Birthdays & Egg Hunt

Have a Happy Easter!!

Happy St.Patrick's Day!!

Here's a few photos of the Posse this morning - celebrating St. Patricks Day!!

Josie's tiara says "Irish Princess", and that she is! The other lovelies are Roma, Megan, Riley and Nicholas. I was actually a bit early for drop-off this morning, so I didn't get to see all the kids in their 'green'. I should have a few more to share once Sharon gets me her photos... Sharon was the 'Good Mom' today - she made it to the Leprechaun Hunt to take photos. Other slacker Moms (like me!) got to the school at regular pick-up time.

Our Chinese New Year 09

This year we decided to celebrate Chinese New Year with Josie's preschool class. Because of snow days, our celebration was delayed until today. I will say, right here at the start, that teachers are not paid enough. After just an hour of directing the class in making Chinese Lanterns - I was beat!

We started with circle time. I read this book to the class:


(sorry for the flash glare!)

This book does a beautiful job of explaining the preparations and traditions of the Chinese New Year. It details the traditional foods associated with the holiday and their meanings. The pictures are colorful and large. Excellent for preschoolers.

Once I read the book, we moved to tables and made our Chinese lanterns. We started by decorating the paper with Chinese stamps of bamboo leave; symbols for happiness, wealth, and love; cherry blossoms; and fans. Then we used our safety scissors to cut the paper, glued the edges together and stapled on the handles.

Once the lanterns were done, I showed the kids what was inside their "Chinese take-out gift box". We gave them a tangerine (for a sweet life); a Chinese Noise maker (to wake up the dragon so he could bring on the Spring rains); a traditional 'red envelope' with a gold $1 coin inside (for wealth/prosperity); some Haw Flakes (a Chinese pressed fruit wafer/candy and two pieces of 'Good Luck' candy.

The kids were thrilled when they found out they got candy AND money. Bonus day, no doubt! We then posed for a photo while shouting "Gung Hay Fat Choy!"



Here's a final shot of Josie showing off her beautiful New Years dress:



Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

Maddie and Friends celebrating the New Year at our local 'First Night' event.

Happy New Year one and all! I hope everyone is as excited about the New Year as I am! We had a wonderful Christmas - shared with my parents who surprised us with a last minute visit. We had been asking them to come to Virginia for the holiday, but they didn't think they could for a number of reasons. I got a call from my Mom on the morning of Dec. 23rd asking if the invitation was still open. Of course it was! She asked me to keep their arrival a secret - they wanted to surprise the girls. Well, all I can say is you should have seen Josie's face later that afternoon, when she woke up from her nap and her Grandmom was there waiting for her! Pure Joy! Here are some photos from our Christmas:

PopPop and Josie hand out presents:


Maddie loves her new iPhone!


Josie 'rock out' on her new Princess Guitar:


Josie is a total Grandmom's girl! That goes for both her grandmothers. In my family, the kids all go for PopPop - he's big fun. He teases, plays, jokes and basically acts just like one of them! Grandmom is quieter, more patient and all about kisses & hugs. Josie is much more quiet and shy than her sister or cousins. She prefers her Grandmom hands down above all of us. She tells her all the time that she needs to come Virginia and live with us. They play 'puppets' together - with Grandmom donning her tiara to play the Queen (Josie is a princess). They cook together, read together and cuddle. Needless to say, they are both in heaven when they are together.

Josie's MaMa (James' Mom) is also very close to her heart. MaMa is an active player and participant when Josie is around. She's also one of the few people that Josie will talk to on the phone. If you listen closely when Josie talks, you can see how she puts things together in her head... California equals MaMa and GungGung, Disneyland and Dave (James' dear friend for over 20 years) She is such a smart and loving child, I can't imagine what our lives would be like without her.

Maddie has also been such a source of pride these past few months. Her first semester of High School has been a combination of joy, worry, and maturity. The curriculum at her school is intense. She has been learning how to organize her work and time to achieve her goals. She has 8 classes: The Sacred Scriptures (religion); Algebra; English; Physics; World History; French; The Human Person (bioethics) and Dance. Her grades are good but she has trouble balancing her effort... straight A's in one course, and C's in another. When she focuses her energy on bringing up the 'C', her grades in the other classes start to falter. I worry constantly. But, I also remind myself (and James!) that it's all on her now. We can't sit in her classes for her or take her tests - all we can do is offer our help and hope for the best. It's hard letting go...

