we've got a secret...

Yes, we've got a secret to share...


...it's a really good one, too.


After patiently waiting for 14 months,

we received a referral for a sweet baby girl back in January!

We can't share too many details publicly until we receive final approval just before we can bring her home, but our little Choi Girl is currently living in Korea with her loving foster family and she will be 1 in May. I can't post any pictures of her face either, but trust me, our CG is quite the little beauty, if I do say so myself. I mean, have you ever seen such perfect little feet? ;) (Besides CB's of course!)



So, what happens next? We wait. And wait. And wait and wait and wait and wait. It will be quite a long, long while until our daughter (our daughter!!) will be home and actually standing beside us...we're hoping that she will be home before the end of 2015, and optimistically praying that it will be closer to the Spring of 2015.

It will, for sure, be a long and hard wait, but as I've reminded myself again and again, what's 2 years in the span of a lifetime together?

So, until then, we'll wait and pray and love her from afar until she can come home and complete our little family.


I mean, it's not like, we've got our hands full or anything in the meantime...

(Do I look totally unfazed? Because I am. Because this pretty much happens all day long. ;) )

*All photos taken by my incredibly talented friend, Sandra, of Three Continents Photography. Originally, I wasn't going to do a big announcement, but after she took these photos, I just had to share them! So, many apologies for the Choi family photo overload!!!

stop time.

Hi, there. Remember me? I used to blog around these parts and then fell off the face of the internet about 6 months ago? (Yikes, 6 months?!)

We've been busy running our little rodeo, and although nothing's really changed from 6 months ago until now, somehow life just feels busier. And in addition to it feeling busier, all of a sudden it feels like we've really got a big boy on our hands... Over the past few months, we've seen our little Choi Boy grow up into truly a boy. No trace of toddler left in him and the preschooler in him is even beginning to slowly morph into this full-on boy. It's hard and scary to believe that in just 6 short months, CB will be a full-fledged school-age kid in Kindergarten!

As I think about this, I'm simultaneously in awe and disbelief that 1) I've managed to keep CB alive and well for several years (hardy har har) and 2) that time has been moving even more quickly than it did when he was a wee little one. And here's the thing about time: it's so stealthy...you've all heard that saying, "The days are long, but the years are short"? It's SO true. There are days that seem to go for, well, days, and then I blink and suddenly I've got this independent little man on my hands that doesn't need his momma nearly as much as he used to.

Don't get me wrong, CB still needs help with lots of things -- he's still in a 5-point harness car seat, for cryin' out loud (he's a looooong way from that 40-lb mark!). But, now at almost 4 and a half, he'll play independently for upwards of 2 hours; can shower almost completely by himself; fearlessly walks up to information desks and food service workers to ask for help at the library or at restaurants; and when he gets up in the morning, he gets up to use the bathroom on his own and starts playing basketball in his room, not caring that the hubs and I might still be asleep. (It's kind of hilarious to wake up to the sound of him shooting hoops in room and doing his own commentary. We often hear phrases like, "I'm on fire!" "He makes it all the way from downtown!!" at 6:30am -- for reals.

Also, he's totally into pulling crazy stunts like this:

On the one hand, it's been a lot of fun hanging out with my little big kid, and while whining is certainly still present, it's not nearly as awful as it was when he was younger. But on the other hand, I just want to stop time.

Stop time while CB is still little enough to be scooped up in my arms. Stop time while he is still little enough not to be embarrassed by endless hugs and kisses from his momma. Stop time while he's still got remnants of the soft, high-pitched little kid voice, with the cutest lisp ever to boot. Stop time while he still loves to draw me cute giant-headed people pictures just because. Stop time while he loves to sing songs to himself and said songs are ones like, "You are My Sunshine" and "Three Little Birds." Stop time while he plays independently, but still wants to be near me.

Stop time while he might not always need me, but always wants me.

I know the reality is that I can't stop time. So instead, I am going to make every effort to be more intentional and more engaged...because before I know it, I'll look back on this time, wondering how he got even bigger, even more quickly...

Super CB's Super Party!

Choi Boy's birthday always falls during or right after the first week of school. As a teacher, it's a time that's always a *wee* bit hectic and stressful...just a wee bit. ;) But, since we love parties and and we love partying with our friends, and we especially love celebrating our little superhero, a party is always added to the mix!

