Channeling Maria Von Trapp (or at least Julie Andrews!)

Sing it with me... you know you want to: "These are a few of my favorite things"...

.... good friends, who "get" you ....
.... meeting someone you've talked to forever ....
.... warm weather ....
.... happy kids, having fun ....
.... raising money for Russian orphans ....

This weekend was the 3rd annual Lighthouse Michigan Summer Picnic. WOW!! What a blast! I can't stop smiling about how much fun WE had this weekend. Tati is now a PRO at overnight trips, and had NO issues sleeping - or - living up the good life either for that matter!

We left home on Friday and even though the party was here in Michigan, we stayed down near the action so we wouldn't miss any fun! I've been bragging about how two of my favorite people: Angie and Tamara were headed to town for the events and I can't tell you how WONDERFUL it was to "meet" them finally. I feel like I have known them a lifetime. (Love to you both!) It's so special to have friends who share special events in common. On top of that, we were in the infamous Rhonda's backyard, so she came to most of the events to see T, see me, see T, meet Angie, Tamara etc, see T (do you see a pattern here??) and oh yeah, see T!

We hung out Friday around the hotel (which was the BOMB! by the way - super clean, super new and a super rate to boot!) with some of the other families and LORIEN!!! (and her family) and had pizza, swam and talked. Lorien is the owner of Lighthouse Adoptions and truly a special person (I may get a little emotional here!!). If I count my blessings, my family and T are at the top of that list (along with the furry 3some). I can thank Lorien for T. I look back at the choices I made along my adoption route and what led me to Tatiana. One of the biggest choices I had to make early on was my agency. It was a stressful decision and probably one of the best I ever made. To finally meet Lorien in person was the best. She put my daughter and I together. Enough said.

Saturday was the big event. How very cool to meet all those FAMILIES! It was a great turnout and great weather. I can't explain how neat it was to meet families in person whose blogs I have followed and watched as their children came home and have progressed over the past year +. Tamara had some samples of the super cool Initial Inc. items she's selling for the Lighthouse Fundraiser and hopefully we'll raise some funds for some of the baby homes. (Click here!)

Sunday we had a small gathering before leaving for home at Jungle Java - a cool coffee house/in-door playground for kids (aka the best of both worlds!). It was hard to leave such great friends - and hard to drag T out of the playground, but we left for home only to join our neighborhood picnic at the pool. I know TWO girls who are SUPER tired from a SUPER weekend! Hope you all enjoyed yours... here's some pictures from ours: