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!

Emmie is Clubber of the Month

Tonight Emmie had her AWANA class. On AWANA night, the AWANA team goes down stairs to the day care and picks her and the other AWANA clubbers up and takes them upstairs for dinner. They get to go outside for a about 20 minutes and run around and play before AWANA starts at 6:30. I get off work and stop by to see her before I go get dinner for myself.

Tonight her teacher suggested I stick around for a few minutes at the group gathering. Emmie earned her first patch for her Cubby vest and she received the Clubber of the Month Award for September. She earned Clubber of the month by learning her Bible verses before class, having perfect attendance, and having all of her supplies with her each week (vest, yellow folder, and book).

She was also called upon by Commander Dan to recite the Cubby Motto for the entire AWANA group. She very loudly announced the Cubby Motto "Jesus Loves Me!" She was so proud to know that and smiled so big when the entire auditorium applauded for her.

Fly Butterfliesfly! Emmie's 1st Soccer Game

My baby had her first soccer game last Saturday. Let me tell you she did GREAT! In the third quarter she got the ball and dribbled it straight down the field and kept complete control over it. She took it all the way to the goal post but stopped just short of shooting a goal as she realized she went the wrong way down the field. She then turned it around and headed back up the field and one of those Blueberry girls (the opposing team) took it away and scored on her. Below are a few pictures. As you can see we need to have a chat with the coaches regarding running in the path of the camera.

Below they are warming up before the game.

Remember what I said about the coaches? Below is the picture of Emmie running the ball down the field for the first time. The assistant coach Mr Chris stepped right in front of me as I took the picture. Actually, I when I clicked the picture he wasn't there but when the shutter opened he was. Maybe if he knows his butt will be posted to the internet he will be more mindful of photographing parents. LOL

Ah yes, below is a picture of Emmie kicking the ball in to her team mates. Yes, that is another coach (of the opposing team) who stepped in the way as I clicked. You can barely make out the edge of the 5 on her uniform.

Despite the male coaches best efforts, I did get a few good pictures of my baby's first soccer game. I supposed it is worth noting that her head coach is a woman (Coach Johanna) and she did not get her back side in any of our pictures.

In closing this post I have to say Emmie is truly enjoying playing soccer. Last Thursday as we were leaving she was skipping along and said "I told you I would love soccer Mommy! I told you I would love it and I do! I love playing soccer!"

She has now shifted gears and wants to be a professional soccer player when she grows up. So far she has gone from wanting to be a doctor, to a teacher, to a dentist, to a soccer player. It will be interesting to find out what this amazing little girl will be when it is all said and done. Whatever she becomes I am sure she will be amazing at it.

An Eddie Adventure

We got a call from our friends Chrissy, Gordy and Jackie who were going to be in town because Gordy had a meeting. Chrissy and Jackie had the day for themselves and had planned on spending it in Columbia. They asked if we wanted to do something fun and you know Emmie is always up for something fun.

It's never a dull day for Emmie when we head to Edventure for a day of fun so that is what we did. The girls had so much fun. They always have fun together and play together so well. They are two peas in a pod and have gotten along with one another since the day they met. You want proof? Check out this picture taken right after Jackie came home. We met them for lunch. Jackie was 11 months I think and Emmie was 17 months old. Yes, they are wearing matching outfits and it was not planned. I had found them and liked them. I bought one for Emmie and one for Jackie and it was quite by happenstance that we dressed the girls in those outfits.

What's a little kiss between friends?

Here are some pictures of them now at Edventure.

Future Fire Fighters of America!

Practiicing surgery on the worlds largest Operation game. Hmm... maybe this should be on her Christmas list.

Notice the twin boys in the picture above. They were adopted from China as well (GuangXi I think they said). They live about an hour away from us. We don't know them except for the short exchange we had with their parents. Those two boys were too CUTE for words. It makes me want a little boy again. If only China would allow singles to adopt again. It does not look like that will happen though (another topic for another day).

Riding a camel.

After Edventure, we went to lunch at Emmie's favorite restaurant Olive Garden. She loves to go and get the Minnie Stronie soup and bread sticks. Okay it's not Minnie Stronie soup but since Minnie Mouse makes Minnie Stronie soup for Goofy when he has a cold that is what she calls it instead of Minestrone soup. I really don't care what she calls it as long as she eats it. It is just about the only place we can go for lunch or dinner and she actually eats what she orders. LOL Praise the Lord for Minnie Stronie!