Carnivals and the State Fair

Carnivals....we've definitely had a festive July this year. Once we returned from VA Beach, the church near our development held their annual carnival fundraiser. So, of course we had to go....especially once Maddie got to see all of the carnival rides just, you know, sitting there right near our house!


Maddie wanted to ride every ride there was...of course she enjoyed the flying dragons though, they were one of her favorite. Along with the Carousel of course!


What would a carnival be without carnival food? We enjoyed our slice of pizza and Daddy shared his ice cream with Maddie.


Nana came to visit this weekend! I had to work at the State Fair on Saturday, so Daddy, Maddie and Nana came down and once I was done, we wandered the fair...the first time ever for me! Nana even road the big ferris wheel with Maddie and me!


Maddie was thoroughly unimpressed with the farm animals at the State Fair. In the children's area Maddie did pet a sheep, was afraid of the mule, and the terror screams occurred when she saw the big sheep and pigs in the main building. She wanted nothing to do with them, and just wanted to be "up" and held by Mommy and Daddy. I guess we really haven't exposed her to much in the way of farm animals before...although, I think the last time was at Millburn Orchards. She really liked the wild animals in the fish & wildlife exhibit though. That's my girl...

On the other side of the fair was the carnival! Just like the one that was near our house earlier in July only 10 times bigger! She knew exactly what it meant...RIDES! This photo is her favorite. It went up and then "dropped", caught itself then "dropped" again. Big grins and giggles...

At some point this summer we'll just "be home", not sure when yet though ;)

Reunion in VA Beach

We spent the week after the 4th of July down in Virginia Beach at the ChangDeKids Reunion. Maddie had a great time playing with her ChangDe friends - and that is what she called them. Either that or her "best friend". She now has alot of best friends....This is the 4th ChangDeKids Reunion, they have one every 2 years, and this is the first one we've attended. Somehow, I got to be one of the co-chairs for this one - odd that a first-timer was a co-chair, but maybe it wasn't so odd as I was so naieve? ;) After several months of planning, and TONS of emails back and forth with the co-chairs, I do have to say that it seemed to have gone pretty well. We had 28 families attend from the US and Canada. Families travelled from AK, ME, FL, NH, VA, IL, NJ, PA, DE, OH, etc... Shall we say there was a pretty good turnout. The kids ranged in age from 12 to 3 so the beach turned out to be a good place...what more do you need beyond sand and surf to entertain? It was wonderful to meet all of the families and kids - especially those that I had been emailing with for so long. We look forward to the next reunion where ever it will be!


Here is Maddie with her baby turtle hatchling checking out the beach from our patio in our hotel room. As you can see, we were right on the beach, at the north end of the boardwalk which made it nice and quiet.


The first day was overcast and we did get rained on for just a little bit, more of a sprinkle than actual rain though. It didn't dampen the fun of being on the beach. Maddie wanted to boogie board just like all of the other kids. So she stood waiting for the waves to come to her *grin* She wore her wetsuit the first day in the ocean (from the cold water experience in NJ it made sense) but the water was MUCH warmer in VA Beach. Maddie is also obsessed with getting a bikini. Apparently all her her friends had bikinis and now she wants one too.


One morning we went to the Virginia Marine Science Center where the kids got to explore some of the critters of the area. Here is Maddie at the touch tank with the rays.


Another morning we chartered our own boat to go on a dolphin watch. We definitely saw them! Getting them on film was much, much, much more difficult. So, you'll have to trust me that we saw them...or perhaps Paul (official reunion photographer) was able to get them on film...we will have to wait and see!


Lots of fun was had on the beach and in the pools, both the outdoor pools and the lazy river pool that had waterfalls and caves. You'll also note I'm trying to not put full face photos of the other kids on the blog for privacy reasons.


After a yummy dinner at Waterman's on the boardwalk, the kids couldn't resist the call of the sand and they set off to bury each other! Another obsession that Maddie had during this trip was braids. She wanted to have her hair in braids every single day. Now, I'm not the best at braiding hair...heck, I still have trouble getting a straight part to put her hair in pigtails...but I did my best, and to her, there were GREAT!


The group also had a good ole Chesapeake Bay Crabfeast at First Landing State Park. It was a great location. We had a pavillion to ourselves along with a playground, fire pit and huge area with trees for the kids to run around and play in. One of the moms organized some games for the kids which was alot of fun. After picking crabs, hamburgers and hotdogs (and corn!) there were smores and singing around the campfire. Good times.

As I said, we had a good time at the Reunion and I know Maddie enjoyed spending time with her friends from ChangDe...

4th of July in Jersey

We spent a wonderful long weekend down the shore with part of the family on LBI. It was a good weekend, even with some occasional rain spurts coming through. We did get to do quite a bit, first and foremost was meeting my new nephew Grant!

Pop-pop built a new bigger playset for the kids to enjoy. Only with a minor mishap that left him with a brush burn/cut on his upper lip and arm! Dad - when building things remember to ask for help! The kids loved the playset, especially the swings. During this weekend Maddie learned how to swing herself with the help of her cousins showing her how.

Winding down from a long, hard day of playing. Pop-pop, Gavin, Maddie and Guilian cuddle up under the blanket to get a little cartoon time before bed. I have learned that Gavin and Guilian are Sponge-Bob, Square-Pants fans...BIG fans! If he's on the TV, you can forget getting their attention unless you stand infront of the TV *grin*


In the quiots matchup of the century...Tina VS Kevin! Tina was handicapped by holding baby Grant the entire time but still managed to whip Kevin's butt! (you know I had to document it in photos didn't you!)

