Baking Day 1

We mixed up the dough for our Christmas cut out cookies and then baked some peanut butter cookies tonight. Here are a few pictures. Emmie loved helping me bake the peanut butter cookies. I mixed the dough and rolled them into little balls. She then rolled the little balls in sprinkles and flattened them with a fork.

Christmas Part One

EmmaLi is fortunate to have a mommy who lets her have a long Christmas holiday. She gets so many toys for Christmas she doesn't get much time to play with them due to holiday travling and is pulling out gifts a month after Christmas that she hadn't even played with yet. Because of this I let her open her gifts from me a week or so before Christmas. Today was supposed to be the day she opened her gifts. I asked her if she wanted to open them last night and she said "No, Thank you." I was quite taken back by that answer. I was starting to wonder where I went wrong considering I cannot wait to open gifts. I cannot wait for HER to open her gifts.

About an hour later she said "Mama, Can open 1 Christmas present?" I said "Sure! Which one do you want to open?" She said "I think I want to open all of them." as she grinned real big. So below are the pictures of her opening a few of her presents from Mommy.

The tree before she started opening.

This is one of her favorite gifts and she didn't even ask for it. She asked for a Marble Run which her Aunt Crazy is getting for her. After she was done opening her presents I asked her if she was happy with her gifts and she said "no." I asked why? Her response was I didn't get my Marble Run. She now plays with this like a Marble Run. She sets it up and then turns the crank to make the wheel turn which cause the stop sign to hitthe boot which tips the bucket sending the marble down the stairs to the curvy slide which hits the pole that knocks the marble into the bathtub and down a hole which drops on one end of a teeter totter which sends the man at the other end of the teeter totter head diving into an empty bucket which tips the pole holding the net, knocking the net off the top and down the pole to catch the mouse!

She absolutely HAD to have this new computer with a mouse. I sort of played with it a bit and it's not easy to figure out what you are supposed to do. We'll see if my brillient child can figure it out. I am sure she will.

With her soccer training kit. She was very excited to get this to go along with her new pink soccer ball. She loves playing soccer and now she has a goal to practice kicking the ball into.

Hugging her new Webkinz beagle puppy. I asked her what her new puppy's name is and she decided her puppy is a girl and her name is Dolly Parton.

Just what I wanted! She loves this tent and tonight she will be sleeping in this tent with her sleeping bag. She wanted to sleep in it in the living room last night but then realized there is no night light in the living room and it is very dark in there at night. LOL

Now Ms Emmie is whining at me that she wants more presents. She wants to open some of my presents for me. Hmm.. doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I tell her she needs to wait until Christmas morning and she says she doesn't want to wait. It is hard to wait. My poor baby! It's tough being four and excited for Christmas.

The Story of the Candy Cane

EmmaLi's school had their Christmas program tonight. All along I have heard she was going to be a sucker. and it was in a candy shoppe. I wasn't sure that the theme of a candy shoppe fit her school since it is a Christian Day Care. This afternoon it dawned on me they are probably doing the Story of the Candy Cane. Sure enough they did.

The program was cute but the stage was small and they had all of the kids on the stage at the same time. That meant there were too many to have a couple of rows of kids they had like four or fivce rows of kids and Emmie was in the back row. They also had an older boy who was school age standing in the front holding a poster board picture with food on it the entire time. He blocked the view of many many kiddos. Some of the three year olds are bigger than some of the four year olds. Emmie was wedged all the way in the back. One of the taller 3 year olds kept stepping in front of Emmie every time I thought I could get a picture of her head. I ended up with lots of pictures of that little girl instead. Some of the two year olds were taking their costume (round pieces of poster board so they could be gumballs and hard candy) and holding them up over their heads again blocking the view of all of the kids behind them.

In the end I have a few pictures I can share. These were taken AFTER the program was over.

Emmie with her teacher Ms Rose.

In case the words are too small, Ms Rose is on the far left and the other arrow points to where Emmie was placed behind all of the taller three year olds.

