front porch ladies

With Chris' side of the family I decided to host Easter Dinner at our house. Ella REALLY wanted to have an Easter Egg Hunt so this was a good way to meet her request. It went really well! As you will see in the pictures, Nancy bought beautiful dresses and suits for all 6 grandkids! We had LOTS of people which I will list here for my own remembering...(which I don't do well sans lists)

Phil, Nancy, Jean
Dave & Julie
Amy, Matt, Hannah, Christopher
Andrew, Ping, Silas, Eva, Lao-Lao, Lao-Ye
Matt D
Liz, Connor, Sam, and Sophie Nixon

I'm in love with this shot of Sadie Amy captured. Beautiful!!

It started POURING about 5 minutes after the mad dash for the 90 or so candy filled eggs the dads hid in the yard

Add caption

So happy to have Ping's parents visiting from China for a few months!

Chris' grandmother loves getting time snuggling Sadie


I "caught" Christopher and Sam (who just met that day) sitting in Sadie's room reading her board books and giggling-so cute!

Sadie's Dedication

On Mother's Day we were able to participate in Baby dedication at our church. We were able to publicly dedicate ourselves to raising Sadie in the love and knowledge of God. It was great to have lots of friends and family there-it meant a lot to us to feel support as we start this parenting journey for a second time (this time having a better idea of what we're getting into!) And Lord knows, we can use His help and the prayers and support of his people.

Our cheering section! 3 rows strong!

Post dedication. Sadie is getting so big! She's 9 months old here.

Attempting to get a good pic is rough but I almost enjoy the crazy-reality pictures more than the perfectly posed ones.

Sadie has been nicknamed "the hair monster" because she is constantly pulling hair, especially Ella's

Luau 2011

A few weeks ago I received an invitation that looked like a Hawaiian shirt and asked me to please join Ella's Pre-school class for the Mother's Day Luau! This is an annual tradition at her pre-school so this is our 3rd luau :-) I happily got a babysitter to come take Sadie, borrowed a Hawaiian Sarong from a pre-school mom-friend and off to school we went!

The kids sang for us and then each child gave their mom one of the leis they were wearing

Then we feasted on fruit kabobs and brownies the kids had put together

Ella and her best buddy, Sophie

Sophie and her mom Liz, a great friend of mine :-)

The silly side of the girls doesn't take long to emerge :-)

Limbo!

Not sure which kid knew about congo lines but this went on for quite a while


Ella's buddies Sophie and Carly

Best.Date.Ever.

I'm loving the advent of things like Groupon and Living Social and Certifikid. I get emails or check the websites and find all kinds of awesome local deals! This deal was the best things I've found so far. It was a date for 2 that included dessert, wine, and a painting lesson with all the materials and a professional artist! I surprised Chris with this evening out and it was better than I could have even imagined. We LOVE doing unusual, creative dates and this was perfect for us!

When we arrived at the Washington Design Center (which looked awesome to explore sometime) we entered a room where there were about 20 canvases set u on easles and a bunch of other couples. As we chatted with folks we discovered that most everyone found the deal online as we did and had little to no art experience. A bunch of like-minded people just looking for a fun night out!

We were soon offered dessert and our choice of wine (which was free flowing all night) and after we'd eaten and chatted a bit, our "teacher" for the night was introduced. She is an artist who has work hanging in the White House as well as many celebrity clients who have commissioned paintings by her-pretty cool! She was very laid back and didn't do much formal instruction but was available for advice and help as we worked on the project for the night-a still life of oranges. She had painted an example that hung in the front of the room. The woman next to Chris painted flying turtles but for the most part, we all tried our hand at creating life-like oranges with varying degrees of success. We had so much fun and I snapped some pics on my cell phone throughout the night. I would definitely recommend Uncork'd Art to anyone! I'd love to do this again.