Happy Thanksgiving!

This may come as a shock to those of you that know us...but we invited people over for Thanksgiving dinner at our house, and people (people that KNOW US, and my infamous inability to cook) came anyway! That's correct! We had MomMom, PopPop, Nana, and Great Aunt Carol over, although, I do believe that they came more for a visit with Maddie than our turkey and stuffing... But hey, we'll take what we can get *grin*

It was a good day which started out interesting (ok, interesting is a relative term remember)...in general, Maddie doesn't really show much of a preference in the clothes she wears from day to day. I give her some choices if she wants to wear pants or jeans, which dress, etc... For Thanksgiving I had a nice dress picked out for her to be all cute for the day people were coming to visit but that plan fell by the wayside as Maddie made it very clear that she wanted to wear her "Chinese clothes", so I go into the closet to retrieve a gold pantsuit, only to be told that no, she wanted to wear her red Chinese dress...so that's what she wore. (Between you and me, she was still cute in that dress too!)

Maddie posing for the camera....for some reason, she now thinks that when you pose, you need to have your hands on your hips.

Maddie pushing her bear in the stroller, entertaining company on Thanksgiving.

Adventures in Portraits...

In the past, we've gone to Kiddie Kandids for our pictures of Maddie. All in all I've been quite happy with them. They get good pictures of her smiling, in a variety of poses...to the point that I spend so much time trying to pick a couple of pictures because in the end I want a copy of all of them! Well, this year, we wanted to have a family portrait done, so Kiddie Kandids were out...they do kids. So, we ventured into the realm of JCPenny Portrait Studios this weekend. Maddie had her normal "I'm scared" response for a while, but we were able to get some good pictures of the three of us as well as some of Maddie alone. I was a little disappointed with the family shots when I compare them with what they have on their site...unusual pictures of different combinations Daddy/Daughter, Mommy/Daughter, Mommy/Daddy, All three...I think that is what I was hoping for, but instead there were 3 poses with all 3 of us together and then 2 poses of Maddie alone...we had 10 pictures to choose from for the order of pictures. Now, I don't know about you but I was SHOCKED at how expensive their pictures were when you actually print them. I guess I was used to Kiddie Kandids options, prices and the fact that you walk away with the pictures on the SAME DAY. For everyone's information: This is NOT true at JCPenny...we won't get our pictures until Dec 4th, and can only pick them up Mon - Fri, not on weekends. I'm wondering if my sort of disappointment with JCPenny stemmed from me not being pro-active about the poses I was interested in vs how freaking busy they were due to the holidays. Well, we live and learn...we have pictures coming of all 3 of us together which is what I really wanted.

So, you'll all have to wait to see these gems, but until then....a gratuitous shot of Maddie...

I-Link visit to Children's Garden...

Poor Daddy had to work today, but Mommy and Maddie went with our I-Link friends (international adoption group) to the Children's Garden at Longwood Gardens. So it was good friends, good times all around - we explored the Children's Garden, went on a Stamp hunt through the Conservancy, grabbed some lunch and then went to the Craft room for the kids to color, play, etc. After that it was time to head home...Maddie fell asleep 10 minutes into the ride home, and is still fast asleep. I would definately go back again. But a message to parents...be warned and ready...the Children's garden is FULL of fountains for the kids to play in/around. So, come prepared (pack a change of clothes), let your kids be kids and let them play and splash around!

Here is Maddie enjoying the fountain. There are large creatures spouting water into the center of this fountain, and these things which she loved.

Think she was enjoying herself? I think the big grin gives it away!


Yet another of the 17 different fountains just for kids...very much a Please Touch place!

Maddie enjoying coloring with chalk on a blackboard that had beautiful painting on it with Dragons and flowers and birds...

Some of the pretty Mums...and fountains from the gardens...



Pet Peeve Alert: Parents not letting kids BE kids...I got several looks, and some comments from complete strangers that Maddie had gotten her sleeves or her pants wet. Well, mix a toddler with toddler sized fountains and what else would you expect?!? Happily I did do my research and knew about the fountains, I came prepared. I did also see many other parents spending their time keeping their kids away from/out of them because they'd "get wet", the same ones that seemed to "tisk tisk" me for letting Maddie have fun and splash.

Happy Halloween 2007!

Maddie all dressed up and ready to try out her new magic words... "Trick or Treat!"

I hope everyone had a good Halloween! Oh our household was full of Halloween spirit from the moment we all got home from "school" and work! When we were all ready with our 200+ pieces of candy for our trick-or-treaters, we headed outside, lit our freshly carved jack-o-lanterns and joined in with a couple of our neighbors and their boys (Jarrod and Tyler both 4 yrs old) for a "round the neighborhood" tour. At first I thought we'd go down one street and back and that would have been enough for Maddie...but, I was wrong. We went up and down several streets each time she would walk up and say trick-or-treat and then said thank you when she got her precious prize. It was a late night. Daddy and Maddie kept giving out candy to the neighbors while Mommy made dinner...which we didn't eat until 8:30 or so. Maddie had a great time and so did we.

Maddie posing with the jack-o-lanterns just before the trick or treating started.

Hope you all had a "BOO-tiful" Halloween!