes me sad though b/c we didn't buy any bigger ones since we thought sure we would be back to China before we needed them



We have silk jackets we had made in China too (luckily we haven't outgrown ours)

Yeah, Mia was there ~ this picture is blurry but I think it sums up the fun they had!



I was standing near the check in desk when I spotted the lovely Paige ~ I immediately recognized her from her sister's blog Party of Many (this is the first time this has happened ) I approached Missy and she said "where is Annslee?" Yeah, small world. Paige is even more beautiful and happy in person!



Just a few more of the girls ~ oh, and some kids were not wearing gold LOL

Many more pictures are to come!!!

Her true love

I know she enjoys her dance class and gymnastics is so much fun. Twirling the batton has become a new passion and hiding so she can jump out and scare us is always a thrill. She will sit and do arts and crafts for hours. She loves to write and read and of course watch TV and movies. However, her true love is still swimming ~ yeah, she really does LOVE the water!

Looking at this picture I think we may be in big trouble in a few years with this sassy girl!







She and Daddy would count 1~2~3

then go under and wave at each other : )

*I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone for your thoughts, prayers and kind words about my last post. I received several private emails as well and your friendships mean a lot to me. I am hopeful that we have a resolution of this issue that will keep us moving forward without a lot of extra time and money ~ of course the MOU (Memo of Understanding) issue with Vietnam is still troubling so your prayers are still needed for all of us working to bring our children home : ) In the meantime, we are enjoying our sweet Annslee!