A Portrait of a Best Friend

Adjoa drew this picture of Eden.

It's a fairly good likeness, don't you think?

She was adamant that Eden have eyelashes, "because Eden is a girl."

What I Learned on Mother's Day

Because we were in San Diego for Mother's Day, I didn't receive Adjoa's Mother's Day present until we got back.

She made this card at school. The teacher's asked her questions about me and she answered them.

I learned that maybe my daughter needs to know her mommy better. Silly me, I thought I should be spending my time teaching her things like the alphabet, being honest, and how to ride a bike. Apparently, I need to add facts about mommy to the curriculum.

Adjoa's Spring Program at Challenger

As soon as we came back from San Diego, Adjoa had her Spring Program at school.

I missed the December program because I was in Ghana, so I was super excited to see Adjoa in action. The program was really cute, and the kids did a great job.

Adjoa and J.J. They have been best little buds since the first day of school. Adjoa came home and said, "Mommy! You know what! I like J.J. He is the same like Junior!" They ran out together during their first outside play time to swing together.

In case you ever forget, THIS land was made for you and me. You can tell the kids loved the stomping bit.

Adjoa had been singing this song for about a month at home. She was so excited because it was going to be scary and the moms and dads were going to be so scared of the Black Widow! It's hard to be scared when the kids are so dang cute.

Shoo Fly was probably my favorite. The expressions on Adjoa's face while she was doing the actions was so cute. I just wish you could actually see it in the video.

Here's Adjoa's assessment of the program. Turns out we both love Shoo Fly.

Sunny San Diego

First of all, I'm cheating. I'm posting this like a month late. We ran into more computer problems {actually the same computer problem, we just didn't fix it completely before, because, well, we didn't know what we were doing. Luckily I have some smart relatives that know a lot more about computer machines getting sick than I do - THANK YOU JEREMY!}.

We got some medicine for our computer machine {can you tell we are also digging The Good Guys?} and we were back in business.

I made a joke to Jeremy that life is impossible without a computer: can't research chickens, can't find out if it's ok to plant raspberries next to other berries or if they will cross pollinate, can't research the difference between staining and painting brick, can't work, and you lose your social life. Jeremy laughed, but seriously. No email. No blogging. Nothing. It's sad, I know, but I really felt like I was missing a vital social connection.

Anyhoo. Back on topic.

We went to San Diego the first part of May. It was great to see old-timey friends and our family. Adjoa was sealed to us, and we were able to share the experience with many close friends and family. It was so amazing to have a life-long dream of a forever family finally realized.

Adjoa, of course, loved all the attention. She constantly expresses desires to go back to see everyone, and let's me know every time she is missing some in particular. She's so cute and such a sweetheart. She really loves her family and feels so connected to everyone.

Here are some quick highlights from the trip

• We started the 2 weeks off with some of Robert's co=workers. We stayed at a beach house his company owns. It was fun to spend a little time with them and get to know Robert's friends from work and their families better.
• Gail and Kevin hosted us for the remainder of the stay. Once family started coming in, it was so much easier to be closer to them.
• A few days were spent at Sea World. We bought season passes and made the most of them while we were there. Adjoa loved it, and I think Sea World is one of the most kid-friendly places you can go. There's enough different things that the kids and adults stay busy, but it's not so huge that you get exhausted. Still, it took us a couple visits to do everything. Adjoa loved the Pet Show - she still goes around singing "Who let the dogs out? hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!" It's funny to hear that song in her little voice and 3-year-old accent.
• We got to feed the Sting Rays and the Sea Lions. The interaction with the animals was one of my favorite parts of the trip
• Eden came with us, so we took her to Dog's Beach one day. Robert took Adjoa sea shell hunting. She was so excited to show me all the different shells. They found a Sand Dollar and Adjoa asks, "ohhh! Can we spend it, daddy?" I told her that only mermaids can spend sand dollars.
• We went to Sea Port Village when my parents came into town. We watched a fire-eater/sword-swallower show. I'll post one of the videos. It was pretty crazy. Mom was really worried that Adjoa would get the wrong idea from the show and start swallowing deadly items so she took her into some shops for part of it. Silly Nana. That was a trick Adjoa had up her sleeve to get you to buy a toy for her. :)
• More of Robert's family came in and we had another beach day. Scott took Adjoa on her first surfboard ride.
• Exploring the tide pools was so much fun with the kids. Adjoa, Brandon, and Olivia were adorable. They dug up baby sand crabs, spotted a couple star fish, and even found a baby sea lion. The baby sea lion was really sad looking. No other sea lions were around and it looked weak. It would come right up to us and wasn't concerned about people being around it at all.
• The San Diego temple was beautiful and amazing. Adjoa loved her white dress and said she was a princess. She asks when she can go back to be a princess again, and every time she says her prayers she says she is thankful that we can be a family. So cute!
• The trip ended with a visit to Tom and Amber's new house. Tom installed a zip line in the backyard and the kids {ok, and some of the adults, too} had a blast playing on it.
• Of course, I can't leave out Bertha's yummy cooking. I'm pretty sure we gained some weight while there, but it always seems worth it when it was cooked by Robert's mom!

Pictures from the trip.

Fire-Eater at Seaport Village. This is a little long. He does a little too much talking, but it's kind of cool.

Sword-Sawllowing at Seaport Village. Again, a little on the long side because he talks so much. But in the end, he does actually swallow the dang sword.

Adjoa feeding the baby Sea Lions {and a bird} at Sea World

Adjoa Surfing

Kristy riding the zip line at Tom's