Our weekend

What a weekend. On Friday, we went to a Halloween party at a rec center north of here. Games, candy, bounce houses, hay rides, etc. Came home to find our secret pal gift for October had arrived. B's mini-pal sent him a Batman backpack, some Batman pens, and a kit to make Scooby Doo magnets. This is the happy dance that the backpack brought on:

And this is the rest of his gift:

There were also two books for little Miss E -- "I Love You Like Crazy Cakes," a Chinese adoption classic, and "Little Miss Spider," about a little spider who can't find her mommy. B test-read these Friday night and pronounced them to be outstanding. There were also some fun little scrapbooking doo-dads that will be wonderful to have when I get around to scrapbooking our China trip, a bookmark, and a beautiful card. Thank you secret pal!

And after all that excitement, who wouldn't want to go outside & throw fistfuls of leaves around like a crazy kid? He's a human tornado, I tell ya.

Saturday was Boo at the Zoo (costumes & trick-or-treating) in the morning, followed by his preschool's Fall Harvest Party (very carefully crafted NOT to be a Halloween party. How very PC). Another bounce house here. This was the only second he stood still all day Saturday:

Sorry, no zoo pictures. Not that I didn't take any -- trust me, I did, and they are super-cute. But the costume is under wraps & will remain top-secret until Halloween.

Parting shot:

Thank you secret pal!

Wow. She really outdid herself this time. The theme this month was Chinese culture. Apparently, my SP lives near a Chinatown and can get all kinds of fun stuff. She says she bought the traditional silk dresses for her daughter in China, but they made her slippery and hard to hold onto. These are soft cotton instead, and a little stretchy. I've always thought kids are more comfortable in stretchy clothes anyway! And moms too, for that matter. There's also a beautiful little silk vest, and three traditional silk Barbie dresses. They're all lovely, really.

B's mini secret pal sent something for him again this time. It's a coloring book about China. He won't color in it so far -- I think he's afraid of messing it up. He sat on the couch last night and looked at all the pictures, going "Wow! Whoa. Mommy, they have castles in China! I keep seeing a lot of water, Mommy. I think they have water in China!" Yes, I think they probably do B.

You know, I don't usually go in for many of the traditions associated with Chinese adoption. Red threads, ladybugs, sonograms shaped like China -- all that stuff really doesn't do much for me. But I have to say, I love doing the secret pal thing. I get to indulge my terrible shopping habit, and it's really fun to get a mystery package in the mail every month.

Thank you secret pal!

And just for fun, a picture of how we ended our evening last night. Mr. Crankypants lost his marbles and a massive hissy fit ensued.

We have a new secret pal!

I say "we" because my new pal has a little one who sent a special present just for the Bee, and signed it "From your mini-secret pal." The Bee was thrilled when he saw that present with his name on it, of course. And even more excited when he opened it and discovered it involved dinosaurs! Bee's pal also included some very lovely original artwork for us, which I believe the Bee took up to his room to post on his bulletin board.

This month's goodies:

The Bee checking out his gift (a dinosaur coloring book with crayons):

And a totally unrelated picture I took today, which I include just because it makes me giggle a little and because I've been so very bad about posting pictures these last few weeks:

Thank You Mary!

This was the last month of the secret pal gift exchange for our DTC group. I can't believe a whole year has gone by! Each month there's been a theme, and some mystery person from the group has sent us a gift for our daughter to go along with the theme. This month's theme was "The Nursery," and since it was the last exchange in the program, the pals revealed themselves to each other. It turns out mine was Mary H! Mary has been so very thoughtful and generous over the last year. Our daughter has a large collection of toys to start off with, as well as jammies, hair pretties, socks, dishes, decorations for her room, a tea set, and more. Ben has gotten a couple of gifts just for him too, like a t-shirt identifying him as "the big brother" in Chinese and English. And this month, there was a special gift just for me! A very pretty-smelling set including lotion, shower gel and sugar scrub.

Here's this month's gift:

The Bee and I will paint the wall art to match the room. There's also a super-cute purple fleece blanket with appliques of butterflies and flowers, backed with pink fleece, a scrapbook, and a spa gift for me!

Mary, thank you for being so kind to my family over the past year!

I'm off to bathe the Bee, then myself. My bath is going to include a glass of wine and a luxurious sugar scrub.

Thanks secret pal!

My awesome secret pal sent me this fun gift this month:

A super plushy baby doll, a giggly blue hippo toy, and some very fun blocks. I'm partial to the one that quacks like a duck when you squeeze it.

Thanks SP!