Happy 8th Birthday Lil Yoda

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This is the day we celebrate Lil Yoda's birth.   We rejoice that the Lord chose to bless us with her! She is truly a blessing to all who know her.  She loves the Lord and deeply desires to follow His leading in her life.  She is kind-hearted and sensitive, always willing to give all she has to help a friend.  We know the Lord has many wonderful plans for our little ray of sunshine, and we are thankful for the privilege of watching her grow.   

Lil Yoda celebrated with her family and friends today.  She had a puppy-themed sleepover party.  She always wants to have a pinata, but this year we couldn't find a puppy- themed one so we settled on a big 8.  

Her Daddy made the video above, as a special surprise for the party.  He's such a great dad!  Lil Yoda got to spend the entire day with her Daddy, a full-day date of movies, dinner and a fabulous trip to the mall.  She loves her dates with Mommy & Daddy!

Happy Birthday, Lil Yoda!  We love you so very much!

Fudgepops everywhere beware!

The Best Thing About Having Lots of Sisters Is...

it's like a slumber party, every day!

~~Padme

Killer Wheels

Pictionary. It seems like a fairly simple game. You read the card, pick something to draw, and your team guesses what you drew. Easy, right? Not so at our house tonight. Our new daughters have little to no exposure to family games, or family time at all, for that matter. There is definitely a learning curve involved!



To be fair, it's often difficult to tell what the younger kids are drawing. That's why we make sure an adult is on each team, to help with the guessing when the drawings are difficult to decipher. And, sometimes, those who haven't yet developed good reading skills need help reading the card. Fine. No big deal.



So we played Pictionary tonight. Padme went first - she drew a globe and Greenland. No problem. Then Lil Yoda went - she drew a fairly decent looking washing machine, but ran out of time so we never guessed it.



On Angel's turn, she first asked if she could just draw the design that was on the back of the card. At that point I told Baloo, "I thought you guys explained this game to the new kids!" He returned, "We thought we did!"



We explained that, no, she must read the card, then draw one of the objects listed on the card. She drew a lovely sailboat, all the while saying, "It's an object! It's an object!" We guessed it and applauded her. Then, she returned her card to Daddy, who pointed out that sailboat was not, in fact, on her card and she couldn't just randomly pick something to draw. Pretty funny, but probably a common mistake.



When Dora's turn came up, she asked Baloo to help her read the card. She decided what to draw and began. She drew a circle, then scribbled all around it and over it. "I'm done!" she announced, then turned around, expecting us to know immediately what she had drawn. We had no clue. We convinced her to draw it a different way. This time, she drew a circle, and cut it into pie slices. Again, the scribble all around it. We gave up. She wouldn't let us give up, and kept scribbling around it. Finally, she looked at us like we were idiots and said, "Killer Wheel! See the wheel and the fire all around it?"



What?



Baloo, at this point, was rofl, and informed us that the card actually read, "Killer Whale."

Mema and Poppie's House

I have received questions about the Adoption Announcement picture.  We are on the porch swing at Mema and Poppie's house.   We went to their house for Mother's Day, our first weekend with our new girls.  Here are a few more pictures from that day.

Baloo, 14 11/12.

Padme, 9 1/2.

Wendy, 8 3/4.

Lil Yoda, 7 11/12.

Angel, 7.

Dora, 6.

Poppa, Mema and the kids. Ages omitted.

Padme's First French Braid

I was again reminded that older children really are wonderful to have around.  With three new long-haired beauties arriving in our home, I quickly recruited Padme to help me with hair-fixing!  With her help, we were able to make it to church on time, complete with cute pig-tails and braids!

Last week I taught Padme to french braid.  French braiding is not a difficult concept, but requires quite a bit of dexterity.  Your fingers must be strong, and must be able to do different things all at once.   Here are some pictures of her first french braid.  I think she did a fabulous job!  She's going to be such a great Mommy someday!

Fun with our new sisters

Here are a few pictures from our first few days with our new sisters.  The kids are all learning to get along well.  It took them a few days to get to know each other well enough to find things they could all enjoy playing together, and now they really have fun with each other.  The new girls are extremely smart, but developmentally delayed, so Padme and Lil Yoda had to adjust their expectations a bit.  Now that we all understand each other better, we are able to play pretty well.

Manicures and pedicures with The Queen-to-Be and Grandma Lori.  Papa Sparky, Grandma Lori, The Queen-to-Be, The Wacky Prince and The Chef came over to meet the girls, and to celebrate The Queen-to-Be and The Wacky Prince's birthdays last month. We had a great day, grilling out, playing outside, playing video games and painting nails.
We don't know  what Lil Yoda was doing with her tongue.  And I'm pretty sure that's her own foot.  Wendy is just smilin' and looking' cute!

Aren't Big Sisters great?  Padme is painting little flowers on Dora's nails.
That's Grandma Lori, the one that doesn't look like a grandma. :)
Dora wanted me to take a picture of her two Barbie heads.  They really didn't bring much stuff, but she loves these Barbie heads!


We love to make our own pizzas!  Everyone gets to make their own, just as they like it.  The new girls don't have any experience at all in the kitchen, so they get very excited when they get to cook! Notice the jar near Padme, she likes alfredo on her pizza.
Daddy is the best dough pounder.  Angel was covered head-to-foot in flour by the time we finished!  We have learned it's best for her to bathe after meals, rather than before!
Dora has a natural pounding instinct.  She is very determined and wants to be self-sufficient.  She would not accept anyone's help.  Even though it took her longer, she got it done!  We love her hard-working, never-give-up spirit!