Saturday April 21 - finally, the weekend!

We had a fun and busy Saturday. In the morning I was up and out early to get to a migratory bird walk in Rockcreek Park being led by one of the bird guys from the zoo. We met at 8a.m. for a two hour walk. It was the most glorious morning - perfect weather. We had several good spottings, have included just photos of a male wood duck, red-bellied woodpecker and a yellow-bellied sapsucker.
After that a quick rush home to clean up and head out to the house of friends Shawn and Karen, one of the Chinese adoption couples that is part of our monthly group. Six of the couples were there and we had a wonderful time. Shawn & Karen were wonderful hosts and we all really enjoyed the wonderful company, time on the deck and the terrific food. It was so nice to get to spend some extended time together, and considering the disappointment for some of us about not making the referral cut off, we were a pretty cheery group - possibly thanks to the delicious sangrias? Michele & Mark, who were LID 10/24/05 leave May 9th to bring their daughter home so we were very excited for them. Karen set the cutest table and had red plates and everyone had a namecard and ladybug at their plate! We were again spoiled by people's generosity. Karen had made us each the most beautiful little quilts with a soft backing, Toni & Tom gave us a lovely "colours" book and Ellen & Rick gave us some cute frog bath toys and some Nemo appliques to put in the tub that also check water temperature. We all had a lovely time together.
We then headed back to our area where we met up with some of our relatives who will be moving back to this area from Connecticut and a sibling of the same cousin who is in our area in an intensive schooling program. We had a fun night out together and were glad to celebrate Rachel's birthday. We were quite exhausted by the time we got home that evening.