4th of July celebrations

Again with the late blog posting! A few photos from our village 4th of July celebration!
Maggie and Eva playing in the park:
Maddie and Malia enjoyed the day thoroughly- they both had a late afternoon nap time in their strollers- fortunately it meant Maddie was awake for late night fireworks, and was an absolute superstar. She loved them pointing to them and waving at them.
Maggie, Michelle and Eva took turns giving concerts on the back porch...
Maddie looking shocked about something...
Maybe because she couldn't understand why it was so easy to knock out a 7 year old...! Poor Zoe- I don't think it was quite as bad as this photo makes it look!

Sadie's Gotchya Day video celebration

Catching up with old photos still yet to post here... a few months ago we gathered at Heidi's house to watch Sadie's Gotchya Day video. After a morning of bagels and lots of little girl giggles, we got to see the video- lots of happy tears and oohs and ahhs of course! It's amazing that it's been a year already that sweet little Sadie has been home and a part of our village!
Maddie loved riding on Sadie's rocking Tigger- tigger has since come to live with us, but she is quickly outgrowing him!
Ruby has helped Sadie, Emme, and now Maddie practice walking! She is quite the expert!
Best buds and daycare cohorts Sadie and Emme hug...
Sadie- I just loved this photo with her adorable litte ponytails...
Right up until I saw THIS photo with that sweet Sadie Smile!!! Happy Family Day Sadie! We love you and we are so happy you are here with us!

Madeline's Chores

I've made an astonishing discovery. Rather, I didn't, so much as it was offered to me and I adapted it, so in a way I suppose I could say I discovered it. Last week at my bridal shower, some of the other single Mamas were talking about the books they were reading. Several of them are currently reading the Outlander series. I looked at them and with awe in my eyes I said, "wow, I'm just so excited to hear there is a time when I will be able to READ again!" Which moved us into the conversation of when people take the time to read. Mary, Mama to Emme who is nearly 2, said that she used to use Emme's naptime to furiously clean the house so she was all ready when Emme woke up to spend time with Emme. Then she said, "I realized that it's important for Emme to see me clean, and understand that things need to be cleaned and they don't just get magically put back together, so now I use nap time for myself."

Wow...what a thought! It made complete sense to me. Every night after Maddie goes to bed is "clean-up" and putting the house back together. It doesn't take much time, but it is cutting into our time alone/quiet night time. And it IS a valuable lesson for Maddie to understand that things all have a place to go to. I talked to Jeremy about it when I got home, and we thought, maybe she can HELP. She loves putting things away, let's take advantage of this phase and see if she can learn to help pick up. So that night before bedtime, we started encouraging her to put the sorting blocks in the sorting bin, and put her toy computer away. She was so excited and loved putting things "back" where they were supposed to go! It also helps her when we are in the living room playing that she knows just where her toys are, and can pull them out, and she even remembers and tries to put them back in the same place.

She also loves carrying bags around right now. We use just a paper bag with handles for our recycling, then put it in the big bin outside. On Sunday she started putting things in the bag and pulling it around, so I thought, "well, let's see if she can take it outside." so I opened the door and she was SO excited to take it outside, so she pulled it (Mama helped) to the stairs, and we went down the steps together and she pulled it right over to the recycling can, and I lifted her up and we dumped it in together. We went and looked at the garden and went inside again. Not even half an hour later, she went over to the door again and grabbed the bag and walked to the door and hit it with her hand to show she wanted to take it out again! Too funny!

So now we've started on picking up toys together every night and she gets to take the recycling out. She LOVES to take the recycling out! It takes about 12 times as long to let her take the recycling out as it would for one of us to do it, but she just loves it so much, and we think it's a good lesson for her. So yes, my 15 month old has "chores". She takes the recycling out and she puts her toys away at night before bedtime. Would she do them alone with me just asking? Nope. Would she get in trouble for not doing them? Nope. But she loves the responsibility and the knowledge of everything having a place and being able to put things in their place, and we love that we can start teaching her these lessons not only at a young age, but at a time when she is so hungry for it.

A week at the beach

I've been terrible about posting recently, and the reason is "Photos." I know people really only come for the photos, so I hate posting when I don't have good photos to put up- and unfortunately my computer was the casualty of a fast little tortoise Kitty and a big glass of red wine and the unfortunate result of such a combination! So....there have not been photos. My computer is a PC, my fiance's is a Mac. I am a PC girl through and through and my picture editing and storage/etc are all in photoshop elements. This is my first attempt at using his Mac for photos, and I just want to say, I cannot wait to get back to my PC!!! Macs just don't make a whole lot of sense to me, and the picture manager software here is not very convenient....! Unfortunately with the wedding nearly upon us (2 weeks!), the computer repair may not happen until after the wedding!

Now, onto much more exciting things than Kitties & red computers that give funky messages...I rent a house at the beach every year for a week in the summertime. (Okay, technically this is the 2nd year of a week, and only our 3rd year going as a Village, but it is not a tradition, so I think I can say "every year"!) This year it looked like we were going to have a pretty slim crowd- Maddie and I of course, and Marie and her girls Zoe and Eva and one of her older daughters, Aly for part of the week, then they day they were leaving, Elisabeth and Skye were coming for a few days. Pretty slim- relaxing, but I was sadly missing the single Mamas week at the beach! Timing just did not work out for everyone else!

Fortunately in the end, we ended up with a few more people! Marie and the girls came but stayed through Thursday instead of Wednesday. Cindy and Dumpling and Skype were able to come out and be there from Tuesday through Thursday, and Elisabeth and Skye came out from Wednesday through Friday. All in all it was the perfect combination of relaxing and loud for a week at the beach with kids!

Cindy and Skype Baby- skype baby was so not into the cold water...that little one has got abs of steel because everytime Cindy tried to set her feet in the cold water, those little legs popped up!

Eva & Zoe got mermaids that came in little backpacks- Maddie was LOVING the backpacks, she has decided she loves bags and putting things in bags and carrying them around...very cute!

Marie with Skype Baby*- Marie is an adoption Lawyer and was the one who helped Cindy when she adopted Skype Baby.

The first day that we went down to see the water up close, Maddie was not at all into it, she clung to me, got anxious, and generally was not happy. So I thought, well, this will be the "play in the sand" trip to the beach- so the next day we just played in the sand. The next day, after Elisabeth and Skye and Cindy and girls had arrived, we all went downt to the beach together and I thought I'd just try one more time. All I can say is Maddie's biological parents must have been fisherman becuase this girl is DRAWN to the ocean! She was absolutely fearless! She wanted to run straight into the water and LOVED playing in the water!! We went down to the water twice that day (the house is right on the beach) and both times she absolutely WAILED when we had to leave the water!

She really loved playing in the sand too!

At Maddie's orphanage they used towels as comfort items, so we are never ever without "towlie". Fortunately we have about 20 "towlie's" since she just requires a white washcloth, but not a specific white washcloth. It is our savior for booboos, for bottle time, general cuddling, and very fun to wear as a hat!

Skye and Eva playing in the sand...

Marie, Eva, Elisabeth & Skye playing in the water!

Saturday is my Shower....my BRIDAL shower! Holy cow....I really truly never believed I'd ever be saying that...BRIDAL shower! It was such a nice surprise that my friends asked to do this for me! I'm really just blown away, and can't wait! I know it will be fun!