Halloween 2011

First a little flashback. My little Bumblebee on her first Halloween in 2009 =).

This was the first year that Kerry was interested in picking her costume. She has been really into Disney lately, especially "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" so when she spotted this Minnie costume, she was sold. She even insisted on having a black nose like Minnie.

She was sooo excited this year. She has been asking daily...for the past two weeks.."How many days til trick-or-treat?"

Her pumpkin was full in no time and started getting heavy so I ended up carrying it for her toward the end. When we got home she said " I had so much fun!"

Earlier this week my girl and I took of on our own to Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest to take in the beautiful Fall weather and colors. Kerry loves to have "pick-a-nicks" so we packed up a cooler bag full of snacks and juice boxes and off we went.



I tell ya, for this Mama there's nothing better than seeing this sweet smiling face from across the pick-a-nick table. =).





We took in the Fall colors

And we played around a bit

A nice lady volunteered to take our picture on the Canopy Tree Walk. It juts out 75 feet above the forest floor and it sways a little. Kerry was a little nervous in this.



She cannot resist climbing rocks.

Hmm, I'm participating in Lisa's "Favorite Photo Friday" but can't seem to get the button that links back to it to show up on my blog.

We have been busy enjoying the beautiful weather and some fun Fall activities so these pictures are just from random days this past week.

Those pearly whites got a a good cleaning and I'm happy to report, no cavities! This was her second visit with the dentist and, again, she did AWESOME! I love this office. They are always so good with her.

So I just have to share a little Kerry story from today. She is crazy about Mickey and Minnie lately and has recently discovered the "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" website. Well earlier today Doug was outside mowing the lawn, I was cleaning up in the kitchen, and Kerry comes walking in with a coloring sheet print out in her hand. I was kind of surprised and asked who printed it out and she said "I did". It turns out she can now get herself on-line, got to Mickey's Clubhouse, and print out coloring sheets at will. Seriously?! My 3 1/2 year old is now as computer savvy as I was when I graduated high school! It really is a different world now isn't it?

Ready to Rock!

Kerry loves using things as pretend drums, so we brought up the Wii Rock Band that had been sitting in the basement gathering dust since since she came home and let her go to town on the drumset. She was one happy little girl. I think she got the "are you ready to rock?" bit from an episode of the "Bubble Guppies" of all places =).

I love this shot of my girl. It's just so her, on the move.

And I love this one too, cause Mama still sees her baby cheeks in this one =).

This is the "I'm gonna get you, Mommy" shot...hee hee.

I feel like I've been a neglectful blogger lately..mostly because it seems like it's been so busy that I'm letting so much go undocumented in this little scrapbook of sorts.

So what's new with Kerry? Well, I'll say that my Jiangxi girl is still as spicy as ever...and at 3 1/2 she seems to have perfected the "whiny voice" when something isn't quite going her way, or she's frustrated. She decided to test the rules the other day by saying "No!" when I asked her to do something and...well..lets just say we had a little meeting of the minds and she won't be doing that againg any time soon. A wise mama friend of mine (hi Jess) said that she read somewhere that often at the half-year mark a child may experience a developmental growth spurt, and with that comes a new "awareness" and they sometimes try to test the rules. I absolutely believe it. I have noticed a developmental growth spurt. Her language and thought processes seem to be getting more..sophisticated, and emotionally she has made some big leaps in independence (going to Mother's day out on her own on Thursdays..huge for her), and for the last several months shes been asking lots and lots of questions about EVERYTHING. So I'm not surprised that she's been a little "extra spicy" and out of sorts at times. So we've just been trying to get into her little head and see where she's at right now , and reassure her that the rules all still apply and, by the way, it might be time to add a few more developmentally appropriate expectations of behavior. Seems to be going well.

Thankfully, she is still every bit as sweet as she is spicy, if not more so. She's always telling us we're her "best friends forever". She's really learning to have good manners and her little "please", and "thank you's" are so sweet. We get the best hugs and "I love you's" from her...those are the best. And just today she absolutely made me melt when she said:

"Mommy, let's happy ever after".

We're sure going to to our best sweetheart. =).

Here she is with the pumpkin she picked from a recent outing to a pumpkin patch..which I neglected to post about (see what I mean?). We're going to wait another year or two before carving our pumpkin..for now she paints them. She LOVES to paint.

So I got a surprise email from a family who just got home from China last week with their adorable girl who happens to be from the same SWI that Kerry spent her first 15 months in. I'm part of a Yahoo group for people who've adopted from this SWI and this family was given the opportunity to visit the orphanage while in China, so a few of us sent updated photos for them to give to the staff. We were told they were excited to get the updated photos of their former charges and called each of them by their Chinese name. At one point the staff pointed out a mural that is located on at the entrance to the property and pointed out a baby on the mural. They thought they recognized her as Kerry so they snapped a couple of photes and emailed them to me.

Sure enough, thats my girl. She's holding the hand of the mayor of JiAn and in her other hand is one of the toys that we sent in her care package, so this was probably taken in the weeks before we met her.

So two years after leaving, you could say she's gone but not forgotten. How cool is that?!

Each October we spend a weekend at Lake Cumberland State Park with Doug's family and some friends from church. It always proves to me a fun and relaxing weekend, and this year was no different.

And for our little nature loving family, it's bliss.

Kerry had a great time feeding the local wildlife.

And we took a nice hike down to the lake shore where she collected rocks and little clam shells...

and she was thrilled to find lots of big rocks to climb on.

Showing me an acorn...she collected a bag full of these to give to "our squirrels" at home.







She also got to enjoy the indoor swimming pool at the lodge, as well as the large playground. Check out this great old-school metal slide. Mama even had a turn on that thing...just for old times sake =).