Water Parks and New Friends

Today we had our monthly playgroup with families who have adopted children from China (and one other from Taiwan!). It was incredibly hot and I was happy we had selected the splash park. Even with the water it was a scorcher! We also had the opportunity to meet Miss Lia today. Our good friends, Paul & Karen and their son, also named Andrew went to China and adopted Lia just 2 weeks ago. Lia is about 10 weeks younger than our Andrew and about as adorable as they come! She played well at the water park, checked in frequently with her mom and dad and clearly likes to do what her new big brother does. I'm so impressed with how well Lia is doing.
After the splash park, we grabbed some lunch at Max & Erma's. I couldn't resist snapping some cute pictures. I'm sure this is just the beginning of the fabulous foursome!

2 Year Familversary

Two years ago, we met the sweetest little boy. Bill traveled to Taiwan, picked up Andrew and we became a family of four. I remember thinking how tiny this little 12 pound baby was and then I was equally shocked at how mighty. At 6 months, he was super determined to pull himself to a standing position. Two years later, we still see that level of determination in everything he does. Andrew is now 2 and half years old. He's not quite 33 inches tall and 24 pounds. He speaks in complete sentences, knows all his colors,shapes and 24 letter. (I wish I could take credit for the last skills, but honestly, he seemed to learn the letters from watching Lily). He can be a mischievious little person and he seems to have fair amount of charm. You should see the smiles and grins I get after he's done something naughty. I can't honestly believe that 2 years has gone by already and I can't get over how blessed we are as a family. It's like lightening has struck twice.

Heat Wave

Beating the heat with a sprinkler, umbrellas and ice cream sandwiches!

Happy 4th of July

We have had the best 4th of July weekend. On Friday, we ventured downtown for Red, White and Boom. I'd never dream of taking the kids into a crowd of a half a million if we didn't have the opportunity to watch the show from Bill's office. So, the kids, my parents, my brother and I all rode the bus downtown. Andrew l-o-v-e-d the bus. We then walked to Bill's office, went up to the 26th floor, had a picnic dinner, hung out with 3 other families, watched A Night at the Museum, and then saw the best firework show ever. It was really beautiful because the sky was so clear. I snapped about 50 pictures and I realize that photographing fireworks is not easy. I think 3 turned out well and I'm sharing them here. We were also lucky as the traffic wasn't too bad and we got home in 50 minutes. Then on Saturday we headed up to Bill's parents place and had the nicest picnic. Their whole building potlucks it on this giant, beautiful patio. The weather, food and company was just perfect. I hope that the rest of our holiday continues to be as fun as the first part has been.

Our Visit to the Zoo

Yesterday, we took advantage of the perfect weather and went to the zoo. It was the first time we saw the new polar bear exhibit and we loved it. Both kids really enjoyed watching the polar bears jump in the water, swim and play from the top and bottom viewing decks. They also loved the new polar playground that had a whole north pole/wildlife outpost vibe. We also were able to ride the train, carousel and see many animals. We thought it would be ridiculously crowded at the zoo, but we were pleasantly surprised by minimal crowds and no lines for rides/animal viewing. It was one of those days where everything fell in place and we had a great time.

Andrew and His Girls

At age 2.5, our little guy is already a flirt! He really shows off when a pretty girl is around. Here he is with two of his favorite neighborhood girls.

Busy, busy, busy...........

So much has happened since my last post. We've attended our first birthday party at the bouncy house place. We saw the dragon boat races, attended the Asian festival and gone to Andrew's chinese class recital. We've purchased a backyard jungle gym and it's being assembled right now. Lily finishes kindergarten and graduates Monday. Not sure what graduation will look like for 5 and 6 year olds. I wrap up my school year on Tues and Weds. Throw in a family birthday, our anniversary and Father's day and it looks like we're going to stay busy!

Fortunately, we're all doing well and looking forward to summer break, vacation and maybe a little quieter schedule :)

Here are some cute pics of the kids at the bouncy house place:

Fun and Games at our House

For some reason our yard has always been a natural gathering place for our neighbors. It's one of the things I look forward to when the weather warms up and school lets out. Tonight, I looked out and saw a giant pack of kids who were getting a little too rough during their free play. I quickly went out and started organizing some games like red light/green light, freeze tag etc. Then it kind of evolved from there and we did some spoon-egg relays, tug of war, red rover and even the limbo. It was such fun. The only real challenge we had was Andrew so deseperately wants to keep up with the big kids and there are times when he just can't. The last picture just kind of breaks my heart. Here's to a fun summer with our neighborhood!

Our Favorite Tree

I'm not sure why, but the kids have one tree that they always climb on and play under. It's not just my two kids, it's all the neighborhood kids too. In any case, I snapped some cute pictures of both the kids sitting and playing in their favorite tree.

Happy Mother's Day

Five years ago, I celebrated my first Mother's day as a mom. Last year I got to celebrate it as a mom to two precious little ones. What can I say? This isn't a milestone year, but I still feel like I'm the luckiest mom on the planet. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms. May your day be relaxing and fun!

Art Show and Park Visit

Tonight we got to attend Lily's elementary school art show. It was really sweet as every single student in the school had something on display. Here's Lily's artwork and her smiling proudly before it.





After 2 weeks of sick kids, we finally had a day without fevers, medicines etc. It was so nice and I could tell the kids were just happy to feel good. We headed on over to a local park with a lot of gardens and had a picnic. Then we spent a good amount of time exploring the frog pond. Both Andrew and Lily loved spotting the tadpoles and frogs. Every time one of the frogs would make their strange little gutteral sounds they'd run in the direction it came from. We also spotted 2 turtles and 2 snakes. One snake was resting in the reeds and a teeny, tiny one was swimming in the pond. I'm not a snake person, but even I though the little one who was about the size of a pencil was cute. It was such a nice afternoon.