MEETING NEW FRIENDS!

Well, this past Wednesday Ava and I had the pleasure and honour of being invited to Senja's(Search and Destroy) place to meet her and her beautiful girls, Jazz and Meg for a playdate.
I found Senja's blog about a week before I traveled to China and have been a keen follower ever since...secretly hoping for an invite to meet her and her girls!
We had a great afternoon, beating the scorching heat with some pool time, followed by some bubble action! We then moved inside, had some snacks, the kids played and we chatted about our adoption experiences and life with kids in general.
Senja's girls are strikingly beautiful with such "soulful" eyes! Hoping and looking forward to another gettogether...maybe at my place this time.
I second Senja's suggestion re a blogger convention up her in north country!







Jazz and Meg checking out the bubble maker.


Ava joins in on the "Bubble Action"!



Jazz




Meg





Ava, so excited she has girls to play with!






Reno even gets in on the "Bubble Action"!







My attempt at getting three toddlers to hold hands, stand beside each other and all look at the camera!....in my dreams eh!








The "Not Red Couch" Picture!









Scrapbook Photo Album that Senja made for us! Beautiful, and thank you.

SHOWER FOR AVA AND I HOSTED BY PACU STAFF!

This evening Ava and I went to a shower in our honour hosted by the PACU(recovery room) staff. It was a beautiful evening and we were able to spend the whole evening out on the deck by the pool. It was great seeing everyone again and getting caught up on the gossip. Ava sure enjoyed all the attention she got.

Time to open the cards and gifts!

Look at all those gifts!

Ava modeling some of her new duds!

Receiving more quilt swatchs and wish pages for Ava's 100 Good Wishes Quilt!

Ava clapping at all the presents!

Ava using the foot rest as a slide!

Time to get caught up with all the gossip at work.

What a beautiful cake! Note the ladybug!

Time to cut the cake!

On a bit of a sugar high(icing sugar)

Ava enjoying her cake

Boy, this icing is the "Best"!

Above is a picture of all the beautiful gifts we got at the shower. Also included but not in the picture was a gift of money for Ava's education fund, gift certificate for Sears Photo Studio, a gift certificate for a day at the Toronto Metro Zoo for both Ava and Mama as well as a Spa gift certificate for Mama. Thank you all for all the wonderful gifts and for such a lovely evening.

FREE, FREE AT LAST!!!

Ava's free, free at last...free of her splints that is! She is one happy camper today. This is now three weeks post op and her lip is healing beautifully. The three weeks in the splints 24/7 went much more smoothly than I had anticipated...she is quite the little trooper! I continue to be amazed at how well she goes with the flow.





My friend Ann from Florida with Ava


Ava with her arms free!



Lip looks great!




There's that smile!

PICTURES AT THE LAKE!

Yesterday, Ava, myself and my friend Ann who's up from Naples, Florida spent part of the day at the Lake(Lake Ontario, that is). Ann took a ton of pictures, over 200! Here are about 20 of them. Ava and I had a great time spending the day with you Ann. We'll have to do it again and get more Pics once Ava's splints come off.