Maddie holding baby Grant on Uncle Kevin and Aunt Tina's boat on the 4th of July. While I was holding him he was crying, Maddie came up to me and informed me that he was crying because he wanted her to hold him! So...she got to hold him (with a little help) and wouldn't you know it...he stopped crying. Who said that kids can't communicate with each other!

Here is Gulian and Maddie getting ready for the fireworks to go off over the bay. Uncle Kevin and Aunt Tina took us out on their boat to watch the fireworks from the water. We grabbed some subs, and some very messy cupcakes (ok, they were a bad idea even though they looked really good) and went for a boat ride until we found the perfect spot, which was then surrounded by other boats that had the same idea. The oddest boat was a party boat...a floating raft with park benches on it as well as a tiki bar!

A trip down the shore wouldn't be complete without a dip in the water! Here is Maddie at the bathing beach styling in her wetsuit. The water temp was 58 degrees!!! Very cold! But it didn't dampen Maddie's enthusiasm for getting in the water.

Next post will have photos from the ChangDeKids Reunion in Virgina Beach....

Long overdue update

Yes, I've been scolded enough times by many of you to know that I really, really need to download pictures from my cameras and post those photos! Apparently, there are several of you in need of a Maddie fix. Ok, fine, I can understand that, no problem. So, without further delay...I bring to you a photo essay of the past two months!

Maddie smelling the flowers during a visit at Nana's house. Watch out though if she spots a butterfly or some sort of bug...she'll be screeching and running toward the nearest adult. This has happened when a little butterfly caught her off guard while she was looking at flowers with Nana. Scared the dickens out of her thinking the butterfly was coming to get her.


No, this is not a theme of a girl with flowers post...this photo was actually taken in early May during Old Dover Days that I really like. Yes, even though it's blurry...I'll just blame the camera if that's alright with you.


Maddie enjoyed going to her friend Nina's birthday party at a Pump It Up place. Here she is flying down the big slide, about ready to slide into her friends. We've been to this place once before for another friend's birthday party a couple of months ago. At that time, Maddie got to the top of the slide and decided that it was too scary and had to be brought back down.


In May, we went down to one Sunday afternoon to Crisfield for a family reunion. I think we knew 8 or 9 people out of the 60 that came. Hence Daddy's name tag.

May also brought us a new "first" in our household. Maddie got her toenails painted like Mommy. Here is the proof. She was SOOOO excited although my sister thought I should have chosen a color less "tarty" *laugh* It's the color I wear, and it's the only one I have in the house.

Memorial Day weekend brought us down the shore where we had a wonderful weekend with the "fam". Maddie had a blast playing with cousin Molly.

In June we went to the Annual Chinese Festival at the Chinese American Community Center. There was Maddie had a blast, saw the show, two dragon dances, the lion dance and Maddie's favorite....the Monkey King! Had some yummy Chinese food, made a lantern craft and had an all around good time. We also had a chance to meet up with Kelly, Bob, Ethan, Evan and Erin at a Mom to 3 E's. Maddie is 2 months older than Erin, both adopted from China, both adorable and cute together. We'll be getting together again soon, once all of our vacations are over. I would post a picture of Maddie and Erin together but her blog is password protected so I won't put it up here. Instead, you'll have to make due with a picture of Maddie and the drums.

She watched the drummers intently during the dragon dance and when the "coast was clear" she made it over to the drums and *gasp* touched them ever so gently. Then she brought her hand down a little harder and it made that wonderful drum sound she giggled and got a great big grin on her face. We told her not to play the drum, it was not a toy...but the toddler in her got the better of her and she peered around and brought her hand down again making the drum sound and then literally high-tailed it out of there back to us looking behind her to see if something or someone was going to do something about the illicit drumming that took place. I couldn't help but laugh - so sue me.

This past weekend was a treat! We went up to PA to visit Auntie Nikki, Uncle Scott, Auntie Amy and Lily at Nikki's parent's house. Nikki and Scott, who live in MA, were down for a visit and visit we did! Some good chatting and barbeque topped off with swimming in the cool refreshing pool - here is Maddie, Daddy, Uncle Scott, Auntie Nikki, Auntie Amy and Lily. We hadn't seen Auntie Amy or Lily in a while either so this was an extra special treat! Lily was in a touring mood walking all over the place with big toddler grins! Adorable! Maddie loved the dress up shoes and jewelry from Nikki and Scott (by the way, she is STILL wearing them and carrying the different shoe sets around to switch out to match her mood for the minute). Swimming was a huge hit...although that was no suprise, Maddie loves the water. What WAS a surprise was she somewhere decided between last week at swimming lessons and this visit that she liked to jump into the pool and go under getting all wet. With her life jacket on she can swim around the pool quite well...apparently she thinks so too as she turned away from one of us, looked out to the deeper water to see Daddy swimming there, to which she yelled (yes, yelled, loud enough to make the life guard laugh) "Daddy, I'll save you!" and she started swimming out to the deep water to "save" him. She can really move too... It was a very nice visit, good to see Nikki's family as well. Oh, and I do have a photo of Nikki's Dad working the dress up thing, but I'll let Nikki's Mom spring that onto people in their christmas card. *grin* It's hard to believe that we've been friends for *cough* twenty *cough* years. I love you guys - I wish we all could get together more often. Right now we're planning a fall visit to MA...so look out!