The Adventures of Hannah Mei & Crew

Happy New Year!

2012-01-06T08:21:00.006-05:00

We are in the process of changing computers in our house and that is why my posts have been less than consistent... ahem, or even non-existent if you'd like to be more specific. I will try to do better, but until we get things set up I will be having technical difficulties, please stand by...

More importantly, Happy New Year to you all!

And since you have been missing some Hannah McCuteness, here are some pictures taken of Hannah during a wedding we attended in December. Enjoy!

This is Mr. Jeremy. Mr. Jeremy works with Hannah's Dad and Hannah thinks he is the bomb. She calls him Mr. Germy.

Hey, look! I'm in a picture on the blog. See miracles do happen.
:-)

my apologies

2011-12-13T12:39:00.002-05:00

Nothing against Hannah in a Wonder Woman costume, but I was getting sick of looking at her too! Sorry for the delay - here is Hannah in dance class during last week's Parent Watch Week... you know like Shark Week, but no sharks. ;-)

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T13:11:00.014-05:00

Wonder Woman! I don't know about you, but I thought Hannah made an excellent Wonder Woman.

She even got the pose right.

And of course the spinning.

Hannah got to wear her costume twice this year. Once for our church's Halloween party and the second time for trick or treating.

This is Hannah's attempt to paint her own arm. She said it was a heart. Not too shabby.

Here is Hannah with her cousins: Greyson (Black Spiderman) and Ayden (Spiderman).

We did not go to as many houses this year for trick or treating. Instead we went to a local church's Halloween event. They had lots of games for the kids.

Even a panda!
Happy Halloween!
:-)

Hot Cocoa! Hot Cocoa for sale for Haiti!

2011-10-17T12:57:00.004-05:00

We had a yard sale a few weeks ago and we thought it would be a good idea for Hannah to sell some refreshments. And since the weather was a bit chilly, hot cocoa and cookies were on the menu. Hannah raised $25.00 for our church's Haiti fund. Good job sweetheart!
:-)

Her bangs! Her bangs!

2011-10-12T10:18:00.010-05:00

Early into this past summer Hannah decided that she wanted to grow out her bangs. Correction: she thought she could just cut her bangs off and be done with it, so Mommy and Daddy had to convince her that in order to get rid of her bangs, she needed to grow them out, not cut them off.

So you may have noticed over the course of the last several months that we have been using every hair clip in our arsenal to keep her bangs at bay:

Some attempts have been more successful than others.

In any event, I figured it was high time to at least provide you with a glimpse of where Hannah's bangs are now untethered...

Ta da!
Is it me, or do "watched bangs never grow"? Hannah's idea of just cutting them off doesn't sound so bad...

Just kidding! Here's our pretty girl sporting the side swoop that we can never seem to achieve without hair clips. And yes, she was about to go to sleep when Mommy took these pictures. Wake up Hannah! Photo shoot time!
:-)

Love what you do

2011-10-06T08:17:00.003-05:00

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.” — Steve Jobs

His inventions have been such a huge part of my life for so long, I can't but help to feel sad. Thank you, Mr. Jobs for changing the world.
:-(

A Fair to Remember

2011-09-21T08:05:00.023-05:00

The Cabarrus County Fair never seems to disappoint. We've gone every year since we brought Hannah home and always have a good time.

This year we went with Sierra and Dakota (Sierra is Hannah's best friend). I think we did this last year too - this is becoming a tradition!

The girls had a wonderful time riding all the rides their height would allow. And as you can see in these pictures, the weather was just perfect!

This was the first year that we got to enjoy the pig races. I did not realize how big of a deal the races were - we had to stake our claim on the bleachers at least 40 minutes ahead of time since we got shut out of the first show we tried to see. The pigs were awesome! The things those little pigs will do for an Oreo (prize at the finish line).

I did not realize that pigs were such good swimmers!

Isn't this little guy cute?

This is how they end the pig races. A-dorable.

The girls decided that they wanted to go on one last ride before we left. They all wanted to go down this huge slide.

Sidebar: Mamma Bear (aka Me) is not a fan of heights or scary-sliding-down-slide-thingies. But I am trying to not impose my hang-ups on Hannah, so I say sure, "Let's stand in line!" Besides Hannah loves roller coasters (at least the kiddie kind so far) which makes Papa Bear very happy that he'll finally have someone to ride the roller coasters with.

So we wait in line, and I send my precious delight of a little girl to ascend the VERY long staircase alone. Then I watch as my daughter comes down the slide (after she was given a little shove by the worker at the top) with a look of sheer terror on her face.

See? Doesn't she look scared? Yeah, she was really freaked out. I think this may be the last time she willingly goes down one of these slides. Hopefully she will be willing to still ride the roller coasters.

After the fair, we went back to the house and enjoyed "Nanny McPhee 2" on our blow-up movie screen. We bought this setup for Hannah's birthday party, but since the yellow jackets decided to end the party early, we did not get to show off our movie screen.

Luckily the weather was warm enough to sit and relax and watch a movie with friends.
:-)

My new friend.

2011-09-07T08:55:00.006-05:00

Say hello to my new friend. I call him "Charlie" (doesn't he look like a Charlie?).

I found him running through our yard this morning. I called to him and lo and behold he came right up to me. Sweetest dog ever.

I called Animal Control and they came by and picked him up. Keep your fingers crossed that this sweet man either finds his owner or gets adopted. No worries, we will keep an eye on Charlie to make sure he does not fall into the wrong hands.

UPDATE: I have checked up on "Charlie" and he is safe and sound in a no-kill shelter waiting to capture the heart of a new owner. Good luck "Charlie"!

:-)

Tooth fairy, you are welcome.

2011-09-02T08:30:00.007-05:00

Guess what! The tooth fairy finally got to pay a visit to the Davis household! Isn't this tooth fairy pillow the cutest? I got it here. Yes, Momma bear loves etsy.

And here is where the tooth used to be. I will spare you the nasty details, but let's just say that Hannah and Daddy were NO help in getting this tooth out. Momma bear had to go all Jersey on the tooth to get it out. Guuurrrrl, hold my rings.
;-)

First Day of First Grade... sigh.

2011-08-25T07:25:00.006-05:00

Here are some photos from this morning along with a comparison to last year. Is it me or does she look like she is sixteen? I am old.
:-(

Check the sparkle shoes. Oh yeah.

Happy 6th Birthday Connor!

2011-08-22T10:00:00.009-05:00

Connor and his family were kind enough to invite us to his skating birthday party this year.

This was Hannah's maiden voyage on the eight wheels of thunder and she did really well. She fell about every two inches, but she kept a smile on her face the entire time.

Yes, girls become one with the wall. Love the wall, for she is your friend.

I like to call this picture "Who's she?".
It seems that Hannah has been replaced in Connor's heart. And of course she is blonde. Neither of us had the heart to tell Hannah, she just went along with the intrusion for this picture. Subtlety is not part of a six-year-old's world.

Goodbye, sweet Connor. May your new blonde friend love you as much as Hannah did.
Single tear.
:-)

Happy 6th Birthday Sierra!

2011-08-05T15:06:00.005-05:00

Who would have thought that an inflatable water slide could offer hours of fun? Apparently these kids did.
Happy Birthday Sierra!
:-)

This morning's cuteness

2011-08-03T08:46:00.010-05:00

I interrupt my regularly scheduled catch-up posts to bring you a snippet of cuteness from my conversation with Hannah this morning. She is going to a day camp near my office this week, which means plenty of girl talk during the drive. Since today is "Impersonate a Rockstar" at camp, Hannah is all glittered and pink from head to toe.

We had a discussion about who Hannah is impersonating; several candidates were discussed, Hannah Montana, Madonna, P!nk and Britney Spears. During that conversation, I mentioned that P!nk is having a baby. Here is the script:

Me - "Hannah, did you know that Pink just had a baby?"
Hannah - "No, really?!"
Me - "Yes, she just had a baby, so she is little like baby Sophie."
Hannah - "I want to pray for Pink's baby to be safe."
Me - "You are a sweet girl, honey. But I don't know the baby's name".
Hannah - "Is it Purple?"

