Our Two Pearls

Piano Recital Performance

2010-06-16T20:22:00.001-04:00

Family Day!

2010-06-14T22:16:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago, on May 28th, we celebrated Family Day - our 3rd anniversary of meeting little Long Li Lei, now Sophie LiLei. I've never posted the video before...mostly because I've never managed to find the time to create the movie of the moment. But alas, here it is...better late than never.

Catching up...

2010-06-09T20:22:00.007-04:00

These last few weeks of school are always a killer with the schedule - too many things crammed into only a few weeks. Next week is the worst...Dance recital on Sunday, piano recital rehearsal on Monday, piano recital on Tuesday, dance practice for competition on Wednesday, an ice cream party at school that I'm helping with on Friday, and dance competition on Saturday. School gets on the following Monday, then EJ will have her braces put on later that week. Then, a weekend of camping, K's parents are visiting, 4th of July....WHEW!

Anyway, I am way behind on posting, so hopefully this will catch me up a bit. Two weeks ago, EJ had her band and chorus concerts on back-to-back nights. (back row, on right):

Playing the drums:

5th grade band:

With one of her best buddies, EB:

EJ celebrated her 11th birthday a few weeks ago. She and a few friends went to a local salon/spa to get all dolled up for the occasion with mini manicures, mini facials, and fancy hairdos. The girls had a blast and it was fun to watch them! Then, we all came back to the house for some cake and ice cream.

There was a wide array of crazy nail colors:

EB had her hair done in zig-zagged French braids:

EJ, ready for her facial:

Getting her nails painted a very deep purple with gold glitter on top:

Her fancy 'do:

K and Sophie missed all the excitement, as I made them go buy tix for the dance recital while we were at the salon, and then Sophie had a friend's birthday party that afternoon.

Last Day in DC

2010-05-22T15:20:00.000-04:00

Okay, I know I've been home for almost three weeks, but I just can't seem to get out of my own way to get some things done! :) Anyway, here are some shots from our last 24 hours in DC:

Here's a shot of our hotel - three old brownstones that have about 40 rooms. See the dormer windows at the top left? That was our penthouse suite!

The girls on the front steps:

This was the view out our bathroom window at the back of the hotel - overlooking the outdoor patio/bar/restaurant. And just across the way from this was the back side of several embassies - Chile, Trinidad.

Our giant room. We also had a small kitchen area.

The view across the street:

This was the very skinny winding staircase that we had to climb several times each day to the 4th floor:

We started the morning at the zoo! We met up with my good friend HD and her boys there. They had a flight home that afternoon, but we did get to spend a little time with them again!

The baby gorilla was so cute. A few minutes after I took this photo, mama grabbed him and went inside, because the HUMANS couldn't follow the rules "No tapping on glass". Well, honestly, the rude humans weren't tapping...they were pounding!

Sophie comparing hersellf to how fast the bamboo grows. She had to take her panda with her to the zoo! We did see one panda...the other was under "panda watch" - they thought she was pregnant again a few days earlier (she wasn't), but she was still under observation.

K left the zoo a little early to do a Segway tour. So, the girls and I hit up the panda gift shop (of course!) and then took the Metro to the Sculpture Garden. Sophie crashed before we were even out of the zoo. EJ and I enjoyed a little ice cream treat while walking around. When Sophie woke up, the girls just had to dip their toes in the fountain at the garden, and I had a chance to play with the camera a bit:

EJ liked this sculpture of a pyramid of cubes. The light made it look interesting.

When the sculpture garden closed, we popped into the Natural History museum for a quick break until K called us that he was done. Here's one of the Easter Island statues:

Washington DC - Day Four

2010-05-16T20:41:00.006-04:00

Our fourth day in DC also started out early, as our congressman had arranged an 8:45 AM tour at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, so we had to be on the move by about 7:45 to walk to the Metro Station, make a few transfers, walk a few blocks, find the wrong entrance, and get in and through security. This was a fascinating tour about how our paper money is printed, but no photos were allowed! Here's a shot from the gift shop, where EJ and Sophie were trying to see how much money they were worth!

About halfway through the tour, the emergency alarm sounded and was telling us all to evacuate the building immediately. We quickly found out this was just a test, but it had us all wondering for a while! EJ bought herself about $500 worth of shredded money for $5, and we bought Sophie some lucky money for the year of the dog (when she was born). It's a dollar bill from the year 2006 that the serial number begins with 888 (considered lucky in Chinese!). We tried to get some for EJ but the year of the rabbit was sold out...it will be out again next year though!

Notice how blue and sunny the sky is in the next photo. Well, since this day was the first one that didn't threaten rain, the girls and I wore shorts. Big mistake. It was probably only in the mid-40s in the morning and then it might have climbed to 50. We were freezing and the wind was blowing terribly hard. Nonetheless, we had wanted to do a bunch of outdoor walking among the monuments, so perhaps we just walked a little faster than usual. Our first leg of the walk took us around the tidal basin to see the Jefferson Memorial. All of the cherry blossoms were gone - darn!

As we worked our way around the tidal basin, we came across the FDR monument, which I had never seen. It was really very nice.

You can see that at some point after the Jefferson memorial, I realized I had a change of clothes in the backpack for Sophie, so I slid some leggings on under her skirt, and she put her extra socks on as mittens!

Here are EJ and Sophie in the bread line:

A short walk further brought us to the Korean Monument. I had never seen it before, and it was amazing too. I noticed that each of the soldiers had a small spotlight on it, and I imagine that it is quite eerie to see at night.

There is a marble wall to the left of the above photograph. It has engraved faces of Korean War soldiers on it, and it is meant to reflect the statues of the soldiers.

This gentleman is a Korean War veteran. He was happy to share some of his experiences with the school groups that were visiting, and all the kids shook his hand when he was done speaking:

We finally made it to the Lincoln Memorial:

EJ always finds the horses:

Yup, there's that "tall pointy building" again (as Sophie called it):

I think Sophie half expected old Abe to stand up, as in the Night at the Museum 2 movie:

Next was the Vietnam Wall...a very powerful memorial:

After this long hike, we were starved, but kinda sorta on the wrong end of town for most restaurants. We wandered around a few blocks, and someone suggested walking north toward George Washington University. Still nothing. Finally, K went into a CVS and asked for a suggestion. They said the Red Cross headquarters was just a block east and it had a cafeteria, so that's where we went! After lunch, back down to the mall to see the World War 2 monument.

I figure we walked close to six miles this day. After getting back to our Metro stop, we went to Pizzeria Paradiso in Dupont Circle, voted the best pizza in DC, to grab a slice. Not bad! I think we all fell asleep pretty quickly this night.

Washington DC - Day 3

2010-05-12T20:51:00.006-04:00

Day three of the trip, Tuesday, started very early for me! I wanted to get tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument. I tried to reserve them online, but they were sold out, and the only other way was to get same day tickets starting at 8:30 AM. But the tour guide said that the line forms as early as 7 AM during tourist season, so I left the hotel room at 6:45 for a brisk mile and a half walk to the monument. I arrived a little after 7 and there were about 8 people in front of me. And then I had 90 minutes to kill just standing in line talking to other tourists. But it was a beautiful morning and I didn't care. I got tickets for an 11 AM tour, so I had time to get back to the hotel and rally the troops.

Yep, all the way to the top to look out those itty bitty windows.

The view to the west, the Lincoln Memorial, the reflecting pool, and the World War 2 memorial in the foreground.

The view to the east, to the Capitol and all the museums:

The view to the north to the White House.

The southern view of the Jefferson Memorial. The Pentagon is just across the river and to the right. From this vantage, it was quite scary to see how close the plane was to everything else on Sept 11, 2001.

At the top of the momument:

Chillin' outside the monument after the tour.

We went to the Reagan Commerce Building's food court for lunch. Crazy is an understatement. Afterward, we headed across the National Mall to get to the Smithsonian Castle.

We saw some other folks taking funny photos like this, so EJ and I just had to try it:

There's a beautiful old carousel in front of the Smithsonian Castle. Sophie had to ride the shiny blue dragon.

The next stop was the Air and Space Museum, but on the way, EJ went inside the Hirschorn's building to check out the fountain.

At the Air and Space Museum, we saw the Wright Brothers plane...

And Amelia Earhart's plane...

and the cockpit of a jetliner:

EJ competed in a paper airplane contest against much older kids and finished in 2nd or 3rd place!

Sophie? She won't remember anything after the carousel, because she crashed hard!!!

Washington DC - Day 2

2010-05-08T21:30:00.004-04:00

Our second day in DC started at the Supreme Court. The court was in session and I was hoping to get in to see the justices! When we got to the court, the line was VERY long. It was probably 9:45. I asked the security guard which line this was, because there were supposed to be two lines - one to get in for the entire session, and one for a three-to-five minute viewing of the courtroom, which was the one we wanted to be in. He explained that they had already seated the 50 or so people for the morning session, so this remaining line was the 3-5 line. I did a quick calculation and figured that there was at least an hour's worth of folks in front of us and the sky was threatening to drench us at any moment. Given that this line didn't start moving until 10 and we had a tour appointment for 12ish across the street at the Capitol, we opted to skip the courtroom experience and just see the exhibits inside instead.

The Supreme Court had, by far, the most educational movie about its function. The movie featured all of the justices talking about how they work. The courthouse had this really cool staircase inside, too:

When we left the Supreme Court, it was raining, so we quickly made our way across the street to the Capitol. We had to wait outside for a bit to get through security. We had a quick snack and then visited the displays in the Capitol Visitor's Center before our tour. The Visitor's Center just opened in the last year or so, and it was quite nice, but honestly, the tour was lame. Now, I'm comparing it to a tour I took when I was in college, and we were guests of a congressman, but still - we only got to see three rooms on the tour! Here's a look up in the Rotunda:

If you read Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, you know what the painting is at the top - the Apotheosis of Washington:

The hall of statues:

This room was the "tomb" under the Rotunda, and here are the girls with General Stark of NH:

I had hoped to visit the Library of Congress of the Capitol, but we were starving, so we walked up to Union Station and found the Capitol City Brewery in the old Post Office Museum across the street. HIGHLY recommended if you get to DC! After that, we thought Sophie would take a snooze if we strolled for a while (we were about two miles from the hotel). We decided to walk partway back and then catch a train. Well, we kept finding interesting things to sidetrack us, so we ended up walking the whole way - and only the last three blocks in the rain! Here's the friendship arch in Chinatown. DC's Chinatown is pretty lame - all chain stores with Chinese signs, and honestly, we didn't really see too many Chinese people there!

The back side of the White House:

We weren't very hungry for dinner after eating a late lunch. Our friends, the D family, stopped by and we had some snacks.

Trip to Washington DC - Day 1

2010-05-02T14:28:00.009-04:00

We returned yesterday from a wonderful week in Washington DC. It was a great trip, and the girls had a fantastic time. EJ is such a history and politics buff that she is at a good age for this trip!

We stayed at the fabulous Tabard Inn, an historic hotel just south of Dupont Circle. It was a great location, just six blocks from the White House and very close to a Metro station. We had the penthouse suite, which was enormous - 700 square feet! And it was about half the price of most in-town hotel rooms. It even included breakfast in their restaurant every morning. The downside was that the penthouse was on the 4th floor, and due to the historic nature of the hotel, there was no elevator. And the staircase was twisting and steep and narrow! It really is a beautiful old property. The first night there, the inn was hosting a beautiful wedding. We also noticed that a lot of young professionals seemed to gather in the bar for after-work drinks, and the restaurant was VERY popular!

We bought weekly subway passes and used them several times a day, but we still walked a LOT. We probably averaged 4-6 miles a day. The girls were troopers and never complained about being tired.

We drove down on a Saturday and arrived in about 8 hours of driving. We just relaxed the first night and wandered around the neighborhood looking for something for dinner. We ended up at a great Irish pub called Mackeys for some crab cake sliders and potato soup.

