Celebrations

Spring has finally sprung here at Pullen Central and we've had some reasons to celebrate lately. Here are come recent pics of the happenings at Pullen Central.

Claire and her buddy, Kate, on the sit and spin.

We celebrated Claire's "Gotcha Day" by spending the morning at the zoo, the afternoon enjoying a delightful spring day at home, and the evening with a yummy meal and cake, and then, some egg decorating for Easter. This was Claire's first Easter with us, so Ben filled her in on the Easter scoop.

Swinging in the back yard

Driving the cozy coupe

Opening her "Gotcha Day" gift

A cool wooden puzzle of the map of Korea

What's a celebration without cake? It's hard to believe it's been a year already....we love you, Claire Bear!!!

Time to decorate the eggs....

So proud of his work

The Easter Bunny can't help but be impressed with these eggs!

So silly!

Easter morning...guess who paid a visit to Pullen Central?

Claire's not too sure what to think about all the goodies!

Check out Ben's haul from the Easter egg hunt in the afternoon with Claire and his cousins

She's on a mission.....eggs, here I come!

Just had to post this one....Claire and her cousin, Joey, hug each other quite frequently these days....too cute!

Hope you all are finding reasons to celebrate these days.

Love,

Dave, Christa, Ben and Claire

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY, CLAIRE!

One year ago today, Claire arrived in our arms and hearts forever and we brought her home to Minnesota. We're looking forward to celebrating! Here are some pictures from that incredibly emotional day.

Here, Claire is being blesssed by Dr. Kim, the founder of the agency that took care of Claire in Korea. He is in his mid 90's and has dedicated his life to helping children in Korea. He's such an inspiring man and we were fortunate to have met him.

This was when we were waiting to board our long flight home from Seoul.

This was taken when we arrived home at the airport in Minneapolis.

This was her first night sleeping in her crib.

Here she is now!

We love you Claire!!

Has it really been a year?

It's so hard to believe....but exactly one year ago today, we met Claire for the very first time. What a difference a year makes. We're looking forward to celebrating her "Gotcha Day" (the actual day she was ours forever) next week. Every day we feel so blessed and are so grateful that she is part of our family. I thought I'd share a few pictures of that very first meeting in Korea.

This was just moments after she came into the room with her foster parents.

I can't even imagine what she's thinking at this point.

Ben is just as excited today and he was in this picture to be her big brother (and a great big brother he is)!

Here's the first family picture we took.

Mr. Kang and Mrs. Lee, we think about you everyday and are so grateful that we've been able to stay in contact with you. I'm sure this anniversary is bittersweet time for you. We love you and look forward to seeing you some time in the future.

What a difference a year makes...mischevious Claire unrolling the toilet paper.

March Madness

It's hard to believe that March is already gone. Despite our continuing non-spring-like weather, we've had a busy month. Here are some things we've been up to...

It's a bit hard to see in this picture, but Ben is flying a kite all by himself! Uncle Chuck helped him get started, but then, he took control. It was pretty cool to watch!

Claire loves helping to vaccum the floors.

A local NHL player held a fundraiser, at which the Stanley Cup was on display. Ben was so excited to get his picture taken with it!

We had a great time at our monthly gathering of fellow Korean adoptive families. It's so fun to watch them all growing up. Tunnel crawling was Claire's favorite part of the day!

We're still in a bit of denial over this....Ben will be starting kindergarten in the fall (how did that happen?). We attended his kindergarten round up at his school, where he got to ride a school bus and check out the school.

Here he is in one of the kindergarten class rooms. He's so excited to go to kindergarten! Mom, on the other hand, is still in a state of disbelieve. Before we know it, I'll be posting pictures of his first days of kindergarten.

Dave, Christa, Ben & Claire