Dance Competition

M's Chinese dance class performed their Chili Pepper dance at the Regional Pittsburgh Showstopper dance Competition on March 7. They did a wonderful job especially since none of the girls have ever danced in a competition before and also this was only the 3rd time they have performed their dance in public. Their group won 3rd place in the Under 8 small Group Recreational dance category. Not too bad!!! Way to Go!! M's dance school was the only other dance school that performed a folkloric type of dance so it was also a great arena to schowcase traditional Chinese Dance.

A beautiful group of Chili Pepper dancers!!

Happy 5th Birthday E!!!!

Today E is turning 5! It's hard to believe that my baby is now five and no longer a little baby! Today is a low key day for her but tomorrow is her big party. She is having a party at her Gymnastics gym and all of her friends from school and the neighborhood will be there. Below are some photos of E through the years.

E right after placement in China. She was 8 1/2 months old

E starting to walk at 10 1/2 months old. Yes she was that young and that tiny ! She's always been my girl who is on the go and into everything!

E at 18 months old

E at 2 1/2 years old. I don't have many professional photos up to this point because she refused to sit for a photo shoot prior to this one.

E's 3 year old Preschool photo.

E at almost 5.

Today E is still very active and has a great imagination. She's a very bright little girl who on a daily basis keeps surprising us with what she says and talks about. She is even full of advice for her big sister, like "If you want something, just cry. That's what I do" (she actually said this in front of us!) Today if you ask E what she wants to be when she grows up, she'll tell you a Scientist. Pretty ambitious for a 5 year old, but I have no doubt that she'll be doing something in the Science field when she's adult. I even envision her being a doctor (she is constantly looking at a Human Body book and asking me all about the photos). I'm looking forward to experiencing all that this special little girl does during her life!

I've Failed

My attempt at posting a picture a day has failed! I will try to play catchup for all the days that

I've missed, but not sure if I can continue to post a photo a day. It was a great idea but the extra time it takes to do this, just isn't available. I will do my best to keep posting photos but I can't guarantee that it will be daily.

On Saturday, I spent the most of the day sewing at my little guild's UFO Sewing day. I got a lot accomplished and I actually finished another one of my UFO's that I have listed. I finished piecing the top for the Tobacco Roads quilt. I think it turned out OK. Now there's another one to add to the "to be quilted" pile. I also made great strides in finishing up the Shadow of the Bear Quilt top. Only one more side to sew on and that top will be in the finished pile. Below are photos of the Tobacco Roads quilt and another photo of the Trading Patches quilt.

Tobacco Roads Quilt (photo 13)

Larger view of the Trading Patches quilt (photo 14)

One UFO top finished for 2009

I've finished one UFO Top!!!! YEA!!! Now I have to get it quilted but at least I have the hard part completed. This pattern was from a McCalls quilting magazine and it's called Trading Patches. Most of the fabrics were from 8x8 swaps that I did with my Yahoo quilting group. I did have to add fabric from my nickel (5x5) squares and my 1 1/2 scrap strips. There are 440 blocks in this quilt! If you go to this link , Mccalls Quilting has a free pattern for this quilt in a throw size. I did change the size of my blocks just a little. It can be made from 5x5 squares and 1 1/2 x 8 rectangles. I cut my blocks to 5x5 squares to finish at 4 1/2x 4 1/2.

One down and many more to go!

photo 12

Can You Do This?

On another blog that I like reading (she's a fellow quilter and also has 2 daughters from China), she posted a photo of her daughter at gymnastics doing a little pose. I thought I would do a similar photo of M. She doesn't do this pose at gymnastics, but in her Chinese Dance Class (she is the only one who can touch her feet in class). I still think it looks like it hurts!

photo 11

Steeler Fan

M has wanted a #7 Steeler Jersey ever since the Steelers made it to the Super Bowl. Up to this point, neither one of the girls have any kind of Steeler apparel. I'm not a big football watcher so I don't get all caught up on all the Steeler Fan Craziness that happens around our area. We did breakdown and purchase a Jersey for M for her Birthday. Now she won't be the only kid in class who doesn't have something Black and Gold when her School has Black and Gold Steeler Days. You may ask why a #7 Jersey. Well, both girls think Ben R. is "Hot".

