Saturday, July 30, 2011

Who Wore it Best? Pt. 2

Did you miss part one?


This time we're featuring Lily and Claire and their mutual favorites. Dresses.


It's a very rare occasion for one of these two lovely ladies to be wearing pants or shorts, they love to wear dresses.


This orange striped dress is now one of Lily's favorites. Claire has nearly grown out of it, but she sure looked darling in it earlier this summer.


The pink flowered dress is one of Lily's casual, "I just want to be comfortable on a hot day," outfits. She wears it as it is...


...Claire chose to layer with the dress when she wore it.



Don't they look lovely?
Friday, July 29, 2011

The Other Adventure

While the rest of the children were off making waves in the Water Cube, Lucy Kate and Vincent were having check-ups at the hospital. We were disappointed that their appointments had been scheduled the same day as the field trip, but there really was nothing that we could do.


Actually, there was.


Lucy Kate's foster mom, Vincent's nanny, and the driver turned the outing into an adventure! After the necessary visit to the doctor's office, Lucy Kate and Vincent happily lunched on hamburgers and french fries at KFC. When the two of them heard what lunch would be, Lucy Kate's face brightened into a smile and Vincent started dancing.


They almost felt sorry that their friends missed out on the yummy lunch.


After lunch they made their way to the flower market to smell the roses. The flower market is a huge building, full of beautiful sights and smells. There are flowers for sale as far as the eye can see, vases, sculptures, and most important to the children, cages full of adorable little creatures. Last winter, the children brought two tiny hamsters back for the classroom. We didn't add any animals to our menagerie this time, but Lucy Kate and Vincent posed for a lot of pictures, all of which were shot in video.

(sorry for the silence... hopefully their smiles make up for it ;)

The hospital trip was turned into an adventure and the two of them came back giggling and dancing, nearly forgetting where the rest of the children had been all day.  Lucy Kate couldn't figure out why Jabin looked so sleepy and Vincent couldn't help but notice that his preschool teacher's hair was messy.

"You don't look good" He told her.

We're so happy that we were able to turn Friday into a fun-filled day for all of the children.
Thursday, July 28, 2011

Celebrating the Firsts: Taking that Bite

Rosie and Khloe are very hesitant about trying new things. They would much rather do things the way they've always been done. Change and transition are hard. During the July birthday party, though, these two sweet ladies each took a huge step.

They both tried the cake.


Often birthday parties are an overwhelming time of new faces, loud noises, and strange foods. But somehow this party was different.


Rosie was already putting her spoon into her mouth, even before we cut the cake. For her to actually put something into her own mouth is huge, so we'll ignore the fact that the spoon was upside down... we can work on that later.


Khloe tried and enjoyed her small piece of chocolate cake. She was a very cooperative eater and really surprised us all. It looks like she's eyeing the leftovers on her hand, too.


Sometimes the "firsts" don't look all that amazing, but for these little girls, their "firsts" are just the start to brand new doors being opened. We are so proud of how far they have come and cannot wait to see where these new paths and doors will lead them
Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Wordless Wednesday: Ella

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The Super-Duper, Extra Special Olympics

The Water Cube in Beijing was very kind to host our strong and superior "Team New Day" for some swimming, sliding, and splashing.


The kids surprised us at how quickly they hopped into the water to swim. It took some of them a few nervous attempts before they were completely soaked, but they were all little fishes in the end. And, of course, all of the kids had smiles from minute one.


Joshua's hesitation didn't last long, as you can see below. And then Emelia's smile... wow. Could a smile be more expressive and joyful?



There are a lot more great pictures in the scrapbook, check them out!

Lovely Serena


Isn't Serena just blossoming into the most beautiful young lady these days?! Thanks to a recent group from North Carolina that visited New Day, Serena is enjoying many new beautiful dresses and other clothes they brought. In fact, they blessed us with many beautiful clothes for all the Forever Home girls! Thanks so much guys! The girls are truly enjoying what you brought!

Monday, July 25, 2011

Good News

There's nothing better than good news around here, and we've been getting a lot of it recently!

Ariana has been recovering marvelously from her cleft lip surgery. Doesn't she look good? Her cheeks are filling out as well, which makes us very happy.


Paige is finally home from the hospital after struggling with pneumonia for a few weeks. She's doing much better now and we're thrilled to have her back in our arms. For one so tiny and fragile, she has a lot of strength. She's wiry and strong, though delicate and as light as a feather.