Maddie has made some wonderful friends at school. She has also begun dating! This is a strange and new world for James & me. We have a policy of 'no car dates' until she is 16. Meaning, she is free to have group outings or dates where we know where she going, how long she will be there, who will be present and we drop her off and pick her up. This is working out well. The young man she is currently 'dating' is a nice guy. They meet at one of our local coffee shops, attend teen concerts together and find other activities in our small downtown. He is respectful of Maddie and our rules. I won't go into any more detail because Maddie has been rather 'sensitive' about 'everyone knowing her business'. (Those of you with teenagers will understand this...)

Which brings me to explain that I am planning some changes for this site...

We've been going through a lot of changes here. I had given a lot of thought to continuing this blog. In all honesty, I really love having this blog to share photos of the girls with friends and family. Lately, however, all I've been doing is reporting and not really sharing any thoughts.

I started this blog back in 2005 while waiting for our referral for Josie. Back then, it was all about paperwork, preparation, anxiety over the wait and finally- getting our referral. It's been 3 years since we got 'The Call'. I received so much support from the adoption community - I've come to know some of those parents on a personal level and that has really enriched all of our lives.

It's always been about the kids. James and I have just been the background players to the true stars in our lives, Our Girls. But, now Josie is in pre-school and Maddie is in High School... and quite honestly, there isn't really that much to report when you take into consideration how routine our lives have become. Also, it's sometimes difficult to try to put a positive spin on teenage angst and toddler drama. I have always been afraid that if I shared my true thoughts or observations that I would end up offending someone. In trying to be somewhat diplomatic and impartial - I've neglected sharing a huge part of our lives.

James & I have made so many new friends this year. At this point in my life, I didn't expect to make any 'true, real friends'. I always felt that those friends whom I have know for a long time would understand me better, accept me and my thoughts more readily. I no longer feel that way. James and I have made friends who have become like family to us - and over the course of the past few years I've neglected to share details about these wonderful folks. I hope to remedy that with the changes I make with this blog - starting now. I hope to introduce all of you to the people who have brought us so much love and joy.

So, with that long winded explanation given, I'll tell you all that our blog will no longer be just about the girls. Though we are only a family of four, our extended family is huge! I can't wait to get started with the introductions and to share with you the whole canvas of our lives. I will be blogging much more frequently, so to those of you who check in regularly - Thanks for sticking with us.

Until next time....

Early Christmas

Although it was only an hour and a half drive up to my sister Claudine's house, this is what the girls looked like on the way there! We left at 9:30 AM. Bunch of slacker, my girls are! As we pulled into the driveway we found that Suzanne & Greg were right behind us, having left Philadelphia a bit earlier - like us. We had a nice day, but Josie never left the Christmas tree, waiting patiently until it was time to open presents.

Once everyone had arrived we had a nice light lunch and let the kids open their gifts. In my family, we open gifts from the youngest to the oldest. That way, everyone gets to see what everyone else got. Jack (our nephew) was totally bummed out to remember that he wasn't the youngest anymore - Josie got to go first.

Here's the progression of happy faces from Saturday afternoon:

Jack - who received all things 'Baltimore Ravens'


Kate - who love clothes and snow globes


Liam - who shows off his Manchester United jersey from Aunt Claudine


Maddie showing off the hat & gloves she received from Aunt Claudine. (Aunt Claudine gives the coolest gifts!)


Zack (being supervised by Liam) opens one of many 'gift cards' (the favorite of teens everywhere!)


James opens his 'Philadelphia Phillies World Champions' T-shirt from BIL Greg. (It's a long story, but it started when Liam was about 3 and Zack was 8 and we sent them home from the beach in LA Dodgers hats and T-shirts!) The rivalry continues...


Josie gives her Grandmom a hand opening a present


Suzanne gives Mom a hand in reading a note from our Dad (His gift to her was a trip to Atlantic City with $$ spending money!)



Pop opens a gift while wearing his new Phillies hat


We all had a lovely time and received extremely generous gifts. We headed home around 8 PM and we were just about 3 blocks down the road before Josie crashed. She had so much excitement being around her cousins - combined with a lack of a nap - that our little angel just toughed it out as long as she could! Maddie fell asleep too. Upon our arrival home, she fed the dogs and went up to bed. She slept until 2 the next afternoon! (She finished mid term exams on Friday, so she's been keeping some late hours!)

More to follow...

Seasons Greetings

I haven't posted since before Thanksgiving- it's been a hectic season. We've been having a lot of fun, so I'll give a rundown of what's been going on...

