Fancy Nancy Party!

Yesterday Ladi and I went on our first "Girl's Night Out" together. We went out to dinner with some dear friends and their daughters. Then we went to a Fancy Nancy party at the book store. (Fancy Nancy is a children's book that is about a little girl that loves to dress and act fancy- Ladi loves these books and loves to say in her Russian accent "Fancy" and "Oh-la-la"!) All the girls were dressed fancy and wore their tiaras! Ladi thought it was wonderful- she kept saying, "Momma look- Princess!" After the book reading and arts and crafts we looked at all the books and Ladi picked out- of course- a Cinderella book. FYI- she loves Cinderella if I haven't mentioned it before- books, dolls, videos, she loves all the princess stuff. Which we think is so funny- I don't know if she was exposed to all of it in Russia but it is certainly what she has picked to play with. (And for those of you who know me- I am not the princess type- I played with stuffed animals and baby dolls! But Ladi is her own and she is a "princess"!) After shopping in the book store we walked around the other stores and window shopped- the little girls really seemed to enjoy this! I was standing there watching Ladi with her new friends and letting them put lip gloss on her and show her "girlie" things and it all felt like a dream. I still find myself amazed that she is with us and that she has "fit in" so perfectly. When we started out the evening I wasn't sure if Ladi was ready for this - to be around so many other children, staying out later than usual, etc. But she loved it! And as I was driving home I looked back at her in her car seat, sound asleep with her princess book in hand and I knew I had dreamt that image before!

I wanted to let you all know what the boys were up to this week - Blake is at beach camp with our church youth group. They go to Fort Caswell and have a blast boating, tubing, swimming and then they also have worship services and devotion time. He called me this afternoon and said he went 8 feet in the air on the tube and that the 8th graders have a house to themselves and it was so cool because it was like a hotel where you get clean sheets, soap and shampoo (which was good because he forgot to pack any of that!). I know this is a fun time for him as well as a time for him spiritually! Brady is going to a day camp this week at our church. This is his first year and he is so excited about going! It is an all day camp with lots of fun activities. He has watched his big brothers go for many years and now he is finally old enough to go! So Bryson and Ladi and I are hanging out together this week. We went to Topsail yesterday to visit a friend of mine and tomorrow we are going to the beach. Bryson is so good with Ladi (he and Brady argue over who she likes better). He enjoys helping her do things and she likes playing with him. The boys also had another swim meet tonight - they did very well! The meets are very long and very hot - so Ladi stayed home with Phe tonight and they made pink cupcakes for the boys to eat when they got home. Ladi did well with Phe by herself. Although I had to come home to give her a bath and put her to bed; Ladi is getting more and more comfortable around my parents. My dad stops by the house often just so he can have some time with her! We have come so far in just a month!