Landon came home from his last check-up without his cast! He hasn't let the cast from his clubbed foot surgery stop him from doing anything, but we're sure that he's glad to be rid of the extra weight. Kevin and Zoe, the therapists, have already been putting together a brace for him. We have high hopes that walking is very near in the future for this little boy.

*this picture was taken before the cast was removed. We'll post a cast-less picture soon!

Vivian has grown so much. Babies are sometimes the most facinating to watch, because they grow so quickly. Little Viv has certainly done that, and when we went to visit her the other day, she did everything she could to impress us.


 Her foster mom says that she laughs loudly. We believe it!


There have also been a lot of asterisks popping up on our website lately. It really doesn't get any better than this!
Saturday, July 23, 2011

Who Wore it Best? Pt. 1

The blue and white dress is one of our lovely ladies' regular fashion fallbacks.

Brooke prefers to wear it for climbing and sliding in the backyard....


Angela finds it suitable for dancing in the playroom...


And Camille adds some playfullness to her style with a silly face and a giggle.


We love that Camille, Angela and Brooke can wear the same size. Stay tuned for some of the dresses that Claire and Lily both like to wear in Part 2, next weekend!
Friday, July 22, 2011

Chocolate Cake for Krisha

Tightly holding her foster mother's hand, Krisha entered the preschool room for the first time.


Hesitantly she sat down in the chair pulled out for her. Krisha wasn't really sure what was going on, but she sure did like the pretty crown that they placed on her head. Then the box, set in the middle of the table, was opened. "Mama!" she gasped, and pointed to the chocolate confection that had been unveiled.


Two candles were lit, one for each year in Krisha's precious life. "Blow. Blow!" everyone called out to her when we were done singing. She blew, but it took a few tries until she directed her air towards the cake. In the end, it took a few other mouths to extinguish the flames. But we'll give Krisha credit for trying.


Krisha really enjoyed her cake. She barely left a lick of frosting on her plate. In fact, there may have been more left on her face than her plate.


We might just have a chocolate-lover on our hands now!

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Thursday, July 21, 2011

The School of Higher Learning

Preschool is so much fun that most of our children would be content to continue studying there for the foreseeable future. But, there comes a time in a child's life when they must go beyond, stretch their wings and discover that they can do more than they ever previously thought. To fill this need, we have established a "School of Higher Learning" for some of our older students (aka: Pre-K or "the transition class").
Our current roster includes Claire, Jenna, Joel, Jabin and Lucy Kate.

Each class starts out with some playtime. On this occasion, Lucy Kate and Joel were playing Go Fish.


Mei you. Go fish!


After playtime comes "Communication Time". Today we practiced introducing ourselves by saying our name and our age.


It's very nice to meet you, Joel. And I hear that you're turning seven soon? Wow!


Jenna used sign language to introduce herself. Here she is signing, "name".


Next comes writing time. Joel and Jabin practiced their J's, Lucy Kate perfected her "L" and Claire and Jenna did some dot-connecting.


By the time he finnished writing his first "J", Joel was ready for a break. Learning new things is hard sometimes, but it's always fun.


And that was just the start of their class! They haden't even gotten to PE, storytime or arts and crafts! We'll visit this class again sometime soon.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Roy

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Elizabeth's New Friend

What is more adorable than a girl and her bunny?!


This is the Forever Home's newest pet, an adorable little bunny! Though loved by all the girls, Elizabeth really has a special love for animals--all animals--doesn't seem to matter what kind! She can't seem to get enough of them. The bunny seems pretty content right now in her arms too:)
Monday, July 18, 2011

More Hats

Kids. They never can get enough of new accessories, especially if the accessory is yours, right? This hat is Jazz's, but Angela and Samuel seem to think that it's theirs. It suits them, doesn't it?



And then here's Angela in another one of Jazz's hats. Isn't she a doll?


The other day Angela, who goes by Angie around here, got some new clothes, and by the time she was fully outfitted, was strutting about like she owned the whole backyard.


...maybe she does own the backyard?

Friday, July 15, 2011

Brooke's Transformation

Summer 2010


Winter 2010


Summer 2011

Do You Like My Hat?

Evie and Caleb came in the other day for their monthly check-ups. Evie arrived like this, wearing a lovely purple hat to protect her fair complexion.


Caleb arrived bare headed.


Sitting in his foster mom's lap, Caleb thought that Evie's hat looked pretty stylish...


...so he took it off Evie's head...


...and tried it on his own.


He was quite pleased with his new accessory, though Evie was not quite as impressed.