Sips 'n Strokes

For Christmas two years ago, Noelle had asked for a gift card to Sips 'n Strokes. She however then couldn't find a painting she wanted to do. She didn't ever want to do the kids classes, she was waiting on something special. As soon as she saw this bunny on the calendar, she was ready to cash in the gift card and sign up. I decided to take the class with her since I had been wanting to try it out too. When we arrived, they looked a little nervous when they saw how young Noelle was. They said that really this is one of the hardest paintings because drawing all the eggs gets interesting. I was so proud of her. She really hung in there and worked hard on her painting. Here were our finished results!! It took us 2 hours longer than scheduled to finish them, but we were both excited with how they turned out. I loved having this special time with my special girl. Hopefully we can sneak off and do this again sometime.

My Baby Turns 6

It is really hard for me to believe that LeeLee is 6. As you all learned earlier, LeeLee is convinced that she is going to marry Justin Bieber. She has a ranking system, she says God is first, then me, then Justin Bieber. I guess I should be thankful that God and I are in the top two spots, but the fact that Justin Bieber is even in the top 10 is still somewhat disturbing to me. But when it comes to LeeLee and presents, I knew that Justin Bieber stuff would bring the biggest smile. I wrestled with whether or not to fule the fire, but in the end I figured she would appreciate JB stuff more than any toys. Noelle and I shopped for her and we lucked out at Walmart. Obviously he is on the way out, because all the shirts and things were marked down to $2 or less. We were able to find her three shirts, a jacket, a hat, wall stickers, and a new poster. Noelle was cautious about us getting the wall stickers and the new poster since they share a room. She doesn't want any of her friends to think they belong to her. I don't think she has anything to worry about, LeeLee will proudly claim them. Once she opened up her Justin Bieber goodies, she got dressed for dinner. This is what she looked like when he headed out. She was so proud, and walking with quite a bit of sass. She is such an amazing little girl. I am thankful for each of her 6 years. I pray that the Lord blesses her with many more years. I know that when God made LeeLee, he totally broke the mold, and I pray that she will always keep him at number one.

Lemon Aid

Yes, I know I spelled lemonade wrong. It was on purpose because it truly is Lemon Aid. I have a heart for China. One that I can't shake. In fact I often think I left my heart in China in 2006, and that it remains there. I have always had a dream of going back and running a camp for kids that are left behind. I have prayed that the Lord would just take me back there. I found that my vision for a camp in China is already being done by an amazing organization, www.bringmehope.org So, I prayed about it and decided that I had to go. Paul and I talked at length about the possibility of Noelle going with me, and we both agreed that if she felt like the Lord was leading her, then she could go too. What is interesting is that Noelle has always said she didn't want to go to China, but as soon as she learned the details of this trip all the fears left her immediately. We asked her to pray about it for a few days, then she came to us, and said that yes, she felt like she should go. She knew it would be no small task to come up with the $2300 it would take to go, but she tackled it head on. She wrote letters for support, gathered things to sell on ebay, and baked tons of sweet treats for her lemon aid stand. She recruited her friends to help, and they all had fun telling people about the trip. The Lord blessed us with plenty of friends who have a heart for the orphans of China, and plenty of strangers who opened up their pockets to her during her lemon aid stand. She raised $170. She plans to have one more lemon aid stand before we travel to pay for her visa. That is the only money she still lacks. I am proud of her willingness to work so hard for this. I know the heart that God has blessed her with, and I know the burden that she also carries for the children still in China. She is such an amazing big sister, and already has plans to adopt herself one day. A special thanks to the M family and Noelle's best friend, CC, for all you all did to help with the stand, what a blessing you all are!

