Official Adoption Day Anniversary!

Today is our Official two year Adoption Anniversary. Two years ago on this day, we were in a Vietnamese court signing all kinds of papers... (in addition to the hundreds we had already signed). We also had to listen to the judge read some kind of oath which was apparently in English... although I had no idea what he said. I just said "yes" every time he paused!

Today I took my lethargic, bleary-eyed, feverish, achey, queasy, coughing self with Jasmine to our regular Desert Botanical Garden Seedlings outing. We studied "octopus cactus", otherwise known as ocotillo- a very common cactus in Arizona. While walking around in the Cactus Gallery of the garden, Jasmine drew pictures of cactus, and checked off colors that she found in the cacti. We ate a cactus snack and made a cactus craft, too.

We spent the rest of the day with Larry Carden, an account rep for Premier Research Labs in Austin, TX... the company where I purchase most of my supplements for patients and ourselves. He was passing thru Phoenix and left the entire day open to work on/with us. We have been working energetically on Jazzy's eyes for a couple of years and I think we made alot of progress today. He also worked on me.... which was very helpful! While we were leaving Jazzy said, "That Larry- he is such a nice man. I am going to miss him:)"


Two years ago today in court with Huong our translater and Lai the nanny holding Jasmine.

The Judge telling me something in "English".

Making a design in glitter glue today.
Waiting in line to go outside.
Making an ocotillo cactus out of molding clay.

Two Year Anniversary!

Today is the two year anniversary of the day that Jasmine and I met at the Hoi An orphanage. I was very excited about it, and she just screamed the whole time! Today, we went to the gym (LA Fitness/Kid's Club), then stopped at the Tempe Farmer's Market and bought a couple of things. Donna from "Donna's Asian Bakery" had a booth there. She is going to make the cookies for Jasmine's Vietnamese/Adoption party on the 19th at her school. We also went to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant (Pho Van) in Chandler. They are going to make the Vietnamese egg rolls for Jasmine's class- since I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to do it!

Hoi An orphanage 2 years ago today

Eating at Pho Van today. Jasmine *loves* Vietnamese food. She doesn't eat much at home, but at a Vietnamese restaurant, she is a little piglet!

Flowers from our friend Vince


Happy Birthday to me! and Happy Anniversary to Us!

Edible Arrangement

Grandma and Grandpa sent us an Edible Arrangement for my Birthday!. It has a couple of bare spots because we already ate a few things off of it. Then we went ice skating. Here is Jazzy getting ready to go on the ice and practicing her arabesque. Just chillin out.

DBG Cottonwood Study

Today at DBG Seedlings, we studied the Cottonwood tree, a common tree around Arizona. We learned that aphids eat the cottonwood leaves and the "stem mother" lays eggs on the stem of the leaf. The leaf forms a "gall", which nourishes the aphids. We walked around the Botanical Garden looking at the chrysalis that the caterpillars from last week had made on the milkweeds. Soon they will turn into Monarchs. We collected some of the dried Cottonwood leaves with galls attached and looked at the aphids inside. We even had a snack made of cheese and mini bread sticks that looked like a Cottonwood tree.

Petting Prince the king snake. Bon Jovi the gecko did not want to come out from under his rock... so we didn't get to hold him. Jasmine wasn't too sure about Prince, but she eventually did pet him.

Eating the Cottonwood snack

Painting

Making a lizard out of play dough

Creative Drama Class Play

Today was the Drama Class play, "Charlie's Search for a Friend" by Dom DeLuise. Jasmine was the bee and her line was "Hey, it's a cute little butterfly:)". Earlier in the class, they made butterfly decorations for the stage.

Jazzy and her butterfly
Part of the "program".

Last hip hop class for awhile....

warming up

dancing

Jasmine's hip hop/jazz teacher, Alex Martinez- a teacher at the Skyline Academy for the Arts in Chandler, AZ.

Desert Botanical Garden Monarch Day

Today in DBG Seedlings class, we studied butterflies. We measured butterfly wingspans, looked at butterflies with the magnifying glass, went into the Monarch Exhibit and let the Monarchs land on us, made a butterfly craft, and we even did a butterfly dance and song. Even the snack was shaped like a butterfly. We looked at Desert Milkweed plants that the Monarch caterpillar eats and read a book about Monarchs and Milkweeds. Next week, we study the Cottonwood tree.

watering plants in the garden
sorting cards for "B" words
Adam from Dayspring PreSchool is also in our Seedlings class.