Fancy Nancy

Mia's good friend Molly turned four this weekend - in Fancy Nancy style. It was such a fun time for Mia to be with Molly and some of her playgroup friends. They decorated crowns, carried their purses, put on make up and had a fashion show. My friend Teri is super talented...and was a teacher. It is no wonder everything was in style!

Molly and Mia

Getting ready to search for jewels

Teri helping Mia wth her strut

All Fancy Nancy's!

Thanks Teri and Molly for a wonderful afternoon!

ISES Talent Show

Indian Springs Elementary School (the big kid's school) held their annual talent show on Friday night. Max and Megan both performed. I didn't even twist their hand. They came running in from school one day asking to be in it. I love that they are willing to get up on stage and perform with no fears. Megan even took a bow at the end of her performance. It was a fun night!

Max : piano, Star Wars theme song

Megan: piano, Bear Dance/Stomp Dance

Happy 10th Birthday Maxwell Scott!

My girls LOVE their brother! So, for his birthday, he got lots of hugs! And, they both made him homemade gifts. Mia even gave him something of his. It was so funny. Because Scott has been traveling, we celebrated 2 days early so we could all be together. Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner/cake and presents too.

Max has been begging for an ipod touch. Scott had an old one, and we revamped it for Max. It has all kid friendly games/no internet access/ and all the tunes he loves to have! The nice thing will be when we travel and he can download cartoons or movies to watch. He has a lot of gift cards from Christmas that will help with that! We also thought he could use a new alarm clock, so he got an ihome clock. That way everything is in one place. I can't describe his excitement. He's really thrilled, and since 10 is a big birthday, we're happy to oblige with his wishes!

Opening the iPod Touch

A Big Max Cupcake

When you're ten..you get to light your own candles

blowing out the candles

It's the Year of the Tiger!

On Saturday, we attended the Ohio Chinese New Year. Mia performed with her class at the event. Apparently it is the biggest Chinese New Year event in the state. There were thousands of people there. Mia and I went and left the rest of the family at home. Her first idea was to get this big plate of food ---- and yes, she ate most of it. Then we watched a few of the performances until it was her turn. Below is her class getting ready back stage.

On Sunday afternoon, our COFCC group held their annual event. This dress we purchased for Mia in her hometown of Nanchang. 3 years ago Megan wore it, now Mia fits perfectly in it! (And if you are noticing, yes Mia fell and hit her head on a chair in her room, which got her in the face/chin...but one of those natural consequences from a temper tantrum!)

After some crafts, group photos for the dance, and playgroup fun, we headed upstairs to watch Mia perform with her class. These girls are too darn cute. They all did such a wonderful job, and we're so proud of Mia getting on stage not once...but twice to celebrate her heritage!

Mia with her dance and playgroup friends

Getting ready to begin..on the left front

Somehow she moved to the middle..front

And ended up on the right - front.

It was a great time! Happy Year of the Tiger!

Family Night

Max and Megan had family night at school tonight. In 1st grade (over 150 of them) they sang..and sang...and sang. Megan did a wonderful job! In 4th grade they have 2 options - strings or recorder. I basically told him no strings. I have nothing against strings, but band will start in 5th grade and he already plays piano, so I really didn't see the point in starting an instrument he won't keep up with. So, Max played the recorder. He loves earning the loops for memorized songs, and he really had a big advantage over the other kids since he already knew how to read music. It was a great night to see them perform!

Megan in last row at the top - red sweater.

Max in action

New Photos

Since it was time to get new pictures for my 4 year old, and almost 10 year old, I scheduled pictures with my friend Michelle. Her daughter Mia is a friend of my Mia's and they are in Chinese dance/playgroup together. Since we hadn't had a family portrait since 2007, we decided to do that as well. I'm not going to post them here on my blog, but feel free to head over to Michelle's photography blog.

If you're local - I HIGHLY recommend her!!

Click HERE to see how amazing she is! Thanks Michelle!

SNOW SNOW and MORE SNOW....

We have been trapped inside the house for about a week now. It all started with a snowstorm last Friday. We got about 12-14 inches in a day. The kids didn't even get home from school until almost 5:00 PM! All basketball games and activities were cancelled for the weekend. And then back to snow and no school on Tues/Wed/part of Thursday this week. You could say we are a bit tired of the snow! Hopefully it will get back to normal, but they are calling for more snow and about 20 degrees for the next week or more. I guess we could thank the groundhog for calling 6 more weeks of winter!

Megan and Max trying to build a fort

We had to shovel a path for our poor dog!

Mia tried to help "shobbel"