A Day at the Races

Dragon Boat Races that is……We didn’t see many races but we had a great time with our friends. SpicyGirl was the first friend we met and lo and behold….DD and SG had on matching shirts! Not only do we all shop at JC Penney’s but Target as well. (4-17-07 post)

Dragon Dance Lion Dance

DD really enjoyed the lion dance and dragon dance. Let’s face it, DD likes to dance!

After the dances we all went down to the edge of the water to watch the main event-Dragon Boat Races Unfortunately, we only got to see 2 of the boats racing. It wasn’t quite as exciting as we thought it might be. The program directors had allotted several hours for the races. Now we know why. It took them much longer to get everyone in the proper place than it took to actually race. Oh well, at least we had fun visiting. We even met a family with a daughter from the very same SWI as DD. Other than our original travel group, we’ve never personally met anyone from there. If Marlee’s mom is reading this blog, I’d love to hear from you. Maybe we can compare notes about our girls..........

A festival is never complete without a little face painting or arm painting in this case.

At first, the girls waited patiently in the tattoo line.

Then, DD decided to play with SpicyGirls piggy tails to help the time pass a little faster. Ha!

Showing off their tattoos..All for one and one for all!

We were fortunate enough to find a nice parking garage close to all of the activities. At least we thought we were lucky until we decided to leave for lunch and realized that there was no attendant on duty to let us out of the garage. Never fear…. Daddy Darling had a great idea….He had Ski Instructor hold up the lift gate while we all drove under it to get out. I sure hope there wasn’t a camera taking pictures of us. I just wish I had taken a picture. It was too funny!

Oops! Ski Instructor, were you supposed to pay this? Ha!

Favorite Photo Friday

THAT WAS THEN...THIS IS NOW

This is the first group photo I have of our little Chopstick Chics. I think it was taken in April 2005. The girls hardly knew each other and were really too young to play together, but they enjoyed playing beside each other while their moms talked and talked and talked and...talked. THEN L to R: Desheng Darling, GS, PandaGirl, and SpicyGirl

Since this photo was taken, Cheerleader and SnowBunny have joined our group. Also, the little girl beside DD now lives in China. Her parents adopted a little sister from China and moved there to work in a school. We hear from them periodically. Life is definitely different for them now. NOW L to R: Desheng Darling, PandaGirl, SpicyGirl, Cheerleader, SnowBunny

Best Friends...What A difference 2 years makes!

The Sunshine of our Lives

If you’ve been reading this blog very long, I am sure that you’ve noticed that DD’s playgroup day is a very special day for us. It’s usually the highlight of our week. Obviously, these little girls are the sunshine of our lives. They keep us laughing and on the move. Unfortunately, our group won’t shine as brightly over the next few months because we are losing a little ray of sunshine. PandaGirl will be leaving our group. Her dad has taken a new position as the children’s minister in another area. We will really miss PandaGirl’s sweet smile and personality. Although she is only a few months older than the other girls, we have always looked at her as the “leader.” We are going to hold PandaMom to her promise of meeting with us several times during the year.

This was our last regular meeting together. The girls all wore their Lady Bug caps and posed for pictures. They were so cute! We all had a great time.

L to R: Desheng Darling, PandaGirl, SpicyGirl, Cheerleader, Snow BunnyThe Chopstick Chics Rock Group...They'll be happy to sign autographs when they learn to write their names a little faster.

PandaMom opening a small gift from the group

Who Needs the Tooth Fairy?

Sometimes change is good. For instance, today I took Desheng Darling to the dentist…not just any dentist, but a pediatric dentist. Now, these specialists may have existed when I was young, but if they did, I never visited one. The greatest thing about visiting the dentist when I was a child was the Highlights Magazine that I got to look through while waiting to go back to the chair. You know the one with the Goofus and Galliant cartoon and the pictures where you were supposed to circle the differences? I loved these, but I never loved going to the dentist. After today’s visit with Dr. Clark, I think DD may intentionally get cavities so that she can go back.
The waiting room was brightly painted like a jigsaw puzzle with furniture to match. It also had giant bean bags for the children to sit on while they watch cartoons and play video games! Of course, there were books to read, too, but I forgot to check for the Highlights Magazine. The entire office was child-centered with board games framed and mounted on the walls…really clever idea.
The dental assistants were fantastic with DD. She got to sit in the princess chair while they took x-rays. Then, she got 2 stickers, a new Dora toothbrush and a hug for sitting still. The lady who cleaned her teeth allowed DD to choose the flavor of her toothpaste…chocolate chip cookie dough and let her play with the dental instruments. Wow! She let DD look at her x-rays and explained them to her. She even let DD sit in her lap while she wrote the information in her file.

(In front of the token machines)

At the end of the visit, DD received good behavior tokens that she traded in for a bracelet and a balloon that she wore on her wrist practically ALL DAY including the 2 hours that we were in Wal-Mart (with the balloon hitting everything on the shelves as we went by). She walked out of the dentist's office with a goody bag full of kid stuff. Who needs the Tooth Fairy when you’ve got Dr. Clark?????

(Showing her clean pearly whites)

Whew! We made it by that one!

As each day passes, we see different parts of Desheng Darling’s personality emerging. She’s funny, clever, sweet, bossy, and sometimes mischievous. Yesterday, we were on our way to meet with our play group when DD asked, “Mama, are you going fast enough?” Then she asked, “Are you going too fast?” About that time, we passed a DPS car on the side of the road. She took a deep breath and said, “Whew! We made it by that one!” She's such a little daredevil! DD’s friend, Snowbunny, celebrated her third birthday yesterday with a Princess party. Snowbunny is currently the youngest in our group, but that doesn’t slow her down any. She does everything the “big” girls do. Her personality really shines when they are all together. DD had a great time at the party. She enjoyed making a princess crown, a castle doorknob decoration, and eating delicious birthday cake. Of course, she enjoyed playing with her friends and all of Snowbunny’s toys, too. Why is it always more fun to play with toys that belong to someone else?