Another busy weekend

This weekend was no different than any other. We had a pretty busy weekend. Saturday night we went to the Christmas Pageant at First Baptist Church of Columbia. We have attended that church a couple times. We sat in the nose bleed section but had front row seats in the balcony so we actually kneeled on the floor up next to the railing for a good bit of the show. It was a bit long for a 4 year old. Emmie liked it but said they sang too long. LOL

Afterwards we went out to dinner together. We finished the night by finishing our Christmas shopping! YES!!!! Dec 8th at 8:30pm I finished the last gift for this years gift buying season. Everything is wrapped and ready to go. Now we can enjoy the rest of the holiday festivities without the stress of knowing there is more shopping to do.

Tonight we went to do "something fun" as a reward for EmmaLi letting me get some work done without interruption. For the most part she did earn it. I was going to go to the zoo for The Lights Before Christmas. We have gone every year since 2004. However, she decided she didn't want that for a reward, she wanted to go bowling instead. LOL So we went bowling tonight. She loves bowling so much. I think a lot of it has to do with her sensory issues. One of the recommendations we had from the occupational therapist was what was called "load work" or carrying and lifting heavy objects. It puts compression on the joints and makes people with sensory issues have a better sense of their bodies. Almost like they can finally feel their arms and legs and where they are in relation to the rest of their bodies. A woman at the bowling alley with her teenage daughter having a birthday party was shocked Emmie lasted as long as she did and did not get tired. After two games Emmie wanted to play more. She is actually getting pretty good at it too. After a few frames, she started throwing the ball by herself and while it took a little time to get there, she was knocking down pins all over the place. She even made a few spares without my help. She now wants her own bowling ball for her birthday. She asked if we could go bowling next Saturday. I told her we would see. Anyone know where you can find a child's size bowling ball?

Color me shocked!!!

Last night I was showing Emmie some of the gifts we had bought for her Memaw. She loved each and every one of them. Afterwards she was helping me wrap them. We were chit chatting about whatever came to mind as we wrapped. We started off talking about how excited she was for our vacation. She sang one of the songs she is learning for her Christmas program at school, what ever came into her mind we talked about it. I was on my hands and knees, cutting a strip of paper to wrap a certain gift and out of no where Emmie very matter of factly says "Mom, I broke up with Trent today." If I had been drinking something I would have spewed my beverage all over the paper and her just like in the movies. I very calmly said with as straight a face as I could keep (looking down at the gift wrapping so she couldn't see my face). "I didn't even know you were dating anyone. Why did you break up with Trent?" She replyed "Because he doesn't play with me very much. We were on the play ground running and laughing and playing and I turned around to look behind myself and he wasn't there. I looked around and he was sitting down being hot." I asked what she meant by being "hot" hoping she wasn't referring to being sexy hot like she has heard on Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. I was very relieved to find out he had simply gotten over heated. She then proceeded to tell me that "When he was sitting there being hot, I had a little talk with him and he said he didn't want to play because he was hot. Well that hurt my feelings and I think he should still play with me even when he is hot" I said "If he was running around he probably did get hot. Some people cannot run around as much as you do and they don't like to get hot." She then said "Well, If he doesn't want to play with me I don't know what to do." I said "I think you did the right thing in breaking up with him. You need to find someone who can keep up with you on the play ground. Please tell me if you are seeing anyone else in the future. I would like to know before the break up." She said "Well, I will think about it but you never know. A girl has to have some privacy you know."

Good Grief! What am I in for when this child hits the teen age years. Preteens will be the death of me for sure.

Christmas is here!!!!!

We know the Christmas holiday has started once the Christmas parties have started. This weekend we had two of them!

Saturday was our Families with Children from China's Christmas party. We had a nice time. It is a social event with crafts, finger foods and of course, Santa! Santa is the same Santa we have had at our FCC party for the past 8 years. He loves doing it and he loves watching the girls and boys grow up. Here are a few pictures.