Wait for it... and smile.

By the way Hannah chose Britney Spears for her impersonation. She is on the comeback tour.
:-)

Sidenote: Here is Hannah dressed as a pirate the following week of camp. Ain't she a cutey?

Talent Show 6th Birthday Party

2011-08-01T09:16:00.030-05:00

Ever since Hannah asked for a talent show birthday party (about one day after last year's birthday party) I have been trying to figure out how to pull this off. I didn't want it to be circus-y or too fashion-showy. So I started to think about what kinds of talents a six-year-old could possess. I focused on art, dress-up, music, sports and overall horsing around. Then I went about creating stations for the kids to basically run around and exhibit their talents.

For last year's birthday party recap, I don't think I included the invitation. While this year's invitation was not as elaborate, I thought it turned out okay. I was going for a six-year-old version of Moulin Rouge. Eh.

This year, I did go a little crazy on the cake. Apparently I need to obsess over one birthday party detail per year. Last year, it was the invitations complete with custom party soundtrack. This year, it was the cake. Check out the frankenstein diagram I put together to create the ultimate "talent show" birthday cake.

I was really happy with it. The size was perfect, there was very little fonDANT and it tasted delicious!

Birthday girl posing with the photobooth props.

Hannah's birthday party walk of fame. I was hoping to have the kids write their name on each star, but I ran out of time. Sigh.

This is the art station. I used an old chalk board and gave the kids a bunch of paint brushes, chalk and water and asked them to go to town.

And here is the stage. This turned out to be the main stage where the kids got to play dress-up, sing, dance, act and play instruments. It was funny to watch them adlib with each other.

Here is my handsome handsome getting the snow cone machine set up. Highly recommend a snow cone machine. As you can see from the snow cone stained faces - it was big hit.

Here is an example of the overall horsing around.

Panoramic shot of the whole party.

Sidebar: This shot was taken about five minutes before Hannah got stung by three yellow jackets. Apparently while the kids were running around the yard, my daughter got too close to a nest, and zing! zap! ouch! There goes the rest of the party. Actually, it only took Hannah about half an hour to regain her composure. It worked out well because we just had the rest of the party in the house. We did get back to the outdoor movie (which was AWESOME by the way), but we started the movie too late for many of the kids to stay.

This is Connor. If you have been following this blog for awhile, you already know about Connor. Simply put, Hannah just loves Connor. She met him in daycare and has missed him ever since she graduated. We thought that she would meet someone new at school, but apparently no one can hold a candle to him. Too bad that Connor's family does not live in the same town. Here's a secret, don't tell Hannah, we are going to Connor's birthday party this Saturday. Hannah knows that we are going to a birthday party, but she doesn't know who its for. Shhhhhh.:-)

Creative Camp

2011-07-24T12:38:00.006-05:00

This being our first year of CAMP, we wanted to explore the options that this area has to offer. Chris found a creative camp that was near our house that sounded really promising. The camp focused on creativity and they explored science, art, storytelling, singing, dancing and more. Hannah loved this camp, and I think we will sign her up again for next year. The picture above is from the day that Hannah had to dress like a fashionista complete with funky hair and tutu skirt wrapped low on the hips.
:-)

Recital 2011... finally!

2011-07-22T15:01:00.010-05:00

Here is a comparison of Hannah's dancing career thus far. I am tickled that black seems to be the consistent thread that runs through all of her costumes.

Supa Star!

The tap routine was very fast. I kept thinking that it was too fast all year - but I never said anything because I am not one of THOSE Moms. Besides, I am not a dance teacher - what do I know? I figured it would all work out in the end. Yeah, well no. The music stopped about two minutes before the girls stopped dancing. At least everyone got their moves in!

Hey look! They are almost in sync. It's a dance recital miracle.

Big finale. Looks whose too busy looking at the camera instead of raising her arms. The girl loves the camera.

Bravo! Bravo!
:-)

Saint Simons Island vacation

2011-07-21T07:53:00.029-05:00

This year the Davis family decided that it was about time to do a "relaxing vacation". I don't know about you, but whenever we go on vacation, it seems that we are constantly running from place to place with very little down time. We've never been "just lay on the beach all day" kind of people. But this year we felt that we needed a getaway. Saint Simons was recommended to us by a few people, so we decided to give it a try. Here are some highlights:

The Saint Simons Lighthouse.

Hannah's best friend from daycare and her family were able to spend the weekend with us. It made the weekend a lot of fun and we were sorry to see them go.

I don't know what it is but when you combine the Davis family with water you get Hannah thrown in the air shots. This one is from the pool.

And this one is from the ocean.

Here is Hannah sitting in George W. Bush's chair from the G8 Summit held on Saint Simons Island back in 2004.

And here we are at the Sea Turtle Center... and it is CLOSED! Cue the sad music. Waaaa, waaa.

No worries, we came back the next day! Yeah! All is saved.

Family photos in front of pretty trees.

This is the bridge from Jekyll Island (where the sea turtle center is) to Saint Simons Island. Isn't it cool?

Uh oh. Storm is coming in. You know the weather couldn't be perfect ALL week right?

We tried to get some ocean time in before the bottom dropped out.

Stupid storm!

While we were on vacation, I arranged for Hannah to take some swim lessons. Because of our long hours and crazy commutes, swim lessons just haven't been something we could manage. Hannah learned how to float and kick, stroke her arms and put her head under water. The lessons really helped with her confidence and now she is a fish!

The island also had a beautiful public pool that I wished we found sooner. We had a lot of fun just swimming around at this pool.

Group shot at the awesome pool. Notice I cropped Chris's chest down - y'all know why, this blog is for kids too!

The last two shots take some explaining. While we were at the Sea Turtle Center, they offered to sign up for some night walks of the beach. We scheduled our tour the last day we were on vacation. The hope was that we would come upon a mommy sea turtle laying her eggs. And with a lot of luck and some serious walking in the complete pitch black... we did! The first picture is her tracks and the second is the nest. Sorry about no pictures of the turtle itself, like I said it was pitch black and no flash photography was allowed. These pictures were taken after mommy turtle was back in the water.

Overall, we had a wonderful time and would recommend Saint Simons Island to anyone looking for a family-friendly retreat!
:-)

Happy 5th Birthday Austin!

2011-07-15T14:27:00.005-05:00

Doesn't Austin's cake look awesome? Austin had his birthday party at a park nearby. We've gone to several parties at this park (including Hannah's 4th birthday party) and this park never disappoints.

The park has a great splash pad that in years past, Hannah has been very hesitant to get her face wet. Well, this year all that has changed. Hannah has been more brave than ever before in getting her face wet.

If I didn't have these pictures, I am not sure I would believe it myself.

What a big girl!
:-)

Shark Teeth Who Ha Ha!

2011-07-14T11:19:00.006-05:00

I would like to apologize for the obscure "Finding Nemo" reference. Ahem, moving on...

Our baby finally got some adult teeth coming in! They are right behind the baby ones in front, hence the shark teeth reference. Hey, I found it online so it MUST be true.

Thankfully the baby teeth are wiggly so it is just a matter of time before the tooth fairy has to scrape some cash together. Can't the tooth fairy just leave her checkcard? Cause that would be so much easier!

BTW, have you heard how much teeth are going for these days? The most I heard was ten bucks. TEN dollars. Are you kidding me? I was thinking the tooth fairy was going to give one dollar per tooth. That way, we'll be able to afford the massive amounts of orthodontia that the adult teeth will more than likely need instead of going broke paying for the teeth that have already fallen out.

:-)

Happy 6th Birthday Hannah!

2011-07-05T07:43:00.003-05:00

Hannah was VERY excited for her birthday today. I don't think she got much sleep last night. Good thing she got all sugared up on ice cream cake this morning! Yummy!

