The Fisk family celebrated Arina’s second adoption day, or her “A” day as she likes to call it, on July 10, 2008. We had a great time at Chuck E. Cheese, and then we went to Target and let Arina pick out a toy. She told us that she wanted “hairies” for her A-day, and, eventually, we understood that she wanted fairies. Dragons and fairies. That’s our fantasy-loving girl.

The past three months have been eventful. In April, Arina attended her cousin Jill’s wedding. The reception was outside . . . at Nana and Pop’s house! So, Arina was very excited, especially to see an outside tent and dance floor in Nana and Pop’s yard. Also in April, Arina was a bumblebee in the USC Dance Conservatory’s production of “Young Girls in Europe.” We were unsure about how much Arina was enjoying her dance classes, but she definitely enjoyed performing at the Koger Center. During the scene when the bumblebees were supposed to hold hands while dancing in a circle and shaking their bottoms, Arina broke away from the circle, faced the audience and entertained us all with a full body shake!

In May, Arina attended her “Aunt” Tracy’s graduation (yay for Dr. Bealer!) and visited Dr. Feldman and Peter in Kiawah. One of the highlights of our fabulous beach weekend was a trip to a quaint market/petting zoo between John’s Island and Kiawah Island. Arina loved all of the farm animals, but she especially took to the rabbits and kittens.

Unfortunately, Arina was feeling under-the-weather by the end of the weekend. And, unfortunately, Dr. Feldman, Peter, Scott, and I all felt under-the-weather once she started feeling better. So, our thanks to Dr. Feldman and Peter for sharing beautiful Kiawah with us and our apologies for what Arina shared with them.

June was an especially fun month, because Todd and Brittany Kennedy visited from New Orleans and “Aunt” Nat visited from L.A. Also in June, we all attended Mom and Dad’s annual summer picnic. We celebrated Father’s Day in Charleston and the Goodin-Thomas wedding (friends J.D. and Carrie) in Greenville. At the wedding, Arina made friends with Carrie’s nephews, one of whom was the ring-bearer, and danced the night away. I wish we had photos, but Scott was too busy video-taping and I was too busy eating food and drinking margaritas.

This past weekend, we were in Charleston for Marley’s 6th birthday party. We were especially excited to hear that Susan, Steve, and Lauren were flying in from Texas for the big event. So, Saturday was a full day with a birthday party at Wannamaker Park and a family dinner at Michelangelo’s. The three girls (Arina, Lauren, and Marley) always have a great time together and love each other so much that there are sometimes arguments about seating arrangements (they all want to sit beside each other). A Father’s Day squabble about this reduced Marley to tears, and as Arina walked with Scott to the bathroom, she shook her head, sighed, and said, “All that drama.” Lots of pictures of the girls are featured in the July 2008 photo album, thanks to Susan! (There are also pictures of super cute fourth cousin, Baby Parker, who manages to stay away from all the girl drama).

Arina had lots of early “Adoption Day” (and birthday!) presents, such as tickets to see Disney on Ice in April and . . . a new above-ground swimming pool! Nana and Pop couldn’t resist getting Arina a pool after seeing her swim at Uncle Amos’s and Amanda’s house. Arina would cannonball from the landing into the middle of the pool, after yelling, “Watch out guys! Here me come!” It looks like we’ll be having a pool party next month!