Full Moon Festival

"The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. It's also known as the Mid-autumn Festival. Chinese culture is deeply imbedded in traditional festivals. Just like Christmas and Thanksgiving in the West, the Moon Festival is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese.

The Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. Legend says that Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since. You might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival is also an occasion for family reunions. When the full moon rises, families get together to watch the full moon, eat moon cakes, and sing moon poems. Even if family members cannot be together, they can still enjoy the night by watching the moon at the same time, so it seems that they are together at that hour."

The moon cake is the food for the Moon Festival. Moon cakes are eaten at night with the full moon in the sky. Here is a picture of a typical moon cake:

We were thrilled to be able to spend the Moon Festival with our friends and to begin what we hope is a yearly tradition.

At the beginning of the festivities, the kids took advantage of the warm weather

and enjoyed playing outside...

Auntie Lianne entertaining Maelyn...

Getting ready to enjoy some Chinese food for dinner...

My first moon cake cookies -- they were a success!

Maelyn was a lucky little girl and received birthday gifts from friends who hadn't

been able to make it to her birthday party...

After dinner I set up the table with the crafts -- and the kids made beautiful lanterns! Once they were finished and we had our glow sticks and bracelets in place, we headed outside for our walk around the neighbourhood.

Trying to get a picture with all seven kids looking at the camera...

The Moon Festival is for spending time with those that you love. We were lucky enough to be able to spend time with our wonderful friends, who are more like family, and feel blessed that they are a part of our lives.

Happy Moon Festival to all of our family and friends!

Apple Picking

We spent a gloriously sunny day at Applewood Farm -- our favourite place to pick apples, select pumpkins and indulge in some of our favourite treats.

 Maelyn loved the sheep...

Our little miss absolutely loves heights and therefore spent a lot of time playing on the

bails of hay that were there to climb...

Yummy!!

Papaq helped Maelyn reach the apples that were waaay up high..

Lunch....

Dessert...

Choosing her very own pumpkin...

We had a ton of family fun spending the day together -- beautiful memories!

Paperwork to China!

After a long week, I arrived home on Friday evening to a message on our machine from our adoption agency. Our China dossier translation is finished and she was calling to let us know that our paperwork is on its way to China!!! Wow! This is the last leg of the paperwork journey on our end -- no more paperwork for awhile. :)

What is unbelievable is that we should have an official log in date from China within the next few weeks -- and then we are open for a referral!! We could receive our referral as early as October, but my guess is by the end of December. Because Maelyn and our little monkey have to be at least 18 months apart in age (Ontario's rules), we are waiting for a referral for a child of about 19 - 20 months. Many of the children who are being matched with families right now are a little older than that, which means that we will most likely be waiting a few extra months to be matched.

It is all moving so quickly -- which is such great news!! We have begun our journey to our little monkey -- what a blessing!

A scary moment...

A few weeks ago, Paul and I took advantage of our last day when Maelyn would be in daycare and we would both be home together -- sans child!! Rather than tackling yet another house project, we decided to relax and spend the day watching movies -- the first time in over a year and a half!!

Around noon, we received a phone call from Maelyn's daycare. It wasn't typical to receive a call from them throughout the day, so I immediately asked what was wrong. Her teacher told me that Maelyn was now fine, but that she had choked while eating lunch. You could hear that her voice was shaky and that the incident had scared her -- but she kept repeating that Maelyn was doing well and was now running around and playing.

Apparently, Maelyn was eating a piece of melon and her teachers noticed she was choking when they looked over and she had her fingers in her mouth, trying to get the melon out. They also noticed that she was making a whistling noise, even though she was tyring to cry. They immediately started the Heimlich maneuver, and after four attempts, they were able to get the melon out and Maelyn started crying loudly.

Let's just say that my heart almost stopped when I heard her teacher telling me about what had happened. I felt so helpless! I was so happy and grateful that she was doing well, but to hear that she had a scare like that made me feel shaky.

I am so very, very grateful that she has teachers who are well trained in first aid and even more grateful that they care for her so deeply. The next day, Maelyn and I brought homemade cards and flowers to her teachers to thank them for taking such good care of her -- and I hugged Maelyn a little closer.

Happy Birthday, Maelyn!

Our little miss turned three at the beginning of the month -- can you believe it?!

We celebrated with family and friends at our home. I was worried about how Maelyn would handle the crowd, as lately she has been a little more reserved when around a large group of people. I shouldn't have worried -- she loved absolutely every minute of it!

The kids played on the trampoline and with the toys in the toy room, Maelyn and Addyson stuck together like glue and squealed with laughter, and the parents tried to reign in the chaos of six kids playing in one household. Maelyn opened gifts, we enjoyed burgers and cupcakes, and we sang Happy Birthday to our special little girl.

Opening her gift from Auntie Kara and Uncle Cam...

Maelyn is in love with their dog, Jake, and since we will not be getting a puppy of our own, they got her the next best thing! A puppy that walks, barks, and even whines when it falls overs!

Love, love, love this pic!

Bennett, enjoying the trampoline...

Madisyn, checking out the toy room...

Maelyn grinned the entire time we sang to her -- then enjoyed the yummy cupcakes Auntie Kara and Uncle Cam brought with them for the party.

The next day was Maelyn's actual birthday and we celebrated with our yearly birthday traditions.

We recorded Maelyn's height on her closet wall...

She has grown 4 inches in the past year!

Paul and I both commented that we cannot even imagine her being that small anymore...

Our little miss dressed herself on her special day. Notice the shoes are on the wrong feet...

Maelyn, you are a beautiful little girl, both inside and out. We are so very, very proud to be able to call you our daughter. We love watching you grow and learn every day -- you are amazing!

We loved you yesterday.

We love you today.

We will love you tomorrow and always.

Random Cuteness

Yummy!!

Building a fort with Daddy -- and Daddy is in there with Maelyn! :)

Colouring a picture of Mama!

Eating her first famous family recipe popsicle!

Opening a birthday gift from Diane -- she loves to play with the receipts...hehe!

A cuddly ladybug stuffy -- so cute!!

Playing dress-up...