Photo 10

Happy Birthday

Yesterday was M's 7th Birthday. We had a low key day for her this year. No party for her this year either and she is ok with that. Because both girls have Feb Birthday's and are only 11 days apart, I can't do two different parties. Since E is turning the Big 5 she is going to have the party.

M did get to have her Dad eat lunch with her at School. She loved that. She also got to have 3 different cakes/cupcakes. One with her Chinese Dance class on Sunday(no picture of that one because I forgot the camera) , another with her Nana and Papa yesterday after school, and the last one last night with just our little family.

HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY M!!!!!!

photo 9 (cupcakes #2)

cake #3

All Lined UP

E loves animals. We have a huge collection of animal figurines of all kinds and sizes. This is the view that I saw this morning. She had all of her horses lined up from biggest to littlest.

photo 8

Chinese Show

Last night, we all attended a Chinese New Year Celebration show. There were dancers, singers, and other performers from China at the event. The girls loved the first half of the show but faded quickly after intermission. The show was running late and by then it was well after 9:00 pm. It became too much when 2 Chinese people came on stage for a comedy act for about 15 minutes and only spoke Chinese (the audience was mostly Chinese so they were laughing at the jokes but I had no idea what they were talking about). The girls fell asleep and I would have joined them too if we hadn't decided to leave early. Below are a few photos of some of the performances.

photo 7: Chinese Dance performers

Peking Opera Performer

Acrobat Performers

Snow

Sorry for not posting a photo yesterday. I did have a good excuse and that was I had to attend my Aunts Funeral. My dad's sister past away last Tuesday from a brain tumor. She was 77 years old and put up a valiant fight. Thursday afternoon E and I headed up to my parents house for the evening to attend the funeral on Friday. My photo for Friday is a picture I took of the all the snow that was on the ground. My parents only live a little over an hour from me but they have received twice as much snow as we have. They still had lots of snow on the ground. We are going to have some high temperatures this weekend and most of next week so all of our snow will probably melt. I'm not sad about that. I'm ready for Spring!photo 6

My Little Monkey

Both girls are in gymnastics right now. M is on the pre-competition team and E is headed in that direction. She's on their Plus team for 4 and 5 year olds. She is doing better than I ever thought she would. She's not as brave as her big sister so I thought she would be having a few problems doing some of the skills. I hope E continues to enjoy it because there really isn't a whole lot of other sports that she will probably be able to excel at because of her small size. She is about 3-5 inches smaller than all the other girls in her class who are her same age. The other day I put her measurements in a height predictor to just see how tall she might get and it said 4 fee 11 inches tall and that was only after I tweaked her age by a month because the first time it said it couldn't calculate because she was below the 3% for height.

All the girls are required to climb the rope, something that makes us parents a little nervous because that rope is very high. E has made it over halfway now. I think now she is having to overcome some fear to go higher. I think she's strong enough but once she gets so high and looks around she begins to come down. I'm proud of her climbing any height because Mom couldn't even get off the ground!

photo 5

What is so Good in Denny's

This is what I saw when I was driving in front of a Denny's in our town. What in the world can be so good in Denny's to make anyone in their right mind stand outside in the cold just to get in the front door. Even if they were giving away free food, I don't think I would stand in line at a Denny's for it.

photo 4

Chili Peppers

My oldest daughter had another public performance last Saturday for her Chinese Dance School. Here is the group of beautiful Chili Peppers! They did a another great job on their dance!

photo 3

Photo a day For the Month Of February

I visit another blog where she is posting a photo a day. I've decided to try that myself but only for the month of Feb. I may continue after Feb if I'm successful. This will force me to keep my blog up to date!! I'm already a few days behind mainly because I just decided to do this this morning. So in my first attempt I will post photos for Feb 1 and Feb 2. Both of these photos were taken at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh. Having the birds so close gives you great opportunities to get some beautiful shots of birds and even this squirrel (who was just outside the front door).

photos 1 and 2

Happy Chinese New Year!

Last night we celebrated Chinese New Year with M performing her Chinese dance at the University of Pittsburgh. M has been taking Chinese dance at the Oriental Star Dance School for the past 2 1/2 years. She just loves her teacher and the opportunity to perform at different events throughout our area. She has another performance next Saturday at the Three Rivers FCC Chinese New Year Celebration. M's class did a great job performing their dance for the first time in public last night.

