Pumpkin Patch Fun!

Although I have to come to terms with the fact that summer has come to an end, the good new is that Fall, Beautiful Fall, has arrived! I really have to admit that it is a toss up between Fall and Spring, as my two favorite times of year! The weather has been beautiful. The colors are bright and beautiful. Everywhere you look, there is a pumpkin patch madness! We started our fun at the annual Family Tree Nursery Fall Fun Event. We met Linsey, Lily, and Graeme there for a few hours to share the fun together!

then, we decided to try a new Pumpkin Patch, which turned out to be a bust, because after paying a hefty fee to get in, they told me that the actual "pumpkin patch" was closed because of recent heavy rain, but other areas and activities were still open. So, we could take a wagon ride, but just not get off to pick a pumpkin. We could buy a pumpkin, though, in their nursery. They had a few other activities going on, which were pretty lame, and the kids got one free jump on the giant pillow but would have to pay for more (I think that could have easily been a free event) The food window was unorganized and was easily a half hour wait to order anything! (It wasn't even relatively crowded this day) We have been to other pumpkin patches that had a lot more fun going on throughout the grounds, AND your entrance admission earned you one free pumpkin. Oh, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I would rate it a 2 on a 1-5 scale, and to remind myself, the place was called Johnson Farms.

there were a few animals to see...pigs, goats. chicks

we took an opportunity to take pictures in the sunflower field...

all in all, it was fun to spend a day outdoors, surrounded by FALL!

4th Grade Musical

In Kayli's school, there are two different years (2nd grade and 4th grade) when the kids get to participate in an "all class" musical, performed for the entire school. The music teacher begins by asking the kids to indicate whether they would like to have a speaking part, dancing part, group singing part, solo singing part, etc. etc. That way, the music teacher, Mrs. K. can compare interests to ability, and do her best to work within these parameters. It's pretty awesome the way she manages to work in so many different parts. Now, you may remember how Kayli acted so hesitant and shy for Mrs. K. in 2nd grade, when she was asked to try a singing/speaking part, so she was assigned a group role. Due to her small size, though, Kayli was placed front and center on the stage, and Mrs. K discovered very quickly that this child takes on a new life when she is on stage! She pretty much knew every single line that every single kid would sing or say, and was so animated up there, following every single one of Mrs. K's cues, that Mrs. K told me later "that little stinker sure pulled the wool over my eyes!" She was amazing!!! So, fast forward to 4th grade requests, where Kayli indicated that she would like to be part of the group chorus. Mrs. K asked her if she would consider playing a lead role where she would sing a solo, and Kayli said "No thank-you." Mrs. K. told me about this after school, and said she was just dumbfounded by Kayli's answer, and couldn't even talk her into it. I asked Kayli why she didn't want to do this, and she told me that she didn't want to miss all her recesses to practice! Turns out that she agreed to try a solo, and practices were actually in the mornings, before school. Since I had to talk Kayli into this, I couldn't complain or get cranky when we were trying to get out the door earlier every morning, always a chore!
The big day arrived and as usual, Mrs. K had put together an amazing musical! The kids all did a great job, and my sweet pea once again put her "all" into the show! Kayli played the role of 1 of 3 stowaways, and got to sing a few solo parts. The show was fun, fun, fun!!!

 Kayli had sooooo much fun preparing, practicing, and putting on this musical! Aside from the adrenaline rush she got from starting her day singing her heart out, the camaraderie involved in this kind of adventure fostered some new friendships, and that is a great thing too! She's expanding her horizons, as well as her friendship circle!

Way to go 4th graders!

 

Our Red Thread Day

Happy Red Thread Day to my Sweet Pea!

Yep, our special day is here again, and in celebration of becoming a family on this special day, we made sure to take the day off from school and work to just spend it together! We agreed that we would not plan too much, because we needed a break from our over-planned days! We chose to sleep-in, stay in our jammies for the first few hours of the day, relaxing with our ipads over breakfast. I was sipping on coffee, while Kayli enjoyed a homemade smoothie. By late morning, we decided we would do a little shopping, then head to Winsteads for lunch ...

before we needed to make our way over to the only appointments we had today, at the Beauty School, for manicures and pedicures! Woohoo! We got the "royal treatment" at the Beauty School!

the weather was unbelievably beautiful this entire day, and after a bit more shopping, Kayli and I decided that we did not want to go out to a restaurant for dinner but instead would rather get carry-out from Chili's and set up our portable screened-in-porch for a "fly-less" picnic on the deck! We just can't soak up enough of this fabulous weather!

usually there are presents to open on this day. Two of the presents I ordered for Kayli have not arrived yet. (Should have been here by now) So, we'll wait with the promise of "hopefully tomorrow". Tonight, Kayli and I watched the video of the day we met in China! She really got a kick out of seeing and hearing herself as a toddler. She was so darn cute, my sweet baby girl...

the next day, we went to the Asian market to pick up some fortune cookies, and a few other items. It is always so much fun to walk through the Asian market, and see all the interesting food and gifts they have. Upon arriving home, a few hours later, we found that the packages we were waiting for, had arrived in the mail! Woohoo! As is traditional, I made sure to wrap some of the presents in red, the good luck color in China!