The forecast for the first few days included a lot of rain. Our original plan was to go to the zoo on Sunday, but we decided to stay indoors instead and headed to the Museum of American History, where we met up with the D family to do some touring. We saw Abe Lincoln's top hat that he wore on the night he was assassinated:

Julia Child's kitchen:

EJ taking a stand behind the presidential podium:

This museum has a wonderful exhibit featuring the First Ladies that I had looked forward to seeing. Here's Michelle Obama's inaugural gown:

Hilary Clinton's (left) and Laura Bush's (right) inaugural gowns:

Archie Bunker's and Edith's chairs:

Kermit the frog:

Apollo Anton Ohno's Olympic speed skates:

Judy Garland's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz:

Sophie in the playroom:

EJ and her friend M in the science center:

We had lunch at the American History Museum and then decided to head over to the Museum of Natural History. When we stepped out onto the Mall, we were surprised that it wasn't raining, and it was VERY warm! There was an Earth Day-related event in progress - the Climate Rally. Sting was the featured artist, but we didn't see him. We decided to look around at some of the displays.

We finally made our way to the Natural History Museum:

This museum is famous for its dinosaurs, which were featured in Night at the Museum 2, Battle of the Smithsonian:

The Hope Diamond is also on display:

Sophie fell asleep as we left the museum. We strolled through the Smithsonian Sculpture Garden and stopped to have an ice cream treat before our next tour at the National Archives. No photos were permitted here, but we did get to see the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.

We had a reservation for the tour and didn't need to stand in the long line, but the crowds inside were a bit unorganized. Instead of going around the room in a line, most people just headed across the room to view the important exhibits, which slowed down everything.

The National Archives keeps immigration records and copies of all correspondence to presidents, so Sophie has information there, as does EJ (she wrote a letter to President Bush and received one back).

Easter

2010-04-06T21:10:00.006-04:00

Sorry it's taken a few days to get these together! We had a great Easter. The weather this weekend was just fabulous. It was strange to have the girls going to church in sundresses and just a sweater...usually it's winter coats! You might remember that last Easter we were still able to sled through the back yard!

On Saturday morning, we had breakfast with the Easter bunny at the Elementary school. Sophie was just a little shy and wanted EJ with her, but she gave the bunny a big hug.

On Easter morning, the girls woke up and couldn't find any eggs or their baskets anywhere!

Finally, Sophie spied some eggs out on the porch!

She found her basket in the corner of the dining room:

EJ was getting a little concerned, because she couldn't find hers anywhere!

Finally, she realized it was in the washing machine!

For breakfast, we had K's homemade sticky buns!

After church. The forsythia is in full bloom now.

Sophie enjoyed some time with her vehicles in the driveway on Saturday.

Coloring eggs on Friday night:

Black and White Wednesday

2010-03-31T21:36:00.000-04:00

Saw this on another blog (The Long Road to China - Black and White Wednesday) and thought it might be fun to try. I'm having a lot of fun learning about my new camera!

Catching up...

2010-03-22T20:49:00.002-04:00

Yeah, I'm still here. Busy, busy. A few things to catch up on, but I'm just going to lump them all into one post!

I splurged a bit and bought myself a new digital camera a week or so ago. It's a Nikon D5000 DSLR with two lenses (18-55 and 55-200). I've been playing around with it a little, as we're going on vacation again in a few weeks and I really want to get some great photos! I've only taken some "basic" shots around the house over the last few days. Saturday, the weather was so incredible, and Sophie and I decided to kick the soccer ball around a bit after dinner. I thought this was a good opportunity to take some shots in "sports mode", but they all came out blurry!

Well, last night K and I watched the training video and guess what? I learned a lot! I wanted to try out the action shots again today, so I had the girls dance around (and jump!), and giving the shutter priority over the aperture did wonders!

Last weekend, we also bought Sophie a big girl bed! FINALLY!!!! She really likes it!

About three weeks ago (when there was still a bit of snow on the ground), K got out EJ's first bike...this cute little Madeline bike. Sophie really felt like a big girl on it!

This past weekend, we went to a Manchester Monarchs hockey game. The Monarchs are an affiliate team of the LA Kings. EJ's school chorus sang the national anthem. The first two pics were taken during the sound check, when the parents were allowed on the platform. During the real performance, EJ was on the Jumbotron!!

EJ's first dance competition

2010-03-10T20:48:00.005-05:00

EJ joined her dance studio's dance company this year. She takes five classes (four required and one optional), and they compete at three local competitions. This first competition was held this past weekend at our local high school, and it was a LONG day (had to be there at 7AM, got home at 11:30 PM). Here are some fun shots from the day, most taken in the hallway while they were practicing:

"The Conga" - jazz. Check out the clip-on pony tail and shimmery rhinestone earrings! She's in the back row, left.

Lunch break!

"Tutti Fruitti" - tap. I love this costume!

Striking a pose (front right):

"Double Dutch Bus" - hip hop. They have a giant yellow bus made out of PVC pipe that they push around the stage for this number - very cute!

Front row, center:

"Tout Doucement" - ballet. Yikes, don't know my French, not sure I spelled the name of the song correctly? Anyway, these costumes are quite hypnotizing when there are 14 of them spinning around on stage!

"Dream" - lyrical

Her team won five high silver awards. The next competition is the second weekend in April.

Our trip to PA

2010-03-10T20:07:00.003-05:00

Here in New England, most schools give students a one week break in February and a one week break in April. Personally, I'd rather have the extra time off in June, but I'm starting to dream about warm tropical vacations right about now, so perhaps a winter break isn't such a bad idea. Well, we did go south, but it wasn't tropical...it was southwestern PA to visit family. Here are the girls with Pap Pap and Mamaw S:

EJ and Mamaw played dress-up one day and then played cards. EJ looked like a real card shark!

Here are the girls with their Great Great Aunt A:

On Wednesday evening, EJ, Pap Pap, and I went tubing to Hidden Valley Resort. We had a lot of fun - mostly because there were only a dozen other people there, and after the first 75 minutes or so we had the whole hill to ourselves!

Here are the girls striking a silly pose with their Great Great Uncle C:

And here they are with their Great Grandma K (my maternal grandmother). Sophie loved riding in the wheelchair!

The first night we were there, we met up at a local pizza shop with some family and friends. Here I am with two of my best friends from high school, S and R:

We had a lot of fun, despite the foot of snow that fell the day before we left, or that K, Sophie, and I were all fighting colds while we were there. A wind storm tore through southern NH and knocked out the power at home on Thursday night. We were hoping to return home Saturday afternoon, but we had a late start (still recovering from the snow at my dad's and the traffic jams in the Scranton area), so it was around midnight Saturday when we pulled in. The house was only 45 degrees, but thankfully it hadn't been cold enough to freeze the pipes. We plugged in the generator and fired up the furnace and the pellet stove. The power didn't come back on until Monday afternoon, but we were prepared. Our only loss was everything in the fridge and the freezer on the fridge (everything in the basement freezer was still frozen solid). Sheesh, two major power outages in 15 months! I do give PSNH a lot of credit for their communications plan this time. They waited until they had a full assessment of the situation before releasing estimated time of restoration to everyone. And they had regular updates on Twitter, which were great to follow!

What happens...

2010-02-15T07:44:00.005-05:00

...when Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year fall on the same day? You get together with some of your China travel mates and have a little party! Many thanks to the B family for hosting the Jiangxi families for an awesome Chinese lunch and reunion. Here's our somewhat regular attempt to recreate the red couch photo from China (no, we didn't line them up in the same order...), with the big sisters standing behind them:

Now, can you figure out which girl today matches which baby in this photo, taken on the 2nd floor red couch at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou?

And here are the four girls from the Suichuan SWI. I don't think we've taken any photos of the four of them together before, but hopefully we'll be able to capture a few more group photos over the the years! We had a tough time with this photo, as their older siblings were standing behind the couch. I asked the big girls to hide behind the couch while we took this photo, and of course, that caused a whole lot of jumping up and down to peek. What was I thinking?

It was a whirlwind week of Valentines parties and CNY parties. And this week isn't much more sane. Sophie and I are off today for President's Day. EJ still had school since we're on winter break next week, and K had to work. Today, I hope to finish gathering paperwork to take to the accountant so the taxes can get done. Tomorrow, EJ and I are going to see the musical at her middle school. Wednesday morning, she has a social studies open house (an Egypt museum) before school, and then a costume check for dance that evening (so I have to alter a few things on her costumes today too!). And oh...somewhere in there, I really need to think about packing since we're heading for PA first thing on Saturday morning for winter break.

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-02-14T20:05:00.003-05:00

Chinese New Year party!

2010-02-06T22:48:00.010-05:00

Today was the annual Chinese New Year party for clients and friends of our adoption agency. We had a lot of fun, but it makes for a very long day. Once again, I screwed up the order of selecting the photos (thanks to the lousy interface blogger has for uploading), so we're going in reverse order here.

Here are Sophie and I with the gold and red lion after the lion dance. We got her a lion puppet that matches this lion - a puppet on strings. We'll see how long before it's tangled. I told her that maybe she could take it to preschool on Friday for the little Chinese New Year celebration they're having there.

She also got to bang the drum and the gong:

Here she is inside the lion head for the red/gold lion. They let the kids try them out after the performance, which was great! We'd been reading a story she has about the lion dance all week!

The smaller head fit her much better!

Here's the dragon dance!

Here's Sophie with cutie-pie friend, R:

And here are all the kiddos from our travel group, with the older siblings:

EJ and Sophie hit the dance floor for the Cha-Cha Slide:

On another note, there is an Amtrak train that has been stuck in my hometown of Connellsville, PA for nearly 24 hours in the snow: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/us/07train.html. Poor folks...traveling from Washington DC to Chicago, and stuck (as one of my high school friends put it on Facebook) "in Mayberry."

A trip to American Girl

2010-01-16T13:10:00.005-05:00

This morning, we got up bright and early to head to the American Girl store in Natick (just west of Boston). Our mission was to buy an Ivy Ling doll and Ivy's Chinese New Years dress to donate to the raffle at our adoption agency's Chinese New Years party in a few weeks.

We had reservations for breakfast at the Bistro. Each doll gets a cute little chair that attachs to the table. Here's Sophie with her American Girl Bitty Baby that Grandma and Grandpap H bought her for Christmas! The dolls were served chocolate chip muffins (which the girls helped them eat), and we got strawberry muffins too.

We all had the Belgian waffles with berries and whipped cream. They were pretty good!

After breakfast, we made our way to the Doll Salon to have EJ's doll, Samantha's, hair done.

While we waited for Samantha, Sophie's doll (named "Baby Sophie") got a pink ribbon put in her hair.

Sophie was so excited!

Samantha gets her finishing touches:

The AFTER shot:

Sophie liked looking at the doll displays, especially the Kaya and Felicity ones with horses!

EJ, checking out Julie's bed:

The Bistro:

EJ picked out this dress (actually a Julie doll dress) for Samantha:

Oh, Samantha had her ears pierced at the salon too:

And Sophie picked out this outfit for her doll:

Christmas morning

2010-01-03T10:46:00.001-05:00

Sophie's Preschool Christmas program

2010-01-03T10:39:00.002-05:00

Sophie's class at preschool did a little Christmas show for us on the last day before holiday break. There are 15 or 16 kids in her class, and they all did such a wonderful job!

Merry Christmas!!!

2009-12-25T21:24:00.009-05:00

Hope you had a wonderful day with friends and family!

Here are some photos from our day. The tree, before the chaos hit!

The first view...

Whew - Santa remember the pony that Sophie requested!

A beautiful Chinese takeout box ornament:

A cookie set. Sophie was totally into the unwrapping and finding gifts that had her name on them.

Grandma and Grandpap H sent EJ a silk screening kit with some Tshirts to decorate. Somehow, I missed a shot of her unwrapping Mamaw and Pap Pap's gift, a pogo stick!

Sophie got a bunch of Kai Lan toys this year, including this lantern. For those of you who haven't heard of her, Kai Lan is like the Chinese Dora.

Oooo...what's this?

Oh. My. Gosh. Is this what I think it is?

It is! It's a Wii!!!!!!

Ever since EJ started playing the trumpet, Sophie's been saying "Where's my trumpet?" Now, she has one too!

EJ regifted her old dollhouse to Sophie this year. It's been tucked away in the attic for a few years, but Sophie had the best time with it today.