Sunday we went to the Santa Clause Parade of Lights. Our AFG (Adoptive Families Group) had their annual Christmas get together in the usual fashion. We have a family that lives directly on the Parade of Lights route. They set up bleachers on their front lawn for their family and friends and also for the AFG group. This was our first year attending as it usually conflicts with our FCC Christmas party. All day EmmaLi wanted to know if it was time to go to the parade. She begged me to let it be time for the parade. At 4:00pm it was time to get ready to go and she suddenly did not want to go. She had a little melt down over it. She hasn't had a melt down over anything in about a year. In the end we made it there and she had a FABULOUS time. She loved it despite herself. LOL She had two cups of hot cocoa, popcorn, and caught candy they were passing out from the floats. She also got to see Santa for the second time in a single weekend. Below are some of the pictures.

The West Columbia fire trucks.

The Mayor and River Walk float. We love the Riverwalk too.

The big guy himself.

End of our first soccer season

This is a bit late, I thought my PC was giving me problems but it appears it was Blogger not my PC.

We made it through our first soccer season and EmmaLi is hooked. I must say I too have caught the soccer bug. I enjoyed every minute of the season. The Mighty Butterflies had their last game last weekend. My precious baby scored her first goal of the season. She almost had two but one of her team mates cut her off and kicked the ball into the net just as she got it to the goal. She was robbed to say the least. However, before the last game of the season was over, she scored her first goal. The picture below is her kicking that ball in the goal.

After the game we had the Team Awards Banquet. I was team mom so it was my responsibility to plan the party, order the trophy's and collect the money from the other parents. Truthfully, I accepted Team Mom without fully knowing what the responsibilities were. I pulled it all together in a matter of a few days. I coerced a local restaurant owner to allow us to have our banquet at their restaurant. They thought they were too full . I convinced him otherwise. hee hee I ordered the trophys and the girls loved them. Of all the teams at that restaurant having their awards banquets we had the BEST trophys. Ours had soccer balls that could spin and holographic shooting stars on them. The girls couldn't stop talking about them. On our way home Emmie said "Mama?" I said "Yes Emmie?" She said "I LOVE my trophy! I just love it!" She was so proud of her trophy and of her first goal. I was so proud of her.

Here are her individual soccer picture and also her team picture. I am so proud of her. She was awesome this year!

A blast from the past.

We have a Drive In theater not far from home. I have been wanting to take Emmie to it. This summer we always had a reason not to go...it was way too hot, the movies were not appropriate, etc. This weekend however, the Bee Movie came out so we made the trek out to the middle of the boonies to the movie theater. We went with our friends that Emmie likes to spend so much time with including their daughter Jackie. Below are some pictures of our night.

You don't see drive in theaters open in very many places. This one could close down any time. I wanted to make sure I had the opportunity to show Emmie the Drive In Theater experience before it is a thing of the past. She loved sitting outside to watch the movie, playing on the play ground while we were waiting for the movie to start, riding the train, and mini farris wheel, and packing some drinks and snacks in a cooler. Here are some pictures.

The entrance.

Riding the mini farris wheel.

Riding the mini bullet train.

Anxiously waiting for the movie to start.

Happy Birthday Chase!!!

We have had a hectic week and are quite behind in many things with these posts being one of the many things.

Last weekend we headed out of town to visit friends in Atlanta. We were able to visit some folks we don't see as often as we would like. We drove over early Saturday morning and met a friend I haven't seen since I moved from Atlanta. She had never met EmmaLi. We had a nice long nearly two hour lunch. I wish it could have been longer. When she sends me the photos I'll post them.

After that we went to "my boy's" birthday party. Emmie loves Chase. She calles him her brother because I call him my boy. She loves going to see him. We also got to spend some time with Amber (Chase's biological sister). Legally they are no longer siblings because Amber has been adopted by another family. However, they will always be brother and sister. Chase had his birthday party at a bowling alley. Ironic that both Emmie and Chase chose a bowling alley for their birthdays but neither of them knew the other was planning a bowling birthday. Chase had a spider man birthday but Emmie is planning a High School Musical Birthday. I know, I know it wasn't that long ago that She declared she wanted a Hannah Montana birthday. Here are pcitures of the party.