Back in early December, Maddie got a phone call from one of her middle school classmates. Jeri was responsible for finding 'elves' to help out with a Christmas luncheon being held for underprivileged children and their families. Two elves were unable to meet their commitment, so Maddie was asked to fill in. She departed at 8 AM the following morning in her elf suit. (of course, I grabbed the camera before she left!) Maddie had a wonderful time. She reported that the kids were just adorable and the families were so appreciative. I'm thankful to Jeri and her mom, Donna, for giving Maddie the opportunity to start off the season in proper fashion - it put things in perspective for her... We are so blessed with warm clothes, a comfortable home and loving family around us.

Moving on, last Friday Josie's pre-school enjoyed 'Breakfast with Santa Claus'. The children sang Christmas songs, had a light breakfast and then waited patiently to sit on Santa's lap.

Here's Josie and her classmates singing:





Here's Meghan improvising a dance to go along with the songs:



Santa caused a mob scene when he appeared on the balcony. By the time he made it downstairs to the party, everyone was so excited! Josie was literally jumping for joy!



Here's Josie sitting on Santa's lap. Have to give Santa his props - there were over 100 children present (all 3 and 4 year olds) and he managed to get time to speak with each and every one of them. Josie told Santa she wanted a Barbie. She's still a bit 'iffy' about the big guy, so when she sat on his lap- I was thrilled.



The following two days were filled with shopping and attending friend's Christmas parties. On Saturday, we joined Dave and Lisa and received a wonderful gift (I'll share a photo later) and on Sunday, we attended Ed & Martys annual Christmas gathering.

This week, we had Josie's class performance of the Nativity. Not many photos from that one, as I arrived only 15 minutes early and was only able to get a back row seat. Apparently, you have to stake your claim on seats at least an hour in advance. Also, Josie was not on her best behavior - I'll explain in the next post....

In two days (Saturday the 20th) we will be celebrating an early Christmas with my family at my sister Claudine's house in Maryland. My older sister, Sue, BIL Greg and our two nephews, Zack & Liam, will be driving down from Philly. My brother's family and ours will be driving up from Virginia and Mom & Dad will be coming in from Delaware. Should be a lot of fun. Josie is so excited to see her cousins! She asked if her other cousins, Alex, Brandon, Alicia and Zoe would be there. She was terribly disappointed when we explained that they lived in California and wouldn't be making the trip. So, for our family in CA - please know that we miss you and are thinking of you everyday.

Special shout out to my darling Mother in Law, Shirley, who broke her shoulder this past week. We've been checking in daily to ensure that she and Dad are doing okay. Please keep a good thought for her speedy recovery.

I'll have some time tomorrow to share more news and photos. Maddie has been on half days all this week because of finals. She has only 1 tomorrow - so she'll be around to lend a hand with Josie. This will give me a chance upload more photos and spend a bit of time on line. I hope that all of you are enjoying the holiday season. See you soon!

Halloween 08

We had a wonderful Halloween! We started out on Thursday,with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch with Josie's preschool class. We learned about bees and how honey is made; we learned about how pumpkins grow and we learned about all different kind of farm animals. Goats, Sheep, Pigs, Roosters and Cows.

I also learned to double check my camera before packing it - as I neglected to put the battery back in my camera after I charged it . Thus, no photos of the pumpkin patch. I don't think the kids would have stood still long enough for a photo, though. It was VERY COLD for our morning outing - when we arrived at 9:20 it was 48 degrees with a 15-20 MPH wind!! We dressed properly, but that wind cut through us.

Here's Josie just after carving her pumpkin:



And here is Josie's 'scary face':



On Friday Morning we celebrated the Fall Festival at Josie's Preschool. And it was a hoot! The kids were just adorable and there was so much to do! They had game booths, a parade and then a party. James and I had a ball with Josie. It was great to see how much the other parents used their creativity in the kids costumes and how much they really got into the whole Halloween spirit:

Here's Josie with part of her Preschool posse: Megan, Roma, Josie and Riley:



Here's Josie in her costume:



And here are a few of the other costumes we just loved:











Here are Josie and her friends enjoying the festivities:











We thought that the best costume by far was worn by Josie's teacher, Mrs. J. She looked just awesome as Madeline! And in a nod to the wonderful books, Sr. Mary Vincent posed as Mrs. Clavell for my photos. Just loved the spirit of these two wonderful ladies!!:






I will post a few more photos of our actual Halloween night. Very subdued this year, which was a surprise because it was a Friday night and it wasn't really too cold. Anyway, next post will have some of Maddie and Josie in costume...