So this past weekend we went to the mountains to a reunion picnic for our adoption agency CWA, I was so thrilled to see Jane, our China case worker who was in China when we met Mina and actually handed her to me... So check this out Mina 3 months later... Amazing, right? I really wish she wasn't clutching her sippy cup. But I still am so excited to have this photo.  I don't know why but it was so heartwarming to hear her being called by her Chinese name by women who knew of her before I did...  The picnic was great I could have spent much more time there gabbing with everyone, but alas it was time to go.  We head for another part of the mountains to go camping... Well, when life hands you lemons..... pack it up and go home???  We love camping,, we are not high maintenance people by any means, and camping makes all of the kids really happy, well usually.  This time, not so much.  It was rainy and muddy.  We had actually found this cool place where you can camp and tube down the river...Well we did that the first night and then it started pouring rain!!! So we made dinner in the rain and tried to roast marshmallows, it was a mess.  We woke the next morning to more rain, and decided to trek the kids to the top of the river and tube anyway, for goodness sake we had come this far we were going to go tubing.  It was soooo fun.  The kids LOVED it!!! Well Mina liked it as long as I didn't get stuck on any rocks, If I did she started screaming and hitting me. Almost in a funny way, Like quit it Mama, just go down the river faster.  Otherwise she really liked it. Sure the water was freezing, and mommy & papa were soaked, but tubing down a river past waterfalls and all... priceless.  Needless to say we did one 30 minute stint down the river that day and headed back to camp where we packed it up ( soaking wet and all) and headed on our long trip home. We had promised the kids smore's so we came on home and had a little floor picnic and ate way to much sugar, yummy! I wish I had some photos of our tubing experience but i was not about to brave the river with my camera in the pouring rain. If you can't tell Mina now thinks that if a camera is anywhere in sight she needs to make this "cheese" face.  It is really hard to get a photo where her face is not all squinched up these days.                                                                                             

Good Ol' Fashioned 4th

Ok, so the photos are in no particular order if you can't tell...... We had a great day, the kids decorated their bikes & Mina's wagon so they could be in this little hometown parade, and then we listened to a concert in the park and then headed for the fireworks.  Mina was a bit of a skeptic the first few blast then she started to ohhhh & ahhhh and point with the rest of us as we munched on homemade carmel corn we made the night before (yummy!) I get such a kick out of the little things in life... I hope my kiddos do to...We are in a flurry of packing before we start our fun vacations... 

The past few weeks of cuteness..

                We love Summertime!!! and girl is having a blast!  We have been having sooo much fun this summer and it is only the beginning.  July will be insanely busy but this past month has been that slow mellow summertime fun.  Mina is such a joy... She adds so much love to our family, she is truly a blessing.  I can't imagine our house without her in it.  She is loving all of her new adventures.  Everything is so exciting for her... I am pretty good at taking photos but not so great at updating the blog, so here are a bunch from the past few weeks.  We went to a concert/ fireworks show which was super fun & Mina loved it.. They released a ton of balloons in the air which was a huge thrill for her, she also had her first merry-go-round experience which was a big deal... Seriously the girl loves everything!  Like sidewalk chalk, she can't get enough. And costumes... I am the ultimate bargain shopper, so each year after Halloween, I hit Old Navy and buy a bunch of these super cute costumes for next to nothing and my kids play in them all year long, Mina is no exception.. and this way the little man doesn't have to be wearing a princess dress like his sisters, which I am not saying he has never done.  but these costumes have gotten a ton of use around here.  Mina also got to hang with her buddy who came home from China just a few months before she did.  This little girl is so precious, I could just stare at her beautiful face, and she is sooo full of personality she cracks you up... She is such a love, and it is unexplainably cute seeing Mina and her play together, so fun! So here are photos from the last few weeks, before our July fun filled vacations start up... 

Bad Mommy Move!

Ok, so I was WRONG, I am not ashamed to admit it.  Even Papa told me not to mess with Mina's cute hair, but I couldn't resist.I cut the bangs, and now we have to wait twice as long for them to grow out,  and she has a new nickname "M squared" which stands for Mullet Mina... Can you tell, she is ticked, well at least she doesn't look so happy about it in this photo, can you blame the poor kid..I was having to put her hair back every day before but at least we had some options.. now we have one: a fountain head style ponytail right up front. This week is our last all out week of swim team so things will slow down a bit around here, Mina is going to miss the goggles and swim cap though, I have a feeling she has a future in swimming. I mean seriously who likes to wear goggles around like that.  She also like to go for bike rides, just like the others..... what a workout, riding these kids around on the bike. Too bad we can only take one at a time. Not like I could pedal up and down the hills with all 3 of them. Am I the only Mama in the world that still uses these bike seats? We look like a bunch of nerds, but we have fun so who cares, right???  

Father's Day weekend

We had a nice relaxing Father's day weekend.  We spent time hangin' by the pool which is always more fun when Papa is there.  Mina has this little inner tube shirt that is a "life-saver" for my summer sanity.  Girl is fearless!!! This thing is the best.  She can float/ swim all over the place, and I am not rescuing her every five minutes since she is thouroughly convinced that she can swim all by herself.  We are having a fun summer so far and looking forward to having some quality family time when we go on vacation next month.   After dinner we made homemade strawberry ice cream for Papa, which is his favorite. The kids all LOVE to help & Mina just joins right in.  She is a little worker bee, always busy and trying to get things done.  She has about 20 words now, and uses them when she should.  It is really cute.  Her word list is growing daily, but for now includes, Hi, Mama, Papa, Hot, All done, Night-Night and several others.   The last photo is a close up of Mina, Moms of little girls will get this,,,, so I am at a cross-roads with her Hair-do..Bangs or no bangs,,, if I decide bangs, then she is ready for a trim. If no bangs, then I have to keep it back all the time...  I am leaning toward trimming up some bangs, which is strange since neither KC nor I have never had them, but we also don't have good hair for bangs... anyhow, probably more than you needed to know on this subject...