A Mother’s Day Filled with Love

Mother’s Day has always been a special day!  A day to tell my mom how much she means and how much I love her.  I’ve also been blessed to have a dear friend in Sharon who is a mother-in-love.  I’ll admit that there were years when it was a difficult day as I longed to be a mom and the years of waiting for Hannah but now I know that each of those years helped to turn me into the mom that I am now.

Saturday evening as I was praying over Hannah, tears of joy flowed down my face as I still cannot thank God enough for my sweet, precious, loving, amazing girl!  He planned our family before the beginning of time and I am so thankful He created our family just the way He did!  Hannah completes me and with every breath I am thankful for her!

After church we enjoyed a wonderful family celebration at Nana and Papa’s.

Grandma Dale and her girls

In the evening we joined my parents and went out to a local restaurant for our traditional Mother’s Day dinner.

The weather was a little cool but beautifully sunny for family pictures.

There were pics with Grandpa and Papa too. 

When I went downstairs on Sunday morning Hannah had written me a sweet little note.  I love that she remembered all on her own that it was Mother’s Day!  Her adorable note read, ‘I love you!  Happy Mommy Day.  Love, Hannah  xoxoxo’  My day was already complete!! 

As the day went on I was blessed to receive 2 other cards from Hannah (Thanks Grandma and Nana).  When we got home in the evening she had hidden her gifts throughout the house and we played a game of hotter/colder to find them as well as hearts she had cut out of paper.  She had made me (plus Grandma, Nana and Grandma Dale) these beautiful bouquets of tissue paper flowers!  Oh how I enjoy her creativity. 

The cute little plant was from school.  It was adorable as she’d brought it home Thursday night and I wasn’t supposed to know about it.  That would have been possible…except she moved it around the house every few hours seeking out sun.  I’d go to open the front door and find the plant and a little squirt bottle of water beside it tucked in between the doors.  A few hours later I’d walk into her room and the plant would be in the middle of the carpet with the squirt bottle beside it once again basking in a ray of sunshine.    It was nice to officially find it Sunday evening.

I giggled Monday afternoon when I opened her backpack to empty it and found the blue card in it.  I’d seen it there Thursday and Friday nights but left it in it’s hiding place…and we’d both promptly forgotten about it.  Monday afternoon I called her over when I found it again and we laughed as she gave it to me.

I love this sweet card for so many reasons!  It is the first card she has made me written in French.  She speaks French at home all the time (and translates for this English speaking Mommy )  but notes to me have been written in English.  The other thing I love is that it’s still in such a Grade 1 style!  It says ‘I love you Mommy’ and is supposed to read, ‘Je t’aime Maman’ but she ran out of room when writing t’aime so finished the end of the word at the beginning of the line. 

Mother’s Day was perfect from start to finish!  Thank you Lord for blessing me with this most amazing daughter!  She is my world!!

Happy 7th Birthday Hannah XiaoFen!!! Mommy Loves You!

My sweet, amazing, wonderful girl turned 7 years old on Saturday!
She woke up to traditional celebratory balloons.

She quickly wanted to go downstairs and open her gifts!  Frozen Early Reader
Ice Cream Pillow craft kit
and, Friends Vet Clinic Lego.  I bought the Lego a number of months ago and when she saw it on ellieV toys on YouTube last month she really liked it which I’m glad about.  (This channel plus Disney Parks are the 2 YouTube channels Hannah is allowed to watch.)
After gymnastics we met my parents at our favourite Chinese food restaurant for lunch.  Great choice Hannah!


More Lego fun!

Lunch was followed with a surprise visit to a local pottery painting store that Hannah has wanted to visit for a while.  It was made extra special when her cousins were there too!
In Kallen’s excitement he painted mommy too!  I think he enjoyed that!

Painting was followed by an impromptu play date and I finally took my sleeping birthday girl home to bed after partying all day!
Sunday the celebrations continued with a birthday lunch at Nana and Papa’s!


I love you so much my sweet, sweet Hannah XiaoFen!!!  Happy 7th Birthday!!!

Christmas Disney Wrap-up Day 3 ~ Magic Kingdom

(Catch up post from Tuesday, December 15, 2015)
Tuesday morning we were up and on our way early as we had a pre-park opening breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest Restaurant. 
It was nice to take a few pics on our way to the restaurant while there were few people in the park.



