8 is Great!

This past Friday, Lily Grace turned 8 years old.  We spent the entire weekend celebrating and having a good time.

Lily Grace was extra excited to have her birthday fall on a Friday.  

Lily Grace, daddy and I are so proud of  you.  You are so confident and happy.  You enjoy being a little girl who's in no rush to grow up.  We wouldn't have it any other way. You are a blessing beyond words.  We adore you and love you very much!  
Special thanks to everyone who called, sent cards and gifts.  You made her birthday very special. 

To celebrate her birthday at school, she requested chocolate cupcakes with pink icing and white star with a number eight.  Her birthday party this year will be an American Girl theme so the cupcakes are just a prelude. 

Birthday Morning (She actually asked to sleep in the queen guest bed so that she would have "room" to enjoy breakfast in bed.  Gracie, dad and I are sorry that twin bed has been confining your breakfast in bed for the last 6 years. HA! HA!) 

At the top of her wish list, Kaya.  Lily Grace admires how brave Kaya is in her stories and loves her long hair which, has already seen several new styles. 

 

This year's requested breakfast: strawberry crepes

Kaya went to school with Lily Grace who asked me to braid her hair to match Kaya.  So cute!

All smiles as her class sings Happy Birthday to her

Arriving home from school, she was greeted with gifts from family and her requested homemade Red Velvet Cake.  

She received some new outfits for Kaya and wasted no time trying them on her. 

Out to dinner for shrimp and almond crusted walleye

After dinner we returned home for cake and Gracie blew out the candles making it official.

Saturday brought a trip to Sky Zone for some jumping.  Thanks Matt for taking one for the team.  

On a funny side note, Matt has been complaining of a neck ache since our visit Saturday morning.  According to him, he went way outside his capabilities.  Too funny!

Matt and Lily Grace also chose birthday weekend to get in their annual camp out.  However, this year they did it in the basement.  They did at least sleep in the tent.  Really roughing huh! Especially when you consider that Gracie is wearing a mermaid costume. - HA!

Happy Birthday Gracie Cakes!  Peace be with you, today and always!

Happy Easter!

One of the gardens at church just before the Easter Vigil

Lily Grace and Molly woke to treats from the Easter Bunny.

We enjoyed a special Holy Week and a beautiful Easter Sunday.  
We are blessed indeed!   

Spring Break

After just returning from China a few weeks ago, we couldn't think of  a better place to spend Spring Break than HOME.  
We had one of the best Spring Breaks ever.  Lily Grace had put together a bucket list of things she would like to do.  
Gracie, I had the best time completing your bucket list with you.  I had so much fun!!!!!

Lily Grace used fabric markers (while listening to Frozen- of course!) to decorate a piece of canvas to add to the pile we put together to create one of the most anticipated activities on her bucket list.

A Tee Pee- Matt took a day off to help us during Spring Break.  He did the the drilling and wrapping of the poles for us.  He even helped with a little fabric cutting.

After an entire day of cutting, wrapping and hot gluing the fabric to the poles, Gracie ended up with her very own tee pee.  

Her tee pee even has security.  (which happens to be sleeping on the job- ha!)

One of our most delicious activities involved making cupcakes.

Chocolate cupcakes with a raspberry frosting- yum!

Lily Grace loves washing the dishes as much as she does cooking

A little bike riding

Yes, this is how she looked at least 3 days out of 5 over Spring Break.  She LOVES frozen and this shirt.  However, the outfit just wasn't complete without a tiara, diamond bracelet and her fashion glasses.  She wore this outfit wherever we went.  That's one of the things I love most about her.  She is so confident and marches to her own beat.  By the way, she asked me to take a picture of her in this outfit because she liked it so much and wanted to send it to her daddy at the office.  She then breaks into poses and calls this one her, "I'm thinking with my glasses on pose."  Too funny!!

We hung with Molly

Lily Grace also did some pet sitting for our neighbor.  She did an amazing job and took it very seriously.  Matt and I were so proud of how responsible she was.  She even created herself a business name, LG's Pet Pals.  The "S" family treated our family to dinner and gave her a gift card and picture of her and Duchess as a thank you for doing such a great job.  

We also managed to sneak in some time for sidewalk chalk.

Our 13th President

Lily Grace recently completed a really big project for school.  Her class drew names of presidents to research and give a presentation on.  
She did a wonderful job researching, creating a poster, and putting together a presentation on our 13th president, Millard Fillmore.  
Parents were invited to attend the presentations that each student was required to give.  Lily Grace did an amazing job and I couldn't have been more proud of her!  