Hannah got a cute little laptop for her birthday. Now she can go on "sproutonline.com" all by herself. Next thing we know she will be writing code for NASA.
:-)

Happy Fathers Day!

2011-06-23T12:49:00.003-05:00

Hannah painted a ceramic turtle for Daddy to put on his desk at work for Fathers Day. This is what the turtle looked like before it was fired. I'll have to try and get a photo of the after.
:-)

Rehearse this and Happy Birthday Savannah!

2011-06-14T12:45:00.013-05:00

My, my.
Herding wet cats comes to mind when I look at these dress rehearsal photos. And this photo was one of the better ones. Say goodbye to Juilliard. Sigh.

You know I kid. She had a great time and that's what counts the most.

Coincidentally, one of the little girls in Hannah's dance class was having a birthday party the same day as the dress rehearsal.

Happy Birthday Savannah! Savannah's birthday party was Rapunzel-themed. The cake was so cool - but it was also very tasty and it was eaten before I could snap a photo.

:-)

Last day of kindergarten!

2011-06-09T08:29:00.002-05:00

:-)

The Dragon Boat Festival

2011-05-26T08:15:00.010-05:00

This year we decided that we were not going to miss the Dragon Boat festival. And lo and behold, we actually made it happen!

Hannah with this year's "Miss Asia". Hmmmmmm, maybe that could be Hannah in a few years?

Cole and Hannah posing... get it? Bridging East and West? I know, I am a dork.

And they're off!!

As a benefit to the victims of the Japanese earthquake, there was booth where you can be instructed on how to make a paper crane.

A lovely day!
:-)

Gaslight Circus, Peepshow Cabaret & Pittsboro

2011-05-24T16:22:00.026-05:00

After a few minutes of relaxing after the Liberty Antiques festival, we decided to walk into downtown Pittsboro to see what was going on. Lucky for us the Gaslight Circus and the Peepshow Cabaret were in town!

Apparently, the Gaslight Circus is one day event where downtown Pittsboro gets turned into a Victorian Circus. The performers were stationed throughout different stores in town performing all kinds of mini-acts. They also offered face painting. When Hannah was asked what she wanted her face painted like... she said a gypsy princess. I think the end result was pretty convincing.

Next we stumbled upon the Peepshow Cabaret. I was really impressed with the performance. All of the performers performed skit after skit of really professional routines scenes set to music.

They even had mimes!

And a guy on stilts!

Hannah was impressed too.

Hannah wanted to talk to one of the mimes after the show. He was the only performer she wanted to meet. And of course it looks like she is yelling at him in this picture, but actually she was playing with him.

The next morning, after a de-li-cious breakfast, we decided to take walk around the neighborhood. Again, we got lucky and stumbled across this gem of a park.

As you can see there was lots of different things to do at this park. But by far, Hannah's favorite was the huge sandbox.

Hannah and Daddy made a few castles.

And then Hannah made it snow on the castles.

Seriously, I had to beg her to leave the sandbox. Poor thing, she used to have a sandbox at home until her mean parents threw it away (because it was filled with ants). And now her new sand TABLE is stuck in purgatory (otherwise known as the garage).

After the surprise secret park, we walked back to the downtown area and they were having yet another festival. Apparently, the first Sunday of the month is a mini crafts show complete with things for the kids to do... like chalk!

and bubbles...!

and rubber duckies...?!

and a bouncy house!
I gotta say if this series of events does not convince you that we lead charmed lives that we are extremely thankful for, I don't know what will.
:-)

Hannah's Bookcase

2011-05-16T13:46:00.011-05:00

Inspired by this bookcase but not by the $199.00 price tag along with the fact that this item is out of stock, I went on a search for a more cost effective alternative. On a whim, I stumbled across a listing on craigslist and less than 4 hours later we were the proud owners of this baby:

And after some much-needed TLC along with "Hannah's ruby red" paint job and some leftover vinyl decals, here is what she looks like now:

Of course, we went ahead and placed all of Hannah's books on the shelf right after this picture. Can you believe that she has enough books to almost fill this sucker? I'm not complaining, I'm just impressed.
:-)

Liberty 2011

2011-05-09T09:58:00.016-05:00

Here are some scenes from our favorite antiques show. Luckily, one of the Liberty Antiques Shows falls towards the end of April (the second one is in September). And since our wedding anniversary and our family day anniversary are also at the end of April, we usually make a long weekend of antiquing, lounging and lovely family time.

One of the reasons it is our favorite show is the stuff. They seem to always have good quality reasonably priced stuff.

There is also a nice variety of items to look at. We never get bored at this show. By the way, we bought the smaller rug hanging up in this photo. It's new home is on my side of bed. Love it.

Ain't he cute? Don't you want to buy this hub cap for him so he can eventually install it on his truck? Yeah, me neither.

Another reason we like this show (this one may be all me) is the homemade root beer stand. One of their signature tin mugs is $6 but it comes with $1 refills for life! Our mug is from 2008 and you can bet your bottom we have been bringing the mug with us ever since. You can also see Hannah's sweet ride in this photo. Apparently several people remembered us from the previous year driving Hannah around in her wagon... or maybe they just remembered Hannah, or maybe they remembered us struggling to pull Hannah after the wagon was weighed down with antique goodness. Oh knows.

Must. not. buy. expensive. metal. numbers. Must. resist.

Another reason we like this show is that the dealers are friendly and knowledgeable. You can feel comfortable asking them anything. See the two black chairs in this photo? The one on the ground is worth a couple hundred dollars and the one on top of the table is worth several thousand. Confused? Apparently the one on the table has the original finish and is an original Windsor chair made in blah, blah, blah-biddy blah... yeah he lost me at several thousand. But he was still very nice and knowledgeable.

I've been digging these white porcelain pitchers lately, but I haven't been able to bring myself to buy one. There is so much I can do with one, but I guess my hold up is where I would put them. Sigh.

And since Hannah was very well behaved all day, she got to pick out three costume jewelry necklaces. Here she is displaying her lovely jewels. Oooohhhh, aaaahhhhh.
:-)

Easter Loot

2011-05-05T16:03:00.005-05:00

After all the Easter egg hunting, you would think that Hannah was all tapped out. But alas, thanks to her generous grandparents (ahem... and us) Hannah also got thoroughly spoiled on Easter morning. Here are some of her favorites...

Easter morning Hannah was asked to say a little prayer in front of the congregation. She said her sweet Good Night prayer that she says before bedtime and brought the house down. Sweetie pie.
:-)

Egg Drop 2011

2011-05-02T16:23:00.025-05:00

Hello all! Before we get too far away from Easter, I wanted to share some pictures. We went to two Easter egg hunts this year: one at our church and the second at the Lazy 5 Ranch.

The weather was pretty iffy in the morning so the church's egg drop was inside.

By the afternoon, the skies were clear and the ground was mostly dry. The Lazy 5 Ranch was crowded, but thankfully there was enough room for everyone. The helicopter did a good job of scattering the eggs.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the day (too bad it is blurry). I think it really captures the chaos that is an Easter egg hunt. I even managed to get the lady dressed as the Easter bunny on the right side of the photo. On the other hand, this photo does make Hannah look a little more aggressive than she truly is. At least when it comes to egg hunts.

This shot is more like it. Hannah likes to mosey. She would walk to find the egg, and when she spots one, slowly bend down and SNAP! it's gone. She would then do a half shrug and move on to the next patch of grass and SNAP! SNAP! two more eggs are gone... you get the picture. She really didn't care much about the eggs at all. I guess she is an easy-going little girl.

Hannah was much more interested in holding the bunnies. The Lazy 5 Ranch set up a penned area for the kids to torment some cute bunnies.

Whatever these bunnies got for participating in this event - it was not enough. Can you see the look of terror in their eyes? Sorry to the lady bending over in the background of this photo... if I had more time, I would try to retouch you out, or at least hike up your pants.

After the egg hunt, we went to visit the animals. Here is Hannah's favorite, the turtle... or I guess this is a tortoise.

