My Big Girl is 6... sniff

March 5, 2004



March 5, 2005



March 5, 2006



March 5, 2007



March 5, 2008



March 5, 2009



March 5, 2010




Happy birthday Annie! You are growing up so fast that I can hardly catch my breath. I can see how this past year has given you a new sense of maturity and responsibility and I admire the way you have taken on the role of big sister. You will always be my child who exists "outside of the box" and I am grateful for your perspective on things... we all need to think a little outside of the box now and then. I love you very much and I cannot wait to see what the next year holds for you. If it is anything like this year it will be ALOT of artwork and projects :)

Celebrating a Milestone

Catherine has officially been with us for 100 days. In some ways I cannot imagine that time has gone so quickly but in other ways it seems like she has been here for much longer. We are so proud of her and of how far she has come in this short amount of time. She continues to amaze us everyday with her willingness to learn and her determination to persevere. We are reminded daily of just how lucky we are to have her in our lives.

Chinese New Year (sorry... REALLY late!)

Every year we say that we are going to go into Chinatown for the CNY parade but every year it is too cold, too rainy, or we are too tired :) Good thing, then, that we have an AWESOME CNY festival at our local mall. They really go all out decorating the whole mall with dragons and lanterns for the 2 day festival full of dancers, martial artists, and other performers.

It is great to see everyone come together for the activities and it is always fun to see the Chinese-American children (as well as many adopted Chinese children) wear their traditional outfits and enjoy the show. This is the first year that we had Chinese outfits for all of the kids (yeah to spending too much money in China!!!!) but we were unsure of Mr. I'm A Self-Conscious 8 Year Old would put himself out there like that. Much to our surprise he was enthusiastic about it and all of the kids looked great (we got many compliments!).







This is Jack (in the red outfit) feeding his lucky red envelope to the lion. Notice Ben is no where near him... he was screaming in terror on the side :)





Okay, so this is Ben pretending to be one of the martial artists he just saw (this went on for DAYS!), Annie smiling while holding on to her prize that she won in the coloring contest, Jack rockin the dragon outfit, and Catherine looking bored and wondering why on earth she was not given a nap today.

Star of the Week

This week Ben is feeling very proud of himself because he has been named "Star of the Week" at preschool. This is, of course, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a preschool student and it involves making and presenting an "About Me" poster (i.e. homework for Mom!), bringing in your favorite things for show and tell, being the line leader, choosing the songs for the class to sing (or even performing your own song!), getting to open the classroom door when the parents come for pick up, and many more wonderful things. Ben's teachers arranged it so he could be the Star during Chinese New Year. He wore a Chinese outfit on Tuesday and he brought in his beloved stuffed panda and some CNY decorations. He was the talk of the town!



By the way, Mr. Big Stuff had his 4 year old checkup yesterday. He weighed in at a whopping 33.4 pounds and he is 38 3/4 inches tall. Yes, he is a peanut! But, consider this... he has grown FIVE inches since he turned 3. Wow!

Who Needs Vancouver?

After breakfast Jay went outside to play in the snow shovel and came back inside after a little while with the wide-eyed glee you would expect from a 5 year old 33 year old. He beckoned the children outside to try out the track he built in our backyard. He blew up a swimming pool raft, sent it down the slope, and a new sport was born.

Jack:



Annie:



Ben:



And, after a substantial modification of the starting position...

Two-Man:

Look What We Found...

... when we checked on Catherine before we went to bed.

How is this even possible? Makes me sore just thinking about it :)





Sleeping in interesting positions (reference HERE and HERE) seems to run in the family. Catherine is fitting in nicely!