Our Little Adventure

Okay, for a little background here, NO, this is not our travel group. But way back when we first sent our dossier to China you must remember they were referring whole months at a time, so at first we thought we would travel together, we did all use CWA you see. So we had formed our own little yahoo group, and then the slow down started and China began referring two weeks worth of Log In Dates every month, and then a week, and then it became anyone's guess. So we were the first part of our month and these lovely families were the last part. But because we had become good friends with so many of them, I could never bring myself to leave our little yahoo group. And so they followed us online to China first and then asked a million questions a few months later when it was there turn and I did my best to answer as many as I could. They have been having reunions every couple of years and this year it just seemed like we should be there. Maybe it was doing the single parent thing and needing a challenge (nothing like a 2 and 4 year old 9 hours one way in the van, alone in the hotels with them, not to mention just the long drive;) mostly though it was the way the Princess has been feeling so alone and different. I just felt so strongly that she needed to connect with some other little kids from her home land. and let's face it, I just really wanted to finally meet some of these families I have seen only pictures for the last 5 years or so. Sadly some of the ones I really wanted to meet couldn't make it (*we MISSED YOU!!) and we had of course already met the one family before. She and the Princess picked right up where they left off in the park a year or so ago. Completely inseparable. It was awesome:)

I wish I could fully explain to you the difference in the Princess this weekend. She shined! Her self confidence was at an all time high, there was hardly any shyness and no clinging to me for support! It was incredible watching her open up so quickly and be the happy self confident girl I knew was in there. I was so right she needed this and I know I need to get our local group more active again somehow. It was like she just found where she fit.

The Pixie charmed them all with her curls and those big brown eyes of hers. Oh she had them snowed.. LOL "cute lil monster" actually she was incredibly well behaved all weekend too, both girls were, the only hard part was sharing the hotel room, the Princess and I kind of like to wind down with a movie or a book, the Pixie needs complete quiet and dark, the Princess generally sleeps with a light on... made for some interesting and boring evenings while we waited on the Pixie to go to sleep. But even then I have to admit they were good and I was so very proud of them both.

The poor Pixie got car sick on the way home, we had stopped to visit another friend on our way out of Knoxville and had brunch, apparently it didn't sit well while riding through the mountains:( Ugh what a mess, but we cleaned up as best we could, and kept on trucking. Got home yesterday and the first thing I did was take the car seats out and strip them down and wash them! All better now.

As for the challenge of a weekend away with 2 little girls, driving by myself up and back to Pigeon Forge??? WE ROCKED IT! Oh and if you are wondering about the Christmas trees in the pictures, we stayed at the Inn at Christmas Place....expensive but so AWESOME! I haven't been that well taken care of at a hotel since China! And I seriously WANT one of their beds! So comfy!
The girls loved the night we stayed there.

I am so glad we got to make the trip which really was touch and go right up until we left Thursday evening. See the Princess had slipped on Wednesday and hurt her foot, by Thursday morning it was not looking good so we spent from 2-4 at the Dr's office and x-rays only to get "a possible hairline fracture" and a referral to Ortho that we can't get in until this Thursday morning anyway and so we decided it wasn't bothering her and she propped it up on pillows in the van and we went anyway. It is looking better today so I just don't know, guess we will wait and find out what they say on Thursday.

So that's our weekend in a nutshell. We had a fabulous time, all three of us. I think it was very good for all of us. And we thank this group for letting us crash their reunion. I think I need to work on getting our own little travel group back together again in the Spring. It's always so good to see them!

And guess what???? she went to see SANTA!! and I didn't have my camera!! (cause seriously who knew she would actually go???) but fortunately one of the other mom's let me borrow hers so I will post those pics when I get them. There were lots of cameras going but I was finding it too hard to keep track of both girls, my purse/wallet and the camera, plus that day it was pouring rain all day so with all the in and out and trying not to get as soaked as possible, and failing miserably, I just kept forgetting it in the van. Ah well. I am sure the others will email or post their pics and I'll pass them along then. ;)

Think she was excited?

