Chinese New Year - The Year of the Tiger!

For the past couple of years, we have celebrated Chinese New Year at one of our favorite Chinese restaurant, The Mandarin Court. This year my sister-in-law Stephanie and her husband Fran and my mother-in-law, as well as my sister Lisa, all joined us. My parents were unable to come this year because my mother had just had surgery on her knee. We had a really wonderful time!

Disney World 2010

We just had the best vacation ever at Disney World! Guy, Lizzie, my mother and sister and I all drove down to Disney World on Saturday, January 23. We stayed overnight in Florence, South Carolina and then travelled on to Disney World on Sunday, January 24. We stayed in the Animal Kingdom at Kindani Village. We were very fortunate to have a villa with two bedrooms (one with a California King and the other with two Queen beds). The villa had three full bathrooms, a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. It was a great room!

I could probably write a book on everything we did, but the highlights were Cinderella's Royal Table for Breakfast with the Princesses, Bippitty Boppity Boo Boutique amd just about everything else! It was a little cold in the mornings, but warmed up to the mid-high 70s in the afternoon. I would recommend to anyone who goes to Disney World to get the meal plan, because the food was wonderful in every restaurant. We took over 400 photos plus video, my sister took another 200 plus photos -- far too many to post here! In any event, here are some of the highlights! We are already planning to go back in 2012!

Christmas Day 2009!

Lizzie was beyond excited on Christmas morning! We told her she couldn't go downstairs until she brushed her teeth ... here is a short video!

Once we got downstairs, she was so excited! She loved all of her gifts and at one point when she was by herself in the living room, we heard her say, "thank you Santa Claus for all of my presents." She is such a sweet and caring little girl.... she is our Christmas present every year.

A Visit to Santa Claus 2009

Today we headed out to the mall to have Lizzie's Christmas Photo taken and to visit Santa Claus. The Christmas Photos will be posted later. Santa Claus was so fun. My sister stood in line with Lizzie and Guy and I met them at the end of the line. Lizzie walked right up to Santa with her list ... which she wrote with her peppermint scented candy cane pen .... and as soon as he asked her what she wanted, she showed him the list and they read it together. When she was finished, she sang Jingle Bells for Santa. Then she put her list in the Santa Mail Box. She is so sweet and just loved her visit to Santa.

School Picture 2009

Here is Lizzie's first school picture! She is getting so big and looks so grown up!

Four Years Ago Today.....

It is hard to believe that four years ago today, our lives changed forever. We were in Nanchung, China and Lizzie came into our lives. It is so hard to remember what it was like before we got her. We had a clean and tidy house, would go out to eat all the time and took little trips at the drop of a hat. No more! Everything takes planning....but life is so much better.

Lizzie is an amazing little girl and we would not change a thing in our lives! Click here to see the entry we made on "Gotcha Day"!

God Bless our Lizzie!

Halloween 2009

This year Lizzie wanted to be Snow White for her school pagent and Tinkerbelle for Trick or Treating and we aim to please. I could not get her to smile in the pictures. She was too anxious to go out and get candy! She had a great time trick or treating with Aunt Lisa and was completely wired afterward!

Lizzie's 5th Birthday!

I am still in shock as I write this. Our baby is 5 years old, or as she puts it, "One Whole Hand"! We can't believe it. Where did the time go? Her birthday is 9/20 so Aunt Lisa came over with a cake and we had a small celebration. We gave Lizzie her gifts: A Zaboo stuff animal (from Zaboomafoo) and a really cute little interactive kitten that purrs and coos when you feed it. As you can see from the pictures, she is very motherly towards it!

We had Lizzie's "Official Birthday Party" on October 10 at a place called "The Little Red Schoolhouse". It is a beautiful little hall. This year Lizzie wanted Princess Belle to come to her party and we didn't want to have two parties again, one for family and one for her friends. We were supposed to have three boys at the party, but two couldn't come, the rest were all girls. Princess Belle was quite the hit of the party. She sang, danced and did face painting. She was really wonderful. The kids all had a great time.

Lizzie As Tinkerbell

Ok, for a couple of weeks now, Lizzie has managed to squeeze herself into her size 2T Tinkerbell costume that she wore when she was 2 years old! She added her fairy wings and then asked me to make her hair like Tinkerbell! Of course, we needed to add some makeup! She looks so darn cute!

So, How Did Lizzie Like Her First Day????

In her own words, "Loved It"! She cannot wait to go back tomorrow. We picked her up at noon and Guy went up to the door to get her, as she was coming out, she gave one of the nuns a high-five! We wanted to celebrate so we went out to lunch and then to her favorite spot in the whole world... Coldstone Creamery! She loves the cotton candy ice cream! We are going to make it a tradition on her first day of school to have lunch and ice cream!

The school she goes to is wonderful! The sent home a communication folder with her first little bit of home work, which we did, of course more forms and a Kindergarten Handbook! Oh, and before I forget, her first fundraising packet for the year -- Yankee Candles! Picture of Lizzie at Stone Cold Creamery!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Well, the first day of kindergarten has arrived! Lizzie was beyond excited last night... seriously, Christmas Eve, Santa is coming excited. It carried over to this morning too. She was singing "I'm going to kindergarten," "I'm going to kindergarten" all the way to school. She could not wait to get out of the house!

Once we got to school, she became a little quiet, but you could tell she was still excited. Once her friends, Nicky, Anthony and Maddie arrived, she was all smiles again. When it came time for the kids to go into class, the teacher had them all line up. Lizzie came over and gave us a quick (I mean quick) kiss and hug and got into line! She waved as they walked into the classroom. No tears from our girl! :)

Guy and I held it together until we got back to the car. I started crying .. I just can't believe our baby is in kindergarten and will be 5 in about three weeks! Oh well, here are some pictures!