A Quick Catch Up Post for March

I’ve had such fun posting about our cruise that our day to day posts were put on the back burner.  Here’s a few things that we were up to in March.

Birthdays abounded!  I can’t believe that my ‘little’ niece Rebecca turned 15!!  (Seen here with her wonderful friend Janelle)

Grandpa celebrated his birthday in mid March.  (The girls did their own makeup.  Betcha couldn’t tell!! )

 

We’ve spent some fun times with my brother and his family this past month.  The consistent theme for the girls are their princess dresses.  Love this age!!

Nana celebrated her birthday too!

At the end of the month Hannah enjoyed a wonderful afternoon celebrating at one of her little friend’s birthday at a party where they painted ceramics.  She loved this!!

Cuddle time with Papa.

St. Patrick’s Day

Hannah took her Baby Simba to Show and Share at school.  She is to prepare clues about her friend to tell the class to help them guess.  Her clues were: 

1. He is a boy
2. He is yellow
3. He has paws
4. He has a tail

Hannah and Makenna also found out something really exciting in March!!

This evening my brother Dave babysat the kids while the mommies went out to plan our dining for our trip.  SO much fun to be making plans to be at Disney with my brother, SIL Trish, niece Makenna and nephew Kallen.  2 other families that we’re friends with will also be there the same week so we have bits of time planned with each of them too.  A wonderful combination of time with family and friends plus lots and lots of Hannah and Mommy time alone, something Hannah and I both cherish!

March in a nutshell.  Now, to work on April posts.

Surprise Disney Birthday Cruise ~ The Big Reveal!!

Our cruise is now just 6 1/2 weeks away so it was time to share the news with Hannah!  Besides, Mommy was just too excited to keep it a secret any longer!!

I’d often wondered how I might share the news with her and in the end decided to use a few different ideas that I’d gained from others. 

First there was a phone call from Goofy with the big announcement!

I was pretty sure she’d need more clues so I made up a poster for her to ‘read’.

She quickly figured it out and was squealing with joy!  I had made a cake and iced it but that was all.  Hannah looked at it earlier in the morning and said, ‘Mommy, that’s a really plain cake.’  Little did she know the topper that was waiting to be added. 

Since we’ll be on board for Hannah’s 5th Birthday, she felt candles and singing ‘Happy Birthday’ were in order.  Sweet!

I booked this cruise for us almost a year ago so it’s been a long, long time to keep the secret.  I’m so thankful it worked out as her reaction was priceless!  Nana is retiring at the end of this month so we’re excited that she is joining us too!  Mom and Dad will be on their cruise to Hawaii while we’re in the Caribbean.

I’ve been tucking away a few little treats for Hannah so gave her a couple of them yesterday.  A sweet little sundress with hearts and anchors on it

and a pirate dress for my adorable little girl to wear on pirate night.

I cannot express how excited I am for this trip!  It’s been a dream for a long time and I’ve been saving for it since before Hannah was born and I’m sure it will build memories that last a lifetime!  5 is the perfect age and I know the 3 of us will have a great time together!!

Only 45 more sleeps!!  Wheeee!!!!

Hannah’s Reaction to her Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party Surprise!

This is my sweetie in action!

Will share more of the fun  soon!!  We had a blast and partied until after midnight!

Oh My! That's My Girl!!!

Recently I received a gift beyond measure!  A picture of Hannah taken 5 weeks before I met her while she was still living in DaoXian SWI!!!  That's my sweet baby girl on the left!

As you can imagine, seeing this picture immediately turned me into a puddle of mush and the tears flowed! 

This picture was a gift for so many reasons!

• It was unexpected that 3 1/2 years after we became a family I would ever receive another picture of the time in Hannah's life before we became a family
• There are 2 other babies in the picture.  I wonder who the sweet baby girl on the right is?  Were they friends?  Were their cribs next to one another?  Where does she live now?  Has she found her own forever family?  I was blessed to receive 2 cameras of pictures when I met Hannah but all of those pictures are of her alone.  What a blessing to see another baby with her!!
• I love that the picture shows the cribs tucked together next to one another.  Hannah loves to sleep touching me and it warms my heart to think that she had the opportunity to reach out and touch another in her sleep
• The SWI is so clean.  
• I can't see what she's wearing but based on the layers on the other sweet baby I can only imagine that my precious Hannah was bundled warmly too.  Also, all the blankets in the cribs helps me believe that she was warm as she slept at night.