After all the families that came through and fed these guys, I could not believe that some of them were still hungry. Or maybe these are the backup animals that don't usually make it to the fence in time?

After the egg hunts, bunny holding and animal feeding (and subsequent hand sanitizing), we thought it was as good of a time as any to drive through the animal park. This time we decided to drive our own car - which was nice because a good portion of the animals were very plump and seemed to be getting their mats out for nap time. Having our own car gave us the flexibility to zip past them (at a whopping 3 miles per hour, mind you).

I think Hannah's favorite part was that she was allowed to sit on my lap as we drove through. It was like a whole new world was opened up to her.

Davis family on safari. Chris looks concerned.

"Don't feed the zebra!" as Hannah and I say this in unison (we remembered this instruction from our last trip) Chris holds the bucket out for Mr. Zebra and he quickly RIPS it out of his hand. There goes bucket #1.

We lost the second bucket because I basically threw it at one of these longhorns in order to get his head out of our car and so he wouldn't mistaken Hannah for a white bucket of feed.

We are not good at the bucket thing.
Happy Easter!
:-)

ChalkWork

2011-04-22T13:23:00.010-05:00

Here are some of the latest pieces of art that have graced our patio and driveway lately.

This one is called "China". Baby Amelia is there in front along with a turtle (Hannah's favorite toy when she was a baby and now I guess it will be Amelia's. Sorry Amelia, I hope you like turtles.) Hannah put a rattle in Amelia's hand. Awwhhhh. Notice the Great Wall of China in the background?

I couldn't help but notice that Amelia looks like Jack Jack from the Incredibles. Remember when Jack Jack turned into a monster to get away from Syndrome at the end? Yeah... okay.

Now this one is entitled "Hop the stones or you will get eaten". Eaten by a variety of dangerous water creatures that is. Missing from this shot is the octopus and the water snake - they are sort of around the corner.

Watch as Hannah demonstrates the challenge.

See? It's easy!

So easy, I will do it again! (showoff)

And finally this is a dress or an elaborate crime scene outline that Hannah is demonstrating, I forget which. Happy Chalk!
:-)

Take five at the Lazy 5 Ranch

2011-04-08T11:36:00.007-05:00

Since I have made you look at the Mama Goose way too long, I am throwing these images up for your viewing pleasure from our family trip to the Lazy Five Ranch. I will post commentary as soon as I can. Enjoy!

Mama Goose

2011-03-24T10:46:00.007-05:00

Say hello mama goose. Mama goose is now on fulltime nest duty. She rarely leaves the nest, but she did fly away briefly this morning so I was able to take a glimpse at her eggs (I only saw one).

Since I try to park far from the door of my office (in a feeble attempt at some exercise because I find myself at my desk ALL DAY LONG) my car usually sits at the very back of the parking lot right in front of an old tree stump. I noticed that there has been some activity around the tree stump over the last few weeks - additional pile of sticks here, a random feather there and then one day... mama goose! I get to say good morning and good night to mama goose five days a week.

Since I can't seem to get it together for the next Hannah-post (believe me I am trying) I just thought I'd share.
:-)

Prince would be proud

2011-03-03T16:48:00.003-05:00

Ta da! Here is Hannah's dance costume. This is the tap version of the costume...

And this is the ballet version of the costume.

There are some of the girls from Hannah's class. Don't you want to pinch those cheeks?
:-)

Commercials

2011-02-23T11:25:00.014-05:00

How can you tell if your child is watching too much TV? Well, I'll tell ya. If she starts making special requests for products like:

"Mommy is this BATH TISSUE Charmin Ultra Soft? Because that is my favorite BATH TISSUE".

Or if she makes over-stated claims about products that you have never heard of:
"Mommy! Mommy! You have to try Bare Minerals! It will change your life!"

Or if she starts sounding like an adult:
"Daddy did you know that there is a flat rate box?"

Oh yeah.

Dear Sprout,
While our daughter greatly enjoys your children's programs, she seems to be more intrigued by the commercials. I suppose that having our five-year-old join the consumer masses was inevitable. Sigh.

:-)

Happy 6th Birthday Cole... Man.

2011-02-22T12:56:00.007-05:00

Can't believe ColeMan is 6! Cole's Mom hosted his sixth birthday party at one of those bouncy-house places.

I just can't resist getting action shots of my two favorite people.

Sorry Cole, almost everytime I take your picture - you end up with red eye. My bad.

"TMNT: stands for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... in case you were wondering.

Happy Birthday sweet man. You are getting to be such a big boy.
:-)

Float, Flutter, Fairy Festival

2011-02-13T16:57:00.009-05:00

I'm sorry you guys, I usually don't do this but I have put this post together without any thought to commentary. I haven't had time to put something clever together, so I am going to just let the images speak for themselves.

We went to a fairy festival. It was lovely.

A good time was had by all. The End.
:-)

100th Day of School

2011-02-09T09:09:00.007-05:00

So yesterday was Hannah's 100th day of school. NOT that I am counting, but apparently Hannah's teachers are counting. Yikes! Not sure what that says about Hannah...

Anyway, they had a big 100th day celebration - complete with a 100 tiny snacks and 100th day crown for the children to wear. The teachers asked the parents to dress their children as a 100 year old person. Chris thought that they meant a person from 1911 and I just thought a really old person. Guess who was right!

I must say that Hannah REALLY got into character for this. The "cane" (a cardboard tube) and the glasses were both her idea. She also wanted me to paint her hair gray - but I drew the line. She stayed in character all day long and even got off the bus as a little old lady. Already she's getting into the "Method". Yeesh.
:-)

Happy Chinese New Year 2011!

2011-02-07T11:14:00.022-05:00

Happy Chinese New Year! or "Gong Hei Fat Choi!" unless you are a smarty-pants five year old "Gong Xi Fa Cai!"

We decided to have a Chinese New Year party again this year. However, we wanted to make a few changes. In the past, we invited a lot of people (I guess we were thinking the more the merrier!) but we just didn't feel like WE had a good time. We felt like we didn't get to talk with anyone at the party because we were too busy running around. So this year we decided to keep it simple. We also reined in the menu a bit and changed the time of the party. It's a work in progress for sure. I'm thinking that by the time Hannah is in college, we'll get the knack of it. :-)

So now I am going to quickly walk you through our home(at least part of our humble abode) to show off some Chinese decorations and details. For those of you who have been to our home already, you can just scroll down to Hannah - I take no offense.

FYI - I am really hoping that the foil banners we hang by our front door every year mean nice things like "Welcome!" and "Good to see you!". Otherwise, there is someone who works at Oriental Trading that is truly evil.

Since this year on the Chinese zodiac is the year of the rabbit, my Mom thought it would be cute to put the bunnies by the welcome sign. I love the idea, although I'm not sure if we can stay current with every zodiac animal. Concrete dragon anyone?

Tangerines or oranges are given as gifts in China since their Chinese names sound similar to the words "gold" and "wealth". Here is the front entry complete with a bowl full of oranges... er clementines. Do you think it makes a difference that I used clementines instead of oranges. Hmmmm.

Here is the craft area. Every year we pick a different craft to keep the kids busy. This year we chose bunny visors, and although we put some of the pieces together ahead of time, the glue took way too long to dry for anyone to enjoy them. Anyone want a bunny visor?

Red umbrellas going up the stairs... just cuze.

Here is the table before all of the food came. Red Velvet cupcakes, yum!

This is the first year I tried making dessert sushi. I know, I know, sushi is Japanese but I could not resist. The "sushi" is gummy worms surrounded rice crispy treats wrapped with fruit roll ups. In other words sugar surrounded by sugar wrapped in sugar. I was afraid that the sushi was going to make the kids really hyper, but they must have built up a resistance.

To burn off some of the "sushi" sugar we played a game. It's called "Lame Hen" and the kids did really well. They were surpisingly adept at hopping on one leg very quickly. Ahhh, youth.

Here are all of the girls lined up on the stairs. Ours is the one with the stuffed panda on her head. I almost forgot to mention - each girl in this photo represents their age from age four up to age nine. Isn't that cool?