UFO's

My little quilt group is having a challenge this year or fun competition. We are suppose to list (up to 10 but I have way more) UFO's or in the quilting world Unfinished Objects. When you complete a quilt on your list, your name goes into a drawing for a prize. The more you complete the more your name gets entered. I've decided to join in on the challenge to see if I can actually finish a quilt this year and that includes the quilting and binding. Usually I consider a quilt completed when I have the top done and that has gotten me in big trouble. I probably have about 50 tops waiting to be quilted sitting in my sewing room (I'm not listing these because it would just take me way too long). I've made a list of my UFO's that I want to complete for the year. When I have totally completed the quilt (including the quilting and binding) I will mark on my list that I've completed it. I will mark also if I actually get the top completed but not quilted so you can see that I'm making a little progress! Wish Me Luck!!

What a Celebration!

Last Saturday, M had an Adoption Day Celebration. 7 Families met up at another families house, and then all the girls waited for the big pink limo to arrive. Having 10 girls (3 other siblings) yelling Limo got pretty loud! Lots of excited little girls wanted to ride in that limo!
They were driven to a place called Sweet and Sassy in style. Once at Sweet and Sassy, all the girls got to pick out the outfit they wanted to wear and then started to get their hair done.....

their nails and then their makeup on.

After that they had some fun dancing and then did a fashion show for the crowd.

A group photo was taken at the end. All I can say is that every one of those beautiful girls had a great time and made some memories that would last a lifetime!

The party didn't end at Sweet and Sassy. The girls all climbed back into the Limo and we went to some one's house for more partying. 2 more families joined us later so 9 out of the 11 girls were together again. The girls had so much fun playing together for the rest of the evening. We took another group photo of all the girls and their sisters.

These three special girls were all from the same Institute in China (Qingxin County SW in Guangdong). We try to get take their photo whenever we all get together. Boy have they changed since our first Gotcha Day Celebration back in January 2004. They were all 2 or almost 2 in this picture. Today they are either 7 or in the case of M only a couple weeks away of turning 7.

6 years Ago Today....

a beautiful little girl was placed in my arms in Guangzhou, China. It's hard to believe that she has been with us for 6 years already. She has been such a blessing to us and still continues to bring us joy everyday. Today she is a happy 6 year old. She's in 1st grade this year and doing well in School. She is also a little social butterfly and has lots of friends. She is very active in dance and gymnastics. She is very fit for being only 6 and that is due to all the time she spends at the gymnastics gym in preparation for competing next year.

To celebrate her special day, our travel group is having a little special outing for all of the girls in the Chicago area (most of our travel mates live in near Chicago) this Saturday. They will be riding a pink limo to a place called Sweet and Sassy for some pampering (including makeup, nails polished, hairdos and more) ! M is so excited to do this and can't wait until this weekend. She just loves anything to do with makeup and such so this activity is just up her alley!

Below are some photos of her 6 years ago and some of her today. I'm also adding a little slide show that I made last year of all of her early years. It's amazing how much she has changed over the years and how she is becoming quite the beautiful little lady today! Happy Family Day Dear M! We Love You!!

Just after M was placed in my arms.

About a week later in Guangzhou.

M's 1st grade photo.

http://slideroll.com/?s=fs4g91ym

Christmas Photo 2008

Since the girls were little, I've taken a photo of them in front of our tree to include in our Christmas card. This is the photo that I've chosen to inlude for this year. They took many great pictures this year so it was hard to choose, but I just love their smiles in this picture.

This was my first photo attempt in 2004. E had only been home about a couple of weeks when this photo was taken. Try getting a 2 year old and a 9 month old to sit, be still, look at the camera and maybe smile all at the same time. As you can see, I wasn't too successful!

How Many Bags Can You Make in a Week?

A friend of mine talked me in to sharing a craft table with her at our daughters' Gymnastics Parent Organization craft show today. This all happend 1 week ago! Did I have anything made when she talked me in to sharing this table with her? NO!!! Guess what I've been doing all week? Yes, sewing my butt off. I made a total of 23 purses, bags and totes in just 6 days! Below is a photo of all my work. Now I just hope I sell a few items but if I don't, I have all my Christmas presents done for this year.