Ducks and Bunnies!

During the Easter egg hunt, the foster home had purchased some little duckies and already had bunnies for all the kids to pet.  It's a great way to introduce them to animals~many of which the kids have never seen except in pictures.  It helps prepare them for the pets they may some day have in their forever families.  Besides it's just plain fun!

Elly loved the bunnies!

And the ducks were quite cuddly too!

Holly thought they were great, but Hannah was terrified of these--which is why I didn't have a picture of her holding any of these cuties! Obviously she is not afraid of dogs--as we have one in the Forever Home, but little bunnies and duckies are terrifying!

Elizabeth has always loved pets and takes every available opportunity to get to hold them!

This was as close as Emma got to these little animals--and that took a lot of convincing!

Emma stood back and watched for some time. After she was convinced that these bunnies weren't going to eat her, she decided to pet one.

Uh oh!!  That bunny stole her sucker!  Bad bunny!!  Actually she dropped it out of her mouth when she bent over to pet him :0

Though this isn't the best picture, you can clearly see that she isn't very pleased that she can't retrieve her sucker to eat it again :)

This is as close as Mollie ever got to touching an animal.  She decided they were much safer from a distance!

Nope, no amount of convincing was getting her nearer to that bunny who stole Emma's sucker!

Happy Belated Easter--The Hunt Is On!

We always try to wait until the weather is warm enough to do our Easter Egg hunt at the foster home, thereby making in most enjoyable for everyone.  Although it was originally scheduled for Friday afternoon, it had to be rescheduled for Monday due to the heavy rain.  The kids always have a great time!

Here the girls line up against the wall waiting for the bunny ears they'd made the previous week and Easter baskets while awaiting the big Easter egg hunt event!  They all have a hard time containing their giggles and excitement!  Don't they just look so adorable in their bunny ears?!

Mollie sets off and is ready to go ahunting for some candy!!

Hannah, you'd better get going or there won't be any left for you to find!  Hannah didn't seem to be in much of a hurry.  Hey, she does have a kiwi I see already.  We included fruit in our hunt as well as candy.  It's funny that some of them seem to prefer that over the candy!  Amazing isn't it?!

Elly is on her way searching for some sweets.  No worries, though her basket is small, she has a helper standing by to help carry any that doesn't fit in her tiny basket!

Emma spots some candy waaaaaaaaaay up high!  Who put that there?!  Guess they wanted to make it more challenging huh?!

Look!  Mollie also spots some up near the roof.  I'm convinced she could find candy anywhere around.  She's definitely got a sweet tooth!

Emma, you look adorable in your bunny ears!

Elly spots some candy in the slide and goes to retrieve it!  She thinks this is pretty fun :)

Whoa, Holly!!  Perhaps they should have given you a smaller basket!  I have to say, she was quite nice and shared what she had with many of the other children.  Way to go Holly!

After the hunt, they all sit in the grass to enjoy the spoils of what they'd found!

Going To A Wedding!

The girls have been anxiously awaiting the big day of one of our staff members wedding.  We don't often get the opportunity to attend weddings so this was very special for all our girls.  In fact, many of them had never been to a wedding before.  They were very excited :)  

This is Grace and her new husband dressed in traditional Chinese wedding apparel.

In a Chinese wedding, many people close to the bride and groom such as parents, grandparents, even employers etc. get to stand up and say a kind word about the couple.  Every time they finished, there would be applause and Emma would get all excited and give a hearty clap herself--although she had no idea what she was clapping about, she was just caught up in all the excitement!  Do you have any doubt that she had a great time?!

The meal was served and Chinese tradition holds that the bride and groom come around to all the tables and serve their guests drinks.  Elizabeth and Hannah are excited at getting an opportunity to talk with Grace--such a beautiful bride, don't you think?!

What is all this mess you may ask?!  Another Chinese tradition is to set off fireworks.  Well, this is what's left when you do tons of firecrackers! Traditionally fireworks are the sign of getting rid of the old and welcoming the new.  Another tradition involving fireworks, gongs, and drums heralded by the wedding procession of the groom to his bride's home is included to frighten away any evil spirits that might be following the groom into his new life.  We weren't there for this part, but I have seen it before. I'm not sure how much it is still practiced, but the firecrackers obviously is!  In fact, they use fireworks for everything here--store openings, birthdays, weddings, funerals, and many other occasions.  

This is Mollie all dressed in her finest.  She was more than happy to pose for a picture this time, although later it's another story.

Emma is rarely keen on posing for pictures.  Can you tell by this photo--and this is the best one!  Either she's looking away or looking bored--unless I catch her by surprise such as in the earlier picture.

Ellie is another one who has no problem posing for pictures.  She was quite proud to show off her pretty dress.  

Holly looks so beautiful in her dress!  I'm so glad she's decided it's okay to look like a girl!

Hannah is also lookin' great today!

These three beauties--Elizabeth, Elise and Shawna--are our 3 adopted daughters.

Warm Weather Fun

Shawna and Mollie have a great time when they go outside to "work on their skills" or is it just plain ole fun?!

Emma and Elise team up together today.

What a sweet smile Emma!

Mollie's smile is adorable too!

Elizabeth teaches Mollie how to blow bubbles.  Mollie practices as she watches until it's her turn.

What skill is that Mollie?  I don't think it is one unless you count how creative you can be with a stool!  Sure looks like fun though :)

Work or Fun?!

Most of our girls, coming from orphanage settings, are behind in many of their skills.  Kids who are in regular families do many of these things on a regular basis and therefore learn those much needed skills.  After we assess the girls and learn what they need to work on, we begin with those specific skills and work on them until they are mastered.  Here Mollie is working on her ball kicking skills.

Emma is working on her ball throwing skills.

Though this skill is much further down the line, it's fun to try anyway.  Emma wonders what she's supposed to be doing with this.  She thinks she needs someone to show her again.

Mollie seems like she's getting the hang of it.

Sticker Madness

Kids always love stickers!  Just look at how much fun they can be!  Of course mom would rather see them all over their face rather than stuck to the floor or walls or on their clothes and you accidentally wash them only to have the sticky glue residue left behind or on other things only to have to scrape them off later.  Don't get me wrong, this wasn't my idea, but hey!  I think it's much better than the alternative places :)

You look fabulous Emma!!

Elly is adorable in her new latest sticker fashion!

Mollie loved her Dora stickers.

Look At Me!

Holly is loving dressing up these days and her personality is really beginning to shine through!

How beautiful you are Holly!

Our Little Ham

This is Mollie, our little ham pretending that she's camera shy--well, she isn't, far from it!  

Mollie and Emma spend a lot of time playing together and it seems like when I get the camera out--we stop the cute little things we were doing!  Come on girls, I just want some cute blog post for your future parents!

This is our typical Mollie! 

Blocks, Blocks, and more Blocks!

There are a few toys that all the girls seem to love and that is the larger lego type building blocks.  They always seem to be fighting over them and we felt we just needed some more.  So we ordered some and after getting them in one day, came home to find even the older girls were having a blast with them! Look how tall we can stack them--all the way to the ceiling!  

Shawna (taking the picture), Elise and Elizabeth all had a blast with the new blocks--a nice set of 500!  They had to check them out to be sure they were fun enough for the younger girls to play with :)  Looks like they were!

Mollie and Emma check out the new blocks.  Did you know the longer ones can be used as microphones?!  Just ask Emma and Mollie who do it all the time!

Elly and Hannah sharing some block time.