We were really happy with the turnout and everyone seemed to have a good time. We got to talk about our various adoption experiences - it was nice to talk to a group of people that know exactly where you are coming from. We hope to get this group together again soon.

Happy Chinese New Year!
:-)

Name That Tune

2011-01-27T10:30:00.010-05:00

Guess what song Hannah is going to be dancing to for her tap class!

...

Come one, take a guess!

...

I bet you'll NEVER guess!

...

Okay, here's a hint. It's by this guy:

...

And it's from this album:

...

And it's not "Purple Rain", "When Doves Cry" or "Darling Nikki". It is a child's dance recital after all. Although, don't think that "Let's Go Crazy" didn't cross my mind.

...

Drumroll...

I am pleased to announce that Hannah's tap routine is to "Baby I'm a Star" by Prince. It was the B side to "Take Me with U". Remember when there were such a thing as "B sides"... what do they call them now? Are they called "2nd-song-option-that-we-as-the-record-execs-don't-think-will-generate-as-much-money-as-the-first-song"? Anyway, can you tell I am excited?

BTW, Hannah's ballet routine is going to be to a song from "Polar Express", blah, blah, blah but who cares. We're talking about old school Prince, people!
:-)

Snow Day

2011-01-09T19:23:00.013-05:00

Right after Christmas, we got the most well-timed delightful snowstorm. Well-timed because it was on a weekend and therefore Chris didn't have to go into work (to make sure the roads were clear on the corporate campus where he works) and delightful because it did not cover the roads and wreck havoc on the precarious balance which is the roadways of North Carolina. The snow was also perfect for packing - snowballs and snowmen... ahem, I mean snow princesses... as you shall soon see.

Did I mention this snow was perfect for snowballs? In fact, there's one coming at me right now... What, you don't see it?

How about now? Don't worry, he didn't get me - that time.

Hannah was nice enough to clean my car off for me. What a good little helper.

And then she proceeded to kick and throw snow down where Daddy had just finished shoveling. Stinker.

And now she's going to throw a snowball at me?

I don't think so. Hee hee.

What a lovely snow princess, complete with crown and wand!

:-)

Merry Christmas!

2011-01-03T17:00:00.004-05:00

Here are some scenes from this year's Christmas. If you look close, you can see that Mommy got a hot pink snuggie this year. Oh yeah.

These are the presents from Santa this year. I'm trying to keep track of what Santa brought, so you know, to keep the dream alive. And to keep Christmas from getting completely out of control, we started the tradition of Santa bringing three things: something to wear, something to read and something to play with. This rule did not seem to phase Hannah in the least, so I think we will stick with it.

Hannah favorite gift this year appears to be the Olivia playhouse.

And of course Hannah got an "H" pillow. Why has every child that I have given a letter pillow to this year try to wrap it around their neck? Hmmmm.
:-)

Three years... sheesh.

2010-12-24T07:35:00.014-05:00

So if you look above at the ticker, we have been waiting three years now for our second child. Instead of speculating how much longer we will wait (because there is no way to know) and since the wait is really starting to wear us down (again, because there is no way to know): I've decided to keep things light. I've collected a bunch of things that I like that are in threes. Here goes:

I'll add more things as I think of them throughout the day. Are there things that you like in threes? (keep it clean people)
;-)

2010 Christmas Parade

2010-12-23T17:16:00.004-05:00

Scenes from this year's Christmas parade...

Father Daughter Dance

2010-12-22T17:00:00.005-05:00

Hannah and Daddy's first dance. Ain't they cute?
:-)

Dance Class update

2010-12-17T17:33:00.006-05:00

This year Hannah is taking a combination tap & ballet dance class. Last week was "parent watch" week so we were able to peek in on her shenanigans. Enjoy!

:-)

And now for the rest of the story

2010-12-16T16:49:00.014-05:00

Here's a few more pictures from our Thanksgiving trip... Once I put these pictures together, it looks like Hannah is on the campaign trail. Shaking babies and kissing hands...

Hannah with Grandma Debbie and Aunt Net-Net.

Hannah with the famous (or infamous whichever story you believe) Uncle Billy.

Time for a fashion shoot.

A very nice Japanese man took this photo for us. ありがとう!

Time with Grandpa.

Hannah talking about her plans for the future. Notice the men are not paying attention.

Hannah got to meet baby Ivy. Hannah was very careful with her.

Hannah with Uncle Billy AND Uncle Rob. I think this is the first time we got both uncles in one photo with Hannah. A Thanksgiving miracle.
:-)

Open the Door, Get on the Floor...

2010-12-15T16:35:00.011-05:00

Everybody do the Dinosaur!

Hannah had a mental list of dinosaurs that she wanted to see. Although I'm not sure she didn't change it based on the dinosaur bones that were in front of her at every turn. She did say at one point that she wanted to see seven dinosaurs. But again, she's five, so we'll give her some slack.

The good news is is that she saw way more than seven. And posed differently in front of each one. The girl's got range. This pose is called "Ain't I a Stinker?".

And this pose is "There is a WHAT behind me??"

And this is Hannah's "Blue Steel" pose or "Hey look my Mom's hair is turning grey!" or "Eat your heart out Kai-lan".

Here are some pretty pictures of Central Park on our way back.

See I told you it was beautiful.

My two favorite people...

... and quite literally the center of everything. At least MY everything.
:-)

New York, New York, its a wonderful town...

2010-12-13T08:26:00.021-05:00

My apologies for the "On the Town" reference. What can I say, I was raised on show tunes.

The first day that we were up in NJ, we decided to head into NYC. Hannah wanted to see dinosaur bones and the best place we could think of was the American Museum of Natural History.

On our way to the museum, we walked through Central Park. The weather was absolutely perfect. It was a sunny not-too-cold but chilly enough for a heavy coat kind of day.

And I guess I was so fixated on our trip and getting to the museum, that it totally slipped my mind that the Thanksgiving Day parade was going to be taking place the next day. We had to walk around various bleachers and barricades to get where we needed to go.

I am a big fan of the Thanksgiving Day parade. I love the Broadway show bits, the celebrity lip-sync attempts and the marching bands and the balloons. I insist on stopping all Thanksgiving meal prep to watch the parade on TV every year. Once I see Santa, then I can get back to work. One thing that I did not know was that the Thanksgiving Day parade ORIGINATES at the American Museum of Natural History. Did you know that?

As luck would have it, we stumbled across the prep area for the giant balloons that would be part of the Thanksgiving Day parade. They shut down both streets that flanked the American Museum of Natural History for the balloon prep.

They had signs up in front of each balloon stating who the character was and how long it has been in the parade.

And now we pause for a moment of silence for Shrek. You see, this was Shrek's last year in the parade. Thank you Sir Shrek, you served us well.

It got crowded pretty quick, so we weren't able to get as close to the other street of balloons. Regardless the balloons were a wonderful unexpected treat!

Stay tuned dinosaurs are coming.
:-)

A Tribute to the Statue of Liberty

2010-12-10T12:56:00.017-05:00

Hopefully you are all aware by now of Hannah's mini-crush on the Statue of Liberty. We're not entirely sure where this started, but we think it was with this hotel:

This is the New York New York Hotel in Las Vegas. We drove past it when we were visiting my Dad in Las Vegas last year. Keep in mind, we drove PAST it. We didn't stay there nor did we point her out when we did drive past. This kid does not miss A THING.

Since that visit Hannah has started posing like the Statue of Liberty. At first we were not sure what she was doing and then later we totally fed into it with cheers of "Do the Statue of Liberty!". This photo above is the first one I remember seeing...

and then she did it again...

and again...

and again.
Flash forward to this year's Thanksgiving in New Jersey. We figured that while we were up in the tri-state area, we would be remiss if we did not visit the giant green lady.

Unfortunately, the weather was not completely in our favor, but that did not keep us from the Statue of Liberty. This is Hannah's first glimpse of her. Hannah kept saying throughout our visit "Mommy, she's so BIG!".

