Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Happy Gotcha Day Andrew



It was three years ago today that we met Andrew for the very first time. He came off the plane cheerful and effectionate and both hold true to this day. I cannot imagine our family without him.

Every year between his birthday and gotcha day I write a letter to his birthmother. I share with her how bright and sweet he is. His love for swimming, the Cars movie, school, and riding bikes with his friends. I know the odds are slim that she will ever seek out more information but the letters will be waiting for her if she does.

We try to incorporate Korean culture in our gotcha days. Unfortunatly, Canton Ohio doesnt have much to offer but we did stop by the Korean Market and Andrew picked out a few treats.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Sydney Turns Seven

Sydney invited the girls from her first grade class to a cake decorating party to celebrate her seventh birthday. As I mentioned in a previous posting, Syd loves the Food Network cake shows and wanted to incorporate that into her party. So, we started off making english muffin pizzas; the girls we very proud of their cheese & pepperoni placements. Which made them difficult to secretly recreate when I burned them in the oven.




I baked a nine inch round cake for each girl and they really enjoyed icing and decorating their masterpiece. Sydney's started off beautiful with a big yellow daisy in some grass but just like the other she kept adding and adding to it. By the end all the cakes were coated in sprinkles with mountains of rainbow icing. But, they were all proud of their creations.

Thanks Mom for all your help!



We wrapped up the night with another birthday party with the family. Keeping with tradition we let Sydney decide the menu and we dined on grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Cake Consultation

Sydney's seventh birthday is coming up next Friday. We decided to throw her a cake decorating party to embrace her love of baking and cake shows. She is a big fan of the Food Network Cake Challenge and hopes to be their mystery client someday. Just in case their producers don't come knocking I set up an appointment with Susan, the wedding consultant at Fisher's Bakery. She met with Sydney & I to help design the perfect birthday cake. Of course Sydney brought along her cake drawings, computer print offs and color palette. Susan was wonderful and really made Sydney feel like the client, directing all her questions to her. Together they came up with lovely sketch and met Mom's budget! Can't wait to see it!

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Andrew Turns 4

Happy 4th Birthday Andrew! Matt and I along with Grandma Pam, who was in town to help celebrate all went to Tiny Tots this morning. Andrew was thrilled to be going to school on his birthday. His teacher, Mrs Mazzaferri makes birthdays very special event with a crown, singing,special chair and of course line leader!


After school we had ChickFila for lunch and ran some errands before heading home to bake his cake. Keeping with tradition we let the kids pick their birthday meal. Andrew selected salami and turkey sandwiches,macaroni and cheese, and a birthday cake with candles.

Monday, April 06, 2009

Cincinnati

We traveled to Cincinnati for a 2 day cheerleading competition, the last one for the season. Grandma Franny drove down with us and Grandma Pam flew in on day 2. The Cheetah team pulled out a good performance with a few minor mistakes putting them into 4th place at the end of day one. If we could put together a clean routine on Sunday we could move up to 2nd. That night both kids had a blast playing with all their friends in the pool, tepeeing the coaches doors and having a pajama party in the hallway.

I want to give a shout out to my CPR/First Aid Instructor! Who would have guessed I would use my skills just one week later. On Saturday night we were having dinner when a woman near us slumped over into her dinner. Armed with my new skills I confidently jumped up and asked her husband if she was choking. He said no she just stopped talking and fell over. By now she was starting to come around so we lowered her to ground and elevated her feet. She had never experienced this before and did not have any heart or diabetic issues so I am not sure what caused it and didn't stick around once EMS arrived.

We awoke the next morning ready for another full day of competition. That was until I headed across the hall and knocked on the Grandmas door. Sydney had decided to spent the night over there and kept the grandma duo up all night vomiting. Thanks again, Mom & Pam for all the hard work. The two of them nursed her all night while we unknowingly slept. Unsure what we should do, Matt got her up and showered, hoping that will perk her up a bit while I went in search of the coach. Gym owner, Dawn suggested we bring her over to the venue as late as possible and maybe with a few crackers and some rest we might get a two minute routine out of her. Its a tough call because you know she is exhausted and not well but her whole team is depending on her. When you are part of a competition team and each member is crucial. Thankfully Sydney was a tough cookie and did preform. It was not pretty but we were very proud of her. The Cheetahs took third out of five tough teams.


Thursday, April 02, 2009

Fire Station Field Trip

Andrew's preschool class took a field trip to Plain Township #5 Fire Station today. He was very excited and made siren noises from home to school.
To start things off they watched a short movie "Elmo Visits the Firehouse". Then Andrew happily volunteered to demonstrate Stop, Drop and Roll.



Then we headed out to see the ambulance & firetruck. The fireman did a fantastic job explaining all the equipment and gear. They wrapped things up by pulling out the ladder truck with lights and sirens going. Andrew loved it!