6 years old… where has the time gone? My wee bionic baby is now 6 years old!! (for more on the journey that was her heart surgery go HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE) Since she is now a self proclaimed BIG GIRL she was in charge of planning out her wish list for things to do.

First of all, Wednesday before she joined us for shopping at Sam’s Club so she could pick out her very own birthday outfit. She settled on an adorable dress that cost me less than 6.00! Score! Then on Friday we went all the way to Target so she could pick out her own cake, candles, and icing for Daddy to write on the cake with… Pokemon, pink and white and pink.

Sign by Trinity

Her requests were pretty simple… but first she had to FaceTime with Nana and Baba and open her present from them and THEN talk to Grandma on the phone.

Next was the all important task of going to Toys’r’us to get the one thing Echo has been asking for for almost a whole year – her very own 18 inch doll. With 12 options it was a VERY serious decision!

After that was accomplished it was off to McDonald’s. Specifically one with a PLAY AREA. Ken and I had forgotten how loud those places are! She was so pleased. (we made sure to pack socks)

THEN it was off to the pool… which turned out to be closed for filtration issues… so we brainstormed with our homeschool buddies who were joining us and headed over to our favourite beach for presents, playing and general fun stuff.

Our  evening was topped off with a visit from our friend Anthony, Chinese for dinner… CAKE of course…

And a most awesome costume gift!

Batman Girl with BATTLE SWORD

Playing VIDEO GAMES

I think we did good. She snuck into our closet at bedtime with her sword and her doll under the very blanket she was given post surgery. Happy Birthday little darling!

January 31

Welcome to the year of the horse! Shin Nein Kwai Le!

This is our second Chinese New Year here in Minnesota  on our own. I always miss the den Otters and our other Chinese friends the most this time of year but we do our best to remember and celebrate.

We started with wearing red clothing for luck, Echo had a headband with red on it, but wore her Kai-Lan dress. After all that is where we learned a lot of our Chinese from! I am hoping that next year the girls can get some more traditional dresses in time for Chinese New Year! There are a little harder to find locally here but I am sure I can manage something.

We sat down with our horse themed sheets and wrote down all the things we remembered from our time spent learning all about China and the celebration. The kids all did well remembering some interesting facts.

Pictures of some favourite aspects

I had red envelopes and lucky candy for the kids as well. Though they did not get them until the evening.

We also watched the Kai-Lan DVD I got from the library that included the Chinese New Year episode.

The kids learned all about the Shanghai tower with Ken. I actually knew nothing about this landmark as well, so we all learned something.

Complete with Chinese flag

We had long noodles for luck and lengthy lives at lunch. Some of the kids even attempted chopsticks.

Echo did an adorable video on Facebook attempting to use hers

The girls and I had some after lunch game time with some of our favourites.

And for supper… the whole family had take out Chinese from our favourite place – Rose Garden. It was so delicious, and a perfect way to celebrate a special day with our family.

So happy Chinese New Year everyone. I hope the year of the horse is a prosperous and happy one for us all!!!! I will, of course, post our Chinese resources once we assemble everything later in February. (you can find the orange pattern – no selling, gift or personal use only – thanks to Nanaliciouz HERE)

Some lucky oranges

August 12-13

We are in the end stretch of Ken’s 2 week course for work and boy do we miss him having free time to spend with us! Lately he has been studying until late in the evening and Monday-Wednesday-Friday gone into the city for class.

We decided to do our schooling in the sunshine… it was a lovely day and we had some amazing together moments….

We even finished unearthing Emanuel’s dinosaur!!!

Oh and Zander finished his first chapter book!

And then on the 13th we celebrated Echo turning THREE! Where has the time gone? Not only is she now a toddler but she is talking and establishing her precious personality so clearly we are just amazed at her growth every day!

Be prepared… I have a stack of these!

And then outside

Outfit change

After pictures and schoolwork and all that fun daily stuff we went out for Chinese food to celebrate.

I don’t know when it will totally sink in that our family is done with baby time but I AM loving the growth I am seeing in ALL of my kids!