Back to China: 7 Years Later

I can't believe we have just returned from 7 days in Guangzhou China.  It's been 7 years since we were in China receiving God's blessing of family.  
We were all excited to return to Guangzhou.  This was our last stop when we were in China the first time.  Lily Grace was beside herself with excitement and we were all curious about how it would feel to be back there.  I can say, there were mixed emotions and tons of memories revisited.  
The people were just as kind and sometimes curious.  The city was bustling and congested which made taxi rides interesting and scary at times.  The parks are still just as beautiful and while it was rainy all but one day, it was still warmer than Indiana and the flowers were in bloom.  
Matt and I were excited and very much looked forward to taking Lily Grace to spots we had visited with her before and share stories of those times.  She was was anxious to visit Shaman Island in particular.  The park there is filled with statues of people and children doing various things and she had seen pictures from our first visit.  There is a statue in particular that she was most excited about visiting.  It's a line of children following a teacher who is playing the violin.  When she was a baby, Matt held her in line with the children and I took a picture.  She couldn't wait to go and see that.  I must say, it was a little emotional watching her stand in line with the children on her own, as a seven year old.  
On this visit we also got in a trip to Hong Kong.  Hong Kong is only a two hour train ride from Guangzhou.  Lily Grace enjoyed riding the double decker high speed train.  We visited Stanley Hong Kong at the southern tip and it was really pretty.  It was very mountainous and tropical feeling. The weather was beautiful.  We enjoyed a quick bite at a place called The Cave.  It was the coolest place and the food was great too!
During our stay, we watched a couple of families united in our hotel.  It was quite special and stirred a lot of emotion.  One morning in particular, a couple stopped Lily Grace and I in the elevator and asked if we were there to adopt.  Lily Grace and I smiled and replied that while we were there just for a visit this time, we had done so seven years earlier.  They then shared that they were adopting for the first time.  I could see the fear on their faces, and I'm guessing that's how Matt and I must have looked.  We congratulated them and as we stepped off the elevator, I was reminded that the time flies by from that moment on.  
Lily Grace took the whole trip in stride.  First of all, let me just say that Lily Grace is a traveling pro.  The girl is amazing!  She also kept us laughing. (along with several people she encountered from airport security to, to shop workers, to taxi drivers)  One of our funniest moments happened at dinner.  Lily Grace had been trying out her limited Chinese on everyone, saying hello and in particular thank you in Chinese.  Well, at dinner one night she told the waitress thank you in Chinese to which the waitress replied back several sentences in Mandarin believing that Lily Grace could speak Chinese.  The look on Lily's face was priceless and then to hear her explain to the girl that she doesn't speak Chinese, she's just practicing what she does know was so funny.  I will say, that this happened in the airport too with a security officer and even the Chinese officer thought it was funny, especially considering that the officer could speak both Chinese and English.  
All and all, we had an amazing and memorable trip.  Being back in China was quite different this time and meaningful in different ways.  The one thing about both trips that still remains my favorite part, is the time that we shared alone, halfway around the world as a family.  This trip also reminded us of how blessed we are.  We are blessed to be a family, to live in a free country and to have the abundant natural resources that make our lives easier.  God is certainly good!!
Enjoy the pics! Below you will find a post by Lily Grace.  She loves to type and write and so I let her do her own post while we were away, sharing her take on China. 

I'm telling you, this girl is a traveler.

About to board our flight to Guangzhou China

Lily Grace thought it was so cool that she could watch movies and play games of her choosing on the screen in the back of the seat in front of her.

Yes, she drug Molly Baby all over China.  The Chinese people were a little intrigued with Molly Baby.

She also loved that she had her meals on the plane.  Let's be honest there is nothing to love about those meals. 

The first meal we fed her as a baby in China was congee.  On her agenda was to try Congee on day one for breakfast as her first taste of China. She did just that!  

By the Pearl River

Beautiful parks on Shaman Island

The statute on Shamn Island that she couldn't wait to visit. 

Seven years ago, we took her here as a baby for health examination to leave the country and come home.  

Another beautiful park on Ersha- look at all those flowers

  

You have never seen a southern girl so happy!! One day on the buffet at the hotel, they had boiled (steamed there) peanuts for lunch.  Gracie and I put down three bowls y'all.  For a girl who was making it on rice an potatoes, I couldn't have been happier. 

This is Edward.  He was so sweet and showed us around Guangzhou. He and Lily Grace hit it off.  Here he was trying to teach her to use chopsticks and believe it or not, she told him how to use a fork.  He had never used one before this meal with us.  

Hong Kong

Popular market in Hong Kong: Lily Grace loved this place

Beautiful area and day in Hong Kong

Eating at The Cave: yummy

After a day in Hong Kong, we were back on the train to Guangzhou.

This Catholic Cathedral in Guangzhou was beautiful, both inside and out.

The stain glass inside the cathedral was amazing.  I especially loved the round windows.

I love this sweet statue outside the Catholic church on Shaman Island.

Getting some exercise in Shaman Park

In China, weddings aren't reserved just for Saturdays.  This was on Friday and we counted 5 bridal couples in the park on Shaman Island.

As you all know, Lily Grace isn't shy and here she is joining right  in with the locals. 

In front of the famous Canton Tower

The business district, also where you will find the opera house and Guangzhou library

Relaxing before dinner on our last day