Royal Princess Tea

Victoria and I had the priviledge of attending a Royal Princess Tea on Saturday morning at our church. What a great time! The organizers went all out and there was so much glitter, sparkle and bling. Beautiful! Victoria was in her glory and left feeling pretty special. The whole purpose of the morning was to teach the girls that they are God's princesses, daughters of the most Royal King ever. It was very well done and I think everyone had a great time. Victoria said next year she would like to volunteer at the tea so I think that's what we'll do.

Valentine's Day

I know it was a while ago but I'm just getting to post about it now. Valentine's Day has never been one of my favourite "holidays" - in fact I never really used to like it. However, kids always have a way of making special days even more special. We had a lot of fun this year.

The day started out with a special message from Victoria on her white board:

The kids worked on special heart crafts and other activities relating to love. Victoria and Austin had a fill in the blank activity sheet - they had to look up Bible verses about love and find the missing words.

I think my favourite part though was reading what everyone wrote about each other. Everyone had six hearts of the same colour and had to write one thing they love about each person in the family. There were six because the kids insisted we do one for Frodo too - just in case he doesn't know how much we love him! The words written were all so sweet. Samara wrote: I love Mommy because she gives me strawberries and chips. (seriously doesn't take much eh??) The one Mike did for Frodo says: I love Frodo because he makes sure I never sleep in. (Ha - way to put a positive spin on it hon! LOL!)

Oh ya and I almost forgot. I posted the greatest love message of all times on the wall by my scrapbooking table.

The things kids say . . .

Two things that recently made me laugh out loud:

Austin was cleaning his glasses and he had just sprayed the cleanser on each lens. Samara happened to be watching him and exclaimed: "Hey, it looks like you just sneezed on them!" LOL - that made me howl!

Yesterday, Victoria and Austin were sitting at the kitchen table doing their morning Bible reading. I was in the next room and Victoria yelled out to me: "Hey mom, come here! There's something wrong. Whoever wrote this Bible made a big mistake!" LOL! Needless to say (after I was done laughing), I went over to see her and we had a little chat about that one!

So cool

The shirt says it all. He really can't help being this cool!

Two seconds . . .

I seriously turned my back for two seconds this afternoon and this is what I found:

Honestly who's idea was that? Playing on the backyard ice rink - that's starting to melt I should mention - in your socks and with no coat! Notice Samara also has no boots on. I knew she was going out to play with her coat, hat, mittens and boots . . . but apparently by looking at Denver's face she somehow decided it looked like fun to take her boots off too. (???) Oh boy . . . never a dull moment around here.

(Is it bad that I ran to get my camera first before scooping him up and bringing him inside??)

This and That

• Denver has been sleeping consistently in his "big boy bed" . . . for naps and at nighttime. How does mama feel about this? Not sure. Am I ready for my baby to be a big boy? Hmmm . . . not really. But somehow all my kids keeps growing despite me telling them not to.

• About Denver's new bed . . . Austin loves having a roommate. It's pretty cute. The girls have been together in their room for a few years now and Austin has been feeling pretty left out being all alone in his room. So now he's pumped that he has his brother in there with him. And Denver's pretty proud talking about "his" room. In fact he's been heard to say "stay out of my room!" to the girls. Okay, so maybe his roommate isn't always the best influence on him!

• Today is day six of the cleanse. Yep that's right, Mike and I started a cleansing diet on Monday. The first few days were REALLY hard but it's better now. And the best news is that I haven't had a sore stomach since Sunday. Those of you that know me will know that's a big deal! So we almost have one week under our belts . . . six more to go.

• Why is it that I can't keep up with emailing and blogging? I try, I really do. I have good intentions and then life gets busy. I've written about four blog posts in my head over the last week or so. Somehow transfering from my head to the computer doesn't happen. Oh well . . . such is life right now.

• The adoption agency we used to facilitate Denver's adoption (yes, the one that went bankrupt and then was restructured) has just announced this week that they are partnering with another agency somewhat close by. Not sure how I feel about this. I have mixed emotions. I suppose it comes down to the fact that I don't like change. Not to mention, it saddens me that now there will be one less option, again, for those wanting to adopt internationally. It seems like over the last few years, there have been less and less options in Canada. Plus I feel bad for the employees that have worked so hard and now will be out of a job. But we'll hope and pray that it ends up being a good thing for both agencies and the clients involved.

• Friends of ours are in Ethiopia right now. They were present at court in Addis on Friday. Unfortunately they didn't pass court. Although they knew this was a possibility, it's still disappointing. Praying that their next court date is a success and that the rest of the process goes smoothly.

• We've been going through every room in our house and getting rid of things we no longer need or use. I love to purge! We've gotten rid of boxes and boxes full of stuff. I feel lighter and it feels so good! Even the kids went through their rooms and got rid of toys and things they no longer play with. Things that are just taking up space. It's great.

I think that's it for my Saturday morning ramblings. Have a great weekend!

My Boys

And just because I can't resist pictures of my kids sleeping . . .

Notice the folded hands. He must've been saying his prayers before he fell asleep. :)

Welcome to the Year of the Rabbit

From our house to yours . . .

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Snow day!

And it keeps on snowin'! Yes! I love it!

Four years ago today . . .

God blessed us with this beautiful gift.

And just look at her now!

Thank you Lord for our sweet, sweet Samara.

(Happy Gotcha Day to our fellow members of travel group #244!)