It's been forever!

I know I'm lame. I can't believe it's been since October since I've posted. So much has happened. For Halloween Kate was a Tulip Fairy and Grace was Gabriella from High School Musical. We trick-or-treated with our friend Samantha.

This Thanksgiving I was quite Thankful for my girls. Grace's 5th Gotcha was 11/27, we went to Grace's favorite restaurant Bravo's to celebrate.

Late November Grace was advanced to First Grade. After spending just 9 weeks in Kindergarted we just knew she was too advanced for the kindergarten curriculum. It took a few weeks for the formal process to be completed and she moved to first grade with great success!

Christmas was wild and very fun with two. I think the girls got all they wanted. We had fun celebrating with Auntie for Christmas Eve, going to Church for Christmas Eve service and waking up Christmas morning with a tree full of gifts.

We had a small New Year's Eve party with a few special friends and rang in the new year with fun and food.

January 15th was Grace's 6th birthday celebrated at the Little Gym, where she and 14 of her closest friends had a Cheerleading party. She asked for donations to Half the Sky (a Chinese Orphanage support charity) instead of gifts and was able to raise $250 for the kids in China. It couldn't have come at a better time as the Spring Festival snow storms and frigid weather wreaked havock in southern China. These storms at China's most revered holiday handed a low blow to its most defenseless, the poor and orphans. Zhejiang was not hit too hard and last reports LongYou was fine. Jiangxi was hit hard and Kate's orphanage suffered. CCAI as well as Half the Sky supported them and I'm working with CCAI to get money to Kate's foster family.

February was full of fun with Chinese New Year celebration with our FCC and our annual Chinese New Year presentation at Grace's school. Grace's class enjoyed learning about China's Spring Festival and had fun doing our version of the dragon dance.

My mother will have her hip replaced on Tuesday,2/26 and we'll all feel the pain of that one. She offers so much support with the kids that I don't know how I'll manage. Thankfully, my cousin will come while my mother is in the hospital and my father and stepmother will come the week after. Many friends have offered assistance and I know I'll have to take them up on it.