Merry Christmas

We had a nice, relaxing Christmas at home this year. We didn't have to drive anywhere and had family come to our house. The morning started bright and early with Madeline all excited to see if Santa came.

Here she is in her Christmas pjs ready to dive into the presents that Santa brought. She had asked Santa for 2 things. The first being a microphone. Ok. A microphone it is. The second was a Barbie. (I don't like barbies) But Santa found her a barbie-esque doll with pretty brown hair. She opened the gifts from Santa first and was totally underwhelmed. Heh. As a friend explained it to me. In her mind, she asked for something and she got it, no surprise there. Good Point!

She opened presents with Nana - including fairy activity books and stickers.

Something you all should know...do not tell Madeline a secret. Ron had taken Maddie and did a Daddy - Daughter day. It was super special. He took her to see Princess and the Frog where she got her own kids popcorn tray thingy at the theater. THEN they went out to Friendly's for lunch and ice cream and THEN went to the store to go shopping for Christmas presents for Mommy. Well, when I came home that day the first thing she said is that they got me shoes for Christmas. Shoes - do you like shoes. She's ask, Mommy do you think we got you shoes for Christmas? and then giggle with an infectious quality. There was a wrapped box under the Tree for me in the size and shape of a shoe box. She'd giggle and ask me over and over the next couple of days if I thought I was getting shoes for Christmas. Then, one day after she asked the question she said "It's not a scarf". Ron just rolled his eyes and couldn't help but laugh. When Maddie and I made Daddy's present we told him it was a jar of pickles which she thought was funny because he doesn't like pickles. I picked that because pickles is a funny word to say so hopefully she'd keep saying that instead of what it really was - heh.

She was super excited when Daddy opened the present she made for him...it was a decorated picture frame with a picture she drew of our family inside of it. Of course we kept telling him it was his jar of pickles! Boy was he surprised *grin*

She really enjoyed her Silvermist(her most favorite ever fairy) styling head and fairy wings. Please note that she is wearing the wings first thing in the AM with her pjs.

Maddie with her cousins playing horse. (still wearing her fairy wings, although now it's with a beautiful dress from Auntie Amy and Lily)

Molly took her turn too as the horse for Gavin. (and yes, still wearing fairy wings while playing her new Leapster2 with Aunt Kristy)

Cole has graduated to the adult table at Aunt Kim's house, which he enjoyed. The rest had a loud and boisterous time at their own little table. Next time Aunt Kim will think ahead and prepare their plates before having them sit down! Live and learn =) (Fairy wings while eating dinner - you betcha)

Much fun and frivolity was had by all, tons of presents all over the place.

Yup, our house isn't big enough for everyone to sit down and relax in one room *grin*

We did try to get a photo of all of the cousins together. There were multiple cameras going all at once - the poor kids didn't know which way to look. I love the look on Molly's face on this shot.

In looking back over the pictures, I've noticed that yet again, I'm not in one. I know Kristy took a picture of Maddie and I together - I'll have to get that one from her.

Christmas prep & the snowstorm of '09

We didn't get our decorations up on Thanksgiving weekend as we usually do. It was just really busy, I couldn't find the time to haul all of the stuff down until early December. We had it up and decorated pretty easily, especially with all of the help we received.


There were lots of decorations about the 3.5 ft mark and below on the tree.

Daddy helped reach up to the tippy top of the 9' tree.

Due to our very busy weekends in December we did not have a full day to devote to Christmas cookie baking like we have in the past. So, not to let a tradition pass, we scheduled one in between other appointments. Happily Mommom and Poppop were able to come down and join us.

We baked for a good 5 hours, there was lots of mixing and baking and mixing some more. We made lemon and almond spritz cookies as well as chocolate chip cookies. We also had enough ingredients to make chocolate dipped pretzels, peppermint bark and hungarian kiflis, unfortunately we ran out of time! Maddie stayed engaged a good amount of time and helped with just about every aspect of the baking.

That includes sneaking samples to the official taste testers - Daddy and Poppop.

I'm very glad we found the time to do it. It's a tradition that I've done with my mom and grandmom - and I'm glad that we're continuing it for Madeline. She had a blast and although it was a very long day (because as soon as this was done we were off to a birthday party) so did I =)

We were also hit with the great snowstorm of '09! In the end we got close to 2 ft of snow. Here is Madeline staring out longingly to the snowdrifts wanting to romp about.

She got bundled up with multiple layers - which after the first jaunt outside to play - we found was key to keeping warm longer. Poor Madeline had outgrown her snow boots so all she had was her froggy boots! Bad Mommy!