This year, we combined two of CB's big loves: superheroes and golf! We found a great party package at a local county park that combined mini golf, carousel rides and a party tent. We kept things low-key with catered food from Chick-fil-A and brought some desserts and decor that fit in with the superhero/comic book theme. We told the little guests that they were all welcome and encouraged to come dressed as their favorite superhero, and delightfully, all of them came sporting some superhero costume or accessory! Even the hubs and I got in on the fun and wore Superman and Supergirl shirts. The kids had a blast playing mini-golf, riding on the carousel, playing on the playground, making superhero masks, giving themselves superhero tattoos and just stuffing their faces with super sugary sweets!

Here are some of my favorite snaps and moments from CB's Super Party (photographs courtesy of my very talented friend at Three Continents Photography):

CB and some of his best buddies!

The one crafty DIY project I did for the party... The felt banner is from the Spritz line at Target and I made Choi Boy's name out of construction paper, drawing freehand and using 3 different sizes of plates to trace out the circular pieces. It took just over an hour to make and was lots of fun to do!


An antique carousel chock full of small superheroes!



One of the never-ending games of mini-golf!


In lieu of a cake, I made cupcakes and used (a lot of) food coloring to dye the frosting red, yellow, and blue -- the colors of Superman's uniform. The cupcake toppers came from Oriental Trading. I also made M&M cookies with red, yellow, and blue M&Ms and displayed the rest of the M&Ms in mason jars around the cupcakes.


Lil' CB did not mind blowing out his candle on a tower of cupcakes!



We had so much fun at Choi Boy's party that I barely got any pictures on my own camera! I did manage to get some snaps on my iPhone...you can see the balls of cookie dough before I popped them in the freezer overnight (that's my trade secret for baking cookies!), as well as some other snaps of the little guests and my sister and me in our superhero masks! ;)


We had a super time celebrating our Super CB!

Summer Fun List 2013

Yikes! I haven't been around these parts since MAY! Eeeeee...What can I say? I've been procrastinating busy! ;) Actually, there is truth in that. June always brings end-of-the-year madness and since school got out 2 weeks ago, we've been busy having fun!

And to help document our fun, it's time for our annual Summer Fun List!

Last year, we had so much fun with our Summer Fun List and were able to complete almost all of the activities on it, so we knew that it would be a continuing summer tradition for our family. For this summer's list, I added many of the same activities that were tried and true because I knew that Choi Boy would love them, and I also thought that any repeated activities would also be met with new understanding and appreciation now that CB is older. We also added some new activities and included trips we had already planned onto our list, because who doesn't love things you can check off right away? ;)

For easiness' (or laziness' depending on how you look at it!) sake, I wrote up our Summer Fun List on our chalkboard this year. I figured if we wanted to erase a particular activity that for some reason we knew wouldn't work and add a new one in its place, it would be easy to do with the list on a chalkboard.

Here's what this year's list looks like:


Again, like last year, I wanted to make sure that the list had a good mix of activities, projects, and outings. I also wanted to make sure the list included a lot of low cost or free things (I LOVE free things!!). Finally, I also wanted to make sure the list wasn't too overwhelming and that completing most of it was attainable.

We've already checked off some of the things on our list and have scheduled dates to complete many others!

So far, we've already taken our first trip of the summer to Boston:

(Do you recognize some familiar faces??)

And we really enjoyed a concert at a local outdoor theatre!

(This is Elizabeth Mitchell and her band in concert. She is our favorite children's musician and is AMAZING in concert -- definitely worth catching if she's ever in your area!)

We've also taken a trip to our farmer's market and have begun our library's summer reading program. And even though some of the items on our list our things we do semi-regularly (such as visiting the farmer's market or going to our local farm), somehow, because they are on our list and we get to check them off, it makes the activities even more fun!

What activities do you have planned for you and your littles this summer?

P.S. On my Summer To-Do List is blogging. For reals, yo.

egg-cellent.

I know, if you're still around this neck o' the blogosphere and reading this, you're probably thinking, "Who is this consistent blogger that has taken over Chois-R-Us??"

But, as you can tell from the pun-tastic titles, it's me. You see, I still have a few posts from January and February that I never wrote. And I don't really feel like playing catch up again. So instead, I'm going to try to just keep up with things from now on. We'll see how long that lasts. (My bet is on 3 weeks. ;) )

Anyway, yesterday, we went to an Easter Egg-stravaganza sponsored by a local church. They had some great activities for the kids and Choi Boy had a total blast!

