Dance Recital

Sorry, I’m a little behind with this post, but I was waiting on pictures!  On May 22, Saiya had her first dance recital.  She had a blast and did so well!  I was very proud of her.  The day was very busy as we had to be there early and didn’t leave until late, but she did have fun.  Uma, Umpa, Nana the rest of our family all went to see Saiya dance.  The recital lasted about 2 ½ hours.  After the recital, we went to dinner with the family at Olive Garden.

Saiya’s class did a tap dance to a medley of Elvis songs.  It was soooooo CUTE!

Summer Fun in the Sun!

A good friend of mine gave us a kiddie pool for our puppies.  The puppy hated it, but Saiya loves it!  She spent hours splashing around in there.  We literally had to drag her out so we could go grocery shopping.  :)  She is getting so comfortable around water.  I am willing to bet she will be swimming by the end of the summer.  Last weekend, she was paddling around my friend's pool with her star-fish tube around her.  She spent hours swimming back and forth across the pool, she didnt care that she couldnt touch bottom and was happy as a clam splashing around.

Yay Summer!

VPK Graduation!

Last night was Saiya’s graduation ceremony for VPK.  The ceremony was long, but the presentations were very cute!  They showed a slide show of the kids in class and on field trips throughout the school year and a video of the kids telling everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up.  It was adorable and certainly one of those moments where kids can say the darndest things!  Of course, my Saiya said the question was too hard!  So the little caption at the bottom of the screen was “: )”.   HAHAHAHAHA!!!  That got a laugh from the audience.  Poor Saiya!

Almost June, Can you believe it??!

She's come a long way since the first day of school!

Saiya's First Day of School

Click the link to see how much she has grown!!

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

We went to Myrtle Beach this weekend with my in-laws to visit family and have a nice little vacation.  It took us about 10 hours to drive up there.  Saiya was such a trooper in the car!  She played, colored, and watched movies in the car.  She didn’t complain at all, there was no whining and she really was fantastic the whole way!

The first day we were there, we went to the aquarium.  Saiya loved the aquarium!  The shark tank was amazing and Saiya loved playing with the horseshoe crabs and rays in the touch tanks.  Later that night, we took her to the pool where she is really learning how to swim!  One of our goals for the summer is for her to learn to swim.  She is already learning to kick with a kickboard, so it really is only a matter of time before she is swimming like a fish!

The second day, we went to a place called MagiQuest.  It is a live action medieval-type game where you run around completing quests with your “magic wand”.  You wave the wand at certain objects in the game area and you collect items and virtual money for your quests.  It was an awesome game!  Saiya had a blast!  She loved to wave the wand at the treasure chests and get all the money from them.  Every time she opened a chest she would say “Yay!  Money!!”.

 On Saturday, we went to the beach to have a picnic with Chris’s dad’s family.  She loved playing in the sand.  I tried to get her to go in the water, but it was a little cold and she didn’t like the waves knocking her all over the place.  Later that night, we went over Chris’s cousin’s house for a BBQ and she had an awesome time playing with her second cousins.

The ride home was a little shorter than the ride up there and Saiya did great in the car.  She travels so well!  I am shocked that a five-year-old can sit in a car for 8-10 hours and not complain at all!

We had a great time!  Thank you very much Uma and Umpa for inviting us on the vacation!  More pictures to come!

Mommy and Me Tea Party

On Friday, Saiya's school hosted a Mommy and Me Tea Party in honor of Mother's Day.  I was unable to go because I had a meeting, so my sister volunteered to go in my place.  Saiya was so excited that she was going to have someone there with her for the tea party.  On Friday morning, my sister had to cancel because of something she had to do for school and Saiya was so disappointed.  According to the teachers, she cried a little when she realized my sister wasnt going to be there.

In order to make it up to her, while Chris was working today, I held a special Tea Party just for Saiya and I.  We had strawberry/cream cheese danishes and all the juice we could drink out of our special wine glasses I pulled down from the cupboard.  She was thrilled to have a special Tea Party with me and I think it really made her feel special, and hopefully it made up for us not being able to be at her tea party at school.

Yesterday, Chris and Saiya brought home a whole bag full of gifts for Mother's Day.  Saiya made a cake at school and bought some flowers for me.  It was so sweet!!

I love my family!
Happy Mother's Day to all!!  I hope your weekend was as special as ours!

"Where's My Sister…"

We had my niece and nephew for the weekend while my sister was on vacation in New York planning wedding stuff for August.  Saiya and my niece were sharing a her bed while they were with us.  Saturday morning, Saiya came sneaking into our room…

Saiya:  “Mama…?  Mama?  Mama…  My sister’s still asleep.”

Me:  “Huh??  She’s not your sister, Saiya, she’s your cousin.”

Saiya:  “um…  ok.  She’s still sleeping.”

Me:  “That’s ok, Saiya, you can go play, she will be up in a little while.”

Saiya:  “ok!”

It was so cute!  Chris and I were a little shocked and taken by surprise by her calling Syrafina her sister.  So, on Sunday we were at the dance studio taking recital pictures.  I had to be there a little longer than Saiya, so I had Chris come and get her.  I told her that baba was going to be picking her up and she was welcome to go home and play…

Saiya:  “I can go home and play with Sebastian?”

Me:  “Yes and Syrafina.”

Saiya:  “Yay!!  I can go play with my sister!!”

So last night my sister came back home and picked up her kids from us.  It was back to our normal bedtime routine with just me and my daughter.  Saiya was getting ready for bed and turned to me…

Saiya:   “Where’s my sister?”

Me:  “She’s your cousin, she doesn’t live with us.  She went home with her mommy.”

Saiya:  “Why?”

Me:   “Because she lives with them, not with us.”

Saiya:  “oh…  She comes back on Friday?”

Me:  “No, I don’t think so, Baby…”

Saiya:  “oh…” (sad face)

Um… I think my daughter is trying to tell us something…  We haven’t really talked much about going back to China for another little girl, and I think my daughter is slowly getting lonely.  She had a great time while we had my niece and nephew.  Now that they are gone, she is all alone again.  I thought the story was a cute one…  As far as a second child is concerned, only time will tell…

Happy Easter!

This was a busy busy weekend!!  Thursday night, Saiya spent the night with my sister because there was no school on Friday.  Friday night was Dan’s birthday, so we watched her kids.  Saturday we went to the paintball field and spent several hours shooting little balls of paint at each other.  Saiya and Syrafina were content to make “Paint Soup” with the stray paint balls that had fallen on the ground.  They spent hours poking at them with sticks and making a colorful, albeit smelly, mess.  Saturday afternoon, we went home, took showers, and then headed out to see African Cats for Earthday.  It was a great movie, but the younger kids got bored very quickly.  About an hour into the movie, Saiya was grumpy and wanted to leave.  Luckily she managed to sit through it to the end, but she was very happy it was over.

Saturday night my sister stopped by to pick up the kids.  They all went to her house to color eggs for Easter.  I can only assume Saiya had a great time before heading off to bed.  Sunday morning we went over to my sister’s house for an Easter egg hunt.  Saiya and the rest of the kids spent a couple of hours hunting jelly beans and Easter Eggs.  The Easter Bunny even left each of the kids a candy filled basket of goodies.  Saiya had a great time!  Sunday afternoon, we went home and had a nice relaxing afternoon.  Poor Saiya was so tired she was falling asleep at the dinner table.  Poor thing.  So after a quick bath it was off to bed for her.

Overall, we had a great weekend and thank you to my sister and the rest of my family for helping to make Saiya’s first Easter a great one!