Mommy's Bday and Memorial Day Fun!

**Warning** This post is not for the light reader - we have tons of pics and stories!

Mommy turned "33" this weekend and had the best birthday ever, my first with Sophia. Funny how the birthday's change and it's all about making it fun for the kids now which I don't mind AT ALL. It started with mommy having a 1/2 day and picking up sophia at daycare to hit the park. She loved the swings! Then we hit Red Lobster for dinner. Miss Sophia LOVED her popcorn shrimp and mommy and daddy's crab legs as seen in the pic below. Watch out boyz she is going to be a very expensive date when she's older!
Hmmmmmmm, chocolate cake!

Sugar crash while holding our balloon from like 2 weeks ago!Saturday my fam came over - check out my back yard a little like a big top circus huh? Yeah I went a little overboard and this isn't even all of it!Sophia and Pop Pop!Mr Elliot enjoyed the party!! Look how big this little man is now - Happy 3 months!Sophia and Maddie having "nack" (aka Snack) in the playhouse Winston and Skye found a new friend! What's a birthday without birthday crowns coordinating with our outfits of course!! :) Don't worry girls Mommy/aunt tiffy's got your back!YUMMY DQ ice cream cake - sophia's first and new fav!Sunday morning lovin my giraffe - however it shortly lost a leg from banging it on the table repeatedly, yes you gotta love the $ store, toys last about an hour if you're lucky!

Just mowin the lawn before we goArtfest eating ice cream from grammie - yum! Then we had funnel cake, french fries and so much more!Family portrait - don't mind the garbage canGetting ready for the train to take off. She loved loved loved this 1 mile trek around the park.On the way back to the station spotting grammie and poppopRiding the carousel!Posing with the cow with daddy - what you don't see here is the fit we threw when taken off the cow!Eating with Grammie - we decided our grilled cheese was only good with crab on top!! We've created a little crab eating monster :)Monday at the lake with Mar Mar and Papa - dipping our toes in the water...Reading with MarMarChecking out a fish with PAPA that daddy caught while making fish faces and noise!Fishing with dadaKisses for PAPAJust random cutenessFirst ever POPSICLE, we had three licks and was over it. Bummer I was hoping it would keep her busy a little longer...;maybe next time!
A little memorial day madness - but lovin every minute of it!

Lions and Tigers and Bears OH MY!

This week was zoo week at sophia's school . Every song, every book, all artwork and her classroom were all decked out for the zoo, don't feed the animal signs, etc. It just so happened we had planned a trip to the Philadelphia Zoo this weekend and she LOVED seeing all the animals and showing off her animal sounds. Must say Chris and I loved it too. Sophia checking out the Lions and roaring..Elephants! Her attention was impossible today there was just so much to see. The zoo is beautiful and the lay out is very nice with lots of tree, places to picnic and eat, and she's a little people watcher like her momma!Ah Ah Ah we couldn't get her from place to place fast enough
Look just my size!Daddy and sophia
I took this picture! I'm so proud, I really stink at photography but the tigers were playing and I just snapped this pic, after hearing me go on and on about it my husband answered sarcastically you should be a photographer , very funny. But what an amazing picture and the tigers were really playful which normally when I've seen them they've been lying around.
Cheesey. enough said.
Within the wild cat cave there's a poster and right there is where Rocky proposed. A little slice of movie history I felt like I should go to the art museum and start running the stairs - LOL!

As you can see sophia was thrilled...NOT
This monkey stopped right in front of us and sophia was totally in awe, he was pulling leaves and eating them.
Bye Bye. Just a fav pic.

A visit from Uncle Bo and Erica

Uncle Booooooo (as sophia calls him) and his girlfriend Erica came over for a visit tonight. Sophia had a blast playing and showing them her new house, bike, water table, you name it. Thanks for coming over - we loved it and it was great to hang you guys - let's do it again soon!!!!

New Digs

Sophia got a new house a few days ago. Yes when we went to the store it was nice and when we left it was pouring and cold so daddy put the main parts together, we bundled her up and sent her out to play, she loved it and I think Daddy did too!

Happy Mother's Day!

First mother daughter banquet Cutie patootie in a dress I bought when we started the adoption journey Look at my freshly painted bright pink toenails - she LOVES them and shows them to everyoneThis is the mother's day card Sophia made at school - it has her handprints on each side and one hand is holding a bouquet of flowers - it is accordian style and it says I love you - - and you open it and open it and open it says THIS MUCH and it's a picture of Sophia and all these newpaper and magazine words like - amazing, beautiful, special, she loves me, etc - it was a very special mother's day gift for me :)Daddy and Sophia made a special trip to get me something other than a little shopping spree this BEAUTIFUL frame, it's the best absolute best mother's day gift I could've asked for and there are pictures of them at Wegman's together buying the ingredients for the mother's day dinner. It's so very special. Can we please freeze her at this age? LOL
Helping daddy rake the yard WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Watering the flowers...well mud in our case we haven't got that far this spring yet!

Fun with the water table - it was 65ish today but she was screaming to play with it so we bundled her up and let her at it.My first carousel ride at the local KMart when we bought her playhouse.
Flashback from our first night at Taipei 101 I was in heaven having an authentic noodle bowl again, we will definitely be frequenting this place. It was great!sophia approved!The girls and their chopsticks!!!!

Happy mother's day to all the moms and waiting moms! What a difference a year can make! Last year I made Chris take me out of town over this weekend as it was one of the hardest times of my life. I had truly thought we would be travelling in June to get our daughter in Taiwan and at this point last year we did not even have a referral. Fast forward a year and I get to celebrate my first mother's day!

It has been wonderful and emotional as I think of how lucky I truly am to have a wonderful husband and Sophia in my life. Thursday was the mother/daughter banquet at church, spent Saturday shopping with my mom while Chris watched Sophia (a fav pasttiime for my mom and I but my how our shopping excusions has changed with an 18 month old in tow!) and then Chris's parents came up to have dinner. This morning Sophia slept until 10 AM! wHAT? NORMALLY, 7:00 is sleeping in so it was great, ate breakfast and headed outside! We went and bought Sophia an outdoor play house and to a new Chinese Noodle House restaurant which was like we were back in Taiwan for a moment. It was a super day. Hope you all had a super day too!