Emmie and Amber dancing with Chase watching the screen.

Chase bowling.

After the party we went to visit some other friends. My friends daughter and Emmie share the same birthdate but different years. Emmie will be five next Feb and Sydney will be entering her teen years. Insane. Emmie kept Sydney busy for sure. I really wish they lived closer to us. Emmie loves Sydney and even stayed with her long enough for Tracy and I to run to the store real quick. That was a big deal. All she asked me was if I was going to come back. I said yes, of course I will be coming back. She said "Okay, I'll stay here with Sydney." That was it. We went to visit Tracy's church which was nice. Emmie finally agreed to go. Some people think that I shouldn't have to get her to agree to do something but the repercussions of not getting her to buy into it are too great. The back lash runs for days or weeks. We drove home after a lunch and a quick visit with our friends at their home. Emmieof course, asked to go back to Sydney's house and was pleading with me saying "Please Mommy! Can we go back to Sydneys house for a little while?" Then Sydney started in on me too. "Please, please, please pleeeeeeeease can you come back to our house?" I couldn't fight the two of them.

It was a great visit with friends we have not spent enough time with over the past couple years.

It's time for the State Fair

Saturday after going to Emmie's soccer game at 9:00am and Country Adventures from 12:30 til 2:45 we met our friends Chrissy, Gordy and Jackie to go to the State Fair.

Emmie was so excited all week. Every day on the way to school she would tell me she is so excited to go to the fair. When I picked her up and we were going home she would tell me she was so excited to go to the fair. Every night when we were laying in bed she in the dark this little voice would come out of the darkness "Mama?" "Yes Emmie?" "I am so, so, so, so, so excited to go to the fair." I guess she wanted to let me know just how excited she was to go.

There was only one thing I absolutely wanted to do this year at the fair. I wanted to see the show Jigu! Thunder Drums of China! sponsered by WLTX TV.

We saw the show first thing when we arrived. They were awesome. It was a group of young men and women (looked to be high school age or just out of high school) who were excellent drummers. I need to research their program a little more to see if they had regional songs and costumes. They changed costumes after each song. Emmie LOVED the show! She sat on my lap mesmirized by the show. I had warned her a month ago and continued to warn her last week that the drums would most likely be very loud and she would need to put her fingers in her ears so it wouldn't be so loud. (She has some issues with loud noices) By the end of the show she did not have her fingers in her ears. On the way out she said "WOW Mommy! I wish I had drums like those!" LOL My little musician wants every instrument known to mankind. Here are a few pictures of the show. If you every have the opportunity to see them I would encourage you to do so. They were great!

The opening....

The second song.

All girl drummers....

These guys were totally funny. There were several guys with these big thick glasses on and would hunch over like hunch backs.

Emmie asked if these women were Chinese Princesses.

How many drums can you attach to yourself and still play?

Emmie now takes her drum sticks and my laundry basket and pretends she is one of the Thundre Drum Princesses. It quick humerous.

Emmie's favorite midway ride was the sky lift. It was her absolute favorite. We rode it across the midway one way and walked back across. Before we left she wanted to do it again but she wanted to go there and back. Here are some pictures from the sky lift.

We rode the Busy Bees too. She wanted to go up and stay up. So that is what we did.

Last Emmie and Jackie went on this ride called Cops. I am not sure what they saw inside the tunnel but Emmie and Jackie were laughing hysterically on that ride together. Here is a picture of the two of them up close and also one which shows how much fun they had.

