Our First Chinese New Year With Max Around Our Table

Last year we were a couple months in to the adoption process when we celebrated Chinese New Year for the first time. We had a couple books we read, did a couple crafts and found some recipes to try. I remember thinking about how surreal it seemed that just one year later there could be a little boy from China sitting at our table, making us a family of six.

We had so much fun celebrating Chinese New Year with other families who have adopted little ones from China but Alexa said to me a week or so later. "Mom, do you think we could have a Chinese New Year dinner like we did last year!" "Of course we can celebrate Chinese New Year as a family" quickly came out of my mouth!

The girls had fun making these paper art bunnies to decorate the window.

The kids loved making lanterns last year so we made those again too!

The table was set with tea cups, chop sticks and a red envelope! The kids could hardly wait to get done with their meal to see what was in their red envelope.

The had fun getting out their Chinese Dresses and Kung Fu outfits, well at least that is what Shane calls it.

Last year I found an orange chicken recipe that the kids love. This year we added pork dumplings to the menu and our new favorite, Bok Choy and Shrimp. One of our favorite dishes in China was a cabbage and shrimp dish. This recipe is as close as we are going to get I think. Everyone loved it!

The shrimp was Shane's favorite! In China most of the shrimp we had wasn't pealed. So we followed suite and the shrimp turned out wonderful. They were just a little messy to peal.

Max was all over the Chinese New Year food! It felt so amazing to see our little Max sitting at our table with us as we celebrated a special holiday from his country.

Emma finished the meal off with some hot tea!

We can't wait for more Chinese New Year celebrations in the years to come. I am sure we will breaking out the chop sticks and tea cups again soon!

A Bath Is Better With A Brother

The pictures pretty much sum it up ..... a bath is BETTER with a BROTHER!

Max's Big Debut

The girls couldn't wait to bring Max to school to introduce him to their classmates. Alexa, being my first born planner, was all over getting things lined up with her teacher before I could get an email sent out.

The girls wanted to have everyone meet Max but also wanted to share about China.

In Alexa's class they pulled down the map and looked where China was and found the big ocean we flew over to get to China and back home.

We made some handouts for the kids and one had a map of China. We talked about how China has provinces instead of states. The kids found Max's province, the Shandong province, on their maps.

The girls were proud big sisters. They wore their Jie Jie shirts that said big sister in Chinese.

We also talked about the Chinese New Year since Chinese New takes place in China in February and is the most important Chinese holiday.

We printed a chart for the kids and talked about how the Chinese have an animal that represents each year. I shared with the kids that in China they would ask us when Max was born and when we said 2009 they would say, "Oh the year of the ox, he is a strong boy!" The kids had fun finding their year on the chart and figuring out what animal matched up with their year.

Alexa and Emma wanted to teach their friends how to use chopsticks. We had a brief lesson and the kids had fun trying to figure out how to use them. They got to take them home to keep practicing.

The girls filled red envelops with chocolate coins for their friends to take home.

The girls had fun having Max make his debut in their classes and sharing with their friends a little bit about China and the Chinese New Year.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. I wrote about it before but I know it is largely because my mom made it such a special day when we were growing up. We always ate in the formal dining room with the table set in red and pink. We had a special dinner and it was a day we looked forward to every year.

I loved seeing the kids excited about our celebration as Valentine's Day approached. They always wonder what we are doing or eating and I usually try to make it a surprise. We started the morning with heart shaped pancakes topped with strawberries and of course whip cream. The girls got the first batch of pancakes as they had to get to school!

The boys were not far behind after the girls got dropped off at school. Shane loved the whip cream and the pink milk. Max was pretty satisfied with his pancakes.

I had a fun Valentine's Day treat ready for the kids when they got home from school!

This summer I did a cooking class with one of our pastor's wives who is an amazing cook. She had a theme each night. We cooked a number of recipes together and then sat down together and ate them. It was so much fun, the fellowship was wonderful, we learned a lot and of course the food was yummy. One night the theme was a Romantic Two - Some Dinner. We made a number of Italian recipes that night. I decided to pull out some of these recipes for our Valentine's Dinner. It was more like a Not so Romantic Six - Some Dinner but it was full of LOVE non the less. I made her homemade Caesar Dressing for our Caesar Salad, Parmesan Chicken Strips and her very yummy Garlic - Ricotta Sauce over heart pasta.

Max enjoyed his first Valentine's Day dinner around our table. He LOVED the pasta! We finally had to cut him off!

Daddy and his girls!

Emma and Shane enjoying their dinner.

The girls had fun making little notes/drawings for every one's plate that said "This is what I love about you ...."

We enjoyed some Cherry Chip Cupcakes for dessert.

The kids finished off the night opening a Valentine's Day gift.

Max was more into the tissue paper than the gift!

I have been wanting to put together these little "Let Me Count The Ways ..." books for the kids. I waited until the last minute but they got finished and printed for Valentine's Day. I had so much fun putting these together and the kids love looking at them. Each of their books has 10 things I love about each of them.

Here are a couple examples of the pages for my friends who were wondering how they turned out. If you are a digital scrapbooker they were fun and easy! I got the kit here.

When Eric and I crawled in bed we found these sweet little hearts from Alexa laying on our pillows!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails ...

1 Corinthians 13:4–8a

Mr. Snowman

The weather turned from freezing, below zero temps to the 40's and 50's this week. That meant that the snow started melting and it was the perfect time to make a snow man.

They had tried to make a snowman on their own but after they got all the balls rolled they had a hard time lifting them so they would cut them in pieces and put them back together. Here is their masterpiece from yesterday.

The kids were super excited when dad said he would go out and help them. They all were excited and ready to start rolling.

They were working hard to build a big one.

The girls were diligent in rolling snow balls and finishing their snow man.

Shane on the other hand got distracted by the snow. He started out rolling around in the snow and soon became the snow ball launcher.

The girls joined in with some encouragement from their daddy. He taught them it was fun to try to throw snow balls at mom when she was trying to take pictures. Thank goodness for the mega zoom on the lens. Doesn't he look so innocent in this pictures working away on the snow man.

Miss Emma Blue Eyes!

Shane also could often be found stopping for a little snack.

It was time for the finishing touches!

And finally meet Mr. Snowman!