Look Who's TWO!

Happy Birthday RubyJane! On your first birthday we were only able to send you special wishes from afar. Today we joyously celebrated your second birthday with you home in our family. How blessed we are to have you as our precious daughter and littlest sister!!

Relaxing after a day of running everywhere at full speed -- turning TWO is hard work!

By the third present, she was a pro at tearing off the wrapping paper.

Mmmmmm

Ruby is a very picky eater but obviously CAKE is on her OK foods list.

Six Months Ago Today

Six months ago today, in the civil affairs bureau in Guangzhou, China, a tiny little baby girl was placed in my arms. She cried, she pushed me away, she kicked her wobbly little legs, and then she shut down. She didn't make another sound for two whole days. And her eyes held such sadness. It simply broke my heart.

Today that sadness is long gone and in its place is a whole lotta mischievousness! RubyJane is a happy, independant, determined, and loving little girl who has grabbed life by the horns and isn't going to let go. Our family definitely revolves around her and she knows it!! I can't wait to see what the next six months has in store for us.

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Today our Ellie turned SEVEN. How on earth did our little girl get to be seven years old so fast? To celebrate her special day she got to choose her favorite meals for lunch and dinner. We then had a little family party with presents and cake after dinner.

Ellie's is the first birthday in the "birthday week" for our family. Ruby and Maddie will each have a birthday in the next week. A big party for all the birthday girls with their friends will take place this coming weekend. Of course all the girls are really looking forward to it and pretty much talk about nothing else.

Thank you Yaya and Grandpa Rick

for the surprise balloon and presents left on our front porch!

Seven Years Old!


Opening presents

Making a wish

Blowing out the candles.

May all your wishes come true sweet Ellie!

Spider!

Yesterday I had just gotten out of the shower and was starting to get dressed when Maddie started calling me from the front entrance hall. Our conversation went like this:

Maddie: MOM!
Me: What?
Maddie: There's a spider in the hall.
Me: What does it look like?
Maddie: Big and black.
Me: OK, I'll take care of it as soon as I am dressed.

. . . . a minute or so later

Maddie: Nevermind.
Me: What?
Maddie: Nevermind, the spider is in the closet now.
Me: OK, I get it when I am done in here. (and at this point I promptly forget about the spider)

An hour later we are ready to leave and I go to the hall coat closet to get the little girls' coats. I open the door and . . . . AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

After I got my heart out of my throat and beating at its normal rate again I actually looked again at the "spider". At this point I could hear little giggles from the top of the stairs. Oh Miss Maddie got me good!

Does this look like the face of an expert practical joker?

Reminder to self -- keep Maddie away from plastic Halloween spiders!!

Ladybugs in Paradise

What a fabulous way to end the summer! Relaxing on warm, sandy beaches. Eating shave ice in a dozen different flavors. Hearing constant giggles from cousins in the hammock under the coconut trees in the yard. Being entertained by plays put on each night by the girls to the delight of their captive audience (moms and dads). Ending each day by watching the sun go down over the western horizon while listening to the soothing waves lap the shore. It was so hard to come home!!

Seven cousins getting reacquainted -- this hammock got lots of use every day!

Ruby LOVED the beach! She loved the sand and the water and had no fear of either.

Hunting for lizzards in the front yard

My favorite beach - Kailua

Maddie and Abby - Kailua

Waiting for the train at the Dole Plantation

Ruby had fun no matter where she was!

My gorgeous nieces

All the cousins waiting in line for shave ice at Matsumoto's Store in Haleiwa.

So what do you do when you are tired of the beach? Nintendo DS of course.

Packing, Packing, Packing

After traveling to China for five adoptions, packing for this vacation with our crew is a piece of cake! The two big girls each have a carry on with their clothes and accessories and a backpack with all their necessities for the loooong plane ride. The two middle girls each have a backpack with all their plane goodies and their special sleeping buddies. And Brian and I will have our carry-ons. We are only going to have to check one suitcase (and of course all the baby gear!). I am not particularly looking forward to six hours on a plane with Miss RubyJane aka the Non-Stop Energizer Bunny on a lap ticket. Here's hoping that the gentle breezes, warm sand and turquoise ocean will soothe away all the stress I will accumulate getting there! A L O H A!!

Just missing the golf clubs, car seat, stroller, and diaper bag backpack.

Trying to Beat the Heat

The Pacific Northwest is in the middle of a very serious heat wave. It was 99 at our house yesterday and predicted to be over 100 today and tomorrow! We just aren't used to this around here. We don't have air conditioning so we have to use other methods to cool off. This is one of those times that I am so glad that all the girls (even Ruby!) absolutely love to get wet.

Ruby is a Guangdong girl -- she doesn't seem to mind all this heat and humidity

Cooling off our feet in the pool -- that's a good start

Trying to cool off like big sisters -- her legs are a little short still

Gotta love summer and the water hose

The big girls were supposed to be filling the little pool for Ruby to play in but I think more water was sprayed at each other than into the pool.

UPDATE: A New All-Time Record High! SEATAC airport, which serves as the official observation station for the Seattle area, reported hitting 102 degrees today. That surpasses the standing ALL TIME record of 100, set on July 20th of 1994. At least it is going to cool off a bit tomorrow -- to 100.

Hurricane Ridge

Yesterday we took the girls up to Hurricane Ridge. The last time we were up there we only had Abby and Ellie home. The weather was perfect and we lucked out that it was a free entrance day into the National Park. We hiked all the easy trails and spotted quite a few deer. It felt so good to get out and spend some time together in the fresh mountain air.

The whole gang ready to head up the mountain trails

Stalking a chipmunk

The Olympic Mountains -- these are the mountains we see from our front deck.

For some reason the soundtrack from the Sound of Music keeps running through my head when I look at this photo.

More Weekend Photos

Ellie and Abby -- loving sisters and best friends

Having fun with the parachute

Maddie

There's nothing better to do on a warm, lazy summer afternoon

than share a hammock in the shade with your sister.

Ruby still doesn't smile much for the camera

but she really did have a great time with all the girls!

Weekend at the Beach

We spent the 4th of July weekend at the beach with three other families for our 7th annual "Spicy Girls" reunion. Three of the four families that traveled with us to Changsha, Hunan in June 2002 were there. It is amazing to watch these little girls grow up. They are all so beautiful and smart. Even though we generally don't see each other but once a year, the girls just pick up right where they left off the year before. They truly are "spicy sisters" and are all so close to each other.

The first activity of the weekend was horseback riding. It was very exciting for our girls since they had never done this before (except for the tame pony rides at the county fair). Very nerve wracking for this mom to watch her babies sitting alone on top of very big animals!

Watching the hometown 4th of July parade -- it was all about the candy!

Four of the five original "Spicy Girls" -- can they really be almost 8 years old already? Every year we have taken a photo of the girls sitting together in the same order that they were in their red couch photo. I will post each year's photo in another post.

mmmmm - smores!