Who Needs Speed When You've Got Beauty?

The Annual AWANA Grand Prix Race was held last night at our church. This was DD’s first year to participate. When Brother Darling was in Cub Scouts we had the opportunity to experience this same bonding exercise of building a car. BONDING is not a word I would use to describe our experience…. With Brother D we waited until the last minute to begin. We owned absolutely NO wood-working tools and had very limited wood cutting experience. Brother Darling showed NO interest in the project, and it didn’t exactly excite Daddy D either. They ended up ruining the first block of wood, and having to purchase a precut model. Fun. Fun.
Needless to say, Daddy D didn’t exactly smile when Desheng Darling told him that she wanted to enter the race. Luckily, some men from our church provided saws which really helped.DD decided to make a butterfly car. She painted it yellow and pink and added lots of jewels. Although Doodlebug is too young to enter the race, she really enjoyed painting her own car (bought from Wal-Mart-ready to paint-no assembly required.)

Even after adding weights DD’s car barely made it to the finish line, but she had a great time. She may not have won any of the races, but she did get a trophy for “Creative Design.” Hey, a girl’s gotta keep her priorities in line. Who needs speed when you’ve got beauty?

A Little Ballerina Beauty

You know how it is when your kids get tooooo quiet and you have a feeling that something is going on? Well, I was missing Doodlebug today. I found her in front of our 3-way mirror primping. She was modeling her dress-up ballerina skirt paired stunningly with her pj top.

Not only did she take the time to fix her hair with a headband…she also carefully put on her make-up….a nice layer of Johnson’s Baby Powder. lol

CREEPY CRAWLERS

Since DD finished her kindergarten curriculum and everything that I could think of to extend it, we officially started our first grade curriculum about two weeks ago. There’s a lot of review. We’re skipping most of that and moving on to more challenging work. She’s always loved reading, but she’s really showing an interest in math and science now. She has really enjoyed studying about insects… Here’s a picture of DD and DB observing the behavior of a little bee,
Then observing the behavior of ants on a piece of honey-soaked bread.

She loved looking at TERMITES in an old tree stump. But now, she’s moved on to something more fun…

WORMS!

She LOVES playing with these creepy crawlers!

Bluebonnet Babes

It's become a tradition for our play group to pose for a few bluebonnet pics in the spring. Unfortunately, a few of the girls couldn't make it this year, but the ones who came were as cute as ever!

DD, Snowbunny, and Doodlebug

Joined by Baby M Here's a picture of the group from last year and...Just for fun...Here's a picture of the group in April 2007 before we got DB. DD's the one in white on the end.

Heck, as long as we're reminiscing, here's Desheng Darling in 2005! It's too bad I couldn't find a bluebonnet picture from 2006. Oh well...

Easter 2009

Santa Sandra made sure the girls had wonderful Easter baskets this year. She's always so good about adding that “special touch” to them.
She not only provided beautiful baskets FULL of goodies, but also Easter bonnets which she had obviously spent hours adding ribbons and roses, etc. to.Doodlebug had a special surprise in her basket…
A new pony tail! She’s always talking about how badly she wants LONG hair…Now, we just clip it on. (She even wore it to Blast Ball practice!)
Here are the girls in their Easter dresses. We were running late for church, so I just took what I could get in poses and smiles. Who would have known that it was actually cold and rainy on Easter morning? LOL

Once you buy the dresses and shoes...you have to wear them!

IF NOTHING EVER CHANGED, THERE'D BE NO BUTTERFLIES. Author Unknown

The girls really enjoyed watching their tiny little caterpillars grow into beautiful butterflies, so when I told them that we needed to release them they weren’t exactly thrilled.

Taking one last look at the butterflies
This part of setting them free was actually fun!

Notice the butterfly perched on DD’s finger.

Enjoying its new found freedom!

When I think of our adoption process it reminds me of this butterfly quote: What the caterpillar calls the end of the world (abandonment), the Master calls a butterfly (new life through adoption). Richard Bach

We are so thankful these two beautiful little butterflies fluttered into our lives!

Just Been Busy!

We’ve been so busy over the past few weeks. There’s no way that I could post all of our activities so I’m just going to share some pictures and make a few comments and try to get caught up.

We've spent a lot of time playing...

With PawPaw in the park

With a special cousin at Nanny'sWith our play group (early Easter egg hunt) At T-ball practiceAnd Blast ball games We've spent a lot of time learning...

about Patterns and Insects
The girls studied about ants, bees and butterflies. The ant farm was fun, but watching the butterflies develop from tiny caterpillars into beautiful butterflies was AMAZING!

Then, we just did a little posing ...

Doodlebug wanted her picture taken here by the tree at the library,

but I wanted it taken here... before playgroupAnd here...with the bluebonnets. After FINALLY finding a good bluebonnet patch, I pulled over to make pictures only to find that my battery was exhausted. Oh well, the bluebonnets should be around a little longer. Maybe I'll have another chance to try to capture their beauty with our beauties.

JUST ONE OF THE BOYS?

Well, that’s the way it appears in these photos of Doodlebug practicing Blast Ball with her team of 7 boys!

(DB and coach)

She 's the only little girl, but she looks as tough as the rest of them.

Looks like a pretty serious team.

Here’s a close-up of that “game face.”
Who would have thought that underneath that hard outer shell was a cute little purple purse that she refused to play without? Lol