Guangdong Gals reunion (day 3 ~ July 12)

Apparently the main house heard that we had a great set up for morning coffee, because Saturday morning we had some visitors from there to join us as we slowly greeted the day. Eventually we all headed down to the main house for a photo shoot extraordinaire, TEN two year olds wearing their Guangdong Girl t-shirts. Fortunately Rebecca (Sarah's mommy) had the foresight to pack suckers to use to help bring about smiles. We have some great footage on our video camera of the parents trying to get each girl with a happy expression, and after about 5 minutes of cameras clicking (I myself took 48 pictures) we called it a wrap.

Each of our girls has a distinct look of her own, and of course they are all smashingly beautiful! Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot...

I like to call this one Guangdong Chaos! On the back row, Sarah and Grace are trying to figure out who they're beside, Kylie has Marisa in some sort of choker hold, Darby is unsure and wants her momma, Nellie is searching the crowd for her mama, Lottie is checking out what's going on with Marisa. The front row finds Kristin watching some of the parents, Melanie (Krisitin's big sister who accompanied us all on our trip to China last year ~ also a Guangdong girl!), Caroline watching the commotion, and Hallie pondering an escape.

Thank goodness for Dum Dum pops! I call this one, "What did you say Darby?"

Sarah, Grace, Darby, Nellie, Lottie

Kylie, Marisa, Kristin, Caroline, Hallie

Hopefully someone got one slightly better, but here is my best shot...

We took a quick break for feeding the horses and lunch and then came back again with the girls in white dresses. First we recreated our red couch picture. For reasons that I no longer remember we only managed to get seven of the eleven girls together at the White Swan last year. After checking copies of the picture, we lined the girls back up in the correct order (missing Olivia) and managed to get a few shots. (Heck, after trying for ten, six was a snap!)

Caroline, Marisa, Kylie, Kristin, Sarah, and Lottie
(scroll up on the sidebar to see the girls dressed in Chinese silk last February)

Then the true chaos broke out when we tried to get the girls to pose for a second time when naps were looming on the near horizon. We came tantalizingly close on the bench

and then tried playing “Ring Around the Rosie”

and finally resorted to a back view while looking for the horses.

Posing for so many pictures proved to be more than my girl could handle and when we got back to the “up house” she climbed onto her futon style bed, cuddled with her blankie, and fell asleep while she was waiting for me to go get her milk. There is nothing sweeter than a sleeping angel!

We finished the day with a crazy canoeing trip. As Caroline's daddy said halfway down the river, “Let me get this straight, you took a child who screams when she gets her hair wet in the tub and thought it was a good idea to put her in a canoe for two hours...” Let's just say that she did well until we hit the first minor ripples and then any time that the water was not smooth as glass she would begin to cry. So I had to switch out of the front of the boat as a paddler to hold her and let Graham (one of the 9 year old twin brothers of Lottie) take my place. Add to the fact that one of the other boats sprung a leak halfway down and we picked up two extra passengers and it was one heck of a ride! When we got back to the house we ate dinner, talked yet some more, and enjoyed another round of smores! The only thing that could have made the day better would have been if the reunion had been complete with Olivia and her family!