We ended up shoveling the snow in our driveway and cul de sac 4 times. Every couple of hours we'd go out (Ron did the majority of the shoveling) and shovel the snow out of the way. The first time, it was snowing so hard, that by the time we got to the end of the driveway, there was already an inch back where we had started on the sidewalk! I'm just very glad that we didn't wait until it was all over to start.


Maddie had fun throwing snow clumps at us and climbing on the big piles we made at the sides of the driveway. They were taller than she was! She did get cold quickly and we'd return inside to warm up before heading back out.

I can jump up and down and other goings on...

Well, by my book it is official. Maddie can now read. An actual sentence. She's been learning sight words at pre-K and she tries to sound out bigger words to varying degrees of success. We were playing a game with her list of sight words and I would write up sentences that had her sight words in and she would then read them to us. This was one I made...

I can jump up and down.

She read it and was just so excited!

Ron made one up that got a much less excited response...

It is time to go to bed.

*grin*

Here is a Fashion Friday photo for you. This is what occurs when you tell her to pick out anything she wants to wear. Please note that she decided to stick with pink and white as her fashion palate but chose to mix polka dot capris with a heart embroidered long sleeve T. You'll find that if you pull your white socks up as high as you can go, it helps to keep your legs warm.

The end of November and first two weeks of December were BUSY. We visited with Aunt Amy and Lily and went to 3 (THREE) birthday parties for her friends from school. All while still going to gymnastics, Chinese language lessons and Children's Chinese Folk dance class.

Lily and Maddie having a ball playing dress up while taking a break from making magic wands and candycane crafts =) We had a really good time visiting!

Birthday party #1 was at one of those inflatable bouncy thing places - yes, that is the technical term for it. Maddie had a blast as illustrated here bouncing and jumping and sliding and climbing over everything they threw at her.

Birthday Party #2 was at a fancy hotel themed as a circus. This was the kids table, the adults had their own tables around the room.

There was popcorn, cotton candy, face painting, a juggling act, two buffets (one for the kids, one for the adults) an amazing cake with a carousel between the two layers, and build your own ice cream sundae. It lasted 4 hours. One amazing birthday party for a 5 yr old! No, we're not going to do anything like that for Maddie's 5th - heh.

Of course the hotel was also decorated to the hilt for Christmas which added to the festive atmosphere. You know though...I can see how doing a really big birthday effort for people who have birthdays in December would have some merit to ensure they remain distinct - I speak from experience here... Last year Maddie's friend also had a wonderful tea party birthday at the same location - again it was an amazing experience and the little girl had a blast both times.

Birthday Party #3 was at a Bowling Alley. This was the first time Maddie had ever been at a bowling alley. They first tried rolling the ball down all by themselves until they found this ramp thing that her friend's Dad helped the girls with. Maddie bowled a 72! She even got a spare on her first frame. Is it wrong that she did better than I used to do when I bowled? I mean, she had bumpers up to help her - heh.

Let's see...other odds & ends things - some serious some fun.

• Ron had his own creepy man experience while shopping at Costco with Maddie. I found out about it at dinner one night when Maddie said that we don't buy people. I was quite confused until Ron explained that there was a man at the store who came up to them and asked how much little girls cost. He then kept staring at her and seemed to follow them about! Ron even said that it was weird how he was behaving - they quickly left, but his statements stuck with Maddie which we talked about.

• When Madeline grows up she wants to be an artist, doctor, dentist, and animal feeder. That's what she's been listing. But what rises to the top, all of the time of late is being an artist - specifically a painter.

• Madeline *loves* everything Chinese and I'm glad. She's talking about it nonstop. She points out things and people she associates with being Chinese like her, she practices her Chinese words and writing, loves her dance class & talks about living in China when she was a baby. She's been looking at "her" books more and more lately. The ABCs about Maddie and her toddler lifebook I made. She's definitely been processing things more and asking questions. It was interesting listening to Daddy answer her questions one morning. I was in the office on the computer and he was talking with her about living in China. Whose tummies we all grew in and according to Maddie we all "popped out of a belly button". She asked about living in China and adoption. Why we don't know her China Mommy's name. I'm glad that we've been talking about it for a long time, it also makes it comfortable for her to ask questions as she knows it's ok to talk about. One of the adoptive parents at her chinese school has yet to discuss being adopted with her daughter, who is 4 which is just jaw dropping to me.

• I helped out the teacher at Chinese School one afternoon. Any time I looked over at Maddie she had a HUGE smile waving and giggling that I was there with her.

• She LOVES gymnastics. She's now in the older girls class and is doing really well. She does cartwheels around the family room, tries to do handstands which have been ending up as handstand into a roll. At class she climbs to the tippy top of the rope and touches the ceiling. The first time it freaked Mommy out as I was on the second floor observing platform and she was climbing up higher than me - well, the gym is in a huge warehouse type building. In any case it was WAY up high.
  

