Congratulations Mary, Charles and Jade

I just opened my mail this morning to see a baby picture of friends Mary, Charles and Jades new baby and sister!  She is just adorable, we're so happy for them.  I can't read the tiny words on the photo announcement but I think she's from Vietnam.  Oh my gosh she is a cutie.
Last weekend we put in a vegetable garden.  We all worked on it together and had lots of good family fun doing it.  There is the cutest little asparagus popping up!  Yes, asparagus can be cute.  The girls have garden pictures on their sites too.

Yesterday Eric bought a dog pen and dog house for Isabel.  She is only 8 1/2 weeks old and she has already figured out how to get out of her pen.  She's now using a crate, but that only works for very short periods of time.  She is still mouthing everything so leaving her alone in the house is out of the question.  She is a very clever little girl.  She's already keeping us on our toes.  Don't you just love that picture of her tummy!

Ok, adoption news for us, we heard yesterday from a fellow May log in family that their agency told them on Thursday that CCAA would start matching early May families next week.  Fingers and toes crossed that it's true!   I don't really believe there is a referral coming our way in the next batch but the possibility and hope is there.

Name change

The puppy's name is now Isabel.  She is doing great.  Here's another picture in case anyone needs a puppy fix.  There are photos on Lili and Fei's blogs too.

Isabella is home

Eric went to the spca this morning to pay for his dog and find out when he could take her home and the power went out so they couldn't do any paperwork so they handed her to him and told him to just take her home, for now she's our foster puppy.  He's had her home all morning and they're having a great time together.  He clearly adores her.  Such fun.  He's going to take her to the school this afternoon to pick up Lili and Fei.  I can't believe that I'm missing that moment.  This might be a day I have to get out of here early. 

Isabella

• Eric has news!  He's picked out a dog for himself and named her Isabella.  Of course the rest of us are always ready to welcome home new babies.  He's been mumbling about a big dog off and on for a while now so this wasn't totally out of left field for me, it is for the girls though.  They're quickly getting excited about Isabella.  We're not sure when she can come home, she is at the SPCA, we don't really know what she is or how old she is but she looks strikingly like our Kady Kades.  We're guessing she is mostly black lab and she is about 8 weeks old.  She won't be allowed home until she is spayed.  New SPCA policy that all of their animals are spayed and neutered before they can go home.  She is alert, adorable, cuddly and sweet.  There were 7 puppies there, four were taken and we can't figure out why she wasn't chosen by anyone else but we're glad she wasn't.  We said we'd never do big puppy again but here we go.  Fei met her today, Eric took her on her own.  She took a lot of pictures and really enjoyed playing with her.  Lili won't get to see her until after school tomorrow. 

Fei rode without training wheels today!

The girls danced at an outdoor market this morning.  It was a nice sunny day by the water and it's always fun to watch the girls.  There were only 5 girls from the dance school there today.  They are supposed to dance at Walmart tomorrow, we were hoping to skip it but I think we'll go to support their dance teacher.   Fei danced the sword dance at the Mothers Day Tea for the first time in front of people.  She was very nervous.  She did it again today with a big smile and reported later that she wasn't nervous anymore.  Then we came home for lunch and Eric and I tackled the new wireless router.  Ug.  Which of course wasn't simple and we ended up with tech support.  Why can't these things just work right out of the box?!  We got it all working after way too much time and then while fine tuning settings I messed up the dinosaur on the network.  So one of two is working fabulously.  I'm so, so, so tired to trying to fix settings.  We bought a new wireless printer and neither one of us wants to try hooking it up now.  It's just not interesting to me anymore and there are just so many other things to concentrate on.  Like, Rumor Queen putting up her newest projections!  She says it's possible to reach May 8 in the next batch, not probable but possible!!  Oh, things are getting exciting now.  The next match date is likely April 27th.  This last batch arrived last week and made it to April 21st.  We're thinking July or August for us.  I've gone to RQ a few times today just to gaze at the projections charts.  It's seriously exciting to see our log in date right there. 

Tonight we rode our bikes to town for dinner.  Lili is new to riding on roads.  She's doing fabulously.  We tried a new place for Chinese food just because it was on our side of the highway and it was great food.  The kids always want Chinese buffet so more options is a good thing.  On the way home we stopped at the track and Eric walked a mile with me.  He's not too fond of walking and he managed a quick pace versus his preferred meandering so that was nice for me.  Both girls ran the track four laps.  Quite impressive.  On the ride home we saw one of Lili's classmates at the dog park, so we stopped there for a little visit and finally rode home.  Fei then surprised us by asking to learn to ride her bike.  It took about half an hour and she was riding Lili's bike in the back yard down the hill.  Very exciting.  Lots of hoots and hollers.  We're all pretty proud right now.

Mothers Day

There are rumors that the next batch of referrals has been mailed, we all wait now to see if they were, when they will get here and what date did CCAA match up to.  It's so exciting to watch now that we're finally getting close.

Eric and the girls surprised me this morning with an early gift, an outdoor fireplace and new chairs.  The chairs are the identical color of our new house trim but in the photos they look white.  Not often you get breakfast in the backyard at a fire! 

Then the girls Highland danced at the annual Mothers Day Tea their dance teacher Shelley puts on.  It was lovely as usual.  I'm awfully proud of my girls.  Fei did the sword dance in front of people for the first time today.  She was awesome.  Gush, gush.