April & May Catch Up

Now that June is half way over, it seems appropriate for me to give a little summary of what the girls were up to in April and May:

Both girls had many playdates with pals, with lots of hugs.

We tried out new play areas.

We enjoyed warm spring days.

We had happy and silly times together.

The girls put their imaginations to work. After all, princesses and teddy bears need check-ups too.

Claire got a hair cut.

After Memorial weekend, we went to visit my four siblings at the cemetery. The girls left flowers for them (and many other unsuspecting cemetery residents).

February

The girls and I enjoying the flowers that Jason brought home on Valentine's Day.

It feels like I didn't talk about our adoption on this blog for the whole first year of our process and now that is all that I have posted about recently. So it is time to remind myself that we do still have children living on this side of the world too. :) Here is what those cuties have been up to lately:

In February, Gabby had a week off of school and we spent time at various museums, trampoline spaces and play areas. Claire had fun trying to catch these balloons that blew around in the air. And both girls loved being able to meet up with friends.

For Valentine's Day, Claire enjoyed a party at playgroup and we all really enjoyed the chocolate-covered strawberries that Jason brought home with the flowers. Gabby had her party at school, complete with a card exchange. Last year, I ordered Valentine cards in French for Gabby's classmates through the school's Scholastic book order. They arrived the day after Valentine's Day. That was a bit of a disappointment last year, but it sure made things easy for me this year! Gabby worked very hard to decorate her cards herself and was excited to finally be able to distribute them to her friends. The night after Valentine's Day, Jason and I enjoyed dinner with friends and went to Cirque du Soleil's Amaluna - such an amazing treat.

Claire has been loving her ballet class lately and always comes home with the newest move.

Gabby has taken on a new passion for play dough. (Which means I have had to take on a new passion for sweeping and scrubbing....)

Claire's big excitement is that she can now fit her hair into a ponytail. She will randomly announce this fact to strangers.

On Saturday (okay, it's a March date in my February post, but I might as well be caught up), the girls had three different birthday parties to go to. According to Gabby, it was the best day of her life. One was a pirate party and the girls went around speaking like pirates and looking for treasures the rest of the day.

January

We have already been enjoying this new year!  Here is some of what we have been up to in January....

We began the new year by letting the kids stay up "late" to ring in 2013 as we watched the celebrations in Times Square.  (They have no idea that we actually did a search for last year's celebration on You Tube and celebrated at 8:00pm.)  They enjoyed the countdown, the sparkling cider and couldn't get enough of saying, "Cheers" and clanking their paper cups together.

We enjoyed some fun parties: a gender reveal party for two different babies (both boys!), Jen hosting book club, and Sarah's baby shower.  Here is Sarah below with her two hostesses and twin boys almost ready to see the world!

One of our friends had his 40th birthday and a group of us went to a place called Suncadia to celebrate in some "cabins" in the snow.  25 kids in one place meant a whole lot of food and fun together.

Gabby went tubing for the first time.  She was reluctant at first, but once she went, she had a great time and wanted to go again!  She wasn't even traumatized by the fact that her hat flew off half way down the hill and that she took down a friend at the bottom.

 The kids weren't the only ones to have a fun time.  This is us after enjoying the (indoor) swimming pool and outdoor hot tub, but before the karaoke madness....  So many laughs and memories!

The girls had a fun playdate with one of Gabby's friends from school.  They decorated cookies and enjoyed playing with a house full of toys other than their own.  I love that Gabby doesn't even have to look at her cookies as she frosts them.  A true pro.

The kids supposedly put on a show for us, but there were a lot more costume changes than scenes.

At the end of the month, B came to visit!  While he was in town, we all went bowling.  The girls had great scores, thanks to their bowling ball slide.

(At least I know by looking at these two pictures what my husband will look like in about 25 years... not much different.)

These girls sure do love their grandpa.

I just thought Claire was cute in her bowling shoes.

On Saturday, we went on the Seattle Great Wheel - the huge ferris wheel on the waterfront.

Gabby was a little nervous to be so high over the water, but she got over it pretty quickly.

We were glad to finally have an excuse to go check out one of the largest ferris wheels in the US and it did not disappoint!

October/November Random

Gabby received her frist flower from a boy and we thought we better document it.  ;)  Landon gave it to her for her birthday.  She thought it was pretty special.

Gabby has been spending a lot of time with her friend, Frida, recently.  They play quite nicely together.

At school, Gabby made a painting with her classmates.  The Monet-style painting sold for $1,000 at the school auction.  I admit, the finished piece of art looked pretty impressive!  (If I could just get her to paint like that at home, it would save me money on wall decor....)

At home, she is artistic, too.  She colors all of the time, mostly princesses.  I discovered this one on a white board.

The girls recently discovered a real camera and took these photos of each other without me knowing.

Claire has had time with her friends too.  These were taken the morning that her friend's mom had a baby.  This generation appears to be drawn toward technology at an early age....

 In November, Daddy celebrated a birthday!

I was in charge of another Primary Presentation for the children in our church in November.  The kids all worked really hard and did a great job!  This was Gabby's first year in the program.  She spoke her line, "I choose the right when I share and help my sister," into the microphone clearly and sang well.  We are proud of her for doing so well in Primary this year.  Maybe next year, she'll even speak a few words during Sharing Time....

Pumpkin Patch with Nonni & B

In October, Jason's parents came into town.  The girls always get very excited for them to visit and this time we all went to the pumpkin patch close to our home.

The girls headed straight for the petting zoo area when we arrived, then discovered other strange aspects to the farm, like pumpkin-head scarecrows.

They climbed to the top of a huge tower of hay (well, huge to them).

They became pumpkins and farmers.

They checked to see how they measured up.

They enjoyed their grandparents and each other.  As you can see, my children take photos very seriously.

In the end, we came home with a pumpkin that was bigger than Claire.  It literally weighed more than she does.  But that pumpkin viewing will have to wait until another post....

September Miscellaneous

In September, Jason and I went to the Dave Matthews Band concert at The Gorge Amphitheater.  The views of the Columbia River were breathtaking (though not well captured on my phone's camera).  Dave put on a good show and it brought back some good memories of concerts of the past, but being at The Gorge was our favorite part.
On second thought, my favorite part was watching the 90-year-old woman in front of us dance the whole time.  Her moves were awesome!  I tried to catch some video of it on my phone, but the lighting just didn't do her justice.

Since September was still sunny, the girls and I frequented farmer's markets and even treated ourselves to some delicious gelato one day.  This was one of those random moments when your kids make you laugh.  Claire wanted to feed Gabby the whole time and I savored the moment even more than the gelato.

Gabby had her class bear, Scamper, for a week.  She brought him with her on her outings, including the children's museum with Daddy.  But since Mommy was out of town during most of this, we had to put together a quick photo shoot for Scamper's journal the day before we needed to return him to the school.  Gabby had a fun time being silly.