Sophie got an American Girl Bitty Baby from Grandma and Grandpap H:

Sophie LOVES piggy banks, and this new pink one is "fwagile", she'll tell you.

Uncle E and Aunt M sent a cute Christmas Pooh-in-the-box:

Uncle T, Aunt P, and Hannah sent EJ a calligraphy kit.

Santa also left a Wii Fit Plus for the whole family!

Now, on to the stockings:

EJ has always wanted a sleepmask.

Sophie got a ball filled with glittery liquid:

Sophie made sure that Santa finished his cookies!

The family room after the holiday flurry:

Sophie made me some cookies!

Tomorrow we'll be heading into Boston to see 101 Dalmatians - the Musical, compliments of Santa.

On the twelfth day of Christmas...

2009-12-24T21:42:00.004-05:00

...it was Christmas Eve! We went to church mid-afternoon and then did the annual photos by the tree. Sophie was very excited to wear her "princess dress" again!

After dinner (seafood crepes for K and I, fruit crepes for the girls), it was time to read "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Check out the jammies - they say "Dear Santa, I can explain..."

Then it was time to get out the milk and cookies....

...and sprinkle glitter dust on the yard for the reindeer (so they know where to land, of course).

Sophie just fell asleep about 10 minutes ago and EJ just went to bed.

On the eleventh day of Christmas...

2009-12-23T18:45:00.004-05:00

...there was a Christmas pageant at Sophie's daycare! Oh, the little Bumblebee class (3-year olds) were SO cute and SO excited!

K and I laughed because Sophie could NOT stand still! She stayed in her spot, but was twirling, wiggling, and dancing the whole time.

Ringing their jingle bells:

Santa going "down through the chimney":

The Bumblebee teachers, Miss L and Miss D:

Sophie modeled a Santa mask for me after the show.

After the show, we got a class picture. It's hard getting them all to look at the camera at the same time!

Singing Rudolph:

Check out the cute Rudolph hats they made, complete with the red nose...

I have video of the performance and will try to find time tonight to upload some!

On the tenth day of Christmas...

2009-12-22T18:44:00.001-05:00

...my favorites!

On the ninth day of Christmas...

2009-12-21T18:43:00.000-05:00

...some tree-decorating portraits!

On the eighth day of Christmas...

2009-12-20T19:17:00.002-05:00

...we went to the pageant/potluck/talent show at church! The girls didn't participate in the pageant this year, but still wanted to see it! Afterward, there was a terrific potluck dinner, and then the kids do a talent show. EJ played Carol of the Bells on the piano:

Sophie told me that she was going to sing, but I wasn't too sure. She did sing "on the big stage" (aka the altar) at church last Sunday morning with the Sunday School choir, but I didn't know if she'd do it by herself. We practiced with a toy microphone earlier in the day, so she knew exactly what to do. She sang "Santa Claus is coming to Town".

We didn't make it to church this morning because of the weather. We didn't wake up with much snow, but it was really coming down this morning and we ended up with about five inches. We decided to bake some sugar cookies:

On the seventh day of Christmas...

2009-12-19T12:50:00.001-05:00

On the sixth day of Christmas...

2009-12-18T13:43:00.002-05:00

On vacation today to wrap up Christmas chores. I'm baking cookies and pepperoni rolls/pizza dip to take to a cookie swap tonight. Most other chores done - hooray!!! Tomorrow, I'll try to make some sugar cookies with the girls. K and I are going to a concert tomorrow night, so the girls are looking forward to an evening with the fabulous Miss S! Sunday, we'll be attending the Christmas pageant at church (as spectators, not participants), and enjoy a potluck dinner there, followed by a talent show. We'll see if Sophie really gets up to sing. EJ's going to play the piano.

On the fifth day of Christmas...

2009-12-17T18:59:00.000-05:00

On the fourth day of Christmas...

2009-12-16T20:54:00.000-05:00

...another portrait!

On the third day of Christmas...

2009-12-15T21:24:00.002-05:00

...Sophie and K made the newspaper! This was taken by the local paper at the Santa parade on Sunday. Unfortunately, they spelled Sophie's name wrong, but she was excited to see it just the same!

On the second day of Christmas...

2009-12-14T15:42:00.002-05:00

Here is one of the (many) holiday portraits from this year...I'll post some over the next few days. Sophie's getting the hang of this supermodel thing, huh? Dresses from The Wooden Soldier in North Conway, NH, one of my favorite places to shop!

On the first day of Christmas...

2009-12-13T16:35:00.003-05:00

...there was a parade! EJ rode on a local business's float. I can't believe I didn't get a pic of her, but she was walking when she came by us and I was totally unprepared for her! Sophie was a little upset that her sister got dropped well before the start of the parade, and she fussed herself to sleep in the car for a quick snooze before the parade actually started. When she woke up, she still wasn't happy, but a balloon seemed to make everything better.

It was a little chilly, and it started snowing just as the parade passed in front of us near the end. Of course, Santa himself brought up the end of the parade, and instead of riding on a firetruck he was out greeting all the kids. The local paper's photographer snapped Sophie's photo as she was greeting Santa and then got her info from us, so she might just be in the paper this week!

Behind...behind...

2009-12-11T20:04:00.003-05:00

Yeah, I'm way behind on blog posts. Sorta skipped all of Thanksgiving. And the week after. Oh well. It's that busy time of year. It was one year ago today that our power went out in the Horrible New England Ice Storm of 2008. And the lights didn't come back on for 10 days.

Here are some pics to hold you over for a few days.

Tonight, Miss Sophie and I are home alone, since K and EJ are out doing some shopping. We ate some leftover pizza, had a little "tea" party, finished baking some cookies, and watched the Grinch. Now that she's in bed, I can frost the cookies and wrap up a few gifts that need to get in the mail soon.

We decorated the tree this week. It's been standing for a while, but no ornaments.

Putting the star on top has always been EJ's job, but Sophie wanted in on the action this year.

We went to the local Santa breakfast last weekend. EJ stuck by the top two things on her list - a Wii and a pogo stick. Sophie's still asking for a (toy) pony.

This is a pretty quiet weekend for us. No big plans - hooray! That's good, because there's a lot going on next week. A chorus concert, a program at the library (a weather program, coincidentally cancelled because of Wednesday's snow storm), and a holiday party with EJ's dance class. Friday night, I'll be out at a local cookie swap with some gal pals. Next Saturday night, K and I are going out to a guitar concert. And next Sunday is the church Christmas pageant. The girls aren't in it this year. EJ's taking a year off after playing angels for many years and Mary last year, and Sophie, while she's technically old enough, would be a bit of a challenge to stand still for so long! But we're still going to go, as afterward there is a wonderful Lutheran potluck, followed by a talent show where the kids get to sing or play an instrument. EJ will do something (probably play piano or trumpet), and Sophie tells me she's going to sing, but we'll see!

One thing this weekend is the local Santa parade on Sunday afternoon. EJ might just be riding on a float for the local coffee shop! Stay tuned...

EJ's very first band performance!

2009-11-18T20:31:00.002-05:00

Tonight was the first performance of the middle school's 5th grade band! The kids did a great job. It's amazing how much they have learned in just 6-7 weeks. So, here's a little video that shows some of the exercises they performed tonight. Unfortunately, I screwed up the video for the latter half of the concert and missed all of the songs! Have the audio, not the video. So, you are missing some rousing arrangements of Hot Cross Buns and Mary Had a Little Lamb/Merrily We Roll Along. Oh well.

Notice that the band director, Mr. R, directs from a laptop! How cool is that? They use a tool called smartmusic.com, which provides accompaniment for the arrangements. He told us about the program, so I might have to look into a subscription to it!

A very early visit to Santa.

2009-11-14T21:33:00.003-05:00

We had a busy at-home day today. Hurricane Ida's remnants are making their way through the area and there was a LOT of rain. I got the laundry done, designed the Christmas cards so I can order them tomorrow, and cleaned up the third floor since we have a houseful of guests coming for Thanksgiving. We decided to go out for a quick dinner and then maybe stop by the mall to see Santa, who arrived this week.

We went to Chili's for dinner. We got there just at the start of the dinner rush. Sophie was perfectly calm when we got there, but as the meal went on, she just got crazier and goofier. Perhaps she knew how exciting a visit to Santa was going to be. It was at the point where I was laughing uncontrollably watching her. She simply couldn't sit still. I think her chocolate milk was spiked with a little eggnog!

We got to the mall and were surprised to see NO LINE for Santa! Sophie walked right in and hopped up on his lap. EJ was checking out Santa's bag of toys next to him...there was a Wii box right on top. He told me that he was trying to find a place for it, and EJ offered to take it home with her tonight! Sophie told him that she was a good girl and that she wanted a toy pony.

We did plan ahead for the photo. The girls wore their Santa shirts - Sophie's says "Santa's Favorite" and EJ's says "I love Santa". EJ's didn't show up well in the photo since the letters are in silver. We will be seeing Santa again at the annual mother's club breakfast with him in a few weeks.

Girls Night Out

2009-11-10T18:21:00.006-05:00

EJ and I had a GNO last night. Yes, on a SCHOOL NIGHT!!! Way back, about five months ago, I purchased two tickets to the Miley Cyrus concert. And last night, the long-awaited date had finally arrived. These photos are actually in reverse order, thanks to the non-intuitive order in which Blogger uploads things. Or that you can only upload five photos at a time. Anyway...here's the rundown to the show, from encore to opening act!

Miley did one encore and closed with The Climb:

This was the other song from the encore, I Can't Wait to See You Again:

At one point, she did a cover of Joan Jett's I Love Rock and Roll and she climbed on a Harley that soared through the sky.

She came pretty close to us!

She and one of her dancers got into a terrible fit of giggles at one point and she couldn't even talk!

EJ had a great time singing along!

Miley's fashion choices are "interesting".

For Fly on the Wall, she and the dancers rode onto the stage on a giant bug:

Yes, I even liked the bridal-style dress with the pink tube socks and boots over this little number:

Miley's brother's band, Metro Station, opened the night. Her brother has the look of a serious hard-core rocker. He jumped. He swung the guitar around his neck about 100 times in the 6-7 songs they performed. He only had to say one of two things ("BOSTON!!!" or "MILEY!!") to get the girls screaming. Too bad he couldn't sing to save his life. Awful, I tell you. He even said that "a lot" of people didn't want them to be the opening act on this tour, but "my sister believes in me". I think she'd better start listening to the music people who know what they're talking about. He was that bad. The lead guitarist for Metro Station is Mitchell Musso's (also on Hannah Montana) older brother, and he was actually a good singer. Miley's brother just needs to play guitar and jump around.

We had pretty good seats--on the right of the stage, about 1/3 of the way back from the stage and 11 rows up. The edge of the catwalk was probably 50 feet away.

EJ at Fanieul Hall for dinner before the show!

Boo!

2009-10-31T22:14:00.003-04:00

Wow - you couldn't ask for a more perfect Halloween night in New England. It was 70 degrees here today and the wind is blowing all the swirling leaves around. Lovely!

We live in a development of about 40 houses, so it's a great place to trick-or-treat, but to walk the whole loop is about a mile. So, Sophie gets to ride in style:

EJ's friend V came over to go trick-or-treating with us. I called EJ the Halloweena Ballerina!

My little Curious George:

The older girls being silly:

Fall Photo Shoot

2009-10-11T22:29:00.004-04:00

This area is what used to be the woodpile at the end of my driveway. Now that we have a pellet stove, we cleared it out and made a little garden area.

It was the perfect New England fall day today (well, other than the Red Sox knocking themselves out of the playoffs...), and the girls wore their new pumpkin sweaters to church this morning, so we went outside for a photo session. Sophie took the stickers off the pumpkins and stuck them on her face.

This is her grumpy look, which she announces before she displays:

EJ striking a pose:

Okay, got the fall photo shoot out of the way. Would you believe they're have Christmas portraits taken tomorrow? I hate the crowds at the mall in November, so we always do it in October!

Deerfield Fair

2009-10-04T22:42:00.002-04:00

Today we went to the Deerfield Fair in Deerfield, NH. We were hoping to go yesterday, but the rain kept us away. Luckily, it stayed dry enough to go today for a few hours.