And of course I dragged Hannah's crown from her Halloween costume for her to wear on that day. Who do you think you are dealing with here?!

Despite the weather, we had a really nice visit to the Statue of Liberty. I even learned a couple of things. Did you know why she has seven spikes in her crown? It represents the seven continents and the seven seas. Also did you know that the Statue of Liberty closely resembles the artist's mother? (He openly admitted it in interviews.)

See - you learn something new every day!
:-)

Hannah's first Class Trip

2010-12-04T19:20:00.008-05:00

Hannah's first class trip was at the Children's Museum in Greensboro. If you have young children, and you find yourself in the Greensboro - I highly recommend it. It was a virtual wonderland of pretend play opportunities.

Here's my version of "Where's Waldo?" except "Waldo" is Hannah. Okay, can you find her? Oh come one, I circled her in red for you. My apologies, my circle is even tiny. Anyway, moving on.

Chris and I were lucky enough to both be able to go so we got two kids to chaperone. Amber is the second child we were responsible for and she is one of Hannah's closest friends. Isn't she a cutey?

Like I said, the museum is huge playground of pretend play scenarios: the girls ran around and got to be pilots, train operators, pizza makers...

firefighters, police officers, grocery clerks...

bakers, dentists, news casters...

meterologists, mail carriers, directors...

doctors, and oh you get the point. Whew!

There was also stage complete with dozens of dress up clothes. These outfits seemed to be the girls favorites because they wore them the longest.

After several hours of play - it was time go home. Since we drove separately from the bus, we were able to take Hannah directly home. Doesn't Amber look sad? sniff sniff
:-)

All I want for Christmas is a really big piano, a really big piano, a really big piano...

2010-11-30T08:50:00.013-05:00

Sheesh Lousie, this kid is spoiled. Hannah has always shown an interest in the piano. And when she "plays" on one, she never bangs on it - she just touches it delicately to really hear the sound that comes out of each key. So when we were coming up with ideas for Christmas presents this year - the idea of a piano came up. We were lucky enough to find one on craigslist and "viola!" we have piano. Unfortunately, hiding the piano was not an option, so we gave Hannah the piano right before Thanksgiving.

Here is Hannah at the "unveiling".
The second part of the present will be lessons that will hopefully start in January. Keep your fingers crossed that Hannah takes to it (cause you know her parents have her fingers crossed too!)

:-)

Happy 5th Birthday Greyson!

2010-11-16T12:49:00.007-05:00

Greyson had a lovely birthday party in the park. Thankfully the weather was just right.

Delicious Iron Man cake. Yummmmm.

All the kids had a great time. I took about one hundred pictures of the kids spinning on this thing. Are children less susceptible to dizziness than adults? I was getting dizzy just looking at them and they just wanted to keep spinning and spinning and spinning. Ahhh, youth.
:-)

Happy 4th Birthday Jadyn!

2010-11-09T16:49:00.003-05:00

Jadyn had a great idea for a birthday party. Since her birthday is close after Halloween, she asked for a costume party. Tha way, all of her guests got some extra use out of their costumes.

Jadyn even got a Halloween cake. Yummy!

Jadyn's Mommy always does a great job on the party games. She is willing to turn her house into a complete mess. Bless.

Since Hannah's Statue of Liberty costume was a bit bulky, we put her in last year's dance costume. Thankfully it still fit!
:-)

Chalk Art, revisited

2010-11-04T16:20:00.009-05:00

Last week, Grandma and Hannah greeted us in the driveway with some wonderful chalk artwork. I'm kind of jealous because it looks like they had a blast.

Here we are one big happy family. Hannah even included baby Amelia - sleeping happily in my arms. Oh and let the record show your Honor, Hannah drew Daddy's long arm because she wanted his hand on Mommy's shoulder. Mommy had NOTHING to do with the depiction off Daddy's freakishly long arm. ;-)

Then there was a turkey-off. Grandma's turkey looks little Amish, don't you think?

They even gave us room to park our cars around the artwork.

Thank you Grandma and Hannah for the lovely welcome home!
:-)

Halloween 2010 Part Two

2010-11-04T16:08:00.014-05:00

Trick or Treat!

IF. YOU. DARE.

Everyone, let's stop and pay homage to the Great Inflatable Pumpkin. Why do you ask? Because this Great Inflatable Pumpkin is hard. to. find. At least this particular Great Inflatable Pumpkin is hard to find. So last year when you fall in love with the Great Inflatable Pumpkin (or G.I.P. as I like to call him) and the lawn service visciously attacks GIP and leaves him for dead on your lawn with a giant hole in the side of his head, you are very sad. Then you spend the better half of November searching for a worthy replacement for GIP, but no black cat or stupid witch can hold a candle to GIP.

So you give up. You decide that it was not meant to be: GIP and you were not a match. Seasons change, fall becomes winter, winter to spring and spring to summer. Next thing you know it is September again and you are reminded by every Halloween display what you have lost. And then you find it. Or your husband finds it. And you order it as quickly as your credit card numbers will allow and you wait, wait, wait for GIP to come back to you. And he does! And you are together again. And this time, you elevate GIP on a "stage" of hay. Everyone gather round, GIP is back! Ohhhh, ahhhh.

Ahem, okay I'm glad I got that off my chest. Thanks for listening! Moving on.

BTW, I love that my Mom likes to dress up like a witch to hand out candy. Ain't she cute?

Since Ayden was not really cooperative for the trick or treating pictures, I posted the picture of him from the church's Halloween party so you can get the full Frankenstein effect.

Happy Halloween Everyone!
:-)

Charleston... it's about time!

2010-11-04T10:54:00.010-05:00

Goodness gracious, how long does it take to post some pictures around here? I'm sorry these pictures took so long, here is the rest of Charleston for your viewing pleasure:

The highlight of our trip to the Charleston Aquarium was the Sea Turtle Hospital. We took a tour through the facility and Hannah got to see a variety of sea turtles who were on the mend.

Hannah hanging out in the beautiful fountain.

Daddy and Hannah. Awwwww.

Mmmmmm, cupcakes.

Yum!

Thank you Honey for a wonderful weekend!

Halloween 2010 Part One

2010-11-02T07:33:00.022-05:00

These pictures are from the Halloween party that took place a week before Halloween at our local church.

Come on now, isn't she THE cutest Statue of Liberty ever? Yes, she might be missing the tablet - but still, she even had green sandals on people. BTW - did you know that the Statue of Liberty is NOT holding a book? I always thought it was a book. Duh. Anyway, she is holding a tablet with the date of the Declaration of Independence engraved in Roman numerals.

Welcome to Dr. Davis's Haunted Lab-BOR-atory. Chris likes to say "Lab-BOR-atory" instead of "Laboratory" but I didn't want to confuse the kids so I spelled it correctly on the sign.

When a willing victim, ahem, I mean participant reaches their hand into the hole, one of three bowls will be placed under their hand. Once they reach into the bowl, the participant needs to identify which body part they are touching: Brain, Heart, or Eyes. If the participant guesses correctly they win a prize. No worries, everyone won a prize.

See? they don't look so gross with the lights on do they?

This was the first time we did this activity with the kids and they seemed to really have a lot of fun with it. Some kids came back several times so they could touch every body part.

I love this picture of Mrs. Baucom. She was one of the few adults willing to try the game.

Yours truly was in charge of the cookie decorating station. Each child got to decorate their own sugar cookie with several different kinds of icing (i.e. sugar), sprinkles (i.e more sugar) and decorations (i.e. even more sugar). I practically went into a diabetic coma just watching these cookies being made.

Here are some of my favorite creations:

And of course, what is a Halloween party without some face painting?

Don't worry Hannah, Mommy & Daddy are working on a piano of your very own. Stay tuned.
:-)

Stone Mountain 101

2010-10-28T10:36:00.011-05:00

So after the Country Living "Fair", we felt it was only "fair" (hee hee get it?) to take the girls to see Stone Mountain. It has been a very long time since we had been to Stone Mountain - they have a lot of stuff for kids that completely slipped my mind.

