A trip to mystery island

Van has dubbed one of our neighborhood playgrounds "Mystery Island" based on one of his favorite episodes of "Word World". We usually ride our bikes to Mystery Island but instead we decided to bring our "pets" on a special outing. All of our pets...so they required their own mode of transport. Needless to say a good time was had by all.

There's a party in my tummy...

All you preschooler moms who believe that Nick Jr. is the only way to get dinner on the table, you know what I am talking about. Yes, those kooky named brightly colored characters came to our town today. Van loves some face time with the costumed set so he was all about this outing. Of course he insisted on bringing his new favorite toy-the BUBBLE GUN! Thanks again to Nonnie for that indulgence at Busch Gardens yesterday. So we hugged and we filled the mall with bubble fun. Another great weekend for the V-man.

Take me out to the ballgame

Austin, Logan of Two Hearts and Van went nuts for Nutzy during our first baseball outing so we decided to try it again. Kids get in free to the Sunday night games so what's not to like. Hot dogs, blue cotton candy, the seventh inning stretch, Nutzy and the highlight...running the bases after the game!! They each had to announce their names over the microphone and then they took off...they were LOUD and clear...shocking and oh so fast. Of course doubtful that they actually touched any of the bases but they could care less. They were reliving the memory all day today. Totally cute, totally not triplets for the bazillion people who asked, totally boyz.

Who had more fun?

You decide...a great birthday celebration for Daddy!

I-800 APPROVAL! HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!

Great news today from our new BFF at Department of Homeland Security-we are I-800 approved! China families know that this means one big step closer to Article 5, TA and finally our Gotcha Day!
Happy early birthday Daddy!!

xfxccdx (by van) aka Sunflowers

Van LOVES the computer...no surprise since Daddy is a big fan as well. So he's decided to do his first blog post. Notice his fine photo skills as well.

791 USA Days for Van

As of today, Van has now lived more days in the USA than he lived in China. It's hard to think about the fact that he spent the first 790 days of his life somewhere else and without us. It is actually much much harder to think about than I realized when I started typing this post. I've been thinking about this milestone for a while but focusing on the 791 days he's spent with us vs. the ones without. I can't even begin to imagine what that was like for him but I do know that there was obviously love and caring during those days. He carried that with him and instantly shared it with us. He has brought us 791 days of love and laughter that we never could have imagined. There's at least 791 ways of describing the joy of these 791 days. Infectious belly laughs, silly songs and wacky dances, cheers of encouragement, giggles of deafening proportions, words and words of words of please and thank you and sweet child prayers. He defines joy and he spreads it with reckless abandon. Wonder what the next 791 days might bring?