3---2----4

One more day of being 3 years old! Tomorrow we will celebrate Olivia's 4th birthday along with Father's Day.

She is very excited about her party. Looks like the weather will be perfect and it should be a really fun day.
I can't believe how fast she is growing. In a few months she will be starting preschool and soccer. Where does the time go?!?

C/Airman Pitz

Am I wrong or should it be "Airwoman" Pitz?? Oh well, who am I to question it.

Jenny and Steve joined the Civil Air Patrol about 3 months ago and this past weekend was her first assignment with her West Bend squadron.

They worked the whole weekend at the Manitowoc Air Show from Friday night through Sunday. She seemed to enjoy it. They got up close and personal with personnel from the Air force, etc. and close up looks at the many airplanes. Their work was basically standing along the lines of people doing a sort of crowd control. Keeping people back behind the lines. They looked impressive. They slept Friday and Saturday night in a hangar were provided with all their meals.



We went up on Sunday to watch the show. Olivia doesn't seem to quite understand yet why Jenny dresses in the clothes she does or what Civil Air Patrol is. But, she does know that any kind of show, fair, demonstration, etc. always seems to have some kind of games and rides for kids.

Dad made her look into one of the cockpits and tried to explain it all to her. Her response probably was "how long are we going to play the gaaaammes?!?" (translated means when are we going over to the games). If she said it once she said it a hundred times.
Finally I took her over to bounce and slide and ride for a while and after she won a big balloon hammer she was happy and let us sit and watch the rest of the air show. She actually likes to watch the airplanes too a little and the F-18's that storm by so loud they shake your body don't even bother her anymore. She just looks up and says "wow, that was loud....can I have some fish crackers??"

This weekend is the Milwaukee Air Show that we like to go see. This year the Blue Angels are making a rare appearance so it should be really good. If you want reserved seats right in the middle you have to pay but otherwise the show is free to the public. Jenny doesn't have to work this one but her squadron will be attending it together.

It will be interesting to see if she follows this interest through and actually is flying airplanes some day.

Graduation Luau/Monsoon

On Saturday afternoon we celebrated my niece's (and God child) graduation from Watertown High School. The theme was supposed to be Hawaiian but it turned out to be a hurricane.

We had a good time though, even with the rain pouring down and a pretty brisk chilly wind going through the shelter.

The food was good and it was nice to get together again. Olivia had a great time once she got past her initial shyness when she saw people she "didn't recognize". A couple even scared me too!!.....(inside joke)

Unfortunately Olivia could only gaze out at all the playground equipment right outside the shelter as rain poured down the slide like a waterfall.

Oh well, she got over it when she found out we would be stopping at Grandma and Grandpa's house on the way home.

Congratulations on your graduation Kendra!!!

(I guess we do look a lot alike, even in a picture of us together.....lucky me!)

Annual Pitz Get-Together

This past Sunday was our annual get together with the Pitz side at the Timber Rattlers game in Appleton. Unfortunately each year there are a few less that show up for various reasons and we may have to try a different route to get everyone back together.

We had a good time as usual though. We had the whole Home Run Porch reserved for our group with food and drinks and a great game that the Rattlers won.
I sort of forgot to take a bunch of pictures so all I came home with were the pictures with us in front of the sign and Olivia playing in the playground. We never even got a group picture together this year.

Olivia had a lot of fun in the playground and in the bouncy house which also had a slide.

At one point she decided to try something new and go down head first. Obviously it didn't work real well but believe it or not she actually came up laughing even though she went "face first" all the way down the slide. After that she decided to go down on her butt which worked much better.

They have also built a new, huge sandbox for the kids which was right next to our reserved area so she got a lot of play time in and we had a nice time seeing a handful of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. that we don't get to see real often. Hopefully next year there will be a better showing.

I NOT TIRED MOM!

Most days Olivia is very good about taking an afternoon nap but there are days every once in a while when she says she isn't tired and wants to skip her nap. Sometimes on the weekends we are busy or gone somewhere and she doesn't have a choice but to miss a nap and she does pretty well.

Since she is going to be 4 in a month I start to think maybe she is old enough now to not take naps anymore so I let her talk me into skipping it.
But then this happens.... on this day she and her sister started watching a movie late in the afternoon. I thought it was pretty quiet in the living room and when I came in to check I found both, the almost 4 and the 14 year old, out cold. Afraid she would have a very sore neck and wrist I laid her down flat. She never woke up and I let her sleep only to have a monster to wake up at dinner time.

Needless to say I learned my lesson again and we do still need an afternoon nap no matter what she tries to tell me.....

Whew! Another Milestone Behind Us

Jenny was confirmed this weekend so all the planning and preparing for another party is behind us.


It turned out to be a very nice day. The weather even cooperated. It was warm with just a little chill in the air but that kept things comfortable. There was no rain and no bugs which really made it nice to be outside all day.

The church service was very nice and it was great to have so many relatives that were able to make it there and share it with us.

It is hard to believe that Jenny is entering high school next year and Olivia will be starting preschool.

We had a really nice crowd come out to the house after church. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the food. Jenny was very happy and thankful for the way her day turned out.

Olivia the party girl, of course, was thrilled that we were having another party at our house. She got to sit with her grandparents for the whole church service (which was really nice for Steve and myself - THANK YOU!). And then she was having a great time mingling and socializing with everyone all afternoon. She is quite the social butterfly and this time, for whatever reason, she decided Pastor Bauer was going to be her main victim.....I mean "focus" for the afternoon. She followed him around, sat on his lap, had to eat lunch with him, show him her room and chatted his ears off almost the whole time he and his wife were here. She is so funny. It is nice to see her so friendly with people and happy to talk and run around visiting with everyone.

She went the whole day without a nap and still seemed to have energy at night.

Thanks again to everyone that made Jenny's day special and for sharing it with us. We all had a great time and hope you did too.

CONGRATULATIONS JENNY!!

GOTCHA DAY 2010 !!

Three years ago today we were in the heart of China becoming parents to an 11 month old little girl as she was placed in our arms for the very first time.

I can't believe how fast the time goes by. This fall she will already be going to 4-year-old preschool.

Thank goodness for pictures and videos because now the whole adoption process, planning, preparing and the actual trip is just a blurr.

Three years ago Olivia was a small, exhausted, scared baby girl (with very short hair) and bronchitis.

Since then she has blossomed into a healthy, energetic, very intelligent, loving, happy, beautiful young girl (with very long wavy hair).

She has brought nothing but joy to this family and continues to do so every day.

For one reason or another this year has been even more hectic than I can remember it being 3 years ago. We have Jenny's confirmation this weekend with a party on Sunday but I didn't want to be to busy to celebrate Gotcha Day at least a little so we will just have our favorite home-made Chinese dinner with stir fry, egg rolls, pot stickers, tea and of course, fortune cookies.

Ironically, Olivia is the only one in the family that doesn't like Chinese food so I'll probably end up making her favorite cheese pizza for her to eat!

She and I will probably make a cake or cupcakes today also to celebrate........I know she will eat that (or at least the frosting)

Happy Gotcha Day Olivia!

We Love YOU!!