I will say that earlier in the day before I received the picture above I was reading the blog of a fellow mom whose DD was also in DaoXian at the same time Hannah was there and I originally thought I might see Hannah in one of her pictures.  It was difficult when I realized it wasn't her but it was a blessing in that it led me to contact this mom and she in turn sent me the picture above of Hannah!! I don't think any adoptive mom ever stops scouring the web for glimpses of their baby before they met them and pieces of the puzzle that we can fill in for them.

This is the original picture I saw on her blog.

While it is not my sweet XiaoFen in the background, it is her nanny (to have a picture of her is a gift in itself) and in the forefront is her friend Emma who was adopted by friends in our travel group.  Hannah and Emma are still friends now and it's a gift to receive these pictures of them when they were together in DaoXian! 

This is a picture Hannah and Emma taken recently

I cannot express to you what that one picture did to my heart.  Is was such a blessing and I will be forever grateful for it!!!

As my Grandma says, 'Each new day holds some lovely secret just waiting to unfold.'  What an amazing secret and blessing the picture was!  God is so good!!!

Finally! Surprised with a Visit to ‘Mickey’s House’!!

Hannah and I are both huge Disney fans so as soon as I begin to plan a Disney trip we begin to talk about it.  We enjoy the planning part and Disney talk is just something that happens in our home almost on a daily basis.

Recently I was able to secure preview passes for the new Fantasyland Expansion that will open next month in the Magic Kingdom.   They were only good on Sunday from 5:00 – 8:30 so I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to go.  It wasn’t until we returned from lunch and an afternoon of wandering through the town square that I realized we could go!  I was super excited but decided not to tell Hannah where we were going. 

She hadn’t napped so the moment our van left the house she fell asleep.  She stayed asleep for the entire hour+ drive and woke up when we were only minutes from the MK parking area.  I watched her little eyes in the rear-view mirror and her head was slowly turning from side to side checking out what was around her.  I said, ‘Hi sweetie!  Did you have a good nap?’   She slowly said, ‘Yes’ while still taking in all that was happening around her. 

Soon a quiet yet excited statement came from the back seat.  ‘Mommy, I just saw a Mickey bus!’

‘You did?’ I asked with a surprised voice.  ‘Hannah, where would you like to go with Mommy?’

She quickly said, ‘Mickey’s House!’

‘Sure!  We’re almost there!’ which was met with cheers of ‘Yay!  Yay!  Yay!!!’

I can’t tell you how fun it was to surprise Hannah with a Disney visit!  She knew we’d be going later in the week with the grandparents but this was a surprise trip for just the two of us!  When we were there in the summer I purchased Annual Passes which is why we were able to get tickets for the sneak preview.

We started our adventure with a visit with Mickey which is always the perfect way to begin any Disney trip!

When we were at this counter the cast member looked at Hannah and excitedly exclaimed, ‘Princess!  I’m so glad you’re here!  Cinderella gave me her autograph album and asked me to have all the princesses I could find sign it so could you please sign it?’ 

Hannah got a huge grin on her face and carefully signed Cinderella’s album!  One really sweet thing is when the CM asked Hannah her name, age and where she was from so that she could write below her autograph.  Hannah told her her name, held out 3 fingers and then proudly said, ‘China and now I live in Canada!’ That made me smile! 

From here we made our way towards the back of the park, excited to see the new Fantasyland expansion!  We started with a visit to Ariel ‘wearing her tail’.  Check out how excited Hannah was!  She kept asking me to pick her up so that she could swim to the coral growing on the ceiling.

We rode the new Little Mermaid ride twice and it was wonderful!  After that we went to Enchanted Tales with Belle.  While Hannah was too timid to take part in the play she did scoot to the front to have her picture taken with Belle.