EJ did some spin art:

The girls with the prize-winning pumpkin, which weighed in at over 1000 pounds!

Sophie enjoyed her first corndog, and we had lots of other yummy food - funnel cake, chowder in a bread bowl, pierogies, maple cotton candy, and ice cream.

Sophie really liked the horses. And she moo'ed at all the cows. Quite loudly.

EJ's not really a fan. She likes looking at all of them, but is very cautious about where she steps after a near accident a few years ago!

These twin calves were born just an hour before we saw them. We were walking through one of the cattle barns and saw a huge crowd around this stall. They were so cute!

Apple picking

2009-09-22T20:32:00.002-04:00

We went apple picking this past weekend. It was the second weekend that the farm we go to was open, and they had three kinds of apples availabe - Macintosh, Cortland, and Liberty.

All of that rainy weather back in June and July is supposed to deliver a wonderful apple harvest this fall. Just look at how the trees are loaded!

EJ was there for all of 30 seconds and picked only three apples the whole time we were there. She spent all of her time comparing the taste of the different varieties.

Then Sophie got into the tasting:

But she did have fun pushing around the little wheelbarrow:

The farm is pretty small and is a low-spray farm. It's not crowded at all, and it was a beautiful fall day. Afterward, we went to a Big Sib, Little Sib program at the Phillips Exeter Academy, a local prep school. The program is for local adopted children. They get "matched" with a high school student at the academy from the adopted child's country and do crafts or have play time. We didn't get the info until the day before the first meeting, so they weren't able to match Sophie for this month's meeting. Hopefully they'll have a match by October for her.

Sohie's 3rd Birthday portraits

2009-09-16T21:59:00.004-04:00

Sophie is 3!

2009-09-14T20:23:00.004-04:00

Last week, on September 10th, Sophie turned 3!! It's hard to believe...the last 2+ years have flown by so quickly.

I asked her a few weeks ago what kind of cake she wanted and I thought she would say Curious George, as she's a big fan of him right now. Before she could answer, EJ piped in that when she turned three, she had an Arthur cake, so that's what Sophie wanted too. I had to dig out the old pics of EJ's 3rd birthday to see how I did it, as there appears to be no Arthur cake pan available online anywhere!

She smiled the whole time we were singing to her:

Then it was time to open the stash of presents...she got a Dr. Seuss puzzle which she loves:

EJ got her this magnetic color-sorting toy that Sophie spent a lot of time with at the Eric Carle museum. Luckily, they sold them in the gift shop!

Okay - time to catch up

2009-09-12T11:33:00.004-04:00

I've been a BAD blogger this summer, and we've done so many wonderful things that I'll never catch up. I will try, however, to do a post each week with updated photos, etc. Although, I must say, compared to the way I can upload photos in Facebook, this Blogger interface is really lousy. I got frustrated and only loaded up a few pics, so if you want to see more, they're in Facebook.

Anyway, we'll start with back to school. EJ is in 5th grade this year, which is in middle school in our town. Here she is on the first day:

Over Labor Day weekend, we took a small one night trip out to western Massachusetts. We visited the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst. It's a gorgeous facility, but I really wish that they had more square footage dedicated to gallery space. They do, however, have a nice library for the kids and a beautiful art studio. This year is Eric Carle's 80th birthday and the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, one of his better-known works. EJ is lucky enough to have several personalized signed books from Mr. Carle, including one he sent her as a gift after she wrote him a letter to tell him about her collection of signed children's books. He returned the books we asked him to sign, which he personalized with her name and some sketches, and then a few weeks later, we received a copy of Dream Snow from him. We've tried to get one personalized for Sophie, but he is mostly retired now. We did get some signed bookplates though.

We spent the night in Northampton and had dinner at the Northampton Brewing Company, which we highly recommend if you're in the area. The next morning, we drove to Sturbridge, MA to the Old Strubridge Village, a recreation of a colonial village. It was WGBH's (Boston PBS) Family Fun Day, so Curious George met us at the gate. Sophie LOVES him, and gave him a big hug and told him that she watches him every day. She doesn't know it yet, but I just ordered her a Curious George Halloween costume. We're trying to talk EJ into being the Man in the Yellow Hat, but she's not interested. I think we need to get K a hat to wear with her for trick or treat.

Here are some other photos (again, more in Facebook). It really is a nice destination and they had a lot of hands-on stuff for the girls to do.

The Pellet Stove Is Here!

2009-08-18T21:25:00.002-04:00

It looks like it has always been there. Looks great. Bring on the cooler weather!

Got Pellets?

2009-08-12T20:58:00.003-04:00

We just took delivery of 3 tons of pellets for our new pellet insert which will be installed next Tuesday. Now I just have to find a place to put them. They can't stay in the garage for too long. Feel free to stop by and help stack them in the basement.

Tech Camp

2009-07-25T17:46:00.002-04:00

Okay - I have a whole slew of pics that need to be blogged about. Perhaps I'll catch up tonight!

First up, EJ went to technology camp at her school a few weeks ago. There were supposed to be three classes - video game design from 9-11, robotics from 12-2, and simulations from 3-5. Unfortunately, the third class was cancelled since not enough kids signed up, but she really enjoyed the first two classes, despite being the only girl there. The camp was for kids ages 8-12 and was taught by the middle school technology teachers, so it was nice for her to meet some of her future teachers a little bit early!

For game design, they created characters and then did small programs where they blasted things or worked their way through a maze. She used a program called Scratch, which looks pretty interesting. She received a copy of it as a take-home from the class and has been playing with it a lot this week.

For robotics, they use the Legos MindStorm system. The teacher said that the only goal for their robot was to move an object from point A to point B. He didn't care how they did it. EJ's team's robot is shown below. The tall section in the middle has a conveyor belt on it that you drop blocks onto. There was a little visual scanner (has a cable coming from it on the top), and it scanned the blocks to see if they were blue or red. The red blocks sorted fine, but the scanner didn't seem to be able to detect the blue ones! Anyway, the blue blocks went onto a catapult to be launched (on voice commands!), and the red blocks were loaded onto a truck, which had a weight sensor in it. When it had enough weight, the truck drove away. Very clever.

Update

2009-07-07T21:00:00.001-04:00

I have been a very busy non-blogger for the past few weeks. Sorry for the "vacation"! Here's a quick update to catch you up!

June 24 - last day of school. Woohoo! A bit late this year thanks to that miserable ice storm in December. EJ had all As on her report card!
A visit from the whole H clan! K's parents arrived on the 25th (after a small breakdown in the RV just 100 miles away). On the 27th, K and I took advantage of their babysitting services while we dined in the North End and then picked up his brother's family at the airport later that night.
A golden wedding anniversary celebration on Sunday the 28th! My father-in-law finally told my mother-in-law just a few days earlier that they would be renewing their vows. Then, we had a nice family dinner party at a local restaurant.
Two clambakes! One work-related after a large project, and one at our house with the whole clan. I've now fulfilled my lobster-eating quota for the summer.
A horribly rainy June. It rained every single day that the whole clan was visiting. But the Georgia Hs did get to tour Boston and Portsmouth. K's mom and I took the girls to the Boston Children's Museum one morning and then had lunch.
A nice 4th of July weekend with no huge plans. But lots of food. Ribs. Potato salad. Cherry pie. Yum.
A new video game for EJ - she's been saving her money diligently to get a Nintendo DS and finally had enough!
A new TV. A few years ago we downsized from the 27-inch we bought in 1988 to a 23-inch to fit inside our new Shaker-style corner entertainment center. It's had a few "technical problems" that get worse each year. K's dad showed us the 32-inch high-def flat screen he installed in his RV. We loved the picture and went out and bought one that day. Fastest purchase we've ever made. AND it fits into the entertainment center. (The old one was a 23-inch that had 4-5 inch speakers on each side. This one has bottom speakers...)
A frog. EJ got it into her head the other night that she simply must catch a frog. After chasing one relentlessly in the stream in the front yard, she gave up and walked down to the fire pond that night. For you city-dwellers, a fire pond is the countrified alternative to a fire hydrant. The water truck goes to the pump attachment at the pond and fills up, then comes and dumps it on the burning house in the neighborhood. Anyway, she caught a littel frog with the help of a neighborhood boy and another schoolmate. It's in a tank on our porch. She is reminded daily that the frog must be turned loose before we leave for vacation. But now she's named it (Aspen). Uh oh.
Technology camp for EJ at her school this week. She's studying gaming design and robotics. Having a blast. Might be because she's the only girl in the class?
And Sophie, she's as sweet as ever...sleeping like a log now that daycare is open again (they were closed last week for summer break). There is an inground pool there and swimming will start soon (so far, it's just been sprinklers and splash pools for the little ones).

Now you see it, now you don't

2009-06-20T19:17:00.003-04:00

No big plans this weekend, just running errands and doing chores. K's parents arrive on Wednesday, and then his brother's family arrives next Saturday night, and we'll all be celebrating his parents' 50th wedding anniversary next Sunday!

Here's what EJ did today:

BEFORE:

THE CUT:

AFTER:

The hair, all 9 inches of it, is wrapped tight in a ponytail and will be sent off to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program, where they make wigs for those undergoing cancer treatment. She loves her new cut and hasn't shut up about it all day. We just told her we didn't want to hear another word about her hair today!!! She's been wanting to cut it for a few weeks, but we had to leave it long for dance season.

While running our errands this afternoon, EJ and I stopped and picked 4 quarts of strawberries, and they are delicious! I made strawberry shortcake for the girls for dessert, and Sophie loved it...well, the berries and whipped cream parts.

Piano Recital

2009-06-16T21:40:00.003-04:00

Tonight was the last of our end-of-year important dates...the piano recital! Here's a pic of EJ with her teacher, Miss A.

And now that I figured out video...look out! She did a great job. There is some amazing talent at this show, both with the younger students and the more advanced.

2009-06-06T16:04:00.009-04:00

Okay, I don't take enough video to really know how to do this well, but after minimal effort (thank goodness for the software wizard!), I've managed to get video of her four dances up here! We are allowed to take video at dress rehearsal, but there will be a professional filming at the show tomorrow and we'll get a DVD a bit later in the summer.

Hip Hop:

Jazz:

Ballet:

And tap:

Dance 2009

2009-06-05T22:27:00.002-04:00

Tonight was dress rehearsal for EJ's dance recital. I took a good book, but never even cracked the cover...this stuff is too cute to not watch. The wee ones are just adorable and make everyone giggle. EJ's in four classes this year, so we were there quite a while, but everything ran on schedule and we were done on time.

Hip hop, dancing to "Don't You Evah"

Ballet, dancing to "Dream Land"

Dressed as a bride for jazz, dancing to "Love Will Keep Us Together"

And last, but not least, dressed as a dog catcher for tap, dancing to "Who Let the Dogs Out?" This one will be a real crowd pleaser, as half the girls as dressed as dogs and the other half are dog catchers. Very cute.

EJ and I had just arrived at rehearsal, and I noticed that I had a message from K. Daycare had called and said that poor little Sophie was sick! So, he went to pick her up. They hung out at home and did puzzles and watched videos. She seemed okay. He was reading to her when EJ and I got home, and she was sick a little more right before she fell asleep. It's been going around daycare this week, and rumor has it that it's all over in about 8 hours, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Storyland!

2009-05-31T22:30:00.002-04:00

We had a great weekend at Storyland...the weather, despite the forecast, was beautiful--mid 60s and sunny. We left early on Saturday morning and arrived at Storyland around 9:45 AM. It's about a 2 hour ride (in the off season). We were there until the park closed at 5, and then we checked in at the Eagle Mountain House in Jackson, NH. We've never been there, but it's a stunning historic hotel in a beautiful location. Not quite as fabulous at the Mount Washington Hotel, but much quieter...and MUCH cheaper! We had a fabulous dinner in the dining room and took a little walk around the property. Much to EJ's dismay, the outdoor heated pool wasn't open (it would take too much propane to heat it just yet). But she and Sophie had fun in the gameroom. We had a great breakfast this morning and then drove down the road a little to the Jackson Falls to take a few photos.