Thanks to the challenges we had with Sharon’s ticket the day before, Hannah and I were able to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train this trip using the bonus FP+ reservations we had.  Great ride!!
Family fun on the carousel.

Unfortunately the battery in my camera ran out of juice at this point so this is all the pics I had of this great day.  Supper was a delicious meal at Kona Cafe.  Nana and Papa headed back to the room after supper while Hannah and I decided on a Christmas monorail resort tour.  I was able to snap some pics with my phone to capture some of this mommy and Hannah time that we shared together.
Stop number one was the Contemporary Resort.  After a busy day in the park we took  our shoes off, found a quiet spot in the gift shop and spent more  than 30 minutes quietly reading together.  Sweet moments.
Each of the monorail resorts features an amazing Christmas gingerbread house.  The theme at the Contemporary was ‘Frozen’.

This is the gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian!  This structure is made of gingerbread and even features a little shop on the other side where you can purchase cookies and more.
Each trip Hannah and I try to do something new at Disney.  This trip we walked along a beautiful waterside path that follows the water between the Grand Floridian and Polynesian Resort.  We stopped and enjoyed the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom from the beach at the Polynesian.  Well…one of us watched the fireworks.  

Up next:  Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Christmas Disney Wrap-up Day 2 ~ Epcot

(A catch-up post from Monday, December 14, 2015)
Monday found us waking bright and early, excited to begin our Christmas Disney vacation with a trip to one of our favourite parks.  I knew the day held something special that I had dreamed about for more than 10 years!
We ate at the Pop Century food court, picked up the stroller and scooter and were soon on our way.  There’s nothing better than starting your day with Nana cuddles!
Epcot is close to our resort so we were there in time for rope drop.  We made our way to security and to the gate.  Unfortunately Nana’s MagicBand decided to act up a bit but in the end it was a very good thing and worth the short 30 min delay.  The first gal who attempted to help offered us an additional ‘anytime’ FP+ reservation which we greatly appreciated.  Unfortunately she was unable to fix the problem so they sent us to Guest Services.  It took them an additional 20 mins or so and tier 3 was working on it when they gave her a plastic ticket to use for the day and ensurred they would get her MB working.  The best part though was that the gal at GS offered us 3 more ‘anytime’ FP+ reservations and put them on our bands for Tuesday when we were going to be in the Magic Kingdom.  Bonus!!
We made our way into the park and since we no longer needed to visit Test Track early (we’d use our FP for it later in the day), we rode Spaceship Earth first.  A bit of a delay in the ride when it stopped in a darker spot which challenged Hannah a bit but hugs from mommy and reassurance from Nana and Papa and she was all set!
Our first FP of the day was for Soarin which is one of our favourite rides!  We were excited to ride it before it closed for an extended refurbishment as they change the movie to ‘Soarin’ Around the World’ and upgrade the screens and projection system.  We rode The Land and then The Nemo Ride. 
My girl in one of her beautiful Christmas dresses.  What a treat to be wearing summer clothes in December!
One of the many beautiful topiaries ready for the chilly (not) weather!
Lunch was next at another one of our favourite locations, The Coral Reef Restaurant.   Behind us is a beautiful aquarium and as we dined we watched schools of fish, sharks and sea turtles swim by!
Cute little sea turtle dessert.
Up next – Test Track!!  Hannah’s favourite ride!  It’s been a long time since we’ve ridden it in the daylight so it was neat to do so this trip. 
By now it was later in the afternoon and time to head to the Candlelight Processional.  I saw this with Rebecca 10 years earlier and knew that it was something Sharon would love and have dreamt ever since of enjoying it together!  Today that would happen!  The Candlelight Processional is performed 3 times each day during the Christmas season and includes a mass choir, full orchestra, coronation trumpets and guest narrator who ready Luke 2.  Our guest narrator was Merideth Vierra.
After listening to the amazing Candlelight Processional Hannah coloured a Duffy the Bear.  She’d waited patiently all day to do this and took such care.
It was a beautiful evening and we found time to take some pictures at the Italy pavillion.  An added bonus is that we were right next to the Candlelight Processional and got to hear some of it a second time. 


She danced like nobody was watching.  My sweet girl in action.
The first park day of our special Christmas trip was absolutely perfect!  We were excited to have 2 more park days in front of us!
And, as per normal this is how Hannah ended her day.