First Day of School

Here's our history lesson: last year on July 18th, (or maybe 19th) we arrived home with Lily. I was already in the groove of home schooling our older two daughters, and Tim and I had decided that we would try to home school everyone:) This was a big undertaking, but we both agreed that we felt it was best for our family, and we were told by several adoption gurus that this would probably be very beneficial to Lily and us during the bonding process. Plus, we totally felt God was leading us to this anyway.
The year went well overall, but throughout my year of teaching Lily, I have come to the conclusion that Lily definitely has some dysgraphia issues - this is a writing issue. It's also linked to dyslexia. Lily is very bright, and her language development has been and continues to be incredible! But, I have felt that she would benefit from one or possibly two years of education at our local school. I am thrilled to say that she has a wonderful teacher and assistant teacher - both of whom I already know through church. She is also in the same classroom as my niece and quite a few other children that have just left our church's preschool program.
I was apprehensive when leaving her, but she had a great day. I am praying that this year will allow her to grow educationally, socially, and physically. Educationally, she will recieve English as a second-language services, regular class-room attention, and she may be pulled out for extra attention if she does struggle in the classroom. Although Lily is not socially handicapped by any stretch, she does seem to still be trying to find her place. I think this will give her the opportunity to have friends that are truly her friends and not Annie's or Molly Kate's friends that happen to play with her as well. And physically, she will have more opportunities with playground equipment and just the exercise of moving from class to cafeteria to art, etc. than she has had at home.

School started this past Thursday. Friday was off, and Monday they'll really get going. Lily is doing great - I'm the one who is still struggling with it some.

Annie and Lily's B'day Party

FUN DAY!!

Today we celebrated Lily's 6th birthday and Annie's 5th birthday with a gymnastics party!

Happy Birthday!!!

Today was a very special day. It was Lily's 6th birthday. More importantly though, it was her first REAL Carley-style celebration birthday. Last year, we hardly acknowledged her birthday. This was in part due to the emotional drain of having recently arrived home from a 19 day, foreign country expedition, with a sweet souvenier...Lily - our newly adopted, non-English speaking daughter, who was still trying desperately to decipher what in the world was going on!

However, one year later...BAM! We did it right: streamers, balloons, birthday plates, hats, Chinese lanterns hanging from chandeliers, etc. Even her American Girl doll, Ivy, wore her "B'day wishes tee" to celebrate Lily's special day. Last night I prepared homemade cinnamon rolls and boiled eggs (her favorite - the eggs not the cinnamon rolls), and birthday songs and wishes started rolling in around 8:00 this morning. Lunch was another favorite - Ramen noodles. Then the kids and I went to Kids Rule, a business that specializes in large, indoor inflatables. Great fun was had by the kids, and I worked on an application to have Lily screened for dyslexia - something I have discovered over the past year as I have homeschooled her. To top of the day, Tim and I went to the Asian Market and purchased some good eats. It made her one happy little girl. Before bedtime I asked her what was her favorite thing she'd eaten all day...boiled egg. Isn't that crazy?

We have a cute b'day video that I'm going to try and publish later. I am having some technical difficulties w/ it at present, so don't hold your breath waiting:)

9 months later

I might just have to work backwards through our year, b/c although my last post stated that I had gotten the hang of posting pictures, I found it to be quite time consuming tonight to get them posted in the correct order, so I after a while, I quit. Here are the ones I settled on for tonight, mostly in chronological order, but not completely.


Happy New Year!

This past year we hosted a New Year's Eve party w/ my sister's family. It was great fun for families to get together and have a way to celebrate the New Year w/ their kids. (We didn't actually ring in the New Year - the party ended at around 10:00 p.m. That was plenty late for my crew.)



Happy Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's by going to IHOP for breakfast - a BIG treat. We never eat out, so the kids loved this. We also had our homeshcool Valentine's party, and that's where this picture was taken.




Legally Adopted in the USA

Although Lily was officially adopted in China, it was recommended that we re-adopt her in the USA. This process allows us to have a birth certificate w/ mine and Tim's names and our state, etc. It also helps us get her social security card and any other important legal documents for Lily.



Many, many cousins...

We went on a family field trip to Folsum, LA to the Global Wildlife Center. This facility has zebras, giraffes, bull horn cows, camels, llamas, kangaroos, etc, and you can hand feed some of the animals or feed them by extending a cup of food. It's amazing fun! The giraffes put their heads into the wagons/jeeps and eat right out of the food bucket. This picture shows all the cousins except one on my side of the family.




Easter Traditions

Cousins on Tim's side of the family enjoy decorating a bunny cake every year. Usually it's very ugly by the time the little ones quit decorating. Somehow, this one managed to turn out ok.

MY FAVORITE PICTURE OF THE YEAR - (maybe)

Every child loves stickers, right? So, one morning I find Lily is sporting this shiny gold sticker. Can you guess what it says? (Oh, how I wish my camera could have zoomed in enough to show the lettering!!) "Made in CHINA"

Beach Babe

July 4th, 2011

This will always be a special day for us. Our gotcha day was July 4, 1010. It's incredible to look back at the pictures from a year ago and see just how much Lily has blossomed. She's mighty cute in that picture if I do say so myself.





Watermelon at Nana and Daddo's pool
What more needs to be said?


Here's where the pictures are no longer in order. Enjoy them all the same.

Maybe Father's Day (?)

I think he's a mighty fine daddy:)


English Tea and Scones...

...our lunch to celebrate the Royal Wedding.

Barbara Bush at our local convention center.

I was sincerely hoping that although we couldn't get tickets to the luncheon (They sold out immediately after the phone lines opened.) that I could at least let the girls see her. Security was crazy, but we did get to glimpse her from the parking lot.

Maybe Mother's Day

I am a mighty lucky mother:)

That's all I have in me tonight. Hopefully soon I'll sit down again and fill in the gap from October to New Years and also type out my thoughts/perspectives on this last year.