Family Day 2009

2009-05-28T00:01:00.004-04:00

Today, we celebrate Family Day 2009! Two years ago today, shy and curious little Long Li Lei, now Sophie LiLei, was placed in our arms in the first floor conference room at the Gloria Hotel in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China. It was a calm moment, not nearly as crazy as I expected it to be. Sophie was quiet, just studying us intently, unaware of the dramatic changes yet to unfold in her young life. We took her to our room and changed her, and she took a long peaceful nap. She wimpered a little when she woke up, wondering why everything around her was so new and different. EJ had her smiling and giggling in no time, and we've been head-over-heels in love ever since.

Today, she can tell you her story...that Mommy, Daddy, and EJ came to China to meet her, while she waited for us. And that the anis (nannies) took good care of her while she waited. She loves looking at photos, videos, and blogs of other families with stories like hers, and proudly says, "She's from China too, just like me!"

To read the blog posts while we were in China, click here. To read my one-year-later posts, where I recapped the trip and explained most of the photos, click here. At the bottom of each post, you can click Newer Post to follow it.

EJ's 10th birthday!

2009-05-25T20:33:00.004-04:00

EJ celebrated her 10th birthday this weekend. My brother's family came for the weekend, and we had a great time. My niece went to school with EJ on Friday, and then EJ celebrated with her cousin and friends on Friday afternoon.

But first, her birthday gift. She couldn't decide what she wanted this year. One day, she happened to mention that she wished her room was painted aqua. It was just painted about 4-5 years ago in a nice lavender and I wasn't willing to undo that just yet. But I told her we could look for an aqua and purple comforter...and that kind of evolved into a room makeover for her gift. We rearranged the furniture, so it really does feel like a new room when you walk in!

Grandma and Grandpap H sent the cool "bendy" lamp, which EJ has wanted for a long time.

We even found a matching aqua area rug that's very shaggy for her "reading area" at the foot of her bed:

And these sheer aqua curtains make the room glow in the evening:

EJ found these cool curtain rods and matching tiebacks:

The view from her bed:

On Friday afternoon, she had a party at a local movie theater that has table service. We went to see Night at the Museum 2.

On Saturday (her real birthday), we went with the whole clan to southern Maine to have a lobster lunch (my niece wanted to have a whole lobster!). After that we walked around Portsmouth NH for a while. It was a beautiful day. That evening, my cousin and her daughter came for dinner, and EJ blew out the candles a second time on the leftover cake!

The three cousins snuggled up on the couch with their sock monkeys (thanks Uncle T!) and watched Paul Blart, Mall Cop:

Can you believe she's into double digits already? I can't! Happy Birthday sweetie!

Another unbelievable thing...you might remember that we left on EJ's 8th birthday to go to China, so it's been two years already since we traveled to meet Sophie. We'll be celebrating our 2nd Family Day this Thursday!

EJ's Field Trip

2009-05-19T19:18:00.009-04:00

EJ loves politics and American history. You might remember from this post about one of EJ's favorite books, that she became very knowledgeable about how we elect Presidents. Then, she wrote a letter to President Bush and got a letter in return! Today, she went on a field trip that she really enjoyed, a visit to the NH State House in Concord, NH. She took her camera and came home with some great photos - I thought we'd share them with you!

She really liked this display of campaign buttons:

And then, she saw this photo of President Obama standing in front of the very same display, so she took a photo of that photo...

...followed by a photo of THE VERY SPOT where President Obama must have been standing when that photo was taken. I thought this was quite amusing, and just had to put it here! :)

She also found a photo of Hillary standing in front of the display. You might remember that she was torn about Hillary's candidacy...she liked the idea of a female president, but I think she was kind of hoping that she would someday be the first female! There's still a chance, babe!

Then, they met THE GOVERNOR! Here's Governor John Lynch:

They also met our local state senator and a local state representative (who is also the grandfather of one of her friends).

The kids also got to tour the formal legislative chambers and even sit in their chairs!

I wouldn't be surprised if this girl ended up in some sort of public service role someday...!

EJ's First Communion

2009-05-16T23:06:00.003-04:00

EJ received her First Communion today. There was a large class of kids this year, so they split them into two groups and did two services so that everyone and their families would fit into the church!

Each year, the kids make a banner. And every year for the First Communion service, they hang all the banners from the previous years around the church. The kids on the first banner are graduating from college this year! Here's EJ with this year's banner:

And here she is with Pastor Jon:

And here's the family shot:

After the service, we went to the house of EJ's friend C, who also received his First Communion today. EJ and C have been buddies for nearly 10 years now - EJ was born three days before C!

Here's C attacking the cake!

C's dog, Teak, gave Sophie lots of lovin' while we were there!

We didn't get home until after 10, and both girls crashed in the car. EJ had a long day, as she had a few hours of dance photos into early afternoon.

Which way to the beach?

2009-05-12T21:26:00.002-04:00

Grandma H sent a box the other day that had this cute little swimsuit in it for Sophie. She tried it on tonight and it fit perfectly! There were lots of cute shorts for EJ, but she hasn't tried them all on yet.

The busy season continues. This past weekend, we did the mulch in the yard. Well, I should say that K did the mulch in the yard - he did 99% of the work! I got another area of the basement cleaned out. The blinds for the family room are on order. The porch project resumes tomorrow. Ah...progress!

Update

2009-05-04T22:24:00.002-04:00

Sorry, no cute pictures this week! :)

Phew...these end of the year activities are keeping us busy! EJ has only one more First Communion class next week. First Communion is on Saturday the 16th, right after a full morning of dance photos, complete with four costume changes and hair and makeup. Yeehaw! Dance wraps up the first weekend in June with a recital on K's birthday! But the Friday night before will be busy with dress rehearsal for a few hours. And the following week will be the piano recital that EJ's been practicing hard for!

Add into this mix a birthday party for EJ in a few weeks, which coincides with a visit from her cousin H and Aunt P and Uncle T (who Sophie says does "nag, nag, nag" compliments of Aunt P!). That will make for a fun Memorial Day weekend.

And then there are the house projects - pressure washing the house (done), painting the porch (scheduled for next week), and measurements for new custom wooden blinds in the family room (TBD this week). I'm very sad about my porch. It had a lovely knotty-pine cathedral ceiling in it that became overtaken by mildew in the past few years. Scrubbing and bleaching didn't do the trick, nor did a good sanding, so instead of being stained and poly'ed (yes, I made up this "word"), the paint guy will be back next week to paint it white. Bummer. But I'm very excited about the idea of new window treatments in the family room - and they're even on sale for the next few weeks!!!! YEAH! This has been on my project list for at least two years. Of course, while we were looking at samples Saturday evening, I spied some REALLY nice custom wooden shutters that would look fabulous in my bedroom. The nice sales lady said they'd be on sale in another week or two, but I think there are other projects higher on the priority list.

And finally, I need some sleep. These darn sports teams are keeping me up too late at night. Red Sox vs. Yankees early this week, Bruins playoffs, Celtics vs. Magic in the playoffs (boo, they just lost the first game).

A lovely weekend in Vermont

2009-04-27T14:31:00.006-04:00

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.

Yeah! Spring has sprung

2009-04-19T15:45:00.005-04:00

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!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T20:13:00.003-04:00

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!"

Two years ago today...

2009-04-09T18:53:00.006-04:00

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!

Easter photos!

2009-04-02T21:56:00.009-04:00

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!

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

2009-03-30T20:25:00.007-04:00

Sigh. We've been together for so long. Eighteen years, from my best estimate. We've been through the utility room off the carport in the Florida apartment. And then to the new house we built in Florida. You got loaded onto the moving truck when we moved to New England, and you tolerated a year in a cold and lonely storage unit while we rented our already-equipped apartment in MA before buying the house in NH. For the past 12 years, you've been tucked away quietly in your own little corner of the house. Through two toddlers. And I know they've abused you, causing you to work overtime. Eight loads a week sometimes! And yet you never complained.

But you have been giving me little signs over the last few months. Sometimes just an ounce or so of water on the floor. Sometimes more. Especially when we put you under stress. This winter has been stressful. More heavy jeans and sweatshirts than usual, with four of us in the house now. The puddles have been a little bigger. I'm afraid to leave you alone with a full load of laundry, for fear of turning the laundry room into an indoor pool.

And so, it is time to say goodbye. This weekend, I went out and decided you are being replaced by this slick new guy. He costs twice as much as you did 18 years ago and probably won't last half as long. But he's slick. He requires his own special detergent (although less of it they say). He's incredibly vain, demanding $200 more to come in a hot red color and another $200 to come on a plastic pedestal with a drawer in it. I was tempted, but I resisted. I'm a frugal person. So, he will be in standard white and K will build a platform for him. I'm not sure why he needs all those buttons on the front. Aren't there only two decisions to make - water temperature, and size of load?

Goodbye, dear Frigidaire top-loading washer. It's been good knowing you. Your last full day is Tuesday. Perhaps one more load of dishtowels to remember me by?

Update

2009-03-22T08:42:00.006-04:00

It's been kind of a busy week around here. Last weekend, K decided to do Potty Training in a Day (following the book of a similar name). It went well, but not so great that we felt confident dropping her off at daycare on Monday with just big girl panties! So, we sent her off to school with "Special School Panties" (aka Pull-Ups), and she did pretty good - keeping the pull-ups dry each day. The teacher was even brave enough to have her just do the panties one afternoon and she did fine. Perhaps tomorrow will be the first day without pull-ups at school.

On Monday, EJ had First Communion class in prep for the big event, coming up in mid-May. This past week, they made their own communion wafers.

Thursday evening was the 4th Grade Multicultural Musical at EJ's school. It was fantastic! The kids work so hard for months studying their different countries, learning songs and dances, and making all the artwork for the backdrops. E's class represented Italy (she was a little bummed she didn't get to do China, but I reminded her that there are lots of interesting places in the world!). She was a dancer, played a song on the piano, and was the New Hampshire reporter for the video (part of her video production project). She did a great job!

I really like the giant Mona Lisa that her class created. Mr. T, their art teacher, divided the painting into a giant square grid, and each kid painted their reproduction of the original grid.

Sophie liked the backdrops for China - she even stood in front of the Great Wall in one of them!

Here's EJ's class in Italy. She's in the front way holding a blue scarf.

I bought the girls new spring coats - the beautiful one I bought EJ last year was practically up to her elbows she's grown so much! So, she has a nice new green plaid trench coat, and Sophie has this cute little number with matching hat:

Miss S, who works at daycare, was home this week for Spring Break, so we took advantage of her babysitting services and had a night out last night. It's restaurant week in Boston, but we couldn't decide where to go, so we thought we'd just go wander around. Then, my friend L at work mentioned that Movin' Out (theater show based on Billy Joel's music) was in town. On a whim, I went online Thursday night and bought great seats in the front row of the mezzanine. It was fantastic! I LOVE Billy Joel, and the music was very true to his recordings. This show is all dancing (choreographed by Twyla Tharp), very little spoken dialog, and non-stop music by a band that is elevated on a platform above the stage rather than hidden in the pit. The guy who played the piano was Matthew Friedman, and he was amazing. There was a great story about him in the Boston Herald on Friday, which mentioned that he actually played the piano at Billy Joel's wedding a few years ago! He even did justice to the Prelude of Angry Young Man, in which he was seriously channeling Billy Joel. During the curtain calls, he donned his shades and did New York State of Mind. And knowing how to win the hearts of the audience, he put on a Red Sox cap and changed the words to Boston Red Sox State of Mind! Only two more weeks until opening day. I am bumming...Billy Joel and Elton John will be in Boston this summer, but during our summer vacation in Nova Scotia. Argh. I haven't seen him in concert in years, but I'll have to wait a while longer. And I haven't broken the news to EJ yet, but the Jonas Brothers will be in Boston that week too!

We took the girls for Easter portraits yesterday, so I'll have those back in a week or so to show you.

Budgeting

2009-03-15T13:51:00.004-04:00

Sigh. I'm sick of economic bad news and feature stories on how to save money. This one caught my eye today - an article about what is the "right" amount of money that a family should be spending on groceries. I thought it was interesting, because a few months ago, I read another article about how much the average family of four spends on groceries each month. I think it was around $900, which I found shockingly high.

