Birthday Party Pictures

Reese in her Halloween costume before her party

Dad, Mom, and Reese

Reese, me, and Mom

Reese with her cupcake with 8 candles on top (she doesn't like icing, so she added whipped cream after the candles were off)

Reese turned 8 on October 8, but we had her birthday party October 27 at a local pizza place. Given the proximity to Halloween, we told the kids who were invited they could dress up. Reese is being a leopard for Halloween, so she donned her costume purchased the night prior and drew on whiskers and it is just about the most cute thing I've seen. Some of you may remember Reese as a pink leopard back in 2007 for Halloween.

Reese, Halloween 2007

She had a good time with her friends and got some fun presents including a Boogie Board, a diary with a pen with invisible ink, a Target gift card, money, some iTunes gift cards, some cute clothes from Old Navy, and lotion and body wash from Bath and Body Works.

And here's a flashback through the years!

Reese 1st birthday (in China)

Reese's 2nd birthday (in China)

Reese's 3rd birthday (first home!)

Reese's 4th birthday party

5th birthday

6th birthday

7th birthday

Kaleigh's Birthday Party

She's finally gotten to the point where she'll go underwater without goggles.

But her preference is to wear them (can't really blame her, but she loves the ones with the nose, and they annoy the heck out of me.)

A pack of kids at the party

From L to R: Reese, and her friends, A-M and S.

These are pictures from Kaleigh's 7th birthday party (a friend of our's). For the last several years, she's had her party at this pool, and this year Reese has become particularly enamored with the pool, so she was thrilled.

I've also started an advocacy blog for China's waiting children, the kids who are looking for their forever homes. It's at caringforchinaschildren.blogspot.com. There are 3 little ones on there with port-wine stain like Reese, and a couple others with nevi. Check it out, maybe your next kiddo is there waiting for you.

Kaleigh's Birthday Party

 Reese can do the splits now

 Joseph took these pictures with his video camera at Kaleigh's party

Given that it has been really hot here lately, going swimming was awesome. The water was an awesome temperature. The pool was shaded so it wasn't in direct sunlight (awesome when you burn as quickly as I do). Kaleigh turned 6, and she had a spiderman cake.

Reese loves to swim, and there was a 3 foot section, so she was pretty much free to do as she pleased in that area. Joseph and I ventured to the 9 foot section some, and frequented the 5 foot. There was also a slide, which was just tons of fun. I went down it, Joseph went down it, Reese refused to because the kid is afraid of her face getting in the water. So she missed out on the fun because her head *might* have gone underwater for half a second when she was in her life jacket.

We're homeschooling Reese this fall, and she's going to a homeschool program on Mondays not far from where we live. So her school starts back on August 1. Joseph, Mom, and I return on August 18. Reese is going into 1st grade. Her reading is amazingly good, and she's recently taken to drawing quite a bit. Her last 2 pieces have been renditions of the same parrot. No idea why she picked a parrot, but she did. I'm starting my junior year of college, and beginning to think about what I want to do with my life as far as jobs and grad school. I honestly have no idea. Adoption seems like a flooded field, and I'm not sure I want to be a professor. I'm somewhat looking at perhaps working at a library at the moment. I worked at one when I was 16, and I enjoyed it. I love books, and I love the usually calm setting of a library. Maybe I could even have a library one day that had a library cat. :)

Birthday Party

A bunch of deflated (unstuffed) Fudgy Puppies

Deflated Fudgy Puppy on Reese's head

Reese went to a birthday party for a girl in her class last weekend at Build-A-Bear. She had a lot of fun. Everyone got to make a "bear", although the options within the party's price range went from bunny to bear to puppy. They got to pick an outfit, which ranged from dresses to pj's to boys' outfits. It was fun. I'd never been to a Build-A-Bear party, but it's a cute idea. Only downside is, the Build-A-Bear stores don't have a place for the cake. You have to go down to the food court for the cake, but that still wasn't too bad.