A new cat at our house!

RaeAnne was supposed to wear a mask to school today for the school's against drugs week. Because drugs "Mask who you really are!" As a person who knows, it is very hard to wear a mask when you also wear glasses. We made a quick trip into town last night to see if we could find a mask that would work for her. The only thing that we could find was "Iron Man" masks or gory Halloween masks. Well I came up with a plan. Here is what she went to school today as!!



I quickly did a search on the internet last night after the girls had gone to bed to see what I could find about how to paint a tiger face on a child. Then we all overslept this morning so we had to rush around. I think her face came out pretty cute for our first time and not having the right colors to use. In fact, the reaction that our cat had to her face was amazing!

This is our cat looking at RaeAnne's "cat" face



And this is his reaction!!!



So guess who the biggest cat is in our house now!

Mopar cars, hayrack ride and hula hoop fun

Daddy and the girls went to the second annual RPM fall get together this afternoon. They had a chili cook off and lots of good things to eat. The girls then got to take a hayrack ride to another members house where the kids played on the swings and the big kids drooled over old cars! Seems Mom missed this year and last year as I was working. RPM stands for Regional Performance Mopars...big kid toys! It was a beautiful day for it and the girls had a great time.

There were also some nice looking cars there.






And Daddy had his car there too!! (Don't tell him...but his is the best looking car there!)




The girls have also been working on their hula hoops. We watched a segment on the Ellen Degeneres show of a college gal who can dance with a hula hoop. It would be fun to see our girls learn to do this!! They wanted Mom to show them how to hula hoop....unfortunately, seems Mom just doesn't move like she used to. Guess I will have to start practicing along with them!

Hula Hoops and Pumpkins

Tessa has been with us for almost two months now. We had a Mandarin speaking exchange student visit with her last weekend and Tessa told the student that she is still having trouble understanding English and she thinks our school here is hard. I don't doubt that! I would find it very hard to go to a foreign country where no one speaks my language or looks like me and try to learn something! Of course, I am considerably older and my language learning ablilities are absolutely zero! So all in all, we think that she is doing great! She also wants fried eggs for breakfast! Wow! A kid that doesn't want sugar laden cereal...how did we get so lucky?!!

We also found out that Tessa is a hula hoop champion! Anyway, her sisters have named her as such! They counted and she was able to spin the hoop around at least 130 times before she quit. They wanted me to count the revolutions, but I am taking their word on it. We have a new found interest in hula hoops here again now. I had purchased them for the girls a few years back and when no one was successful in doing it correctly, they tried to sit on them and roll them that way. Our round hula hoops became oblong very quickly and soon were in the trash. I think that these are going to stay round!





Today we headed down south to Augusta to the Applejack Pumpkin Patch for a KSAF get together. The girls had a fantastic time doing all the activities they have there. A pillow bounce, big slide, corn maze, petting zoo, tricycles to ride, train, hay rack ride, a chance to use old hand pumps to propel ducks for a duck race, plus many photo ops...just a great place! And for it being the middle of October...well, it was almost 90 degrees today! I actually had my face and arms sunburned!

Happy Jordis Li Day!!

Thanks to a couple of my travel mates, we almost forgot to celebrate our third forever family day with Jordis Li Meng! I just can't believe that it has been three years since this skinny, quiet little girl walked into our lives! She had our hearts since February of 2007 when I first saw that little girl sitting in a sunflower. Any child found sitting in a sunflower belongs in Kansas!!

Anyway, Jordis has blossomed so much even in the past year! She loves to be teased and tries to be a good sport about it even though sometimes she takes it way to seriously! She is a great speller and works very hard on her other subjects too. Besides being a self confessed couch potato, she is also a very loving girl who appreciates the little things that someone does for her.



Jordis Li Meng.....we love you all the way to the moon and back!! XOXO!!

Lantern Festival

We met up with three of the families who we traveled with a few weeks back. Of course, the warm, nice weather we had been having decided to turn in to blustery, cold, rainy, damp weather for the get together. The kids still had a great time. It was so good to see everyone and their children who are all doing pretty good. One little girl when she started seeing all the same people that she had seen in China...well, you could just tell from the look on her face that we were "Messing" with her mind!! She was looking at us and I wish we could have be able to read her mind and figure out what she was thinking!!

The girls colored lanterns and they marched around the park with their lanterns lit with a glow stick. Right after that we packed up to head home and warm up in the car. Brrrrr!!

The girls had fun playing in the park and there was a neat stone climbing wall that Jordis was really excited that she made it to the top!!

I need a cure quickly......

I posted this on one of the adoption agency Yahoo egroups. Think I can find a cure?

Hi,

My name is Christie and I am an adoption junkie! It started in 2000 when we
first held our 9 month old daughter inside the 7th floor hallway of the Majestic
Hotel in Nanning. Once we walked through the baby room where our daughter
spent the first 9 months of her life and I saw all those babies there....I KNEW
we would be back!



Even though my husband came home in March of 2003 with possible SARS and was
admitted to the hospital isolation room after we received our second daughter
from the Guangdong province in February 2003. I knew we would be back! Even
though they withdrew 600ml of fluid from his left lung and the CDC never told us
what the final diagnosis was...I knew we would go back!



After my husband had his carotid artery "unblocked" in 2005 and the CCAA wanted
us to wait until his surgery was "Older"....I knew we would be back! I didn't
know that we would actually travel to Texas to get our 11 month old daughter
from China and miss the trip to China for her. (adopted from a disolution) But
it was meant to be......and I knew we would go back to China!!



Coming home in October 2007 with a 5 year old daughter was completely different
than adopting a baby. But I knew we would go back to China again.



So arriving home September 5th, 2010 with our fifth daughter, a six year
old....I know I want to go back!!



But now....how do I cure a reluctant DH who says "FIVE is enough!!"

We were just paid one of the highest complements from good friends that they
think we are doing a wonderful job of giving each child individual attention and
they can see that each one of our children feel comfortable and that they
"belong" to our forever family.

So how do I convince my DH that we need a caboose...I feel we have a daughter in
China who was born in 2000 or 2001. How do I convince him that this really is
the last one??!! And then where do I plant a money tree that will grow very
rapidly?????

Please....any suggestions would be very welcome!!

Christie
Mommy to five princesses who happened to be born in China
DH Mark....who needs major convincing!

What's a Mom to do?!!

So we have this serious business of trying to get 5 girls to stand still and pose for photos now. I thought that we were doing pretty good to generally get all of them looking at the camera most of the time. Then we added one more, plus one is now a tween and thinks she is too cool to smile....well, unless we are doing "goofy" photos. Then the tween wants to give me signs that her and her "dude" friend (which BTW is our neighbor girl) think are "da bomb!" Or they get really jazzy and give me the "too cool 4 you" pose looking like they are tweens going on 20-somethings!

Tessa has started showing her goofy side too. I knew that this was coming from the get-go. I had a funny feeling that having Mini-Mom ZoraLin to "show" her the ropes and tell her what to do....and let me tell you....until you have had Zora tell you what to do....you don't know Jack!! Well anyway...these photos are some of what we are dealing with right now. And with the holidays coming up soon...what's a Mom supposed to do to get them to take it seriously to all smile pretty and look at the camera all at the same time?!!! I should have also seen it coming when meek, shy, timid, Tessa jumps into the front of the carnival ride and smiles the WHOLE time her sisters are screaming! Yepper...we got ourselves a wild one!! Maybe with a little bit of clown on the side too!!!





Yes....they keep us in stitches! Ha!Ha!Ha!