K and I like to cook. A lot. We eat nearly all of our breakfasts at home and most of our dinners, except for one meal out each week and maybe one night of easy takeout (pizza, subs). K eats all of his lunches at home or packs a lunch when he goes to the office. I probably eat lunch three times a week in the cafeteria and pack it the other two days.

We buy a LOT of fresh produce - nearly 1/3 of all our grocery spending goes to produce. Participating in the farmshare this year will raise our produce spending by $500. I expect to save some of that by NOT buying as much at the grocery store. We don't include meat every night, maybe 3 or 4 nights a week, and we try to eat something vegetarian 1-2 nights. I buy store brand for some things, but am convinced that they will never match up with name brands for other things (like, I ONLY eat Ocean Spray cranberry products).

I don't buy many things that are pre-prepared since we like to cook. I don't many things that are in special snack-sized packaging or any other packaging just for the kids. Maybe a dozen things or so fall into this category, all for the sake of convenience - applesauce and fruit cups, kid-flavored yogurt, small pkgs of crasins, cheese sticks...gee, I can't even think of any others! We don't buy much junk food because I would just eat it all! So, very few chips, cookies, etc.

Anyway, I don't know what I would be buying if I spent $900 a month on groceries. That's nearly DOUBLE what I normally spend! K and I use a little budgeting tool called You Need A Budget. It's really just an elaborate set of spreadsheets that does a great job of tracking every penny we spend in about 3 dozen categories. We spent an average of $465/month in the last 12 months on groceries. We spend about $350/month eating out (about $50/each for dinners, $25/each for pizza nights, and about $50/month for my lunches out).

Should I be upgrading my menu at home to include steak and lobster more often? Last night we had a pork roast. Tonight, roast chicken. Pasta tomorrow and ham with cabbage and potatoes/carrots for St. Pat's Day. I think I eat pretty well (too well when I'm counting my Weight Watchers points...)!

What happens when you don't nap

2009-03-08T19:26:00.003-04:00

Miss Sophie caught a quick little snooze on the way home from church this morning and decided that was enough, I guess. I tried to get her to nap after lunch, but no luck. While K and I were cooking dinner tonight, she was playing with some magnets on the fridge. K asked her NOT to slide the magnets up and down on the fridge door so it wouldn't scratch. She put her head down to pout, and the next thing we knew...she was out! She snoozed for another 20 minutes before dinner.

I know we lost an hour of sleep last night, but she went to bed a little later than normal too since we went to dinner in Portsmouth (Muddy River Smokehouse - yum!). So, I thought naptime wouldn't be a problem at all. I was wrong.

It was a beautiful weekend here - in the high 50s and low 60s. Yesterday, I went to Boston to do a travel training class for soon-to-be adoptive parents at our adoption agency. It was so nice to see everyone out and walking around. Lots of runners getting ready for the marathon in a few weeks.

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

2009-03-01T10:02:00.002-05:00

See this map? Guess which area we live in? That's right...that lovely shade of dark purple that is labeled Isolated 15"+. Argh. It's really cold out this morning too - about 20. Which wouldn't be too bad except we had a really mild week - over 60 on Friday! EJ was on school vacation week last week, but my guess is that it will be extended by another day. Her First Communion class for tomorrow has already been cancelled.

This year, we didn't go on our normal getaway to the White Mountains for a few days to go tubing, etc. We decided to wait until the weather is a little warmer and maybe go away for a weekend around the April school vacation week. Except that if we miss more than one day of school, part of April vacation week could be taken away, so we haven't made any plans yet. I would like to go up to Woodstock Vermont for a night or two. There's a great kid's museum near there, the Montshire Museum of Science. And then there's King Arthur's Baker Store. A stroll through the Dartmouth campus in Hanover is always fun, and if we plan it right, the Five College Book Sale!. We'll see.

This week, EJ went to the big kid's program at Sophie's daycare for four days and then to my office on Friday, where she had a blast in the game room at our new building. She played ping pong for the first time in her life, and then had special meetings booked with my boss for a little Guitar Hero Smackdown and the Executive VP for some Wii tennis and baseball. I had to tear her away at the end of the day. It really is a great facility...and it's a Leeds-certified green building. Yesterday, we went with one of her friends to see the Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience. Today? We're just sitting here waiting for the snow to start. And I really need to get the rest of the tax documents together.

Steve Thomas

2009-02-28T13:58:00.003-05:00

Got a card from an old friend.
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/renovation-nation/

Pretty in Pigtails

2009-02-21T21:11:00.004-05:00

Sophie seems to be back to her adorable self. She was out of school all week, which made for a tough week for us. She was discharged from the hospital a week ago and had a follow-up at the doctor's on Monday morning. The doctor was still not happy with the way her lungs sounded, and her oxygen level, while better, still wasn't where it needed to be. Oh, and her ear infection didn't appear to be any better.

We increased the nebulizer use to include a treatment at night as well. And she got a new antibiotic for the ear...one which had the lovely side effect of, um, "messy" diapers? So messy that we went through four outfits on Tuesday. Nice.

Thursday was really the turning point for her, and by the time we went back to the doctor on Friday morning, she was SO much better. The doctor was so happy and excited at how good her lungs sounded, and her oxygen level was just a bit shy of where it should be. YEAH!!! She can go back to school on Monday (and I can go back to working in the office!).

Today, we celebrated by taking her for her passport photo and running a few other errands. One of those errands included a stop at the local hardware store to look at new countertops and maybe a new cabinet for our bathroom. Of course, I was also drawn into the beautiful kitchen cabinet displays, which made me start dreaming about what my kitchen might look night with Shaker style cabinets and something other than almond formica. Perhaps a quick ballpark estimate is in order so I can build this little facelift into my savings plan for the year! We also went out to dinner tonight, since I'm suffering from a bit of cabin fever. Oh, I also enjoyed a much-needed night out with the neighborhood ladies last night...this was a rescheduled night from the Christmas season that was cancelled by the ice storm, and it couldn't have come at a better time after the last ten days!

Happy Valentines Day!

2009-02-14T13:01:00.003-05:00

It has been a rough week for us. Poor Sophie, after being sick for two days, was diagnosed on Thursday afternoon with pneumonia. She and I spent the last two nights at the local hospital. Her oxygen levels were a little low, so she received supplemental oxygen and nebulizer treatments as well as antibiotics. We're happy to be home this morning. She was a real trooper through it all and charmed everyone at the hospital. The staff at the hospital was amazing, and we are thankful that she feels better and that we had such great medical support! She returns to the doctor on Monday for a checkup, and will hopefully be cleared to return to school.

Ready for Spring...

2009-02-07T20:03:00.003-05:00

I know it was warmer here today (near 50!), but gosh, I'm ready for Spring this year. I don't mind snow for Christmas, and January is still so busy cleaning up after the holidays, but honestly, February and March really get to me. Blah.

We had a whole lotta nothin' planned for this weekend. Errands and groceries and laundry yesterday. Church and maybe a passport photo for Sophie today (we're hoping to visit Canada this summer!). K and I have some "rearranging" to do in the attic, both the storage side and the finished side. The finished side is what I call my Everything Else room - K's work desk, the filing cabinet, the treadmill, the sewing machine, etc. Well, I need to fit a few more things into my Everything Else room, so some things are just gonna have to go or find a new home themselves. I've already warned K that in a few weeks, we're tackling the basement. I don't care if we only clean out about 4 linear feet of stuff at a time, but it's time to purge some of that clutter. I'd love to get it organized enough to finish it a bit - cover the insulation on the walls, and build in some lockers at the foot of the stairs for snowpants and boots, etc.

And the other thing To Do in February is to tackle the taxes. I say "tackle", but I really mean "organize", as I learned about a decade ago that it's really not worth my aggravation to try to do them when I can pay a professional. Of course, I have a nice spreadsheet that I hand over with all the paperwork neatly categorized, so he always jokes that I do half the work for him anyway.

A few more signs of Spring...it's already time to send in the paperwork for EJ to go to camp this summer. And, we're doing the CSA (community-supported agriculture) thing this summer, so we sent in our check to participate in a farm share this summer! Basically, you prepay a sum of money to support a local farm, and each week for 18 weeks, you stop by one afternoon and pick up a box full of veggies, as your portion of the harvest. We also bought a fruit share to try out at the same farm - it's 12 weeks. We're really looking forward to it!

A long day

2009-01-31T21:24:00.007-05:00

I'm exhausted and I have a pounding headache. It's way too long of a day, this Chinese New Year party that our agency has. It started at 11, but we left our house around 9:15, as it's at least an hour and 20 minutes to get there if there's no traffic. And if you get there early, you can go in and shop around at the vendors a little.

Before lunch, we met up with other families from our travel group:

Sophie liked this guy in the lobby:

Sophie has been talking all week about meeting Mei Mei, star of a series of DVDs that teach kids Mandarin! Her 8th DVD will be out in March and we can't wait to get it. This year, we bought some Chinese cartoons from her.

Then, we had lunch (Chinese food, of course!) and the entertainment started. The lion dance and dragon dance are everyone's favorite. Sophie stood on my lap and watched intently, clapping and smiling the whole time. She really got into it this year!

We also did some shopping there, picking up a nice silver fortune cookie (about three inches across) that opens to put little notes in, some nice note cards with Chinese characters on them, a book for Sophie and a bracelet for EJ. We won a prize in the raffle again this year - an 8-pack of tickets to Davis Farmland, which has a nice farm and water play park, as well as a giant corn maze in late summer and fall. So, with 8 tickets, we'll be able to visit twice and do it all! We also won an item in the silent auction - it's a beautiful book published by the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) about their International Adoption program.

After we were done at the party, we went to the outlets in Wrentham, since they're just a few miles down the road. I LOVE the Williams Sonoma outlet there! You might remember that last year, I bought a cake pan that made an Easter rabbit. This year, we picked up a pan that makes a standing Santa cake...for only $1.88!!! And then, I bought another cake pan that makes little tea cakes (they call them cakelets) shaped like...vegetables! Yes, don't you think of vegetables when you eat cake? There are little carrots, pea pods, cabbages, and radishes! K just rolled his eyes at me because he knows how completely impractical this purchase was, but it was just too cute to pass up. I also grabbed up a few clearance rack items at Gymboree and Strasburg Children for the girls. We ate dinner at Cracker Barrel and didn't get home until 8:15 PM.

Anyway, some of the photos above were taken by EJ on the new camera she got at Christmas. When I cleaned the photos off, I also found these from Christmas:

EJ on the balcony of the Wang Center when we went to see the Grinch:

Our friends Jose and Brian of San Francisco (formerly of NH), visited over the holidays:

And Pap Pap and Mamaw visited too!

Hiding the Clutter

2009-01-29T21:20:00.007-05:00

I just couldn't take it any longer...the clutter of the CD, DVD, and VHS collection. It started many years ago as Disney videos on the cheap wooden shelf, and then expanded onto another inexpensive wire shelf. And then it started piling up and spilling over. I decided it was time for a better solution, especially since we keep this collection in the formal living room. Not that it's incredibly formal, but it has a nice chair and a secretary's hutch, a deacon's bench and a baby grand piano in it. So, this look wasn't cutting it any more:

And thus began my quest to find a suitable storage device, preferably one that would hide whatever was inside. I found just a few that I liked, that would be big enough with room for expansion, and that fit my price range. This particular model is from Target, but I promise you that you'll find it on every website that you google for "CD DVD Storage". I have to admit that its better made than I expected it to be. I would have preferred something a bit better built, but unless you want to get into something custom (think four figure$ - not in my budget), this was the best option for me.

The poor UPS guy tried to deliver it yesterday, but the snow- and ice-filled 300-foot driveway kept him away! It came today, so I filled it up:

You'll note that there aren't nearly as many VHS cases in there - we have so many of the Disney animated classics on VHS that they wouldn't fit without cluttering, so they will go onto the wooden shelf in the finished attic. Somewhere...you know, with everything else that is in my Everything Else Room up there (K's work desk, our filing cabinet, treadmill, sewing machine, cedar chest, library card catalog, and a queen sized futon).

You'll notice that the doors appear to have a slight separation in them now that they're weighed down with CDs. I might have to consider reshuffling this weekend and putting the CDs in the center section since they're the heaviest part of the collection.

