Cholita is Seven!

Our sweet little birthday girl can beat a dead horse like nobody's business.   The days leading up to her big day were filled with questions:

Have you gotten my birthday list?  Has everyone in the family gotten my list?  Do you think that two people might get me the same thing?   If they do, how do I not hurt someone's feelings?  Have you all told each other what you're getting me so that doesn't happen?  What if I don't like my presents?  

You get the idea.  Much to her relief, she did not get two of the same present and she was gifted with several presents from her list.  XiXi bought her a Rapunzel wig, Rose bought her candy and a Rapunzel doll (yes, she's a big Tangled fan), and Mom and Dad got her a tiara and clip-on earrings....big dangly, gaudy clip-on earrings that she's already campaigning to wear to school.

I was especially impressed with the homemade presents from the big kids.  Lucy made her several items for her dolls: the throw pillows on the doll bed, the black dress (made from a sock), the adorable crocheted collar, several headbands, a doll bag, and inside the dollbag....

Just what every doll needs.....

a laptop.

I especially loved the bathtub, complete with a homemade loofah.

Bruder, who leaves for college day after tomorrow, spent many hours making Cholita an impressive bow and arrow set, just her size! 

She concentrates,

 let's it fly,

and has hit the bullseye more than once!

With her lost teeth and permanent ones coming in, she suddenly looks so much older.  

In so many ways, she's 7, going on about 14.

Happy birthday Cholita girl!

We love you to pieces!

Star Spangled Lucy

Tonight our Lucy had the honor and privilege of singing the national anthem at the

 Little League World Series!  

For this special event, she felt a new outfit was in order.

We found a beautiful dress and cardigan, but they were pricey.

Under the circumstances though, it felt almost unpatriotic NOT to buy them,

so to the cash register we went, only to find out that they were both 50% off.

So she bought shoes too.

It was a good day at the mall.

Arriving at the ballpark, how cool did we feel to have our own VIP parking?

Very cool.

Lucy rarely gets stage fright, or field fright, I guess.

But she was feeling it tonight.

I found a great spot to videotape her, had everything ready,

and when she walked up to the head of the V formed by the 2 teams and the umpires,

she stood in probably the only place in the whole ballpark where she was COMPLETELY blocked!

I couldn't see her at all.

I'm sure she looked gorgeous.

She sounded gorgeous and we were very proud.

We stayed for the game of Greenville, North Carolina against Waite Pass, Minnesota.

They grow 13 year-olds big in North Carolina and they were the victors.

It was a great night at the ball park.

It Doesn't Get Easier....

With teen driver....

Number Two.

Cutie Patootie Haircut

Cholita has gone through some hair challenges.  First of all, her hair grows strongly forward......like so strongly forward, a ponytail is nearly impossible.  Bobby pins are no match for it.  Gel laughs in its face.  You can style her hair to the side, but to the back?  No way, no how.

So we figured that of necessity, she'd have a lifetime of bangs.  And with her hair, you couldn't just do a wisp of bangs, oh no.  The whole top of her head feel forward and insisted on becoming part of the bang crowd.

Which was adorable, so it was all good.

Then she started cutting her own hair, which was not good.  

The bangs grew at lightening speed, much faster than the rest of her hair, which meant frequent trips to the salon to keep it out of her eyes.....or sometimes I picked up the scissors myself, with results similar to Cholita's.

So back in the beginning of the year, we began the long and somewhat messy process of growing out the bangs with the eventual goal being a cute little bob.

And as of this weekend....voila!  The cute little bob.

I love it from the back

and from the side.

And from every angle, we love this girl......even if her new style makes her look a tad too grown up!

And guess how much I paid for this cutie patootie look?

Zero!

Well, except for a tip.

I took the three youngest to JC Penney's for their free kid's cuts in August,

and they all stepped out looking very chic.

What a bargain!

Six Years of Cholita

What a fantastic day.

Six years ago Jin QiuJu was carried into the Civil Affairs Office in Nanning, in the arms of the orphanage accountant, and decided immediately that she'd found her family.   

She especially adored her BaBa.

And still does.

And in some miraculous feat of clothing,

Our girl can still squeeze into the same outfit she wore as a 10 month old.

She may be tiny in body, but this girl is big in spirit.  

We couldn't possibly love her more.

Five!

Our birthday guy, Mr. XiXi!

As is typically the case at our house, the guest of honor was not on their best behavior on their big day.  

Too much excitement, too much sugar,

Too aware that their mother would most likely not put them in the Time Out chair on their birthday,

for goodness sake.

But he pulled it together for his requested dinner of spicy noodles with bok choy, garden strawberries, and stuffed mushrooms.  And of course he was an absolute angel come present time.

His littlest big sister bought him a PlayDough milkshake set,

Rose and Bruder went in together on a remote controlled car,

biggest big sister bought him a pirate set,

and Mom and Dad gifted him with a Hot Wheels garage.

His sisters decorated his peach cake with various cars and XiXi beamed for the birthday song.

Happy birthday sweet boy!  We love you to pieces!

(and tomorrow, if you repeatedly stick your dirty feet in your sister's face to make her scream, well, your free pass is over!)

The Birthday Girl

Our beautiful Rose had a birthday and as per tradition, she posed with the Autumn Sunset rose. 

She's 11 now, will be starting middle school in the Fall,

and is growing up so quickly.
I can't believe this picture was taken only last year.

Rose is our middle child and is so dearly loved by the teenaged crew and the littles.

Everyone worked so hard to make her birthday special.

Rose is our writer and is always on the lookout for cute new notebooks,

which she'll fill with stories that she rarely lets any of us read.

And being the tween that she certainly is,

she was thrilled with the refurbished I-Pod from her big brother.

Something about seeing her with earbuds makes her look closer to the teen years 

than I want her to be!

Happy birthday dear Rose!

We love you!

It Doesn't Seem Long Ago

That this young man was 

a nervous kindergartener.

It doesn't seem long ago

that he was a chubby baby.

It dosen't seem long ago

when he was our only child,

and Lyle looked barely out of high school himself.

But then again, it doesn't even seem that long ago since this,

but I suppose the hair tells a different story.

We are so proud of our son.

It goes by in a heartbeat.