Everyone is currently enjoying this beautiful, southern style, Spring in Georgia. We just finished up a picnic in the backyard and can't seem to bring ourselves to come inside. MK, donning her undies and socks, is on the the trampoline jumping, the boys are all playing baseball, and me, well, I had to come in for one moment to write about our friends, the Hatchers. The Hatchers began their second journey to China one year ago. Today they met their son, Xin, for the first time. He is four years old and as handsome as can be. Please check out their site at www.babyjellybeans.com (enter Xinran as the child's first name and Hatcher as the last name). So glad to see another little one making their way home!

The Masters

Every year during our Spring break week, we welcome The Masters Golf Tournament into our city. The tournament is played on one of the most beautiful courses located at The Augusta National Golf Club. This year Ryan and I had the opportunity to attend on day one of the tournament. It was fantastic to say the least. Ryan and I do not have many opportunities to just spend time together, just the two of us, without any interruptions. Thursday at the tournament gave us just the time we needed to enjoy being a couple. It was most entertaining too. I was constantly trying to remember Birdie was good, Bogey not so much and Par, what does that mean again??? And, as usual, I so enjoyed watching and talking to the different spectators. People come from all over the world to attend this tournament. At one point I had to remember we were not at Disney because of all of the different languages being spoken all around us. Amazing. And we were thrilled to be a part of the excitement.

The boys were a bit sad that they were not able to join us this year but they quickly recovered when they were invited to my sister's house for the night and we promised to have a Masters party on the last day of the tournament. We purchased t-shirts for all three of the kiddos. On Sunday, we all sat down to our fun filled meal in front of the tv to watch the final round. Ryan questioned me a bit as I was teaching them to gamble. We all took the player that we wanted to win and put a quarter in the pot. Winner took all and Colin was the one who came out on top. Minor gambling (no pun intended) at its best. Following our meal, the boys quickly gathered up their golf clubs and headed out back to play their own Masters tournament. Mason-Kate....well, as usual, she made us laugh. Ryan was putting her to bed. She insisted on wearing her Masters t-shirt to sleep in - yes, after having it on ALL day. EW. Did I mention the whole entire family was wearing a Masters t-shirt? Well, Ryan was putting her to bed when MK looked at his shirt and then looked at her own shirt with the most confused little expression. All of our t-shirts have the standard Masters logo, an outline of the United States with a pin flag marking Augusta. The child size tees have a larger outline than the adult size tees. While pointing to the pin flag on Ryan's shirt, she asked, "Daddy, why your boat little and my boat big?" Very clever I must admit. In her mind, the US outline was the boat and the pin flag was the sail. Thinking outside of the box at its best!

Putting for Eagle.....

P studying for his best shot of the day!

Easter

We read the Easter story, the electric scooter did not make an arrival and the Easter Bunny did visit our house - the children were more than pleased with their day, even the part that included taking pictures. After church, we enjoyed having our neighbors and friends over for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. This has become our little tradition of sorts - if anyone is not spending the day out of town or with family, we invite them over and enjoy their company. I love to have a crowd. That was our day, very relaxing, very low key taking it all in.....I especially love to watch all three of my children enjoying their time just being kids.

One of our homeschool groups had an Easter egg hunt for the children. They all had a blast! MK was a bit hesitant at first. Then she realized there was candy involved and she was full speed ahead!

The dying of the Easter eggs and Easter morning.

Every year our neighbor bakes a bunny cake for the children. The cake is always decorated differently and it is ALWAYS delicious! This year the boys felt bad that we did not have anything to give to our neighbors so they came up with an idea all on their own to make a visor for Ann and a card for the family - both were a hit!

We had an Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday with our friends who were visiting. I observed MK taking a break and I loved that she was shaking each egg to see what was inside. So cute.

MK's first self portrait. She was so proud!

The Eldest says, "Hey, I think we should read the Easter story together tonight as a family before bed." Great idea!

The Middle says, "What I really want the Easter Bunny to bring me is an electric scooter!" Hmmmm.

The Little One says, "What Easter bunny? He not coming to my house! I no like him, he scary to me!"

Happy Easter!

