On Blueberry Hill

On July 1st,  Anna and I along with lots of friends (about 13 little girls and 3 little boys from China) from our FCC group, went blueberry picking on top of Blueberry Hill bright and early in the morning.   That is the true name of the farm and it is only about 4 miles from our house.  This fine old southern gentleman grows his many rows of blueberry bushes with no pesticides so we could eat as we picked. YUM!  It was fun to see all of the children in their patriotic clothes picking and eating blueberries up and down Blueberry Hill. The weather was perfect,  not too hot which is unusual for July! We all went for a picnic lunch afterwards.  As from the photos you can see Anna and I picked our fair share---7 quarts to be exact!  We ate a bunch, put some in the fridge to make blueberry pancakes, and Anna helped me put the rest in 20 small freezer bags to use later.  This girl is definitely my little worker bee and best helper.  She stuck with me the whole time, only stopping for a moment to play with a ladybug!  

Will and his skimboard ready to catch some waves!

Fishing and Swimming

Scott and the boys along with their friends went deep sea fishing on my Dad's boat "the Hombre"  and caught a boatload.  We took the Red Snapper, Grouper, and MaihiMaihi to a local restaurant and they cooked it for us. They call it "Hook and Cook".  You catch it and they will do the cooking!   It was so delicious as we had plates overflowing with some grilled fish and some fried just the way we like it!  Good eatin guys.....thanks for the great dinner!    

Wesley ready to launch Anna to her Daddy in the pool!

Loving the Summertime!

We had great fun at the beach and plan on all of us going back the end of next week.  Anna is swimming like a fish, make that a MERMAID, as she would correct me on that one!  She will sometimes cross her legs, holding them together to swim with her "mermaid tail"!  I am having to watch her like a hawk because she swims under water so much, sometimes holding her breath almost too long and swallowing water!   I often pick her up from being face down in the water, then look into her purple goggles to tell her to take a break and breath some air!!  As she breathes heavy, she says, "but I swimmin Mommy.........I'm a mermaid"! And oh how she likes to go diving after things!  The only trouble with the goggles is if she sees a bug in the pool.  She will let you know where it is so you can stay away from it or even better........GET IT OUT!  These pics are of Anna on our 11th floor balcony,  in her Tinkerbell bathing suit and then later having her snack under the gazebo that overlooks the beach.

Off to the beach

This Sunday,  we are headed to Panama City Beach for our summer fun!  We will not have access to a computer so I am going to miss you my blogger friends!!! Anna and I plan to stay through the week of July 4th while our guys Scott, Wesley and Will stay for a little over a week then come back and forth a few times to hopefully get more fun time in.  Will loves to skim board, and Wesley loves to deep sea fish. (But they all have some work to do at our subdivision in North GA) Sorry guys!  Now that they are older, Scott works/teaches them some in the summer. They will be running some tractors and clearing some paths in the lots.   Anna, myself and Nanny (my mom) will hold down her condo while you are away!  PaPa will join us some too.   Somebody needs to take advantage of the seaside! Wesley is taking an elective history class  (he is a history buff ) end of June and Will has a basketball camp so Scott and the boys will be hanging out together some too. I am hoping Scott can get the laptop working so he can bring it back to me.  If not I may ask him to check your blogs so I can get updates on everyone!  (He has enjoyed keeping up with our Pingjiang family too)! Happy Summer everyone! Anna has been packing everything she sees! Her princess pocket book and backpack are full of "her things" she wants to take.  She loves her new, first pair of flip-flops and tried them out in the store to make sure they had that "flip flop" sound when she walks. She actually tried on just about every pair in Kohl's department store and told me I just needed to "be patient" while she was shopping.  Scott started her love of shoes when we were in China as he bought her quite a few pairs of  squeakie shoes while we were there!  And oh how she loves "high heels"!  She often takes note of ladies who wear them when we are out and about,  saying "look at those high heel shoes"!  She is wearing her own "high heels" in her birthday photos.  She will definitely want to take several pairs of shoes with us to the beach but for the most part us girls will be barefoot in the sand and sea!  Wish we could take you all with us!  

Anna's Happy Birthday

On May 30th, Anna turned 4 years old!  Time is going by way too quickly!  Our birthday traditions include your choice of cake/dessert and anything you want for dinner.  The kids always want a home made dessert and meal.  Of course Anna wanted a princess theme this year.  Our princess helped pick out the party supplies and she chose pink roses for the cake we made together.  Dark chocolate cake with buttercream icing.  Oh yeah, and lots of extra butterfly sprinkles!  Her favorite spaghetti for dinner.  Anna has waited through everyone else's birthday this Spring so we could tell she was going to take full advantage of the day..... in keeping with the princess attitude.  She sweetly asked her Daddy if he was taking her out to lunch for her birthday and as the Steven Curtis Chapman, "Cinderella" song plays lovingly in our heads, Scott put a busy morning aside to take his Cinderella to lunch.  She picked McDonalds (Mom usually says NO to that request) and they went shopping for her choice of birthday balloons.  What a JOY you are to us Princess Anna Faith Rui Henderson!  Thank you God for this wonderful surprise of LOVE!  We are forever grateful for this precious daughter....... we longed for so many years.

The Artist at Work

Anna is quite the aspiring artist.  She loves to paint on her easel with tempera paints and she also loves to use watercolors.  Here she is painting the lovely roses she sees as well as a few other things.  Of course I think all of her paintings are great, but on this one I especially love the red rose at the top left of her painting!