I did learn one thing about our CD music collection. It's pathetic. Music is just not something that K and I have ever spent serious money on. Many of these CDs were purchased in one of those music clubs where you get 10 CDs for a penny and then buy two more in a year. Honestly, if iTunes would have existed back then, 80% of my collection would be outta here. In fact, I'm thinking that some of these CDs (or the one song on them that I'm really interested in) are getting uploaded into iTunes and then tossed. Seriously, we have everything from the Violent Femmes to Vanessa Williams (where did that come from?!?!). We have some good classic stuff that we don't listen to nearly enough (Eagles, James Taylor) to things that I might have listened to once (Verve Pipe). It's pretty bad. I'd be embarrassed to disclose what some of the titles are (although after disclosing Vanessa Williams, could it get worse?). Oh well, that can be a future project to "streamline" the collection.

There are some CDs that I will never part with, despite the fact that they are in my iTunes collection - my complete Billy Joel collection and my favorite musical soundtracks fall into this category.

EJ and Sophie have quite the collection of children's CDs, and all of the DVDs are kiddy-approved. That's something else that we don't spend money on...we're so busy that we rarely go to the movies unless it's with EJ, and we honestly don't even rent that many. Maybe 4 or 5 each year? So, the DVD collection is all kid movies - five Harry Potters, four American Girls, (soon to be) three High School Musicals, two Eloises, at least a dozen musicals, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2009-01-26T16:19:00.003-05:00

Well, ours isn't happy. Poor Sophie is sick. She woke up yesterday morning with a fever, which we were able to get under control with some ibuprofen. She's also very congested. She didn't take a long nap yesterday and she fell asleep on my shoulder at 7 PM last night. She awoke around 2:15 and snuggled in bed with us, but thanks to her stuffiness, she snored and kept me awake. I finally went back to sleep around 4:30 and then snoozed on and off until about 7 this morning. But she still had a little fever this morning. We went to the dr. before lunch, who basically said to keep an eye on it and let her know if it gets worse. At least her lungs sounded clear to the doc and her ears aren't infected. Hopefully, she'll be better by morning.

I was able to snap a shot of her yesterday wearing a cute Chinese fleece jacket that my friend Hong Mei handed down to Sophie from her daughters. It's a bit big, but we just rolled the sleeves up! She was all set to wear it today...maybe tomorrow.

I did manage to make a triple batch of homemade wontons yesterday, so we had wonton soup for dinner last night. And tonight, we're having mandarin chicken. I need to run EJ to first communion class in a few minutes, so K gets to have Sophie when she wakes from her nap and cook dinner! Lucky guy.

EJ took in red envelopes for her classmates today to tell them a little about Chinese New Year. This year, we filled them with bookmarks, bracelets, chopsticks, stickers, and fortune cookies. Sophie will take paper dragon fans to her class tomorrow to color. Here's the description we sent in with EJ to read to her class. It's pretty much the same as last year's, but a good refresher about the holiday:

In 2007, on E’s 8th birthday, we traveled to China to meet her new sister, Sophie LiLei. While traveling in China, we enjoyed learning about its history, food, and customs.

Today, January 26th, is the start of Chinese New Year in 2009. Chinese New Year, sometimes called Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is as important as the Christmas holiday in the United States. The date for the Chinese New Year celebration changes each year--it begins on the day of a new moon. The celebration lasts 14 days. The last day of the celebration is called the Lantern Festival, which occurs around the time of the full moon.

In China, many people travel to visit their families, usually their parents or grandparents, over this holiday. Respecting one’s elders is a very important aspect of Chinese culture. Usually, family members share a large meal. Fish is often served to symbolize abundance, or having extra, for the coming year. Dumplings are also eaten to symbolize wealth. In the evening, fireworks scare away bad spirits.

Often, people wear new clothing to signify the new year. Red decorations, usually with gold trim, symbolize good luck. Many decorations include a diamond-shaped pattern with the Chinese character for Fu, or luck, in the diamond. These decorations hang around the house and on doors. The Chinese Fu character is usually hung upside down, since the Chinese word for “upside down” sounds the same as another Chinese word that means “arrive”, meaning that anticipate the arrival of luck, happiness, and prosperity.

Another tradition in China is cleaning your house from top to bottom in the days before the celebration to sweep away the bad luck. It is also important to have your life “in order”, meaning you should resolve your disagreements and disputes with others.

Our family plans to celebrate Chinese New Year by eating Chinese food for dinner. Maybe we’ll use the pretty porcelain chopsticks we bought while on our trip! We also bought a new Chinese New Year decoration for our house.

This weekend, we will attend a very large party with all the families from our adoption agency. Nearly 2000 people will be there! We attended the party three years ago when we first started waiting for Sophie to join our family. In addition to delicious Chinese food, there will be a lot of musical and dance performances, including a lion and dragon dance to close the party. It is believed that the loud beats of the drum and the deafening sounds of the cymbals together with the face of the dragon or lion dancing aggressively can evict bad or evil spirits.

Each Chinese year is associated with one of 12 animals from the Chinese zodiac. Each animal has its own characteristics. This year will be the Year of the Ox. Some of your zodiac signs might be:

· 1997 (Ox): Dependable, calm, patient, hardworking, ambitious and logical, but might also be stubborn or demanding.
· 1998 (Tiger): Unpredictable, powerful, daring, and sincere and generous, but might also be restless, impatient, or selfish.
· 1999 (Rabbit): Gracious, sensitive, kind, and artistic, but might also be moody and lazy.

A very popular tradition for Chinese New Year is to pass out hongbao (hong-bow) or red envelopes to youngsters as a symbol of prosperity. The envelopes often contain money, usually an even amount. E has some envelopes for you today to help celebrate the holiday.

Kung Hei Fat Choi (kung-hay-fat-choy)! Happy New Year!!!

Brrr...when does Spring start?

2009-01-21T20:37:00.002-05:00

Every year, I post a photo on Truck Day. You know, that "holiday" here in Boston that means Red Sox Spring training is only a week or two away. This year, the Boston Globe couldn't even wait until Truck Day to run a story. THIS was on boston.com today. Good golly...that's like the stores putting out their Christmas decorations in August.

Life is still cruising along here at a slower pace, compliments of weather that's just too cold to go out in. We're already thinking ahead to summer vacations! No big plans last weekend or next. In fact, we might even do a little potty training with Miss Sophie this weekend.

We also have to prepare for Chinese New Year on Monday. EJ has some red envelopes to take into her classmates, complete with some nice little treats. We're sending in fans for Sophie's class to color (I don't think they'll get the red envelope thing just yet - maybe next year). I also plan to make a batch of wontons for wonton soup on Monday.

The following weekend, we'll be at our agency's Chinese New Year party along with about 1500 other people! It's exhausting but a lot of fun and we're looking forward to meeting up with many of our travelmates and some of the folks who write other blogs I follow (listed in the left column). And then, of course, we'll be cheering on the Steelers in the Super Bowl the next day.

EJ planted her face in the driveway today and has a busted lower lip and a swollen upper lip, as well as a nice big scrape on her chin. She decided to hop on her sled for a little while after school and slid down the slope out of the neighbor's yard into our driveway. Except she wasn't sitting or laying down on the sled, she was kneeling. So, when she got to the bottom of the slope and dropped the 18 or so inches off the snow onto the driveway, let's just say she lost her balance. A little ice and some Tylenol are helping now, but it will take a few days to heal up.

Lazy Sunday

2009-01-18T14:52:00.002-05:00

Well, we're trapped in the house again. It has been bitterly cold the last few days and now snow. Lots of it. Maybe 8 inches so far. Ugh.

Friday night, K and I went to my company's annual kickoff party and had a good time. Yesterday, we took the girls out for breakfast and ran a few errands, had a nice long afternoon nap. And then I fell asleep on the couch around 10 last night. Poor S went to bed around 8:30 and never seemed "settled". She was coughing quite a bit, which seemed kind of strange since her cold ended at least a few days earlier. Around 11:15, I heard her and went up, and the poor baby got sick. All over me. Nice. This was the second bad Saturday night in a row. Last weekend, we took her to dinner with friends while we were at a sleepover. She was fussy the whole time and cried most of the way home until the last five minutes. We thought she had fallen asleep in the car, but when we got home and went to get her out, we realized she was sitting in a puddle of a dirty diaper. We got her in the house, stripped her down, and gave her her second bath of the day.

Anyway, she seems much better today and we were hoping to make it to church since we were snowed in last Sunday morning. No luck. The snow was already coming down fast and furious at 7AM. So, we got up and got moving. We baked brownies and stuffed and roasted a chicken for lunch. We plan to just eat munchies while watching football this afternoon. We're hoping for an all-PA Super Bowl, but it would really be much easier for the Steelers if the Eagles would lose today.

K is now baking bread and then I'm going to try to pre-prep some dinners for this week. Sophie is taking a good long nap. I need to do some paperwork and filing. Gosh, I'm ready for summer already. I think we're going to pass on our usual few days in the White Mountains for February school vacation week and wait until maybe early April to go up for a weekend. And what to do for April vacation week? Not sure yet, but warmth sounds nice. Of course, after below-zero temps the last few mornings, anything over 20 is starting to sound "warm".

Catching up

2009-01-14T21:29:00.004-05:00

It's been a while, but we've been a bit busy around here. There's always the post-holiday cleanup a.k.a. finding a place to store all the toys - which usually involves weeding through other older toys, and putting away the decorations.

Last week, everyone went back to school. It feels good to have the kids back in their routines since they were so disrupted by the ice storm and then the holidays. And K and I went back to work, me in my new office digs! My company moved to a wonderful new facility that is simply stunning, so that's been very exciting. There's a great new cafeteria, a gym, and a super game room, complete with four flat-panel TVs, video games, a pool table, ping-pong, and two Wiis! This coming Friday night, we're having our annual kickoff party, so K and I will attend while the fabulous Miss S babysits! This is my sixth annual party with the company - all of which have been scheduled to coincide with either a blizzard (the '04 party at The Hard Rock Cafe in Boston) or single-digit temperatures (every other year). This year will be no different with highs on Friday's forecast at 10 degrees and the low at -5. Brrr...

All the after-school activities have started up again - First Communion, dance, piano, etc. EJ had two birthday parties last weekend, an ice skating party followed by a sleepover. We went to dinner with some friends and then ended up picking EJ up early from her sleepover - she was too tired from the skating and really needed her sleep! EJ had a blast at the ice arena and really did a pretty good job - this was only her second time.

Miss Sophie continues to amaze us all with her chattiness and silliness. She was imitating EJ's dance moves last night in the kitchen and I just couldn't stop laughing. Formal potty-training will begin very soon, but she goes to the potty at every diaper change and is successful for most of them. We've been talking about how excited she will be when can wear big girl panties! K trained EJ when she was 2 years and 5 months using the Potty Training in a Day book (can't remember the official title, but you can find it on Amazon). Sophie will be that old in a few weeks and we think she's even more ready than EJ was, so wish us luck!

Oh well, off to bed. It was busy this evening too...EJ has two tests and a book report due tomorrow, so we were reviewing everything tonight. She read the junior version of Moby Dick and wrote her report as a newspaper article.

On the twelfth day of Christmas...

2009-01-05T20:33:00.005-05:00

...the final picture:

We hope your holiday season was wonderful! Now we are faced with January...new diets (I need to lower my cholesterol about 30-50 points in the next 4 months or so), new resolutions to keep, and yes, even the possibility of ANOTHER ICE STORM tomorrow night! BRING IT ON!!! We are ready for it now...not that I ever want to go 10 days without power again, but just in case...

I don't really do much in the way of "limitation" resolutions because I don't ever stick to them. Instead of NOT doing something, try a resolution to do something different. A few years ago, I resolved to go back and read the "classics" - you know, your high school reading list. As I read each book, I purchased it in hardcopy thinking I would have a wonderful library by the time EJ hit middle school. Sadly, I've not read much of what I intended - maybe a dozen or so titles. Perhaps I'll try to find more time to read this year. Or at least reading something other than good children's literature. Or something other than the book I'm wrapping up now (Artie Lange's Too Fat to Fish).