Of course, before we dove into things, we had to take the obligatory picture with the obligatorily creepy Easter Bunny.

Why does he (she?) look so angry??

Once we put our kiddo through the necessary EB torture, we headed off to the Egg Roll! (sidenote: before we walked over, I said, "Oooh, look! Let's go do the Egg Roll!" to which the hubs responded, "Mmm...egg rolls...I want one.")

At one point, CB thought it wasn't going fast enough, so he tried to throw the egg and bat it with the wooden spoon. That's my boy! ;)

And then it was off to the moon bounce! The moon bounces were divided up by ages, which was great, so CB didn't have to contend with any really big kids, and instead could really go at it!

After that, some parachute fun!

It was some serious "hare"-raising fun. ;)

Finally, some giant bubble blowing!

Phew! After all that, CB had worked up an appetite and spent some time munching on the candy he won and some pizza. And there was also some lounging.

Now that CB is a little older and able to really *do* things, we have such fun at these kinds of events. So thankful for the community members that put them together for families to enjoy!

And yes, despite his face here, CB really did enjoy himself. This is just his, "Quit with the picture-taking, Mommy!" face. ;)

Happy Easter to you and yours! He is risen indeed!!

the coldest easter egg hunt ever.

I know, I can't believe it either. Here I am, posting 2 days in a row. Whaaa?

;)

So, yesterday I shared about the super cold and wintery March we've been having. As I mentioned, the weather pendulum has been swinging between warm-ish Spring-like days to full-on winter weather days. Of course, last weekend when we were scheduled to participate in an Easter egg hunt at a local farm, it was a full-on winter weather day. Yay.

When I signed Choi Boy up for this egg hunt, I had visions of him dressed adorably in sweet pastels, complete with a straw fedora. I thought we'd have fun hunting for the hidden eggs that would be cleverly placed in flower beds or between fence posts. And I envisioned us admiring and cooing over the sweet new baby lambs, chicks and calves over in the stables before we headed home to check out the loot in CB's eggs.

Yeah, not one bit of that happened.

First, it was FREEZING. Literally. We were bundled up in full winter gear, complete with boots because it was starting to snow. 

You can see how excited CB was about being bundled up. And you can see my pretend excitement in my overly cheesy smile. 

Secondly, those clever hiding places? Didn't exist. 

Look at how the eggs were "hidden":

I suppose this could also be called the Lamest Easter Egg Hunt ever, too.

But, regardless, we tried to make the most of it, and CB did have fun running around and putting eggs in his basket.

All of that took about 8 minutes. And as soon as we were done we made a beeline to the car and drove home through the snow.

And the eggs? We came home super excited to open them and found that they didn't contain one bit of sugary goodness and instead, each egg held 1 thing like a tattoo or a tiny eraser or a fake coin. Lame.

Oh well. CB did have fun and he loves playing with now empty plastic eggs...We have another egg hunt we'll be going to this weekend, and hopefully we won't have to wear snowsuits this time!

in like a lion, out like a...lion?

If you know me in real life, you've probably heard me complain about being cold. Like, once every hour. Winter is definitely not my favorite. And this winter has been chock full of blah. We got weird weather patterns where it would be sunny and Spring-like and then the next day it would snow! We didn't have any major snowfall this year, but just lots of little showers of wet, fluffy snow.

Of course, the most significant snow we got would happen in March, when winter was supposed to be on its merry way. You know how they say March comes in like a lion? It did. We had our one and only snow day during the first week of March:

So, naturally, we got out the beach toys and went out for a romp in the snow!

And of course, hot chocolate was to be had afterwards!

You know how the rest of that saying goes, "...out like a lamb"?

Yeah. Not so much.

Because on our first day of Spring Break, we second biggest snowfall (a measly 3 inches, but whatevs) of the season.

Yup.

Choi Boy woke up squealing, "It's snowing! It's Christmas!" It really did feel more like Christmas Break than it did Spring Break! At least we got a fun snowman out of it...

My boys had a ton of fun outside, especially when they ganged up on momma and pelted me with snowballs.  And the shifty-eyed snowman? He promptly melted after the temps got up to 40 degrees and 2 days later, there is no snow in sight. Hopefully, we won't see more the white stuff again until next Winter!