Rodeo Day at School: Sydney the Cow"boy"!

Today was rodeo day at Sydney's school. She was so excited to wear all her new cowboy gear and bring her stick horse to school. It was lots of fun playing games and running around with friends.

I will post the rest of the scrapbook collages later. I took WAY too many good pictures and now I have my work cut out for me!

A day to rest

Sydney needed a rest day and was not feeling the best so I kept her home from school. I let her sleep in and then I took her to IHop for her favorite meal...pancakes and eggs!

Such Sad News...We will miss you Michael

It is with a heavy heart that CCAI must inform you that our beloved Michael Wei Zixiong, CCAI Guangxi In-China Representative, has passed away. He was hospitalized suddenly on Friday, March 20, and he passed away early Monday morning, March 23, of an acute cerebral hemorrhage.

Michael joined CCAI in 2000 and was honored to have served hundreds of CCAI families as they journeyed to meet their children in Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou. He loved his responsibilities as a CCAI rep and was always touched by adoptive families who came to China from such a long way to bring an abandoned Chinese baby into their loving homes. Michael said, “I consider CCAI adoptive families my heroes.”

That was the email we received today from our agency. We are deeply saddened by this news since he was our guide in Nanning when we received our daughter. He helped us so much and he will forever be in our hearts and prayers. He leaves behind a wife and 8 year old son and CCAI has set up a memorial fund for them.

We shared such an amazing experience with you and will miss you always, Michael.

He helped our daughter every step of the way those first few days.

Michael helped Sydney Fu Xia to become a part of our family.

He welcomed her to her new family

Thank you Michael for everything you did for others. You will be remembered forever.

Sydney sings at Chinese School

Sydney completed her first 10 weeks at Chinese school. She attends classes every Sunday afternoon and surprisingly enjoys them. She will have NOTHING to do with anything Chinese except Chinese school. I think she really likes her teacher and her friends in class. She says that she does not know ANY Chinese but her teacher says otherwise. She did a good job singing the songs during the program but once we got home I asked her to sing them and she said she could not remember the words. Oh well.

Sorry No Six Flags...Plan B

We were all ready and prepared to go to Six Flags amusement park over Spring Break. I guess I did not get the memo about the new term "staycations" and that everyone was staying in town and attending all the parks. Well, here we are all geared up, lathered in sunscreen, no makeup, no purse, tickets pre-purchased and in hand, and dressed for an all day adventure at Six Flags.

We decided it would be a good idea to head to the park early. When we were about 2-3 miles away from the park I noticed the heavy traffic. Hmmm....could it be for Six Flags? Naaaa, no way I thought. Then I looked around and noticed that every car was filled with kids. NO WAY!!!

I got in the left lane a flew ahead. Sure enough...everyone was heading for the right lane in order to exit the highway for Six Flags. I bet it would take over an hour to get into the park since I could see that the traffic was NOT moving. That was when I informed the children that we would not be going to Six Flags after all, but thankfully Chuck E. Cheese was a hit! Not my favorite place in the world but at least it saved the day. After Chuck E. Cheese we went to a nice park to enjoy the sunshine.

Luckily the tickets can be used any time this year!

Spring break at the Zoo

We thought it would be a great idea to go to the zoo today since the weather was beautiful and it was spring break...so did everybody else. We knew it was going to be packed when we had to pack in the grass BEFORE the zoo even opened! It was miserable at times but overall we had a wonderful time.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Spring Break Fun Day 1- Duck Pond

We enjoyed a beautiful day at the park and duck pond. It was perfect weather and the girls spent all afternoon playing at the park and feeding the ducks. We then headed to a ceramics place where the girls were able to paint their own masterpieces. I cannot wait to pick them up next week!

Spending time with family

Mark went out of town this weekend to see Andrew play in a lacrosse tournament up in Washington D.C. We had a girl's weekend and had lot's of fun!! We missed daddy but enjoyed spending time with my family. My mom spent the night with us on Friday night and then we went to my sister's house Saturday night.

Fun Fun!!

Smart Little Girl!

It has been 9 months since we held you in our arms for the first time. You have grown up so much and you have amazed us in every way. We love you so much!
I cannot believe that you are making 100's on your spelling tests! Way to go Sydney!

She brings out the kid in all of us!

Gardening with the Daisy Troop

We have been growing spinach at our house for the past month in preparation for the big planting day. All of the Daisy's planted whatever they were assigned to grow in a special garden. The girls had a lot of fun but soon realized that it was hard work too. The highlight of the day was releasing the worms into the garden. From that point on it was all about the worms!

My favorite breakfast food...

Sydney loves pancakes...LOVES pancakes. She usually has at least 2 every morning with an egg (over easy), and some fruit. She even requests them for a snack or even for dinner. I can't believe that of all the new foods she has tried in the last 8 months...pancakes are the winner.

Sydney gets her grove on to "Snap Back"

Sydney loves to dance to rap music and is very serious about it. Now that she knows English for the most part I have to watch what she listens to. This is her favorite song and luckily they still rap to fast for her to understand what they are saying. The name of the the song is "Smack That" but she thinks they are saying "Snap Back" so I go along with it in hopes that she will not figure it out.

Sydney sings the months

Too cute!

"Look Mom and Dad, no training wheels!"

Sydney learned to ride her bike without training wheels today with the help of her big brother David. She was so excited and we were very proud of her. Thanks David!

Note: We usually insist on her wearing a helmet. I didn't realize she did not have one on until after I was filming.

Beautiful Day at the Park

We went to the park after school on Monday since the weather was so nice. Sydney had a great time with her friend and I was glad that I remembered my camera.