Easter at Schmidt's

We had Easter Sunday at the Schmidt's and we were able to get outside for a little while for an egg hunt with the girls.

Blessings

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling blessed with the kids. Even Logan humored me with taking pics on Sunday.

EGG TIME!

 

Coloring Easter Eggs is a must!

Brandon goes to big party

 

 

 

 

 

Brandon got to get all dressed up to go to his girlfriend's RED CARPET 12th Birthday party. I took pictures for the party. He had a blast and was voted best dressed male and his girlfriend was voted best dressed female, cooincidentally! LOL!

Brandon turns 12!

 

 

Brandon will turn 12 on the 30th and he had some friends over for a NACHO FEST. They all created this FEST and thought of what we would fix. There had been a lot of rain, but thank goodness all of the boys were able to be outside. Only one boy spent the night, so that helped, too.

Brandon's final concert

 

 

 

 

 

We are finishing up the final year at Brandon's school. He has had a great 3 years, although having a sub during the last bit of this year has been challenging. His teacher had a baby and the sub that he has can be rather difficult.

We will miss his chorus teacher and unfortunately she will retire before seeing Anna through her 3 years at that school. The boys both enjoyed her so much and she has such great dedication to her job and love for music and sharing it with her students. The final program was a great as all the others.

Easter at mom's

Personalize your own photo album

It turned out to be a beautiful day at my parent's house. The kids were able to play with their cousins and go fishing, fly kites and have an Easter Egg Hunt.

Happy Birthday!

 

Logan turned 15 years old today. Hard to believe! He is growing up to be such a neat and talented young man! He stands just under 6 Feet tall now. WOW.....he will get his Driver's permit this week!
We celebrated both boys' birthdays with a cake today at my mom's house when we had our Easter gathering there. Brandon will be 12 on April 30th!

6 years with Anna

Hard to believe the 6 years has passed since the very first day we met Anna. What a blessing she is in all our our lives. What a beautiful, thoughtful, creative and loving daughter we have.

 

 

Hollywood March 2-7, 2011

The Show Choir and also the girls Show Choir went to Hollywood and I got to go, too. I subbed extra days this year to pay for my trip. I really didn't want Logan to go all that way without a parent there. It was an utterly exhausting trip. Not a lot of sleep each night. Many things were planned every day to keep the kids out of trouble. We went to Warner Brothers Studio and got to see many places where shows we watch are filmed. We were lucky enough to see Clint Eastwood directing an upcoming film, "J Edgar". It was a rare day to see Eastwood filming there according to our guide. Leonardo DiCaprio was also there filming the movie with Armie Hammer. We got to see a scene where they were watching a horse race or something. One of the best things was getting to see and stand it houses used on GILMORE GIRLS. Kept thinking about Christine there. It was soooo neat!

We spent an afternoon at Universal City Walk and Bucca Di Beppo for dinner. The kids all did an I-fly thing, which was like sky diving. Logan loved that. I didn't see LJ a lot during the trip, but when I did, I had to snap some pictures. He is growing up too fast!

We went to a Hockey Game...a very COLD hockey game. I really thought I could wear flip flops and capris. NOPE.

One of the highlights of the trip was taking a boat to Catalina Island. I felt sooo sick going to the Island, as did many of the kids who were vomiting in the bathrooms. Major motion sickness. I never got sick, but I could not get my head off the table where I was. I felt fine once we got off the island and could walk around. It was gorgeous. What a beatiful place. I just wish Barry had been there to share it with. The trip was not the same without him. :(

We went to THE IMPROV Comedy Club. I have never laughed sooo hard. We had the entire place to ourselves.We had over 100 kids and probably more than 100 parents, etc with us. We all ate dinner and during it the kids could go up and tell jokes or whatever. NEVER give show choir kids a microphone! They had so much fun. Probably more fun than when the actual comedians came on to do their skits. The comedians were hilarious. Language was a bit colorful and could have been a TON cleaner. I really thought the teacher or our school principal was going to stop the show and tell the comedians to clean it up. GREAT evening!

The FAME COMPETITION was on Saturday. We had a great time watching. There were some really good groups, but I had a feeling we would win. There was one group that was a bit disturbing and we were hoping they would not beat us. FUN DAY. We got Grand Champion, best combo and maybe some other awards. Our girls group got first runner up. They did an awesome job!

The last day we went to Disneyland. It was a fun day with the Bowlings, but I missed the kids. Much smaller place than Disneyworld. I still need to upload the Disneyland pics off my small camera.

All in all it was a fun trip. Logan had a blast and made lifelong memories.

Because the group placed in the top three, they get a free ride to the Nationals in Indanapolis. Can't wait!!!

Fame Competition Hollywood 2011

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Chinese New Year

Anna wanted me to do my Chinese Year Unit at school again this year. I always want to make sure it is something that SHE wants me to do and feel comfortable with me doing. She did, so I spent a half hour one day while I was subbing at her school talking about CNY and China with her class. I took in some books and decorations and they were already doing a Weekly Reader on China, so the first graders were eager to learn more about the country. On Anna's birthday, I returned with my mom and some parent helpers to do crafts and food. It was fun.

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Anna turns 7!

Anna had a great birthday week of celebrations! It is fun being 7! Anna is such a sweet young girl. She is kind and caring and it is incredibly hard to believe that she is seven! Sometimes it is hard when I think of how she was alone in an orphanage for her first 14 months and that I was not there when she was born or for her first birthday. She has been asking a lot of questions lately and has been talking about birthparents and their role in all of this. She is such a smart little girl. She will get out books about China adoption and has been reading them. She knows I cry every time and she thinks it is so funny. LOL! I am always one to tear up, but I want Anna to be comfortable reading those books and asking questions. One night she was sad and said she missed China. I had to explain to her that she missed the idea of China and that is because she cannot remember it or anything about it. I am always positive in my talks about China, but I do not sugar coat the discussions either. I can't add or embelish the situation. It is what it is and this it is how we became to be her forever family. We will hopefully visit China someday when we are all ready to take it all in.

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them and be sure to click on the video, too!

Personalize a scrapbook

Valentine's Day

The Big Valentine's Day hunt was a hit, as usual. The kids wait for this all year and were so excited. Yes, even the almost 15 year old still looks forward to Valentine's Day. Barry was unable to eat dinner with us because he had a church Finance Committee meeting, so we had our lasagna another night with him. Yum.

Barry had me take VERY close up pictures of a few things in the house and he printed them off. The kids had to figure out where the pictures were taken. VERY hard this year. Brandon was afraid we would have Alegebra type clues! Ha ha!

The kids enjoyed the prizes and we enjoyed celebrating the evening together.

Snowpocalypse 2011? Nope...not here, as usual!