DD designing her princess crown

If you look closely at the group picture below, you will see that three of the girls have on matching shirts. This was totally unplanned! We didn’t even know that the girls had shirts alike! See what happens when JC Penney’s has a good sale? This little shirt comes in 5 different colors. Interestingly, we all chose to wear a pink one.

L to R: Cheerleader, Snowbunny, Spicy Girl, Desheng Darling, Panda Girl

Chinese Checkers…Cheater????

I know that I’ve said this before, but let me emphasize it one more time. I think Daddy Darling has finally met his match! (If you have ever tried to play a board game with Daddy D, this post will have a lot more meaning to you.)

DD decided that she wanted to play Chinese Checkers this morning, so Daddy Darling agreed to play. I don’t think he really knew what he was getting into. When they both managed to get the marbles across the board Daddy D’s triangle was incomplete. He had 2 marbles missing.

Hmmmm….what's that under the table in DD’s hand? That’s right…a marble. Daddy, you can’t win if you don’t have all your marbles….(Ha! Take that however you like.)

Hat’s Off to a Good Week

Due to the busy Easter weekend and some of our group being out of town, we didn’t have play group this week, so DD had to fill her time with other activities. She tried her hand at making a hat. She did pretty well, but she just couldn’t decide which way she liked it best.

Like this…

Or this…

Oh well, she’s cute either way and soooo stylish…matching stars and all. If you look really close, you can see DD’s drawing of Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Wednesday was our library day. The topic this week was Bunnies. The firemen read several stories about bunnies, and then the lady in charge (Ms. Sandy) taught them bunny songs. Amazingly, most of the songs mentioned shaking their little bunny tails. You know DD loved this! Anything that has to do with “Shakin’ in your pants!” (re: earlier posts)

This is a picture of her doing the Hokey Pokey…. “and you shake it all about.” You get the picture. (Cute overalls, Aunt Sherry). After all the shakin’ DD made a bunny puppet. Ms. Sandy really does a good job with our children. I guess it could be because she has 5 kids of her own! Next week, the topic will be “Flowers.” She mentioned that she might be letting the children actually work with dirt! DD may need to stay home next week! We took Desheng Darling with us to have our taxes figured on Thursday. When I told her where we were going, she said, “Oh, that has an 8 in it. I saw it on television.” That statement made very little sense to me until we arrived at the tax office. Once there she said, “See, that’s the 8 I meant.” She was referring to the ampersand (&) in H&R Block. Don’t ever think that kids don’t pay attention to commercials. Although she has no idea what taxes are, she knows that H&R Block is the place to go! I don’t even remember seeing the commercial, myself.
We met Auntie Anne, Matt, Jonathan and PawPaw for dinner last night at a restaurant about midway between our homes. DD had a great time. Matt and Jonathan always treat her like a princess giving her anything that she wants. This is a picture of her decorating cookies at a special table, just for kids. Matt and Jonathan made arrangements with the staff to allow her to do this. After leaving the restaurant we went to the local Wal-Mart and Auntie Anne took her straight to the Toy Dept. They pushed every button on the TRY ME toys. We must have spent 30 minutes in that dept. Can you believe it?? I know what you’re thinking…No, she’s not spoiled! Actually, she is, but we love her anyway.

PawPaw spent the night at our house last night. Daddy Darling took him to the airport this morning to catch a flight to Arizona to visit the Desert Rats. We hope you have a great trip, PawPaw!! See you next weekend.

Eggceptional Easter

I learned a long time ago that trying to predict the weather in Texas is a futile exercise. Even the professionally trained meteorologists frequently get the forecast wrong, so I don’t know why I was a little surprised to see SNOW on Saturday! I’ve always heard the saying that April showers bring May flowers, but I missed the one about April snow flurries somewhere along the way. I can’t really complain though, the snow was beautiful. I wish I could have taken a good picture of it. Here is a picture of Desheng Darling trying to catch snowflakes in her butterfly net. You just never know how handy those nets can be. (Ha!)
After catching snowflakes DD spent some time beating Daddy Darling in a strategic game of Candy Land. It must have been the dress-up clothes that gave her good luck.
I bought DD’s Easter dress several weeks ago when the weather was much warmer…strange, but true. It was so pretty…white eyelet fabric with pink roses, big bow in the back and spaghetti straps, just perfect for little sandals.
Who knew it would be in the 30’s on Easter morning? Needless to say…the white tights and winter coat did very little to showcase the dress. Oh well, she didn’t really care, so I’m not sure why it bothered me. She was cute anyway!
After church Sister Darling joined us for lunch. DD made a special effort to hold Sister D’s hand as much as possible. DD told her how much she missed her and that she didn’t ever want to be separated from her. It was so sweet.
Brother Darling enjoyed coloring Easter Eggs with DD. I guess you never get too old to enjoy this. And besides, he’s the most creative one in the family.
While the eggs were being hidden in the backyard, Desheng Darling played with bubbles in the front yard. As usual, it’s hard to tell who was having the most fun!
DD had a great time hunting for eggs. I hope she found them all. We forgot to count them before hiding them, so if we encounter a strange odor around the patio next week, it could mean she missed a few.
It was day filled with Faith, Family and Fun!

We really missed you Nanny, Aunt Sherry, Uncle Al, Aunt Muh, Uncle Buck and your good cooking! Maybe things will work out better next year. DD is planning a foot race with Nanny, so get ready!