A quick jaunt to the beach was just what the doctor ordered! What can I say, we packed only what we needed to lessen the load coming and going. We took just the right amount of food, not bringing any home with us. I had my camera minus my favorite lens which, incidentally, is being repaired - the children are glad that the lens is on the outs....Pryce sang notes of joy when he realized that I would not be able to harass them with picture taking on the beach. The children had their bathing suits, a change of clothes, scooters, money to spend at the Lollipop Shop, books, and Legos. The sun was shining bright. The temp was delightful. There were children visiting the island as well which made great company for the boys. MK was happy as a lark pretty much doing whatever she wanted to do.....not to exclude her ballet. She practiced ballet a good bit on the beach.....she has been walking on her tiptoes since her performance last weekend. Me, well, I sat back and took it all in. I love to watch....and, if something strikes my interest, I love to listen to fellow beachgoers' conversations. For instance, the elderly couple beside us. I observed them with their glasses of wine and their chairs for comfort. The boys were off playing ball with some other children, within eyesight of course. And MK was hanging out with me. MK decided she wanted to use a shovel so I told her to go ask the boys if they would mind her borrowing it. She began to walk over (on her tiptoes no doubt) and inevitably walked right in front of the elderly wine drinking couple. The elderly lady began to ooooh and ahhh over MK and she commented to her husband how cute MK was. It was at this point that I desperately tried to listen to their conversation as it pertained to MK. The couple could clearly see that I was not Asian. And they could clearly see that the boys were not Asian. The man stated that "the little girl is adopted" and the wife came back with, "what do you mean she is adopted? Haven't you seen that Kate's children? you know, from that show? the one with Kate and eight? They all look Asian but their mother isn't!" and then she continued to tell her husband how the dad on the show was Asian but the mom was not and the children all favored their Asian father.....and then the wine drinking lady went on and on about dominant genes and heredity, etc., etc., etc....that poor man got an earful! Quite comical actually. Then today we met a family on the beach. The boys spotted some others playing baseball on the beach and off they went to join in. MK and I stayed behind and watched. The mother of the other children came over and we began to talk. Turns out she is an attorney and she had a lot to say. She even offered me the following account of her cousin's adoption....apparently the cousin adopted a little boy domestically as an infant. The child is now five years old. The parents have not told the 5 year old child that he is adopted!!! Ryan said, "Gosh you should have really shocked her and said that we weren't really planning to tell Mason-Kate that she was adopted!" Why would you NOT tell a child their history??? And again, I state, adoption is what you make of it.

Meet Pryce. Every January he begins to ask when the pool will open. And everytime we go to the beach, no matter the month of the year, he finds his way into the water. The water being cold is a mere detail to him, he never finds this as an excuse not to get in. I took the above photo at a distance to show that even the Canadians were not swimming! It was all Pryce, and Pryce alone! And one more special thing about Pryce....he is a sensitive soul. Love him and his heart to pieces. When he wasn't in the ocean or playing baseball, he was busy finding pieces of sanddollars along the shoreline. Finally, he found an intact sanddollar. He carefully placed it in a bucket with water and continued to play. When it was time to leave, he refused to take the sanddollar out of the bucket stating, "I don't want it to die. I want to take it home." The tears came as I told him the little guy would die in a bucket. His response, "No it won't, not if I have saltwater in there." I told him we could place it back in the ocean - of course, that was not a good idea So, what is a mom to do? Well, lets just say that we drove 3 hours back home with a sanddollar in a bucket with saltwater and beachsand that fit very nicely, thankfully, in one of my cupholders!

He even convinced MK to get in, sort of.

He was missing Colin so he came back up to our towel and thus began the inevitable dirt bombing.

Meet MK. She never wants to wear clothes. And gasp, I didn't even pack her bows to wear at the beach!

She does like to wear her "bathing soup"....she can say bathing suit but, admittedly so, I love to hear her call it her "bathing soup." (And take note of the sand all over her.....I thought back to two years ago when this same little one wouldn't even place her feet in the sand without shoes on! She said more than once, "I love da beach. It's my favorite!" I am so thankful that we are able to visit the beach often - it's my favorite too!)

