Monday, April 27, 2009

A lovely weekend in Vermont

We had a great time in Vermont this weekend. The weather was warm (high 80s on Sat, high 60s on Sun). We actually got out of the house on time Saturday morning (at 8 AM) and made it to the book sale by 10:15. It's really not that far of a drive, but add in a stop to get gas, a stop for donuts, a stop for cash, and two potty breaks for Sophie, and you can see what happened!

The book sale was wonderful, and we will definitely be attending this in the future! A high school gym and cafeteria FILLED with tables full of used books. The most expensive thing we bought was $4. I think most of the books were probably a dollar or two. We picked up a few nice books about Chinese culture and some Chinese fairy tales. I grabbed a few cookbooks and a few novels to read. Oh, and a biography of Mao, which I've wanted to read for a while.

At the booksale, we met up with the J family, who traveled to China with us to meet their daughter H. We went out for a nice Mexican lunch with them...here's H and Sophie in the parking lot afterward. They were quite friendly with each other!


After checking into the hotel, we took a little cruise over to Woodstock and Quechee VT. We drove a little further, trying to give Sophie some naptime in the car. Here are some shots from the town green in Woodstock:

We grabbed dinner in Woodstock at a lovely place called Bentley's, but there was no air conditioning and we were stuffed in a corner with no breeze. Ugh. Good food, though. Later that evening, we went to the pool. Sophie LOVED the water and didn't want to get out, despite her chattering teeth.
The next morning, we grabbed some breakfast at the hotel and then went to the King Arthur Bake Shop. It was cookie week (oh darn!), so the girls got to decorate cookies with food coloring markers. Then, we had to have a little snack from their bakery of course! I came out a little poorer (had to have one of those silly bumblebee cake pans), but quite happy with my purchases! And it's so much fun to just browse in that store!


Finally, we went to the Montshire Museum in Hanover NH (home of Dartmouth - the girls' future alma mater - HA!). Sophie had fun moving these panels around to change the path of the rolling golf balls:

EJ had fun making crazy photos with this mirror:


Sophie thought the stuffed moose should talk, like the one at the Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse!


And turning the gears was fun too!


EJ is on school vacation this week. This morning, we took Sophie to the allergist and confirmed that yes, she is allergic to peanuts after all. And cashews. And cats. More on that later. Ugh.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Yeah! Spring has sprung

After a particularly cold Easter Day, it warmed up nicely for this weekend. It was a very busy week for us, mostly because we were all still feeling sick. I think I've finally kicked it.

Sophie has been happy to get out on the swing after school each day. It's a good way of distracting her from her after-school snack, and she's eaten much better dinners! She sleeps good in good weather too, because they get to play outside, which really poops her out!



The girls and I took a day off on Saturday and went for a playdate with some other moms from our adoption agency in the area. We had such a fun time playing with Julianne and Joseph! Many thanks to Julianne's mom for hosting us!

We also had a chance to stop at the LLBean outlet. Gosh, we love that store. This weekend, they were taking an additional 50% off the kids stuff, which was helpful since EJ and I cleaned out her drawers and closet the other night and discovered that most of last year's summer wardrobe doesn't even come close to fitting her this year. We grabbed up a whole bunch of nice LLBean T-shirts for $3 and $4 each. What a deal!

While we were out, K spent the day doing yardwork and cleaning off the porch. We're having a bit of work done over the next few weeks - pressure cleaning the house and scrubbing/sanding/re-finishing the ceiling in the porch, so it needed to be hosed down first. It looks nice. Now, we just have to find some free time to do some mulching, but I don't know when...the next few weekends are booked!

EJ and I also went to see the Hannah Montana movie. Not as bad as I expected, so that was good.

Tomorrow is Patriot's Day in Massachusetts, so I have the day off. K and the girls have work and school, so my friend DB and I are headed to the outlets in Kittery, Maine for a little retail therapy...just trying to help out the economy, you know?

And finally, Miss Sophie would like everyone to know that she has conquered the potty thing. She's only wearing PullUps at night, and even those have been dry, so when we run out of them, they're gone! Woo hoo!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!

Alright, so I'm going to work my way backward through the last few days since I'm too lazy to reorder the photos I just uploaded. It's been a LONG week with Miss Sophie sick. I came down with it Thursday afternoon and then it hit K around 1 AM on Saturday. EJ has been mostly immune, with just a stuffy nose to show for it.

We did feel well enough to get out for a little while this weekend. After church this morning, we went to my cousin's for brunch. Here are some shots of the girls there in their Easter outfits:






The day started around 6:45 with an egg hunt. We left out a dozen pink eggs for Sophie and a dozen purple ones for EJ. The Easter Bunny fills them and hides them, along with the baskets. Sophie found her basket under the desk in the family room. It had puzzles in it!


She really got into the egg hunt this year.


EJ's basket had piano music for High School Musical 3 and Jonas Brothers, a Jonas Brothers book, the soundtrack to the new Hannah Montana movie, and a paper quilling kit. And candy, of course!


Her basket was well out of reach on top of the cabinet in the family room:


K usually bakes cinnamon rolls for Easter morning. Here he is, hard at work on Friday night:

And the finished product:


On Saturday morning, while K was home couch-ridden with the fever, I took the girls to the Easter Bunny Breakfast at EJ's school. Sophie LOVED the big bunny and hopped right onto his lap!


While K was baking cinnamon rolls, we colored eggs. Sophie had fun with that this year too. When we were all done, she said "Mama, we need more eggs!"



Thursday, April 9, 2009

Two years ago today...

Can you believe that it was two years ago today that we got The Call from our adoption agency and saw photos of our adorable Sophie for the very first time?!?! It's funny, because it seems like it can't possibly be two years already. On the other hand, I feel like I've known her forever!

Here's a photo from today - she's sick again, but you'd never know it from the pic. She has a nasty cold/lung thing going on again that we hope doesn't turn into pneumonia. We go back to the dr. in the morning.

Here's a shot from last year - look how much she's grown!


And here are the photos that we first saw two years ago.




Ah, such fond memories!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Easter photos!

Today, I picked up the Easter portraits of the girls and was very pleased with the results. Sophie is getting the hang of this modeling thing and was much more cooperative this time! Rather than get in their fancy Easter dresses, they wore jeans and their Easter sweaters. And they each have a Longaberger Easter basket. EJ keeps commenting that she really likes Sophie's basket better than hers and she wants to swap, but I've explained that the baskets are from the year that they each spent their first Easter with us and swapping is not an option!