A Little Sunshine for the Soul

I was feeling the need to post so my "negative nelly/tired mom" post wasn't lingering at the top. On Saturday we took an impromptu day trip out to find the sunshine! We've had some pretty crazy weather here-- record snow, torrential rain/severe flooding, and we ended this past week with crazy, thick fog! I don't remember the sun shining since before Christmas. So.... we were craving it. We found it out at a beautiful beach and had a great family day. We started with breakfast at a pancake house, a fun ferry ride, a pretty car drive, great play time at the beach, fish and chips for dinner, and a ferry ride home and into bed!!! I think we need to do fun family adventures more often. :)

The start of the trail to the beach. Yes we're dressed more like we're ready for snow, but it was only 39 degress!

It started out foggy, but the sun broke through pretty quickly, phew!

We may not be able to "see Russia from our front door", but that is Canada across the straight!
Everybody needs their own "Napolean Dynamite moon boots"!!

And lastly, we sing Grace a little good night ditty every night (Night night Gracie....) and she has now started singing her own version of it to her baby dolls! She even starts singing it when we tell her it's time to go to bed. Of course she wouldn't sing much of it since I pulled out the camera, but it's still pretty cute!

Never Keeping Up!

Now, I can't blame my 5 year old for me struggling to keep the house put together, but...... I turned my back for a few moments (OK..... to check some email, etc....), and I turned around a saw this!!!

It's not a horrible mess, but it's every pillow from downstairs and his bed. And, he'll put them away (after me asking several times), but they won't be put back the way I like them on the couch. So.... more work from me.
**disclaimer: Normally, this would just be a fun activity... fort building of some sort. But, what drove me crazy is that we had just finished cleaning up the toy explosion in the family room, put Grace to bed, and was settling down for an afternoon activity together... in a somewhat clean house. :)

I'm frazzled today. Jake is almost 5 1/2. He's not in kindergarten-- he'll go next year. We're homebound a lot...... Grace naps in the afternoon and I babysit a little girl 2 mornings/week. The weather sucks. Jake needs stimulation, physical activity, mental challenges, etc..... He's spirited. He has high energy. He's bouncing off the walls these days and I feel like I'm going to snap.

Any suggestions..... besides sending him off to Military School (do they take 5 year olds??) :)

Wrestle Mania '09

Well, since I have to rebuild my entire blog (good times!!), I might as well waste, I mean spend my time downloading goofy videos!

Before I grabbed my camera, Grace would stand up on the couch, yell Jacob (A-cub) and then dive on Mike... as if to say, watch me, brother!! Jake's just thrilled he has someone else to join him in wrestling.... and Grace holds her own quite well. (Lucky me!!)

**See that manila folder on the couch? (probably not the best place for it during the wrestling match!) That's our application for Grace's Certificate of Citizenship that Mike's mailing tomorrow. Grace's Soc. Sec. application was denied because her name change wasn't honored-- it had to be changed with Immigration, and that can only be done by getting the Cert. of Cit.!!

LAME!!

I'm working on my blog! I read all about "saving your widgets" so I didn't have to redo them all! But.... I don't think they're embedding correctly because I had them sorted as to when people updated their blog. Hmmm.... maybe it's time to call in for backup aka: my computer genius husband!

Stay tuned....

I really wanted a 3 column layout so I can use the left column for more of my non-adoption related links: recipes, craft sites, etc.... Making it all easy to access from one site. Trying to simplify life.... one baby step at a time. :)

1st Haircut!

Well, I did it! I've been dreading the first haircut.... wondering how it would go. But, Grace's hair had been getting very large and in charge! The top layer was longer than the bottom, so it just needed some cleaning up. So, I took her to the place that I used to take Jacob. It's a kid's hair cutting place and they have videos! I made sure they had a Wiggles video and then we were set. Grace did awesome and I think the new little style the gal did is pretty cute. :)

All combed out!
Cute braids and a ponytail!

Siblings

We have entered a pretty fun stage around here.... one Jake has been waiting for since I think the first time we walked through the front door with Grace. The two are actually starting to really play together. Grace is getting a bit older and "getting it" more. They are just so cute together. Jake is an awesome big brother who has daily tea parties with Grace. He'll play with her baby dolls with her and with her kitchen. Grace LOVES her baby dolls and it's fun to watch her "feeding" and loving her babies! But, the two also spend lots of times building towers with the big Duplo blocks (and Mike noticed that Grace was building a tower only with the same sized blocks. She'd dig through the tub and even toss out the ones that didn't "match" her tower.) And even though Grace loves her "girl stuff", she also has daily light saber battles with Jake and she loves his Star Wars guys-- especially the R2D2 that makes noise. They play "Star Wars" in his room together-- too fun. I think Jacob is also pretty happy that Grace is talking more, even though her current favorite phrase is "No, no, Jacob!!" He carries on these conversations with her that just crack me up. He'll just say things like, "remember when we went out to coffee together and then came home and played games?" She'll just start busting up laughing and it will spur him on to make up other funny stories. Now don't get me wrong.... they don't always play peacefully together. Grace doesn't really understand the fine art of sharing and taking turns and Jacob is trying to learn that you just have to give in a little bit more when playing with a one year old versus another 5 year old buddy. :) It's a balancing act, but it's pretty fun to watch. Though we have to reign him in sometimes and use the word "feedback" for Jacob (still working on reading people's verbal and nonverbal clues to what they like, and especially don't like him doing).... my truly spirited boy is thriving having a sibling to play with. :) Somehow I've been blessed with 2 quirky, funny, independent, strong-willed, sweet, loving, busy kids! (though some days I do have to remind myself that it's a blessing... because it's pretty exhausting too!!! :) )

"Tea Time"

Books!!

Welcome Home Eli!!

Yesterday we got to go to the airport and welcome home our friends and their DARLING little Eli!! It was fun to be on the greeting end, and it sure brought back all the memories of coming home with Grace!! Such a fun day.