Hamster Ball Derby 2011

If you have been following our blog for long, you may remember the Hamster Ball Derby of 2010. Since hamsters are not known for their longevity of life, we only had one repeat hamster in this race, and wouldn't you know it would be Jewel, last name Ya, LeeLee's hamster who wasn't really known for rolling. The word must have gotten out about this thing, because there were more hamsters this year. Hunter and LeeLee were against each other in the first round. Surprisingly, Jewel last name Ya, must have learned a thing or two, because she knocked Hunter out of the competition. Noelle went into the race knowing that her hamster probably wouldn't do well. All the kids train their hamsters for a few weeks before the race. The training just consists of them all putting them in the balls and yelling at them the reach the predetermined finish line first. After about 10 races and Noelle's hamster never rolling, I decided to take a closer look. Sure enough, her sweet little hamster, Chili, only has three feet. She was an adoptable hamster that had been placed for adoption because it had been abused in it's former home. We had not noticed that the hamster had a nub instead of a foot. So, as we expected, Chili never rolled at all, knocking Noelle out of the competition. She and Hope were sharing, since I don't feel Hope is ready for her own hamster yet. Once all the elimination rounds were finished, it was LeeLee and Jewel last name Ya, that took home the grand prize. I guess LeeLee's hamster decided to bump things up a bit this year. LeeLee won a great new cage. She was sweet and decided to let Hunter use the new cage since Jewel last name Ya is so old that she may not adjust to a new home well. We will all be looking forward to next year's derby.

Atlanta Zoo

So, this was my motivation behind wanting to go to Atlanta. I love Panda Bears!! Atlanta had just put baby Po on display, and I desperately wanted to see him. We lucked out, and he was out with his mom for the entire morning. I could have pulled up a chair and just watched that sweet little baby all day long. Unfortunately though, there were other animals to see. We had a great day touring the Atlanta Zoo. As we headed home we decided to stop at the original Chick-fil-a in Atlanta. It is called the Dwarf House. We all entered through the little dwarf door. We decided to sit on the side where they serve you at your table. We had the most delightful waitress was has worked there for 15 years. We heard all kinds of neat stories, and she pampered the kids with stuffed animals, ice cream, and cookies! Then after all that sugar out spring break trip was over. On the way home I think we all agreed that we had way more fun than we would have had at the beach. I thought about how thankful I was that my kids truly appreciated their educational spring break.

Georgia Aquarium

We gave the kids two options for spring break. One option was 3 days at a beach resort. The resort had three indoor swimming pools, then of course the fun of the beach. The second option was 2 days in Atlanta, one at the zoo, and one at the aquarium. They all cast their ballots, and we were in shock when they choose the Atlanta trip. Noelle led the charge with the votes because she would get to see penguins. Everyone else had fun too! LeeLee loved the touch pools. She and Hunter were the adventurous ones, they could have stayed in with the sting rays forever. Hope loved this albino alligator. She has so much fun seeing all of these animals in real life. I think I had the best time watching her face. Hunter loved the frog section. They had some amazingly colorful poisonous dart frogs. He loved searching for each and every one of them. I would love to go again some day. It was such a neat experience there. After we finished up we went to our hotel and swam for a few hours then headed for a quick trip to the American Girl Doll Store then dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

She has the Bieber Fever

For all those that know me well, you will know that I am never up on singers, actors, or actresses. I just really don't care who they are. I have been like that most of my life. I don't really remember having childhood crushes on famous movie stars. The first to catch my eye was Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing. If I remember correctly, I was in high school when I thought he was so handsome. So, how on earth did I end up with a child who has an obsession at the age of 5? LeeLee has had the Beiber fever for almost a year now. Noelle brought home the scholastic book fair flyer, and on it was the above poster of JB. LeeLee saw it and came to me and said, "Mom, I will do anything for $4.50." I laughed and gave her some chores to do, so she earned her money. I tried to give the money to Noelle to buy the poster for LeeLee, but she said she wasn't going to be caught dead with a JB poster. So we had to wait until I could get up to the school to buy it. Luckily, there was one poster left when we made it to the book fair. LeeLee was so excited. We all got a good laugh though because she was so elated and Hope looked at the poster and said, "So that is Justin Bieber?" Then I confirmed that it was, and Hope said, "Ewww, he's gross!" It didn't deter LeeLee though. She came home and hung the poster above her bed on the ceiling. I think I'm in for a long rode with this child. I pray everyday for her, and I can only hope that the Lord will answer those prayers!