Valentines Day ~ Father Daughter Dance

Olivia and daddy ready for the Valentine's Day Father Daughter dance.

~...and they did dance... ~

~ ...fun with friends... ~

Mark and Olivia had heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes in bed...
...served with love by mommy!

Chinese New Year

Each year we are blessed to celebrate the Chinese New Year
with friends who have adopted from China.

Olivia loves wearing her dresses from China.

The group photo shot is always fun!

Olivia showing off her tiger cupcake with our good

friends Bill and Wu Ming.

Craft time ~ making a tiger puppet.

Olivia and Julianna in front of our "Adoption Wall."
We posted a map of China and put each child's name, province and city of birth. Julianna is holding a photo of her sister waiting in China and Lydia is on the wall.

Let is Snow

Christmas

Cutest little reindeer I ever did see!

"snuggled up together like two birds of a feather should be"

Olivia knows that Santa is just a guy dressed up and
has never much liked his costume. This year for the first time ever

she decided to sit on his lap at the library Christmas party.

Our annual gingerbread house!

Tori and Olivia at Light Up Wilkes!

School

We had a wonderful semester of school.
Olivia is so bright and enjoys learning.

Volcano Experiment

Owl Pellet Dissection

Weekly Presentation
This one was on her wooly worm and
how it turns into an Isabella Tiger Moth.

Hands on Geography

Crayfish Dissection

And her favorite subject is READING.

She is an avid reader!

Ballet

Olivia began Classical Ballet in the fall and she absolutely loves it.
She longs for Monday's to dance and be with her friends.

We traveled to Winston-Salem to see "The Nutcracker".
It was fun but a little long for a 5 year old. When one of the
dancers reappeared for her 3rd act, Olivia said quite loudly...
"oh no not her again."

Olivia and Anna after the ballet at Mellow Mushroom - yummy pizza!

Washington D.C.

While Mark was out of the country Olivia and I traveled to D.C. to visit friends and do some sight seeing. It was a great trip!

All the museums say the earth is millions of years old. It was interesting to see the faces of those around us as Olivia and I talked about the dinosaurs being in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and on the ark with Noah. What a blessing to home school and teach truth to our children!

A tribute to our 16th president - The Lincoln Memorial. We were very tired at the end of this day but it was our last night there and I wanted Olivia to see the memorial. After the long walk she said..."wow mom it was definitely worth it."

The only thing on Olivia's agenda was to see the pandas at the National Zoo.

Christy and Olivia were huddled together
as we watched an ice skater at this outdoor skating rink.