The week in a glance.....

We joined the Minden's for some Silver Dollar City fun on Saturday night and stayed for the corny country music show. The kids danced and had a good time. On Sunday Stacy, Kevin and Maddie stopped by for lunch before heading back to St. Louis. It was so good to see those guys and we want to make sure we don't wait another two years to get together again, St. Louis is really just a hop and skip away.
We just had time for a short nap before crazy Aunt Sue arrived. We took the kids to Silver Dollar City for the day on Monday. We brought the wagon and took turns pulling the kids up and down the hills. It was the kids festival so there was plenty for the kids to do. We took in the magic show and the circus on ice.
Aunt Sue had to leave for Wichita on Tuesday morning and it was back to work and school for me and the kids.
Luke's class had been preparing for their special "princess" party for weeks and it was scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 3:30. We had sent Luke's Chinese silk outfit and hat for the occasion. Right about time for the party the tornado sirens went off and we ended up spending time in the stairwell of the building with babies and kids and mom's dressed up like princesses! The party was called off and we ran for our cars in the down pour. A tornado did end up hitting the East side of town and took off the roof of a furniture store. We arrived home to a dark house and did not get power back until 1:30am. On Friday morning we had yet another toad strangler and the result was that we actually witnessed "white caps" on our street where the two roads converge. Looking down the hill it looked like a lake had formed. The picutures are on the post below.
On Saturday Lily got to experience her first wedding up close and personal as she was the designated flower girl. I did not know the bride or groom but the groom is one of John's students and his fiance met Lily one day and fell in love with her. It was like something out of a fairy tale as Lily went to the designated hair dresser to have her "updo" put in and then off to the church for the transformation into the tea length princess dress complete with shiny white shoes. John took her to the actual wedding while I stayed home with Luke. I am told she performed her tasks very well and was the topic of conversation. It is now hours later and she is refusing to remove the dress. I think she may sleep in it. After all, how many chances will she have to wear this dress before she out grows it? We all need a little more time to feel like a princess in our lives.

The week in a glance.....

Got a Boat for sale?

White caps on Brandon Street

Flower girl hams it up

Flower girl Lily

Springfield gymnastics team

Lily's gymnastics team photo

Branson playtime

The pictures in the post below are from two different trips to Branson, fun capital of Missouri (or tourist trap of Missouri depending on which way you look at it!)
John took a day off from composing and we took the two kids and Yue Jia to Silver Dollar city for a day of fun. It was great because there were enough "big" kids to take the "little" kids on all those twirly, toss your lunch rides so that I did not have to go on very many. The only unhappy ride turned out to be the "Lost River." All was going fine until Luke got drenched and started to cry and that started Lily crying in a chain reaction. Frozen lemonade seemed to make it go away and refresh us all.
Yesterday we spent the entire day at the Shanghai circus with the acrobats of China. This is the second year the theater has invited families with children adopted from China to come and spend a fun filled day surrounded by Chinese culture. The morning games were to take place in a park, but the weather changed all that. The theater was able to make a last minute change and move the games inside the theater. Luke had a great time with the Chinese yo yo, but it is not easy to keep it spinning. The best part of the day was that we were able to reunite with one of our travel families from our first visit to China, the Minden's. We had not seen Maddie in two years since our last reunion at there house in St. Louis. It was great to pick up right where we had left off and chatter about how our girls are doing and also about our latest trip to China to get Luke. Luke and Maddie hit it off right away and spent much of the day chasing each other around the large theater and having "balloon fights." Jada Jones was also present and so the four kids surrounded 14 year old Logan and beat him up with balloons. Logan looked like he was enjoying all the attention. We came back to Springfield after the show ended so that Yue Jia could finish up her last bit of packing.
She came to us with lots of luggage but she left with more. She ended up leaving several items behind. I told John it was like the pioneers heading West dumping stuff out of the wagons along the way. Lily was thrilled as she was the recipient of four pairs of beautiful fu fu shoes (the girl has a shoe fetish at 4). John took Yue Jia to the airport at 4am for her 6am flight. I hope she enjoyed her 10 months in the USA.
The Minden's continue to hang out in Branson so we are headed down that way again today to join them at Silver Dollar City for dinner and the evening show. We are lucky it is only a 45 minute drive! We are so sorry our friends the Binzel's could not make this trip. Their private runway was flooded out by all the rain in Wisconsin. We hope to meet up with them later this summer or for sure in December when we make our annual visit to Chicago!
This is a rare moment when both kids are sleeping (daddy too) so they will be well rested to make it through the show tonight.

Branson playtime

Going to school

Here are some recent photos to enjoy. Luke is standing in front of our blooming rhododendrons and hamming it up. Miss Lily performed at a recent Springfield Cardinals game with her gymnastics group and these photos are of her in her team leotard and while performing on the field. The last photo was taken at Jordan Valley Park right in the heart of Springfield. Luke and Lily love to get wet in the fountain and climb the rock formations. Free fun all summer long!