We rode a few rides that evening but mainly made time to visit some of the characters.  Since we were here last time portions of Fantasyland have opened permanently and now Minnie, Daisy, Donald and Goofy have new meet ‘n ' greet areas.

Minnie

Daisy

Donald

and Hannah’s favourite, Goofy!

I gave Hannah the new Tinkerbell movie for our Family Day so we found Tinkerbell and Periwinkle in Pixie Hollow. 

By this point it was 10pm but with her late nap Hannah was still going strong so we went to the dance party for a bit.  What fun we both had dancing!

This evening was a wonderful surprise that we shared together and had so much fun!  We left happy to know that we’d be going back in just 3 more sleeps! 

Christmas is such a beautiful time to be at Disney!

While She Sleeps….

…the celebrations begin!!  What fun it will be for Hannah to wake up tomorrow morning! 

Happy Birthday Sweetie!  Mommy loves you!!!

Counting Down to the Mouse!!!

Saturday was an exciting day here as Hannah and I were able to finally share with my niece Rebecca (Bec Bec to Hannah) that we are going to Disney!!  I booked the trip in November to take advantage of the free dining plan this coming summer but truly did not believe that it would happen.  So much had to come together and at the same time I asked myself if I was crazy to take a toddler and pre-teen to Disney by myself.  The answer was easy – No, I’m not crazy and we’re going to have a GREAT trip!!  
My niece and I have taken 4 previous trips to Disney together, the last being in January 2008 with Nana and Rebecca’s best friend Victoria.  As much as she wanted to go back she was pretty sure it wouldn’t happen for a few years yet.  Boy was she surprised!  My brother was onboard the moment I asked him if I could take Rebecca which was one of my stepping stones.  The second was getting the time off work and after applying way back in November it was finally approved last week.  I’d saved the money for this trip before Hannah even came home and I was just waiting for the right time.  Since she’s still free at Disney this year and we could get free dining then this year is going to be the year!  Besides I can’t wait any longer. :o)   Will she remember it?  No.  Will she enjoy it while she’s there?  Oh yes she will and I will remember her reactions forever!!
I wanted to think of a fun way to tell Rebecca about the trip so I looked for tips on a new website my cousin Bridget introduced me to: www.disboards.com .  It’s a great Disney site and so informative!  They had some fun suggestions and I found something that the girls could do together – a scavenger hunt by pictures.  They had so much fun!  Rebecca is so good with Hannah and loves spending time with her as you can see in this video.  It was neat to see Hannah participate too and fun to watch her collect the pictures.  Each time they found a new one she added it to her collection.  Go Team Badybug!  (Badybug is Hannah’s name for ladybugs)

The chocolates at the end were a placeholder for the ‘real’ ending but I was still waiting for a special phone call to come in so put the chocolates there to throw Rebecca off.  I booked a call with ‘Enchanted Calls’ and you can see what happened next!

Hannah has known about our trip for a while and I love that she was the one who ultimately told Rebecca about it!  Rebecca and I had fun that night talking about it and reviewing our dining plans.  We made one little change as she’s wanted to try the ‘Ohana breakfast with Lilo and Stitch at the Polynesian Resort so we added that one.   We’re also going to enjoy supper in Cinderella’s Castle too which will be a neat experience.
Sunday was another fantastic day as we invited Nana to come to Disney with us and she said, ‘Yes!!!’  An exciting trip is now even better as we’ll be sharing it together!
143 more sleeps!!!

The Better To See You With My Dear!

Last week I was hunting around the freezer in an attempt to figure out what we were going to eat for supper.  You can imagine my surprise when I closed the freezer door to find Hannah sitting on top of her high chair tray!  She is very cautious so I wasn’t too concerned (as you can tell as I took time to take a picture and video) but it was the surprise of seeing her there that got me! 

When I began to look into the freezer she was enjoying a snack while sitting in her high chair and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Not so much by the time I closed the freezer door.  Man she’s fast!!  And oh so cute too!!!

Part way through the video you’ll hear her say ‘up’ which meant she wanted down.  So far she often seems to only have 1 word for each of 2 opposite words so mommy needs to interpret.

Ope = open and close

On = on and off

Up = up and down

Mommy loves you my little climbing monkey!