The magical garden and other stuff.

In spite of the onslaught of rain and larger-than-life mosquitoes that come with living in what used to be swamp lands, we have managed to enjoy our yard this summer. We hosted our family group Kids N' Cocktails and before it was over, had about 80 parents and kids scattered everywhere. It was such big fun. The fact that Larry and some other dads provided live tunes for dancing made it all that much better.

Three nights later, I hosted Ladies Night Out for my FCC mamas. The weather was perfect and so were the extra celebrations.

We fussed over Kendra and Jen a bit. Kendra and her family will be traveling to China in the fall to adopt Seth, and Jen and her husband are in China right this very second with Jia. They will be home in three days. So the circle of extended adopted family continues to grow and grow. It stirs about every emotion and memory imaginable for me as I follow Jen's blog. All of us 'seasoned' China travelers are feeling a bit homesick the last two weeks as we watch what they are experiencing for the first time. Every last bit of it is great and we can't wait to meet a new little one!

This little one spent an awful lot of time with with me at the office. KatieRoz left for a two week vacation in Florida and it felt as though we were missing limbs. No, really. Ella was amazing. For the first time I really saw what Older Ella may look like as she did all her important work on my laptop. (Thank you so much, PB$kids. You saved me that week.) She might be a corker from time to time, but dang is she awesome when I take her to the office.

And by some magical turn of events, it tired her out enough to actually nap for me a few of those long work days. Which means I also could nap. Woohoo!!!

As you can see, Miss Hannigan has upped her game and has
figured out how to sleep with the humans.

And while everyone else in our immediate vicinity was enjoy parties and pre-fourth-of-July fireworks on July 3rd, we had our art museum basically to ourselves.

That was pretty magical too.

~H