"We ♥ Tooshies" Photo Challenge

When I read that there would be a tooshie focus to the I Heart Faces challenge I knew right then what photograph I wanted to use. We were down the shore in the winter (a great time to be at the shore) and were looking out over the ocean on a beautiful morning. I was snapping pictures of the ocean, well, because I love it - and our daughter ran up and gave Daddy a HUGE hug. Of course, he's 6'6" and she was almost 3 yrs old at the time, so she hugged what she could... and I found it most adorable - 3 things in the picture I adore, my daughter's smile, the ocean and my husband's tooshie.



Be sure to head to I Heart Faces to see the other entries this week!

Be sure to watch the parade!!!

The Delaware Chinese Folk Dance Troupe (the older girls - Madeline is in the young kids class) will be in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City! They'll be on camera performing live at around 10:20 - be sure to watch!!!

Photo Challenge: Autumn Beauty

It is time for I Heart Faces photo challenge! This week the focus is Autumn Beauty, very broad topic - I went with pumpkins! Surprise, surprise =)

So, who are you again?

Yes, I was shot with a major bout of guilt... I was in San Diego for a week for work, literally, Saturday AM through Friday PM. When I got home, I of course got all of the big hugs and stories from the week (not that we didn't talk on the phone while I was away as well).

But, the shot came out of the blue when I went to tuck in Maddie at night. She said that she was glad that I was home and now she can remember what I look like!!!!! Remember what I look like? Oh my gosh..major guilt has hit in force.

Guess where I am...

Yes, I'm traveling again for work while Daddy and Maddie are at home enjoying a very busy week including a dance performance that I'm going to miss! Here are a couple of pictures I snapped with my cell phone, because I left my regular camera at home (doh!).

Any guesses?

Photo Challenge: Balloons

This is our first foray into the I Heart Faces photo challenge. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while. This week the challenge is balloons, something that is well loved in our house, so here we go...

Don't forget to head on over to I ❤ Faces to see all of the other entries!

Happy Halloween!

Lots of good fall fun happening around here...

Our story starts at the pumpkin patch last weekend, you know, or perhaps you don't, Maddie missed going to the pumpkin patch with her school friends because she was home sick (she ended up staying home for the entire week). Of course the field trip to the pumpkin patch had been talked about ALOT and she was quite upset. So, we promised her that we would go to a pumpkin patch and pick out our pumpkins, so that is what we did. Since it poured rain on the Saturday we ended up going early Sunday before we had to head to Chinese school (and her first of 3 Halloween celebrations)

Jump forward in time to this morning...Here are our beautiful, well formed pumpkins ready for carving! Of course, Daddy has the big one, I have the medium one and Maddie has the small one. She actually wanted a *really* small pumpkin aka decorative gourd but we convinced her to go a tad larger.


We each chose the design of our pumpkin, we were careful to pull out the pumpkin seeds and toasted them *yum!* Maddie enjoyed getting messy including getting us messy in the process!


Oh my! What is that? A photo of Mommy?!?! Yes, here is a picture of our handy work. Daddy did a scary vampire, Mommy did a heart theme, and Maddie went sans nose but a boot shaped mouth.


Now, I must tell you that her halloween costume has changed every day, even multiple times in one day when I would ask her. She ended up wearing her renaissance dress to the Halloween party at Chinese school. Today she wanted to be something scary...so we went with a pirate witch! I mean, that's scary right?


It seemed to have worked, and this year Daddy did the walk around the neighborhood with our neighbors and their kids - a pack of 5 scouring the neighborhood for any house with a light on!
Mommy manned the front porch and gave out candy until they returned and Maddie took over that duty.

In 1999...

... the Euro was established, the first episode of SpongeBob Square-pants, the Sopranos, and West Wing aired, the Dow Jones closed above 11,000 the first time ever, The Matrix, The Blair Witch Project, and Mystery, Alaska were released in theaters, George W. Bush announced that he'd seek the presidential nomination (*shudder*), Britney Spears had the top selling album in the US (*shudder* again), the world population reached 6 billion, and we got married!!!



10 years! Hard to believe, yet still true. A crisp (ok, it was chilly) autumn afternoon on the eastern shore Ron and I tied the knot with our family and friends frolicking about. Since then, over the last 10 years we have bought a house, changed jobs, adopted our wonderful daughter Madeline, lost loved ones, gained new friends. All in all, I'd say its been a pretty decent decade.

Maryland, 1999

Pumpkin Patch fun...

I'm of few words today, so just enjoy the pictures....