Check out that toe! :)


She had a FABULOUS time at dance tonight! I got to watch from the van and she did really well for her first ever class. She did super when the teacher had them line up and walk across the floor on tip toe with their hands over their heads. SO CUTE! I think she's going to want to stick with it for awhile, of course she still insists she wants to figure skate too, I swear with this kid it is all about the costumes.. LOL

Dance

The Princess starts dance class tomorrow. Think she's a bit excited?? That may just the understatement of the month! She keeps asking if it is Tuesday yet. We went last week and checked it out, she insisted she wanted to do what the other girls were doing so we signed up and went to buy shoes the next day. Of course they didn't have her tap shoe size in stock so we have to go back tomorrow to pick those up, I'll do that while she is at school and after school we'll have a snack and then head to dance. Sure hope it goes as well as she thinks it will!

These are some quick photos I snapped with my cell phone so we could text them to Daddy. I'll try to get some better ones tomorrow when it's the real deal;) Of course the Pixie couldn't be left out of looking so cute, so since the Princess requested we got her a little leotard as well. She proudly points to her chest and says "Cinnnerella!" LOL I may be able to work it out soon so that she'll get her own dance class and get to use her little outfit, but if not, she'll start next year as well. Believe it or not when it comes to the leotards they are in the same size. Too funny.

We had quite the morning here today. Went to take the Princess to school and the van was dead, and parked in the garage. I called her school to let them know we wouldn't make it, or at the least would be late, then thought of one of the other parents and called right back to talk to her. Got her hubby instead (the person I really needed let's face it) and they promised to come right over. Fortunately he wasn't long in figuring out how to get the van in gear (note it has a little trick to it that I didn't know yet) and we backed it into the driveway. I did some climbing in the garage to reach the jumper cables, silly hubby putting them on the TOP shelf! My friends finally found the battery in their car (it's a new car and trust me it was NOT obvious at all where it was!) and we got it going, only to have the Anti-theft kick off and couldn't figure out how to get it to stop! Quick call to the hubby got us out of that one and it has been fine ever since (knock on wood!) We think a light must have gotten left on and as we didn't go anywhere all weekend.....well you know. I hope that was all it was anyway. We have a road trip this weekend and don't want to miss it! Please don't try to call on our travel days, I will not be answering the phone while driving as it is quite the pain and too distracting. Wish us luck! :)

Yee Haw!!

Just look at what the Pixie gets away with when the Princess is at school, and doesn't she just look like she KNOWS she is getting away with something?! Sissy does occasionally share Phillippe but not often and the Pixie knows it. Actually one of her favorite things to do is put the Pixie on the horse and then get on with her, the Pixie is never completely happy with this solution though so she was happy to have the big horse to herself for a bit. :)

And here is the Princess doing some home work, did you know they have home work in PreK? Her teacher seems big into collages, last week was the letter F, this week the letter S, so we had to go through catalogs and magazines to find things that started with the letter S. All I can say is it was a good thing my Oriental Trading showed up yesterday! Guess all those catalogs will come in handy this year, they have to be good for something.

we are still here

the almost finished play set, only the roof didn't get finished. it'll still be there in the spring;)
New patio set:)
Doing some painting



Isn't she beautiful?




So cute you just can't stand it.. LOL
It's been a busy couple of weeks but we are still here. The pictures above are from a little adventure with some chalk paint...the pink on the pixie's leg? yeah 5 minutes later it was completely covered so this little adventure ended with showers, the princess decided she needed a shower because she was sweaty.. ah well it worked out and they were ready for bed early. :)

The pictures further down are from this morning. I was watching the Princess first and was just suddenly prompted to grab the camera, some times the beauty in my children is breath taking and I just have to capture it. This was just one of those quiet moments.