"Look, a teeny, tiny spoon for my spoon collection!"

Personalized Chopsticks for our chopstick collection...

a very special "learn to paint with Chinese brush strokes" book. (Kayli has already taken some beginner lessons on Chinese brush strokes with ink, so this should be fun for her to get to make some pictures.) 

of course there is always a bit of "bling" for my girl...

and naturally, there was the traditional Chinese red envelope included in the gift giving, with a bit of lucky money...

I always buy some sort of Chinese cultural book. This one was about a little Chinese-American girl who wanted to tell her classmates some things she knew about China, but first she had to interview some of the Chinese people she knew here in America. Each person she talked to secretly slipped a momento into her pocket to help her remember an interesting piece of trivia to share with her class. She visits Mr. Fan,the tailor, Mrs. Liu, from the flower shop, Jasmine, from the ice cream store, and Mr. Yu, from the Noodle Shop. ( I did not know that the delicious treat of ice cream was invented in  China! ) 

  we finished reading the book, and as our grand finale, we cracked open a couple of fortune cookies...

Kayli's fortune was advising her to stop searching for happiness when it was right next to her. I couldn't resist piping in "Yep, it's right here next to you...it's Me!" Ha! 

My fortune informed me that I had a lively family...uh, that's not exactly a revelation, haha! 

Life is good...

Irish Fest Fun!

Our long weekend is off to a great start!We decided to head down to the Crown Center for the Irish Fest today. This festival just keeps getting bigger and bigger every year. It started at 11:00 today. We were there by 12:15, and there was no parking left in the garages! We had to park up the street, a couple of blocks away. So, the bonus was that we would be getting our exercise in today too, yeeha!

we immediately headed for the food court, and chose the nearest hotdog stand. As I ordered two hotdogs, I realized the vendor didn't sell drinks,she told me drinks were across the street, so off we went. Now, at the vendor across the street,  I ordered two pops, but, I was told that I couldn't buy drinks without tokens, and that I had to go across the street again to purchase these tokens, then come back to use these tokens to purchase the pop! Talk about crazy! Finally, with our hotdogs and pop, and a few snacks we brought in our backpack, we headed inside to find Suzanne and Bill, where they were listening to some music indoors. We ate lunch w/them, then decided to head back outside. Kayli went to throw our trash away and didn't see that someone had spilled a huge drink of clear liquid on the floor, and she slipped and fell. Seriously, these people could have warned her, sheesh. She said she was ok, so we headed outdoors. We wandered around, checking out all the activities, and Irish vendors...

Kayli and I had walked by the inflatables, and I reported to her that the wristband for playing on the inflatables costs $10.00, and the face painting was $7.00. I told her that we still hadn't been to the market area, where they often sold irish jewelry, and I had a feeling that she might like something there, knowing my jewelry loving gal, so I was going to let her decide if she wanted to hold off on the inflatables to see if there was something she would rather buy at the market. Then, she could decide if she wanted me to spend money on inflatables and face painting, or spend the same money on something she just couldn't live without from the market. She was totally "on board" with this idea! So, we took our time, and looked and looked, and even spent some time inside the Crown Center, where Kayli knelt down on the floor of a shop, and knelt right on a tiny shard of glass, puncturing her knee, and coming to me with blood running down her leg! Well, a bandaid got us on our way, and back outside, where we found an irish vendor that just happened to have something perfect for us! We found ourselves a set of inexpensive matching mother-daughter silver claddagh rings! Kayli and I were both thrilled! Kayli was extra excited that she would get to have something symbolizing the Irish side of her heritage (the one that makes her Irish just because she was adopted by this Irish mom! We Irish folk can make anything true that we want because we believe in fairies and leprechauns and magic and happy endings at all costs!!!)

It was getting very, very hot! I got Kayli some dippin dots, which cooled her off for a while. We met up with Suzanne and Bill again, over in the kid section, where they were listening to an irish group play music on a stage. We pulled up some chairs and kicked back in the shade for a while...

now, we were getting ready to head home, and we were walking toward the exit, when a lady walked up to us and asked Kayli if she would like a FREE "Inflatables wrist band!" She told Kayli she would give it to her if she promised she would use it! Talk about a surprise! So, back we went for the grand finale on the inflatables...

amazing that 4 1/2 hours passed by while we were having so much fun!