Feb #3- Gotcha Day All Over with McFee's

It's hard to believe that we've now had Ella for 1 full year and one of the most special things about that year ago trip is that not only did we get Ella for life, we made some terrific new friends in Mike and Jill McFee, with whom, along with their beautiful daughter Maya (Ella and Maya grew up in the same orphanage), we share a connection that will last a lifetime. Here are some pictures of our fun (albeit too short) reunion in Charlotte, North Carolina from Feb 23rd to Feb 25th (our Gotcha day anniversary 2/25). Trip consisted of a visit to a cool public library called Imaginon and Charlotte's Discovery Place Kids museum and a lot of catching up with the kids, who I think had the most fun in the pool (Evan too!) I love the first picture where Maya's reflects onto Ella as the two were playing at Discovery Place. I almost thought the two were wearing the same cute shirt (and it was Ella) but it signifies there togetherness for certain...

February Post 2 - Orlando Trip

February's second post brings us on Ella's mid month trip to Orlando with mom and brother (rah rah!). Here are some nice shots with Justin, Jisele and Jayson Havas; not to overlook Ella's first pose in some cool shades! Watch out....

February Post Part 1

Wow - what a month of February it was for Ella and all of the Lazar's. I'm going to change things up a bit with more and bigger pictures with no comments next to the pics. Instead, I'll explain our month here...it all started quietly with Ella enjoying a rare storytime with Daddy....you see this is out of her nightly routine where she gets tucked under Mommy's covers for a half an hour right before bedtime and the two Lazar girls cuddle up and have fun teaching and reading ; listening and learning. I'll snap a picture of that moment for March's post as its soooo Cute. That's all for quiet as February 9th came around with a quick visit to Atlanta's Chinese New Year celebration where we saw my friend Judy and her family; here we get to experience some real Chinese culture and, well I'll just say it, some authentic food that reminded me of Southern China (and it wasn't McDonalds)! The highlight was the Dragon Dance, of course, expertly performed by Chinese students from Atlanta. Following the New Year celebration, we headed down to the Airport to meet Mom and Millie who came in for a weekend. We had a blast, going to Mary Mac's an original Southern Tea room for lunch (I am still stuffed!), followed by a visit to the World of Coke. The next day we shopped and saw Millie's old boss and our friends the Baum's, who recently moved from Long Island and before the Monday send off, went to the Cherokee County courtroom to finalize or re-adoption (in Georgia) of Ella - so it's official again! Some pictures of these events are below and I'll pick up from here in part 2.