And of course, where there is a rock - the girls must jump off of it. Thankfully into a parent's arms.

Did you know who is carved into Stone Mountain? ...Hold please while I look it up on Wikipedia (oh come on, you didn't think I retained that information did ya?) Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (and their favorites horses).

And did you know there is a train that goes all the way around Stone Mountain? Yeah, me neither. It was a very pleasant little loop we took on the train.

After the train ride we started to get settled for the laser light show. What? You didn't know there was a laser light show? Well, I did! (but I totally forgot until Anna's Mom mentioned it. snarf.)

Once we got the girls into their pajamas there was much tomfoolery and hijinks until the show started.

Hannah took this picture of us. Didn't she do a good job? Look our heads are not even cut off!

This is the best picture of the laser light show we could get. Besides all of the Confederate propaganda it was a very nice show. Free bird!
:-)

Country Living Fair, Atlanta, GA

2010-10-27T15:58:00.019-05:00

We made it! After weeks of my hoping, plotting (read: obsessing), we drove to Atlanta for the Country Living Fair. This was the first year they held it in Atlanta and since we are not too too far away - I was really hoping we could make it.

And of course we didn't do it alone! Anna and her Mommy (from our adoption group) were able to join us. Isn't Anna cute as a button?

Okay, on to the show. Here are some general pictures I took as we walked through the delightful arrays of goodies. I was in heaven!

I have been seeing these old subway & bus signs EVERYWHERE. I really like them, but since I have seen them so much in my travels, I am turned off by the trendiness. Sigh.

This booth had white paper walls that the vendor wrote some of the prices of the items on. Isn't that clever?

I had to restrain myself when I saw these various old game pieces. I die.

This snowman almost went home with me. Too bad he was made of a SOLID log of wood. He was cute, but very heavy. I will miss him.

Lavender, schavender. I want the AWESOME wooden crate.

So you are thinking, "Kim, there is NO WAY you left this show empty handed." And you would be correct! After many months (maybe even years) of searching, we finally found a bird house! And here she is! Isn't she a beaut? We are now trying to figure where to put this lovely in our yard.

I must say, the girls were EXTREMELY well behaved. I mean, when I said we are going to the Country Living FAIR, they thought "Fair = rides and games and fun!" and since I am evil, I did not correct them. Hee hee. I know, I know, I will get mine soon enough.

They did say that "This fair is REALLY BORING." but that was about it. Thankfully the fair took place in Stone Mountain Park, so we were able to reward them with a train ride and a laser light show. I will post more on that part of the day later.

Smiley faces.

Silly faces.
:-)

Lovin's Racin

2010-10-22T15:57:00.004-05:00

We had the opportunity to go to the Bank of America 500 at the Charlotte Speedway this year and guess who Hannah wanted to take?

Connor! Of course.

Thankfully Connor parents trusted us enough to take their little man to the race. They both had a great time.

:-)

Let's go Panthers... uh yeah.

2010-10-12T07:28:00.004-05:00

Hannah's school had a prep rally for the Panthers a few weeks back (not that it has helped the Panthers yet). My apologies, I forgot to post Hannah's outfit. Ta Da!
:-)

Happy Birthday Dakota!

2010-10-04T08:13:00.003-05:00

Race for the Cure 2010

2010-10-04T08:12:00.002-05:00

And She's Airborne... sort of.

2010-10-01T14:16:00.005-05:00

After Trevor's birthday party we headed to the mall that was in area of the party. We don't go to the mall very often, but when we do, man do we shop! Poor Hannah, most of the items we bought were NOT for her. Gasp! So to compensate her for her time, we let her go on the bouncy-thingy that was setup in the mall. Needless to say, she loved it.

:-)

Happy Birthday Trevor!

2010-09-30T08:44:00.011-05:00

Tis the season... for birthday parties that is! Trevor's birthday party was a cowboy themed event at a local stable. It was raining that day, so the party was held inside the stables.

Of course, the kids didn't mind the weather at all. All the kids got to ride the pony (several times each).

Since the party was inside, we got to say "hi" to some of the resident horses. JR was my favorite.
:-)

Happy Birthday Jordan!

2010-09-30T08:44:00.008-05:00

Jordan's birthday party was at Bounce U last weekend. It was a nice place to have a party - they did a good job of keeping the kids on a schedule.

Hannah and Daddy climbing.

Hannah, Connor & Trevor. I just love Hannah's hair in this photo.

Hannah and Sierra... oops!

Connor, Hannah and Daddy.

Future wedding album picture of Hannah & Connor.
:-)

Hannah's Dream

2010-09-16T07:27:00.003-05:00

Hannah was telling me about her dream last night and it was so cute I had to share:

"Mommy! Last night I had the most wonderful dream and I was in it! I was the light and all of my new friends and old friends were afraid of the Bad Beards. The Bad Beards were going to lock them in the dungeon! I said to them 'what is wrong my dears?' and they said 'Oh Heady Knocker, can you help us?' and I said 'of course'."

Just in case you need an explanation...I know I did. The "Bad Beards" are the bad guys because they have beards and they are mean to children. The "Heady Knockers" are the good guys because they knock the Bad Beards on their heads.

:-)

Care to take a guess?

2010-09-10T08:42:00.006-05:00

... where did my husband and daughter take me to celebrate my birthday this year? Okay, here's a few hints:

Did you guess? Charleston, South Carolina. It has been a long time since we have been to Charleston, so it was nice to rediscover the town with Hannah in tow. We had a wonderful time and I'll post pictures soon.
Thank you sweetheart.
:-)

Happy 5th Birthday Connor!

2010-09-09T11:46:00.005-05:00

Next up is Hannah's-future-husband, Connor's birthday party. His parents went for the old-reliable-always-a-crowd-pleaser "Monkey Joes".

Can I just say that I think this is the cutest photo. Look how caring and attentive Connor is to Hannah's needs... even if he isn't going to be Hannah's future husband - Gasp! - I think he will make a very nice husband one day.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of all of their cute little fannies scurrying up the jumpy slide. Hannah had a really great time growing up with these kids in daycare and they will all miss each other very much.
:-)

Happy Birthday Sharon!

2010-09-08T15:06:00.002-05:00

Just catching up from the latest onslaught of birthday parties. Sharon is up first with a delightful clown birthday party.

:-)

First Day of Kindergarten... sniff sniff

2010-08-30T08:56:00.004-05:00

Today is a tough day. Not because I think Hannah will have a hard time in kindergarten, I'm just sad that our baby is no longer a baby any more.
:-(

Four Wheelin' in the Mountains

2010-08-20T08:47:00.011-05:00

Chris's department at work had a mini-retreat scheduled a couple of weekends ago in the mountains. We figured it was a nice opportunity to take Cole with us to enjoy the fresh mountain air.

We finally got our new camera (thanks Uncle Billy!) and I brought it with us to play around with some of the fancy-schmancy settings. Here are some of the shots I took.

Ain't she cute? I wonder why her hair looks wavy in this shot. Maybe the lack of pollution in the air made her hair kink up?

Of course, Chris could NOT resist taking the kids out on the four wheeler.

You see, Chris grew up in the... ahem... WOODED part of New Jersey. Wooded and remote if you get my drift. Four wheelers were practically a class in school for him. Which is why he just had to take the kids out on one.

He'd love to buy one for himself, you know Kim for hauling big branches and stuff..., yeah whatever. Like he hauls a lot of branches. Nice try.

Anyway, the kids seemed to enjoy it.

Thankfully it does not go very fast, otherwise I'd be a nervous wreck.

Let's hope he does not run me over. By the way, this is when I had to switch to my old camera. The card on the my new camera was filled up. Sigh.

This is as fast as Chris got. And of course Hannah is happy as a lark. Little speed demon.
:-)

Chalk Art

2010-08-19T11:06:00.005-05:00

Here is a recent example of some of our collaborative chalk art. We made this in honor of the ice cream social that was taking place at our church later that day.

