**More soccer***

Well you can see what our next few weeks will consist of. LOL. Seems we are in the van a lot these days. School, dance class, soccer practice, soccer games and whatever else needs to be done. Whew no wonder the kiddos are in bed so early these days. We have pretty much given up naps for Devyn, though this is not necessarily by choice. It definitely makes 4:30-7 a bit rough some nights but it's that or fight her all afternoon to try to get her to settle down for a nap.. forget it we'll go with a 7 o'clock bedtime, it's working for us for the moment. I so don't want to jinx us but the potty training is going pretty well. I think she is starting to get it, she even told me when we were out yesterday that she had to go and she actually went when I took her. Of course that might be because her lil buddy had just had an accident and his Mama was off changing him. They are getting close these days it is so cute, but we just found out they will in deed be in the same class next year at the preschool 3 days a week. His mom and I have already apologized to the office staff. (heehee) They are so cute but also a handful together.. it should be interesting. We had already been joking about feeling bad for the teacher that got the two of them together. Little did we know. They are both excited though about going to "school" next year... and I have to say I am excited too. I think it will be really good for all of us, and I will even be able to volunteer at Julia's school, make appointments, etc. :)

Beautiful day

Today turned into an absolutely gorgeous day. So of course the girls were anxious to spend a good part of it outside. We have been out in the cold and the wet all week whether we wanted to be or not so to have the choice of being in the sun?! No brainer! As you can see the back yard is full of weeds, the girls think these are the prettiest purple flowers around and the first person to disabuse either of them of that notion will have to answer to me! ;) They were having a blast picking "flowers" for me and just in general playing very sweetly with each other. Now they are back in doing their own things.. Julia is dancing in the living room to the music, Devyn is playing house in the playroom. All in all, just a really good day, and what have I been doing? Housework, lots of it catching up on everything that we were too tired and busy to do all week. All in all though, despite the housework, a good day. ;)

First Soccer Game

I have to say the first game went better than expected. It was cold, it was wet, but the kids had a blast. Julia left the soccer game saying "Mom soccer is FUN" so I guess we are in it for real now. LOL. We did look over at one point to see Rhe's dad shaking his head...we asked "what?" he said "Julia and Rhe just standing over there having a conversation instead of playing" LOL. We warned them.. to clarify that a bit, Rhe is Julia's best friend and was playing on the opposite team today. Good thing we only play them once. ;)

new bookcase

Well I should have one surprised little Princess in the morning. She knew in an abstract way that there was a bookcase in the narrow box that showed up today, but she had no idea what it looked like and really that it was for her room. I have a feeling she'll like it. Fortunately it was fairly easy to assemble. I have little doubt that it won't take long to fill it up tomorrow. She is in desperate need of a place for her books. Sadly I don't think it's going to hold nearly enough. Well not sadly we are big on books in this house, just sadly in that we don't have enough room for all the books we love. One step at a time. I'll take more pics tomorrow of the finished project and the smiles that I'm sure will go with it. :)

FCC celebrating Chinese New Year

Sorry the pictures aren't clearer, all I had for a camera was my phone. But I just had to snap a few of our group of beautiful children from China. Aren't they are a great looking bunch? So diverse and yet all having the same bond to one another and their birth country. And as young as some of them are they all seem to understand that and seem so quick to make friends with each other. Julia and I had a fabulous time. It was held at a Hibachi grill (I know that's Japanese food right? LOL the owner is actually Chinese and this is the second year in a row she has hosted our group for this event. This year she actually closed to everyone but us, it was wonderful!) but because of the Hibachi and the time in the evening that it was held, I opted to have our sitter come stay with Devyn so that I could have some one on one time with Julia. Definitely the right choice and Dev loves our sitter so I know she had a great night too. ;)

There is a lot of interest this year for trying to get together more often so we are hoping that something can get organized and we'll jump right in. For now we are grateful for new friends and a wonderful evening spent together celebrating the New Year.

We're going to the Zoo....

Our little Zoo opened back up this week and I would have to say they are off to pretty good start this weekend. My friend and I took the 4 girls and a wonderful couple of hours out just enjoying the animals and the beautiful weather we were graced with today. It was perfect. They still don't have a lot of animals but there was enough, and we just meandered through the walking paths. The girls got to feed Llamas (Julia's favorite by the way) a giraffe, goats, and got to see some rabbits and chicks too, along with many other animals. The monkeys were quite funny today, watching them swinging in the trees was quite a trip. LOL. We had bought tickets for the train but the line just kept getting longer instead of shorter and the kids were getting hungry so we gave up on that and went and got some lunch instead, the Zoo didn't really have any food available yet, not sure if they will later on or not.

Now Dev is down for a nap and Julia is playing a leapster and watching Pirates. Her choice for a movie so whatever. She says she likes Capt Jack. Me too baby. LOL . So we are just going to chill for the rest of the afternoon. Thanking God for the beautiful day, feels almost like Spring...can't wait for it to feel like everyday, as I know that time will be all too short before we are saying "oh it's too hot". LOL.

Now that's a good big sister for you!

Okay I usually don't post things quite this personal, but this was too cute not to share and as I know exactly who is reading the blog these days, I feel okay about posting it. As you know a certain little girl is potty training.. well she was taking her time the other day and big sister took pity on her, grabbed her iPod and went to "share" her music with her! Truly she has some great big sister moments. Others not so much, but these ones are great. LOL.

Oh and another little note about Devyn and soccer practice tonight. She was not happy at all about sitting on the sidelines.. she wants to PLAY. There were some other siblings off to the side as well and Dev made a new friend. Said friend is about 13 months old and was following Devyn around by the end of practice. She went up to Devyn for a hug and my sweet girl gave her a couple and was so gentle with the little one! AMAZING! And it was oh so adorable. Little one went up to one of the older kids and his mom told him she probably wanted a hug from him to, he just stood there for a moment like he was considering how this could affect his "cool" factor, in the mean time little one stepped back and gave him a look that like "hmmm I'm not sure about that after all" it was hilarious! I love watching kids interact with each other.