The exciting news is that Luke started going to the same pre-school as Lily this week. We had him all signed on for the Fall but they had a last minute opening so we took it. Luke is in the room with the now 3 year olds and Lily is upstairs with the now 4 year olds. He was all excited about going to school with his sister. Lily is very protective of Luke so she stayed with him for a while the first day to make him feel comfortable. I talked to his teachers today and they both said he is such a sweet boy. One teacher commented that if he is missing sometime when we come to pick him up it is because she has taken him home with her. They had him painting and doing craft projects with glitter and they said it was as if he'd never seen glitter before he was so excited about it. I found glitter in his ear and in various parts of his body and it looks like he had a good time. They said he is following directions well and falls asleep in 2 mins during nap time. They use the same play yard as Lily's class so they get to play outside together. I asked Lily if Luke was playing with other kids today and she said he ran over and gave her a big hug when he saw her. They clearly are attached to each other. At times Lily gets all bent out of shape over something Luke is doing (like standing in front of the tv so she can't see) but she is very protective of him and takes the "big sister" role very seriously. Luke continues to imitate everything she says and does and we call them "Pete" and "Repeat."
Luke had his follow up visit to the doctor and he got a clean bill of health. It was amazing how quickly he recovered from surgery, it didn't slow him down as much as I had hoped. I kept worrying that he would tear out the stitches but apparently, everything is in order.
Tomorrow we are taking the kids to Silver Dollar City for Luke's first visit. I just heard it is supposed to hit 90 degrees so we are starting out early in the morning. It will be interesting to see just how long the kids last. We are taking the red wagon which seats two and I think it will be a necessary item after the heat sets in and we climb a few of those hills!

Yue Jia is getting packed up and ready to leave for China. She will be flying out on the 14th of this month. We hope to do some room rearranging after she is gone and move Logan down to the basement bedroom and move Luke into Logan's room. Maybe everyone will finally sleep in their own beds in their own rooms (ha! not with Miss Lily around!)

Well, the peace and quiet is sure to collapse at any moment but I wanted to post a few new photos for all to enjoy.

Luke goes in for surgery

As I write this Luke is sleeping after a long morning at the hospital beginning at 7am. Luke was scheduled to have a hydocele repair and circumcision. Everything went well getting ready for surgery. Luke and I played with his Barney computer and watched cartoons. He was very quiet and cute as I signed my name over and over and repeated his name and birthday at least five times to different people. He watched as other carts lined up in the pre-surgery room with people of all ages prepped and ready to go. We talked to one nurse with two daughters from China who is getting ready to go get her new 2.5 year old son from China. We met a doctor who is the father of Sarah, a little girl at Luke's daycare. I had never met him, had only talked to the mother, but he recognized Luke and came over to introduce himself.
The surgery only took around 40 minutes. The doctor said that there was quite a bit of infection under his foreskin so I was glad we made the decision to have him circumcised at this time. The doctor told us what to expect and to bring him in to his office in 10 days to have the butterfly bandages removed from his tiny belly incision from the hydrocele repair.
They let us know that Luke had been returned to his room and as we walked down the hall I could hear a child crying. I hoped it was not him, but it was and he was crying very loudly. The nurses assured us that he was in no pain, that this was a typical responce from children coming out of anestigia. Luke cried a sad cry and I was able to hold him but it did not stop the crying. He kept looking at his arm all bandaged up with an IV and this seemed to distress him. The nurse came in and took the IV out and that seemed to quiet him down some. They also brought him a Popsicle and that also helped. Shortly after Luke decided enough was enough and he broke out into an angry tantrum. He was yelling very loud and kicking and obviously very mad. He kept repeating one phrase over and over and John is still trying to figure out what is was as he feels it was in Chinese. Evidently, according to our exchange student, Luke knows some pretty "bad" words in Chinese. I can only imagine what he was shouting. This went on for over an hour. They moved the other patient out of our room and closed out door. The nurse asked if Luke had gone to the bathroom and so I took him in. He sat on the potty and would not let me help him. Somehow, just sitting there all propped up by himself made him stop shouting. We were able to get his pjs back on and get the heck out of the hospital. We made it home by noon. Now I remember how I have felt after the many surgeries I have had and let me tell you, it was not the way that Luke appears to feel. He has been running around dancing and laughing. This kid is on codeine and can still stay awake and dance. He ate a small amount of food and drank some juice and finally crashed a little after 2. After the struggles we had in the hospital just restraining him to keep him from running out the door, I was tired too! He is choosing not to wear any pants or underwear at this point and walks kind of like an old man, all hunched forward. He quickly showed Ba Ba his new penis and he has studied it carefully. I'm sure the rest of the family is going to be just thrilled with his state of dress at the dinner table. The nurse warned me that kids react differently. She said some want the area completely covered and don't want anyone to touch them and others just want to let it all hang out. I guess Luke falls into the second category. The pictures are of Luke "before" surgery when he was still happy. I did not take any pictures of him in his state of rage. It was all John and I could do to both keep him restrained. While all this was going on, the man sitting with the patient in the next bed over came over to show us his picture of his FOUR adopted daughters from China. He had heard our conversation with the nurse and wanted to say hi. And to think we only have TWO kids from China.

This week's photos

Sibling love

Luke's jam session

Luke has a disco moment

Future Elvis