Happy Family Day!

One year ago today...
We first held Maddie in our arms and our lives changed forever
...for the better

Our Little Girl
unique, precious
adoring, loving
charming, priceless
spirited, beloved
imaginative
running, dancing
believing
hopeful, darling
Our Princess

When we asked for a daughter we were sent a princess

~chunlin

Beach grass, outlet shopping and more...

One of Maddie's favorite things to do is to color outside with sidewalk chalk. Sunday was beautiful outside and guess what we did for part of this weekend?

We had a very full weekend... It was good, just very busy, to the point where Mommy took a nap Sunday night at 6:30pm because she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore! Saturday was our Annual "do the right thing" event....Beach Grass Planting! We're team leaders and have been, every year since we moved to Delaware (well, except last year, we were in China at the time!). This year, Maddie joined in on the event. Thankfully the rain that was coming down in the morning, went away and it turned out to be a dry, albeit cool morning on the beach.

And what good is a trip to the beach, without spending some time down there!?! I know...so we decided to grab some lunch in Rehoboth and hit the outlets to do some clothes shopping for Maddie. (Did I mention that we had been smooshing her poor size 6 feet into size 5 shoes!?! Well,you will be happy to know that she now owns 3 pairs of shoes that FIT and with some room to grow in! We also had to stop on every single kiddie ride at the outlets as we moved from store to store. After leaving the house at 6:30am on Saturday...we got back home around 5:30pm...it was a long day, but a good day!

Sunday, Auntie Amy and Lily came over for a visit! It was wonderful to see them and introduce Lily to Ron and Maddie. Lily has grown SOOOOO much since last I saw her. She's adorable and has great giggles!

I know...bring on the pictures!!!

One of the rides we had to stop at along our shopping excursion at the Outlets!

Maddie enjoying her evening relaxing at home after a long day at the beach with some juice.

Daddy and Maddie pondering the wonders of the planting stick.

The two littlest beach grass planters! Faith and Maddie! I'd also say they were the cutest as well!

Tour de kids rides...

So, what do you do when it is blustery and cold and an icestorm has made your outside play an adventure in staying on your feet? You head indoors of course! And here we have some examples of indoor rides that Maddie has enjoyed recently.


Maddie enjoying the old car at the local shopping mall. They had a couple different ones and a train...but this is the only thing she actually rode. The mall is a good indoor warm place to let her run off some steam. They have some sort of projection "game/advertizing" thing that is motion sensitive so kids will try and stomp on the falling gold coins or "kick" the soccer ball towards the goals, etc. Maddie enjoys that very much as well!

Another locatoin that we had never been to is Chuck E Cheese. It was not as big as I had thought, but Maddie enjoyed the Bob the Builder ride and especially the little carosel they had...

Luckily for us, the weather is going to be getting much much nicer. This weekend we're going down to the DE shore to do some beach grass planting and we'll also be visiting with Auntie Amy and Lily!

Maddie has been talking nonstop of late...from the moment she wakes up she talks, and she's a girl that knows what she wants and isn't afraid to tell you if you do it wrong ("Juice! No Want Milk! Juice") . Of late she's been running up to us and saying "I love you" which of course just melts our hearts. The best one was when Maddie and Mommy were playing inside while Daddy was working in the garage. Maddie got a sad, whiney tone going saying she wants to "See Daddy? Yes? Maddie See Daddy?" So, we go out, Mommy opens the door and Maddie stands at the door and Yells "HI DADDY! I LOVE YOU!"

Pretty as a picture...

It's March...hard to believe it, but it yet, it still is true. I had wanted to get 2 year old pictures done, so a month and a half later....here they are! She was afraid of the photographer at first, but by the end was hamming it up playing peekaboo with the curtain. Don't worry Grandparents, a picture is coming your way soon!

Chinese New Year Party!

Gavin, Guilan, Maddie, Molly and Cole attempt to assemble in one location so I can take a picture of everyone. This is the best result!

We held our first annual Chinese New Year Family Party last Sunday in celebration of the Year of the Pig. Yes, the day that it decided to snow... But none the less, neither snow, nor sick family members kept the party from happening! We decorated some around the house and I put together "gifts" for the kids including paper lanterns, the tradiontal red envelopes (hong bao), dancing dragon favors and a pig magnet that said it was 2007, year of the pig! I made dumplings, spring rolls, had rice and two noodle dishes as well as lunchmeat for the non-chinese food eaters in the family...which consists of, just Ron ;) Cole and Molly successfully ate some food with chopsticks, heck, even Ron was able to eat something with chopsticks... Ok, it was potato chips, but he was able to use them! *grin*

This was the first year, next year we'll have to figure out what works best and how to make it even better....

Xin Nian Kuai Le