I thought Hannah did a really good job on the person eating the giant ice cream cone. His tongue is out and everything.
:-)

Happy 5th Birthday Sierra!

2010-08-19T09:27:00.010-05:00

Sierra is Hannah's best friend at daycare. We made it back from the mountains (more on that later) just in time to go to Sierra's birthday party. We are going to miss seeing Sierra and her family everyday once Hannah starts kindergarten.

Sierra had her party in the park again this year. When you've got an awesome playground, water park AND train - how could you go wrong?

Everybody, this is Connor. Connor this is everybody. According to Hannah, Connor is going to marry her. They are going to have their reception at McDonalds and "Angel is the Centerfold" by the J. Geils Band will be played at her wedding.

Notice how DRY Hannah's hair is. Seem suspicious? She is in a bathing suit afterall. But alas, by the time we were finished playing at the waterpark - Hannah's hair was slightly damp at best. Sigh.

Because I am evil, my favorite feature at the waterpark is a bucket that periodically dumps water on the kids heads.

Hee hee. "It keeps getting funnier every single time I see it!" - Beetlejuice.

Hannah with Breanna and Katie.

Happy Birthday to you...

After cake, it was time for the train.

My goodness, I am going to miss Sierra. She is such a sweet little girl. Happy Birthday Sierra!
:-)

Hannah's 5th Birthday Party

2010-08-09T09:34:00.020-05:00

My apologies that this post was such a long time coming - I did not realize how many pictures I took at the reunion. Anyway, here's the birthday girl all dolled up for the luau.

This party was a major team effort, from the decor to the wardrobe and the balloons to the food & cake, and big hug and huge thanks to everyone that helped!

We even put the birthday girl to work.

Bouncy Castle in full effect. That's just how we roll.

Of course she's wearing a grass skirt... why would she wear anything else? Who are you thinking you're dealing with here? I even made Cole change into a hawaiian shirt.

On the party invitations I added a reminder to bring a bathing suit. I didn't say it was a pool party, but I could see how one could make that assumption. However, our pool is small. I asked for the bathing suits because two of the games I had planned involved water. This didn't stop a few of kids to take me aside point at our little pool and say "Is THAT the pool?". And I had to sadly nod "yes". Wow, nothing like a couple 6 year olds to take you down a peg. Sigh.

One of the games was a duck game. Before the party I had a mental plan of how this was going to go. Then a mob of children came running towards the pool at the same time and things had to change. FAST.

Thankfully I had (barely) enough prizes to go around so that each child could play individually. Basically they had 10 seconds to scoop up as many ducks as they could. And since I am evil, I asked a few of kids to do it with their eyes closed... just for fun. hee hee

And look, Maison scooped them all up. Showoff. :-)

Next was the water balloon toss. Since I lost my voice counting to ten about 30 times during the duck game, it was Daddy's turn. Besides a water balloon toss seems more like a guy thing anyway.

While the game quickly fell apart, Chris did a good job of getting the kids organized. We just had some older kids who knew the drill in the front of line and that's where things went a little haywire.

At least the little kids will have some type of basic knowledge of what a water balloon toss is. Maybe we'll try again next year.

After the water balloon toss, it was on to the mountain of presents. We decided to do the gift opening outside, just in case any of the guests hadn't suffered from heat stroke yet. ;-)

Then it was cake time! The sand castle was a big hit. An even bigger hit was the sea shells made out of chocolate! Mmmmmm.

I just love Hannah's expression in this picture. Sheepish little thing.

Make a wish, now blow out the candles!

This is one of favorites pictures from the day. This is Chris's Dad hosing down some of the kids after the party started to wind down.

Man, I'm tired just from recapping this party. I guess I've got to start planning next year's party... now.
:-)

Reunion 2010, Part Five (Finale)

2010-08-08T21:47:00.008-05:00

Hannah and Anna started their morning by coloring.

After breakfast, Laurie gave a quick violin lesson to the girls.

This is Kaya. She is the daughter of the caterer/face painter. She is a very sweet girl and she really enjoyed hanging out with the girls.

Jilan and her Daddy, Steve.

Hannah and her future boyfriend, Nate.

A strong photo candidate for the Christmas card this year.

One big happy travel group.
:-)

P.S. A big shout out to Laurie for putting together this reunion. We had an amazing time and feel like we were brought even closer to these families through the time we spent together.

Reunion 2010, Part Four

2010-08-01T21:48:00.022-05:00

Day four started with some spontaneous face painting. The caterer had a secret face painting talent on top of the delicious food she served. How lucky are we?

We thought looked like Gene Simmons with her bangs tied up so we asked her to do "rock n roll".

Anya and Anna picked beautiful butterflies for their faces too.

Laurie brought this old child-sized rick shaw for the girls to take pictures in. I swear that woman thought of everything!

After a quick chess game, it was time for the red couch picture version 2010.

The girls (as usual) seemed to be vaguely interested in the whole production.

Then we tried to get some group shots on the rick shaw.

Hannah wanted to keep her butterfly on as long as possible. So we left it on most of the afternoon. After the chinese photo shoot we went on a very quick boat ride (since the weather was starting to look a little gloomy).

Hey, who let Hannah drive?

Doesn't Chris look handsome?

This is my favorite picture of Anna and her Mommy.

The Davis family on a boat.

Anya got to drive.

And Anna did too!

After the boat ride, we got the girls ready for a fashion show/birthday party for the girls. Since most of the girls birthdays are around the same time of year, wouldn't it be nice to have a mini birthday party. Again, I told you Laurie thought of EVERYTHING.

Apparently, Hannah did not enjoy her cupcake.

Yes, Hannah has a little makeup on. Calm down Daddy, it was just for the fashion show.

Cute Girls aka "China's Angels".

The birthday party/fashion show turned into an impromptu talent show. Sorry I didn't get pictures of that. Suffice to say, it was a very busy day. And Hannah passed out accordingly.
:-)

Reunion 2010, Part Three continued

2010-08-01T21:24:00.007-05:00

After the exciting day of swimming breakthroughs, the parents from the group went on a sunset cruise on an antique skipjack.

Laurie's parents and one of the other families were nice enough to stay behind and watch the kids for us. From what I understand there was storytelling and crafts and even a movie.

The weather was absolutely perfect.

And the ship was beautifully restored.

It was a great way to relax and get to know the other families a little better. One thing I can say for sure is that we travel well together. Whether we are in China or a U.S. city or a boat, we seem to get along with each other very well and get around. We consider ourselves very lucky to have met such a great group of people.

As it got darker we started to head back to the house.

And Chris got to work, yeah right.

As we got closer to the dock we saw some familiar little figures clad in pajamas.

They were holding lanterns guiding our way back home.

They were so happy to see us. Isn't that the cutest thing ever?
:-)

Reunion 2010, Part Three

2010-07-27T20:00:00.015-05:00

As we were making our way to Tilghman Island from Washington, D.C. when we drove through the CUTEST little town. As soon as we could carve out sometime, we headed to the little town of St. Michaels. And there is the most awesome store ever. Coco & Company. I. Die.

After our quick visit to St. Michaels, we headed back to the house to watch the storms roll by. It was an amazing view.

Once the storms passed it was time to swim. And when I say swim, I mean achieve-amazing-breakthroughs-of-bravery-and-levels-of-water-comfortableness-never-before-seen-from-this-child-swim.

She floated. BY HERSELF. No worries Daddy was always close by.

She jumped. ALOT. Both while wearies floaties and then without. Do you think Daddy looks a little nervous?

She flew! HIGH. Do you think Daddy is starting to look a little tired?

A very wet Anya and Sara hugging poolside.

Hannah then got really brave and swam with the other girls. I think it is so cute how her and Serena insisted on holding hands under the water.

Can you believe it? This is the same girl who screamed and cried after the Halloween apple-bobbing contest because she got a little water in her eyes. Amazing what a little peer pressure will do. I'm just glad I have photographic evidence.
:-)