As for the cholesterol-lowering thing, I did a lot of reading over the holidays to look for super foods to eat in this category. Grapefruit are on the list, despite the fact that you can't eat grapefruit with most cholesterol statins (I'm not taking those...yet). And beans. Lots of beans. In fact, one healthy cookbook that I have said you can lower your cholesterol by about 60 points in 3 months if you eat a cup and a half of beans every day. I don't think so. And of course, oats are good too, but I only like them in cereal (not hot oatmeal) or oatmeal cookies, which probably don't count. I suppose it would help if I moved a bit more too. I did get a nice pedometer from Santa that I should start using.

On the eleventh day of Christmas...

2009-01-04T20:32:00.000-05:00

And this is my favorite pic of EJ...

On the tenth day of Christmas...

2009-01-03T14:25:00.003-05:00

...this is my favorite of Sophie's individual poses this year. I just love the smile on her face.

She's not smiling too much today, though. She has a nasty cold. So nasty that it's even keeping her from taking a good nap today. But the ever-popular Miss Sam is coming to babysit later while K and I go to Portsmouth to try out a restaurant and walk around a bit.

We've started taking down the Christmas decs today. We're about halfway there. The others and tree can wait until tomorrow.

K and E are at the police station for a little visit this afternoon. Not a planned one, though. Someone got hold of our visa account number in early December and used it NOT to buy things for themselves, but to sign K up for AARP and send him a lousy custom T-shirt and a few other silly things. What's weird is that this card had been compromised back in the fall by one of the retailers we use and we've only had the card for 2.5 months. It was literally used for four transactions since then, and it's been nabbed. To clean this one up, we had to get new cards and file a police report so that we can prove to the retailers that we didn't order the stuff (and heck, we aren't ready for AARP just yet!). Ugh. But EJ is fascinated with the idea of visiting the local police station, so she joined in.

On the ninth day of Christmas...

2009-01-02T13:46:00.006-05:00

...we have a few more of EJ's photos. I wish I would have had Sophie's done on the black background, as I like it better than the ones with the fireplace.

K and EJ are at the movies today - "The Tale of Desperaux", which EJ is really looking forward to since she read the book about two years ago (thanks to the recommendation from our children's librarian!). Sophie is napping. She woke up yesterday with a really bad cold and it's still making her miserable. Her poor little nose won't stop running!

On other Sophie matters, she loves some new puzzles from Santa. It's a box with 16 puzzle pieces, making four 4-piece puzzles of Eric Carle (the author/illustrator) bug characters - the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Very Grouchy Ladybug, Very Busy Spider, and Honeybee. I was amazed at how quickly she can do these since they are standard (but large) puzzle piece shapes, and there is no "tray" to help hold the pieces. The first time we opened it was last night, and she immediately was able to figure out which four pieces went together to make each picture. There's just one funny catch - she refuses to put together the ladybug puzzle. She does all the others and then says "Mommy do it". Just before her nap, we did them again and she pointed to the ladybug pieces and said "I don't like", but I don't know why...we've never even read the Very Grouchy Ladybug, but maybe they have it at daycare?

Finally, we believe Sophie is simply going to potty train herself. Every time we change her diaper, she says she'll go to the potty and she does - sometimes three times a day! But that doesn't keep her from using her diaper too. The funniest thing is that we make a REALLY big deal out of going to the potty...when she's done we all hug her and kiss her and tell her how proud we are and she gets a sticker. Then, K tells her to do the potty dance and she wiggles around and says "Oh yeah, uh huh..." We need to get to work on this quickly. A world without diapers sounds lovely right now.

On the eighth day of Christmas...

2009-01-01T09:26:00.002-05:00

...more photos of Sophie during the photo shoot! She's really warmed up to the picture-taking at this point. Of course, she has a camera pointed at her often enough!

We had a nice New Year's Eve. Our friends from Rhode Island are visiting, and we had a nice lunch out (Chinese food), and then stayed in this evening to make homemade pizzas and eat a bunch of other appetizers. As if that wasn't enough, K is making blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast. I think we'll start on those resolutions on Monday! It's bitterly cold her today (about zero) with a fierce wind. We usually go into Boston to walk around on New Year's Day, but not this year! Brrr....

On the seventh day of Christmas...

2008-12-31T11:34:00.002-05:00

...we have another photo from the Christmas photo shoot!

On the sixth day of Christmas...

2008-12-30T13:41:00.007-05:00

...we finally have pics of Christmas morning! EJ's big gifts from Santa were a scooter (declared her favorite gift this year)...

...and a pink digital camera with the accessories:

Mamaw and Pap Pap S bought her a complete snowshoeing kit of a bigger size. A few years ago, they bought her smaller snowshoes, but she's outgrown them and she loves to snowshoe so much! I need to get out there and exercise more with her! Did you know that snowshoeing can burn about 1000 calories per hour?!?! It's even part of the school phys ed curriculum here in our NH town (when the weather cooperates).

Grandma and Grandpap H bought each girl a portable DVD player to help keep them busy in the car! Yeah!

EJ also got really cool Camp Rock gear (hat, purse, Tshirts) from her cousin H. She also received a whole bunch of Hannah Montana stuff (bath kit, pjs, and sweatshirt) and High School Musical stuff (shirt and sweatshirt). A full tweener wardrobe!

EJ got Sophie a Sit and Spin. They have several of these in the church nursery and Sophie just loves to play on them:

Santa brought her a Peek-a-Boo Curious George:

...and a laptop computer (since she always insists on being on my lap when I'm working!):

...and a wooden train set:

...and a beautiful Asian baby doll! She also received a really beautiful Cabbage Patch Doll from Mamaw and Pap Pap S, along with a nice set of CD-read along books!

EJ and I went to see Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories yesterday. It was a great movie - we highly recommend it for kids!

On the fifth day of Christmas...

2008-12-29T10:42:00.004-05:00

...we have photos from Christmas Eve! We left the house around noon and went to my cousin's first. Her parents were visiting, and so my dad and his brother got to visit with each other, even for a short time. EJ and M enjoyed playing in the SuperFort we bought for M's big brother P.

Then it was off to an early church service at 2:30. This allowed us to get home and still have time for our traditional seafood crepe dinner. But before we ate, we took some photos by the tree. Here are the girls with Mamaw and Pap Pap S:

And a few by themselves:

And one that Miss Sophie insisted I take before anyone else was ready:

After dinner, it was time to put out the milk and cookies and read "Twas the Night Before Christmas".

On the fourth day of Christmas...

2008-12-28T07:42:00.003-05:00

...there was a Christmas pageant! This pageant was held two weeks ago, just a few days into the power outage. K stayed home to babysit the newly-installed generator, and I took EJ and Sophie for the evening. Our church has enough kids to have two pageants each year - the same one on two different weekends. That way, everyone can participate.

EJ was SO excited to be Mary this year. Since she was three, she has been an angel in the pageant, and as much as she loves the angel costumes, she liked being able to be someone different this year.

After the pageant, we always have a big potluck dinner (Lutherans really know how to have potlucks. And Garrison Keillor would be proud...there was jello salad.) Dinner is followed by a talent show where the kids in the church can play and instrument, sing, dance, do magic tricks, sit in yoga poses, or show off karate kicks. EJ played the piano again this year - Away in a Manger.

Pap Pap and Mamaw are leaving today to visit my brother's family for a few days. I'm hoping to catch up on the laundry and visit the local LLBean outlet for some after-holiday shopping!

On the third day of Christmas...

2008-12-27T07:55:00.005-05:00

...we have photos of our tree-decorating evening. Sophie enjoyed helping with the beads

but got bored pretty quickly and joined her big sister on the couch to watch a Christmas movie instead.

EJ does like putting the star on top each year. This year, we remembered to have her do it BEFORE all the other ornaments were hung!

We asked Sophie where the star was, and she showed us:

Here's Sophie hanging a Christmas ornament for the very first time!

Then, she got all snuggled in her pjs and went to work.

Of course, most of her ornaments ended up in the same place. On the same branch, actually:

What I remember most about this evening is that the power went out about an hour after the last photo was taken.

Yesterday was a great day - my cousin and her kids came up for a few hours and had lunch with us. K and Dad put a new light in the kitchen (the older fixture was out of commission for the past few weeks), and then our friends J and B from San Francisco (formerly of NH) stopped in for a little while since they were in the area this week. It was so nice to see them! We went out for our favorite pizza last night and just relaxed.

Today, EJ and I are heading into Boston. Santa brings theater tickets almost every year, and this year was no exception. There was an envelope slid under EJ's door with two tickets for "How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the musical" for this afternoon's matinee. We also need to make a quick stop at the Crocs store in Fanieul Hall, as Santa brought EJ a pair of Electric Blue Mammoth crocs (the ones with the fur lining), but they are the wrong size!

On the second day of Christmas...

2008-12-26T09:31:00.003-05:00

...we have pics of the girls with Santa! They visited Santa twice this year - the first shot is from the local mall in mid-November. On the way to the mall that evening, we coached Sophie to tell Santa she had been a good girl and that she should ask for toys! When we got there, she stared at him and seemed a little unsure at first, but with big sister holding her hand, they walked up and talked for a few minutes. Sophie finally spit out: "Good girl. Bring toys!" Then, I lifted her up onto his lap, and she even smiled for the photo! EJ asked for Monopoly for Christmas, and when Santa asked if there was anything else she could think of, she said NO! He obliged, and a version of Monopoly was safely delivered under the tree - she and Pap Pap and Mamaw are in the middle of a game now.

A few weeks later, we saw the big guy again when he came to have breakfast with the kids at EJ's school. She was used to the routine by now and crawled right up into his arms.

Today is a slow day here - YEAH!!!! My cousin and her kids are on their way up to visit, and we're going out for dinner tonight. No more cooking! I love to cook, but after a few days of big meals, we're opting for leftovers for lunch today and pizza at Flatbreads tonight for dinner!

On the first day of Christmas...

2008-12-25T19:29:00.001-05:00

Here's this year's official photo...look for others from the same photo shoot over the next few days, as well as Christmas Eve and Christmas morning shots, pics with Santa, and EJ's appearance as Mary in the church pageant. Hope your day was wonderful!

Merry Christmas to all...

2008-12-24T20:02:00.002-05:00

...and to all a good night!

So, I couldn't start my 12 days of Christmas posts last weekend due to the ice storm, so I'll start them tomorrow.

Hooray! We have power!

2008-12-21T20:18:00.004-05:00

Sophie was very excited that the power came back on! Actually this photo was taken a few days ago, but too cute to pass up!

The power finally came back just about two hours ago after 10 LONG days. Here are some photos that I took on the day after the storm.

One of my two Japanese maple trees in the front yard:

The view down my street taken from the end of my driveway:

EJ went out to pick frozen leaves from the shrubs. Notice how long the icicles are are the leaves!

A pic of my neighbor's oak tree. All of the branches are broken or bent and pointing downward.

A shot from the house down the driveway. Our drive is about 300 feet long. Note the little trees laying on the power lines to the house. Those weren't the problem, though. Apparently, our circuit, which powers up to 2200 homes, was a problem in this storm.

I'm so glad it's over. On Thursday, the power company thought they would have us back up by Friday, but then on Friday morning, they changed that estimate to Sunday. As of about 5pm, it wasn't looking good, but then we saw the blinking yellow lights on the corner. K drove down to get more gasoline for the generator and the snowblower (oh yeah, we've had about a foot of snow today, and it's still coming down), and saw them working on the line. We were so excited that I ran out a big sampling Christmas cookies for the line workers to thank them.

Still no power...

2008-12-18T13:15:00.000-05:00

Just an update that we STILL have no power, but hope to in the next day or so. We've seen work crews around our town finally. EJ had school today, which is a good sign since most of the town must have power for that to happen, right?

Ice Age

2008-12-13T18:52:00.003-05:00

Hi all...just wanted to give everyone an update. We have been without power since about midnight Thursday night, and we don't expect to have it back anytime soon. Things are very bad in NH. Most of the houses in our neighborhood have power lines pulled away from the house, as tree limbs knocked them down. Not good. It could be several more days before we have power. We are spending the nights with my cousin about 30 miles away for now. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.