And then there was the lone ladybug. I was sitting in my sweatsuit behind all of my beachwear clad children and this is what I found, a ladybug, literally right beside my foot. Hopefully this is sign of good things to come :)

The Talking MK

MK always talks. Always. And if she isn't talking, she is singing loudly. We were in the car on Saturday and she was doing her usual singing, talking routine that turned into, "Mom, mom.....MOMMYYYY." I said, "What MK?" and with a little grin on her face she said, "I talk too much!"

On the way to church, MK said, "I dying for drink, Mommy." I ignored her as I always do the first time when she doesn't ask with her manners. She said again, "Mommmmmyyyy, I dying for drink!" I sat there thinking good grief you are only three and you are telling me you are "dying" for something to drink.....I just don't remember the boys using such strong phrases at the age of three. I calmly said, "Mason-Kate you need to ask nicely." She said, "Please, I dying for drink!" Throwing the "please" in there was her asking nicely but not exactly what we were looking for - we did laugh though.

We were doing MK's homework last night. She has a folder with different pages of words and pictures she is supposed to say. She likes to turn the pages by herself. Out of habit, I went to turn the page when we finished the first one and she said with a huff, "Mommy, I am three. I can do this." OK.

I went to pick her up from Sunday School. I noticed some black stuff all over her face, mainly around her lip area. I said, "Mason-Kate, you must have eaten something really yummy today." Her teacher replied, "Oh no, there were four of them who decided to use the crayons as their very own make-up." We are positive that MK was the instigator. She very proudly showed me how they used crayons on their faces to apply their make-up on their lips, their foreheads and their cheeks....the same spots that we had applied make-up the night before for her performance.

Roar Of Love

At the age of 3, the boys were both involved in Gymboree or Kindermusik or something so I thought it only appropriate to get MK involved. Gymnastics would have been my choice simply because there is a lot of movement and I thought MK would enjoy it. MK had her own thoughts. She insisted on ballet. I know nothing about ballet but decided that I would follow her lead because, honestly, I know nothing about gymnastics either. We decided on a local dance studio that is well known in our city for their production of the Roar of Love. The Roar is a ballet based on CS Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This production is held once a year and is essentially the "recital" for the dance students.

Last night was the big production. MK's debut was perfect, she danced, she smiled, she did her ballet hands, she twirled and, as quickly as she made her appearance, her scene was over. It was one of those "don't blink or you will miss out" kind of debuts....short and oh so sweet. We were all so proud of her! And, the boys, well they were taken with the entire performance. They were a little reluctant about attending the ballet. There were two components that led the boys to believe the ballet was a stellar performance - 1) the ballet was based on a book that I read to them last year and they have seen the movie - they loved both and it made it easy to follow the ballet. Plus, there was a little sword action involved. 2) some of the music was from Star Wars - you know that you have possibly seen too much Star Wars when you hear the theme music playing and can recall the scene from the movie where the music was used. They were most impressed. My parents, Ryan and Emma were pleased as well. I think they all expected a recital yet it was a production full of very talented dancers. Ryan has even said to me more than once how he just was not expecting it to be that big. It really was amazing.

**MK is the little one in the center, tiny pic I know but it gives the feel of the show.

Curtain call.....well our little dancer was not so pleased during this portion of the show. Remember, our little one is not even a fan of people singing to her on her birthday....she does not like loudness. Couple that with the fact that it was 9:00pm, well past her bedtime and she was not a happy camper, AT ALL. The curtain call began and I had been told by another mother that the little ones would not participate in this portion of the show. However, to our surprise, they did, in fact, participate. MK, our precious little Cherub, looking so sweet and delicate in her costume, came out on stage holding hands in a line with her fellow Cherubs. She got to the center of the stage and that is when I saw it, the lip. The lip was poked out, the chin was quivering, the tears were streaming and the louder the clapping and cheering got, the more upset she got. I could read her lips as she was screaming, "Mommy! Mommy!" It was a most pitiful sight. Realizing that this was not an ideal situation and that our little ballerina was scared to death, I quickly stepped out and met her as she was coming off stage. A big kiss and an even bigger hug later, she was all good and ready to go get a celebratory donut from her favorite "Krisme Kreme."

This morning came and our little Cherub awoke. The first words out of her mouth were, "I cry and cry because I no like that clapping sound!" That, and she made us promise not to clap for her at her ballet class ever again.