I do have to say again what good friends Emmie and Jackie are. They went on another ride which was sort of an obsticle course kind of thing. They had to walk through some hanging heavy bags, up some steps, climb a rope ladder, then down a blow up slide, then walk up two levels of rope bridge to a top level where they slide all the way down the slide to the exit. The two of them looked like Donkey and Shrek! LOL (Jackie being Donkey and Emmie being Shrek) Jackie was bouncing all over the place, running through as fast as she could, scaling the rope ladder and bouncing her way up that rope bridge all excited. Emmie on the other hand has issues with people messing with her gravity. She waited for the mass of kids to climb the rope ladder; whereas Jackie pushed her way through it and climbed up with the masses. Once at the top she was off and running again. There was a dad in with his son who stopped the bigger kids from trying to climb it when Emmie was climbing. Jackie came back and offered Emmie a hand in getting up the ladder (too cute!). The two of them were off again. They went to the rope bridge and Jackie started off again all excited running up the bridge like Donkey. Emmie on the other hand was a little nervous being up so high and having those big kids messing with her gravity again. The dad that helped her earlier helped again. He kept the big kids behind her or they would have ranand scurried past her. By this time, Emmie had a long line of kids behind her. Jackie was all the way to the slide and waited for Emmie to catch up. I saw them coming down the slide together. I went to the end where they come out and was surprised to see them coming down the slide holding hands. It was adorable. Unfortunately, my camera memory card was full so I did not get any pictures of them in this ride or holding hands... my one photographic regret of the night.

This morning Emmie was looking at Jackie's picture on the refridgerator and said "I miss Jackie Gaskill. I love her so much." She was totally serious too. When it was time for them to say good bye last night Jackie hugged Emmie so tight and said "I am going to miss you so much!"

Country Adventure time

Well, it is October so that can only mean that it is time to make our way to Country Adventures. Every year we go there to start the beginning of the fall season. This year the FCC (Families with Children from China) and the AFG (Adoptive Families Group) went together and had their October get together at Country Adventure. The routine is the same but some how the little ones never get tired of it. I know Emmie doesn't.

Here are some pictures of Emmie petting the animals.

Brushing the Donkey.

A picture of turkeys.

Below are two pictures of Emmie riding Ranger. She has rides Ranger ever year at Country Adventure. He is such a sweet horse and so gentle with the littlest kids.

After the pony rides we take a hay ride to a pumpkin patch where the kiddos are allowed to pick out a small pumpkin.

Once we picked out a pumpkin and finished the hay ride, we had a weiner roast. Well, actually, they cooked the hotdogs on a grill and we made S'mores ourselves.

After lunch we headed out and stopped to take these pictures along the way. I told Emmie we needed to take pictures of her boyfriends on the way out. She remembered my teasing II about that last year. I also called them Emmie's boyfriends as well. She now lovingly calls the scarecrows at Country Adventures her boyfriends.

Go Butterflies Go!

Emmie had another soccer game today. I was the "Field Marshall" of the day for the 12:00pm game. I told Emmie that I couldn't sit with her because I had to walk around and mix around with the other parents to make sure they are behaving. She asked "What do you mean?" I then told her "I am the soccer police for the game. If anyone does not behave with good sportsmanship I have to call the police with my walkie talkie to make them leave". She said "OOOOhhhhh! Okay."

I am not sure because the score is not kept but it seemed to me that if score would have been kept I believe the Butterflies would have won. Either that or it would have been close. We started out pretty slow but finished strong. The Grasshoppers (the other team) had some really big girls on that team. Most of them had played together as a team for the third year in a row. One parent said his daughter was only 5 and going to be 6 next month but she looked like she was already 6 going on 7. She's is number 6 in the last pictures below. She was almost a full foot taller than the tallest girl on our team. She would go down and guard the goal too.

Below are a few highlight pictures of the game. Sorry, I didn't think to have my picture as field marshal taken for the blog.

Emmie with Coach Johana.

Emmie kickin it in bounds.

Gettin in the game!

This is Emmie's favorite part of the game! She told me "I really like it when all my team mates put our hands in a circle and we all yell Goooooooo Butterflies! and when we run through the tunnel of parents."

Parents of both teams line up making a tunnel and both teams run through it with the parents yelling and cheering.

These are the really big girls the Butterflies played against today. The biggest girl was #6. Amazing that girls this size play against the average 4 year old. The girl in blue on the left was one of the referee and was not that much taller than #6. She was 12 years old and #6 was only 5! Insane!