Long Overdue Update

Wow, a shot with Mommy in it! Cheesy smiles!

Here are Lilly, Anna, and friend Katie at Dairy Queen after Anna and Katie played their World Cup soccer tournament at the end of a week of British Challenger Soccer Camp. Fun week! Anna represented Ireland, while Katie represented Italy...Here's to Team Ireland!

Here is LIlly with my dear friend Denise, who recently moved to Virginia where she is joining her husband for the next Air Force assignment. We have been so blessed to have the Schaicks in our lives not just in Turkey (Steve was our chaplain for the first half of our time there), but also for the last 3 years here in Florida. Lilly loves Denise, and she was one of the friends that we have trusted to keep Lilly when Tom and I have taken time to go out or I've had appointments. I already miss her so much!

Here is Lilly with Ms. Parker, Anna's violin teacher and music teacher at Bluewater Elementary. I was so impressed with Lilly a few days ago. Lilly has seen Ms. Parker a handful of times this summer as we've taken Anna to violin lessons. When I showed Lilly Ms. Parker's photo in our local paper a few days ago and asked "do you recognize her?" Lilly smiled and said "La La!" (which is her word for violin--not a Chinese word, but the word that stuck in Lilly's head the first time I explained that we were taking Anna to violin lessons. I had pantomimed playing a violin and said "la, la, la" to show her where we were taking Anna. The term "la la" has stuck as the name of this instrument!)

(BTW, do you like Lilly's dollar store flip flops in this shot? Those were a necessary purchase when we recently planned a family day trip to Pensacola to have our car serviced. Tom and I thought we were so on top of getting out of the house early that morning, having loaded up clothes (the kids were still in jammies in the car!), snacks, stroller, etc. Halfway to Pensacola we realized we hadn't grabbed any shoes for Lilly. Thank God there was a dollar store within walking distance of the dealership!

Here is ANna with her la la teacher, after Anna's recital last week. I need to have Tom post some video of this. She did beautifully, especially considering she has only been playing for about 8 weeks! She will join the Bluewater Overture Orchestra at school this year.

Here is LIlly, enjoying Anna's recital. We are still working on using whispers in settings like this...

Sweet cuddle time with Jared. Lilly loves tucking in time, when she gets to kiss the big kids before I whisk her off to read bedtime stories.

Bedtime prayers with Daddy--so sweet! Lilly loves to pray and will remind us at mealtimes or bedtime if we forget. She offers up her own sweet prayers as well.

Time is just flying! The past few weeks have been fun and full, with lots of summer activities for the kids that have kept me moving. Aunt Judi arrives for a visit latear today--we are so excited for Lilly to get to meet her!

And in just 2 weeks the kids start back to school--Jared 7th grade, Anna 4th grade. Lilly will begin attending 2 mornings a week of preschool after Labor Day--she is very excited and I really think she is ready. She seems to have rounded a corner in the past few week, has been able to stay in the church nursery 2 weeks straight without me with her. I am looking forward to seeing how much more English she will learn in that setting. Her language development is amazing right now! Her primary language is Chinglish, but she is speaking in complete sentences these days and it is so exciting to hear new words coming out of her mouth every day.

Now Lilly and I (she is now up and has had breakfast) are on our way out to walk Tad (who has lately been been bringing us a baby possum as a gift--yuck!).

Thanks as always for reading!