Painting Lesson

Nani (an artist) gave Magnolia her first painting lesson.

Water on terracotta. She loved it AND no clothes required!

Magnolia's Nani has arrived and is here to stay until mid July.

We are all so happy to have her!

On the island this weekend we discovered a new restaurant that opened in the original island schoolhouse. They happened to be celebrating the Summer Solstice on Saturday night so we were glad we stopped by. There was live music, a bonfire, and great ambiance. We had so much fun! We also met a couple in the coffee shop who was visiting the island to do some bike riding. After talking for a while we told them to stop by later for a glass of wine. They did and we had a great time getting to know them. Turns out that Pam sings and plays the guitar. She joined the band on Saturday night (see photo above) and we had so much fun listening to her play.
On the way up to the island we stopped at an ice cream stand. They had a huge playground that we played on to burn some energy before getting back in the car. The other photos include Magnolia and George napping on the hammock in which she woke up and threw up everywhere! She ate too many blueberries and I think got a little motion sickness, poor thing! When we arrived Friday night we found an ant farm and spent some time watching all of the ants. We also discovered that the Washington Hotel is making croissants on Saturday mornings, yum! And I found an antique dresser and mirror for Magnolia's big girl room in the years to come. As always, it was a great time!

Swimming

It has finally been warm enough outside to fill up the pool. Magnolia is such a water baby, she loves it! I taught her to kick her legs and she's gotten pretty good at it. Now if only the lake would warm up soon... Have a great weekend everyone!

I recently gave Magnolia my doll from my childhood.

I think she loves her as much as I did!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day

Magnolia & I have been busy working on a special Father's Day for George. Here's Magnolia drawing his card & I ordered these for Sunday breakfast. The fact that George has to ask me where everything is in the fridge I was surprised that he spotted these in the freezer right away! Oh well, he's REALLY excited about them. We're heading up to the island tonight. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend & Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to you Dad, I love you!

Play Date

Magnolia and I had a play date with neighbors and friends yesterday at our favorite store in town. It was wild and sharing was out of the question. Magnolia especially loved the little kitchen & I had a nice time chatting with my friends.

Magnolia, Jillian, & Charlie

The season on the island has begun and so begins our summer enjoying as much of it as we can. The ride over on the ferry is always such a perfect time to take a deep breath, slow down, and transition to a weekend of a much slower pace. While George took Magnolia to the upper deck, I blissfully sat in the car alone watching the sun set over Lake Michigan. It was very windy and rainy most of the weekend but it happened to be the most relaxing weekend I've had in a long time. With no TV and no computer we all did a lot of reading. We also made our usual rounds to the coffee shop, bookstore, grocery, and hardware store. It is always so nice to be back and we'll be back again very soon!

Magnolia singing through the balusters.

George helping Magnolia navigate through plants almost as big as she is. He was building her a sandbox out of cedar logs.
A visit to the loudly bleating goats at the hardware store.
Magnolia immediately remembers her drawer in the kitchen & her magnets on the fridge.
Hope you had a great weekend!

One year ago today was one of the most amazing, thrilling, and beautiful days of my life. It was the glorious day that the phone rang and we heard on the other end, "You have a daughter and she is beautiful." George and I sat at the kitchen counter with the phone on speaker and just started to cry. There she was, the little girl we had waited so long for. In that very moment she came alive, she became real, and she was ours. The other details just didn't seem so important. The fact that someone told us we had a daughter was all we needed to hear. We just wanted to see her face and hold her. Within minutes we got the email that had the very small photo of Jiang Cheng Ling and we knew that was her. That was our daughter. George started crying but I just squealed with delight at this little tiny thing that had such a serious look on her face with round cheeks, rosebud lips, and a beautiful head of hair. It was love at first sight and I couldn't contain my happiness. I was on cloud nine for a long time and sometimes I think I still am. :) I have never in my life been as happy as I am now having Magnolia June Ling.
(You can read about last June 6th here, here, here,and here.)

Magnolia today

June

I can't believe it's June already! We had a nice taste of summer this weekend with lots of sunshine and warm weather. It's so nice to be practically living outside.
My find of the week at a garage sale. Can't wait to fix it up!


George built Magnolia a sandbox this weekend. She LOVES it. I love it too. We put it under our birch tree so it's nice and shaded.

I forgot we had this table. It was in the basement holding blocks. I realized it would make the perfect water table and it did. She LOVED this too.
The other thing we discovered is that she loves ribs. Here she is having one outside.
Hope you had a great weekend!