Gang En Jie!!! (Happy Thanksgiving)

Picked Grace up from Kindergarten yesterday and this is what we found. What a lovely little hand painted turkey she makes! :)

Gang en Jie! (Happy Thanksgiving in Mandarin!)

Birthday Party at Chinese Class

Here are some cute pictures of Lucy at her Chinese class birthday party. Kang Laoshi (Teacher Kang); Lu Ji Chun (Lucy); Lu Mei Xin (Grace); Bao Ming Ming (Liza); and Buo Chuan (Andrew) all had a great time decorating Lucy's cake with fresh fruit and learning how to say "I want banana...apple...pear...orange" in Mandarin at the same time! I love the picture of Grace giving Lucy a BIG birthday smooch!

It's a Kung Fu Panda Party!

Hi Everyone: Next week, November 26th, my sweet baby Lucy turns four years old! It's hard to believe. To celebrate her special day, my beautiful friend, co-worker and fabulous pastry chef, made this absolutely amazing Kung Fu panda cake for Lucy! I was so blown away that it actually made me cry. Michelle, you are AMAZING!!!!! Won't Lucy be excited to actually get to eat Mao Mao's ears! :) Watch for pictures of Lucy happily munching Mao Mao coming soon!!

Disco Abbie!

On Sunday, we ate lunch courtesy of coupons from my Porcupine Grill Cycling Team. While we were eating, we realized they were playing really bad '80's disco music. We're talking Olivia Newton John! It made me laugh, because Abbie was dressed like an '80's disco diva! After lunch, we went to the mall to visit Santa at his new and really cool Norad Tracking Station. Grace had a melt down, Abbie drooled on Santa and Lucy refused to talk. The picture was awful, but I bought it because some day I can show the girls and tell them, "you were lucky Santa came to bring you presents in 2008!" Ha ha ha!! :) Have a great week everyone! P.s. Abbie is doing really great from her surgery. She speaks more clearly and does not seem to be in anymore pain. What a trooper!

Abbie's Second Cleft Palate Surgery was a Success!

Hi Everyone: On Monday, November 11th, at 11:00 AM (lucky numbers?), Abbie had her second cleft palate surgery. Dr. Morales was very happy with the outcome. Apparently, her hard palate prothsesis did it's job over the last year, and he was able to remove it entirely and complete the full soft and hard palate closure. Poor little pee wee is in pain, but continues to try to be her happy little Abbie self. She will be home for a couple of days until we can get the pain in control, and she will be on a soft diet for a month! Good thing she likes soft foods! On a funny note, she loves powdered donuts, but can only have squishy food for the first couple of days. Out of desperation to please Abbie, Dan broke four donuts down into the food processor, added some liquid and presto...instant liquified donut batter! Abbie LOVED it! It's all about creativity! While at the hospital, a little friend from the girl's daycare was also having a procedure done by Dr. Morales. It was nice to visit with his mom and have a friend for Abbie. At one point, he was pretty loopy on pain medication and I mentioned that Lucy talks about him all the time. He responded, "Awe, Lucy loves me!" This was so cute coming from a six year old! Barring no palate repairs required, Abbie's next surgery will be scheduled when she is six years old. At that time, they will extract bone marrow from her hip and great a bony gumline for her permanent teeth. Amazing stuff! Love you all! Tracie and Abbie xoxoxoxoxo

Spooky, Scary, Creepy and Paul Stanley from KISS???