A Date with Abria

Abria really, really, really wanted her ice-cream to have a cherry on top, only to discover that she really, really, really doesn't like candied cherries.


Don't let the happy face fool you. Abria had the hardest time waiting for the train. It was the longest ten minutes of our day.

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The light show at Macy's!


The perfect end to the day-a nap in mommy's bed!

It is past Christmas and I still need to share details/pictures of that day, but in the meantime....
About a week before the holiday, Abria and I took the speedline into Philadelphia to see the light display at Macy's. I am not sure what she liked better-the train or the lights. We topped off the outing with lunch at her favorite restaurant: The Pop Shoppe in Collingswood. It was such a delight to spend the day together. I may be biased but truly think she is the cutest, funniest, most endearing three year old around.

Cookies!

If I do not bake another, ice another, or see another cookie for a very long time, I will be very happy! Miss Z. was home early from school yesterday so we spent some time decorating cookies. It was her very first time....so hard to remember that these 'normal' experiences haven't been part of her life. The girls went to town with decorations. Alette took forever to do each one and Z just plopped on a ton of icing/sprinkles on each. Abria whipped through her pile of cookies. True to her personality, she did a small, quick swipe of frosting on each, then declared herself finished. She just cannot be bothered to spend time on anything craft-like. The best part was eating the finished products!

Ho Ho Ho

In early December we had lunch with Pop-pop, Grandma Terry, and best of all, Santa! It felt a little early in the season-barely December and still very warm out. However, that did not dampen the girls' enthusiasm for the event. They loved making the crafts, decorating cupcakes, and sitting on Santa's knees. Both girls asked for a horse (oh dear!). Good thing Santa didn't make any promises.

Random Photos from the past few weeks

We had a great time visiting family and being in DC for Thanksgiving weekend. The girls loved staying at Uncle Rob's house-his dog, Scottie, is the one of the highlights of their time there! Post-Thanksgiving we went to the Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian and had a chance to hang out with Laura, Zeb, their little guy Xander and grandmom! The weather was so beautiful that once the girls were tired of the museum, we hung out on the mall and let them burn off some energy before the ride home.


Just before Thanksgiving Alette, Abria and I visited the Herr's Factory and watched pretzels, tostitos and chips get made. It was a really, really long drive out but the factory was fascinating. The girls LOVED their free bag of potato chips!


Whenever one of my girls offers to help bake, there is always an ulterior motive. Can you guess what it is?


We've had a mild fall so I have tried to be diligent about getting the girls outside as often as possible. Our backyard is a mess of weeds-so the front sidewalk has become a reasonable substitute. Alette was actually annoyed with Abria in this picture. She was trying to color a pasture (color all the bricks green) for her deer and was annoyed that Abria was stepping near her work and would scare the (imaginary) deer away. The girls generally get along great and are best of friends, but sometimes they can argue over the most irrational things.

Horses 101

Both girls, especially Alette, are infactuated with horses. So when the opportunity came up for a homeschool class on horses, I jumped at the opportunity. The instructor taught them abit about different body parts, then had the kids groom and help saddle the horses. It was a little disconcerting to see Abria calmly brush an animal she could have easily walked under. However, Miller (the horse), truly had the patience of a saint and hardly moved as the kids brushed him, cleaned his hooves and saddled him up. Abria initially wanted to ride the smaller pony, but once Alette rode Miller, she too wanted to ride him.



It is hard to believe that only a year ago, neither girl would ride the ponies at the zoo. Abria jumped right into brushing Miller and was happy to pat the other horses in the stable while waiting for her turn to ride. Alette too was happy to jump in on the action of grooming and even tried picking Miller's hooves.


A very happy rider! It was great to see that the instructor actually showed the girls how to hold the reins, how to guide the horse and how to mount/dismount. So much more exciting than just getting plopped on a pony at a ride!


The sweet horse, Miller.

School Days

If I am not careful, the girls are going to take over my teaching. Like kids everywhere, they love playing school and Abria has the lingo down pat. This morning she was in her room for a really long time on her own-so I went up to check on her, and found she was sitting in her chair, looking at a book. When I asked her about the book, she responded 'I'm up here reading mommy, but I stuck on this word'.

Trust me, she cannot read.

Spot the Difference

More pictures of this year's Halloween to follow, but I thought it was fun to compare the picture from 2 years ago with the one from this year. Some things haven't changed!

Happy Halloween....

It has become an annual tradition in our house to carve pumpkins with Ganiyah and Nadia-a tradition that started way back when I was still working at Camp Peace and Nadia was a camp kid. I think we took a year or two off when we both had newborns, but otherwise, we have been faithful to our traditions. Ironically, our carving skills have not improved and the pumpkins still have a basic triangle eyes/nose/lopsided mouth look.

The girls had a blast together-squealing over the pumpkin 'guts', laughing at each others' creations, and then finally oohing and aahing over the glowing jack-o-lanterns.

If I manage to finish their costumes, and they agree to wear them, I may actually have photos of trick-or-treating soon.

Great Moments

Some of my favorite moments are unplanned...the times when I 'catch' the girls simply being wonderful together. Both girls have a love for books and stories, and lately they have been pretending to read to each other. In the top photo both girls were browsing through a Tintin book before Alette told Abria to 'stop reading over her shoulder'. Hmmm, wonder where she heard that phrase before? In the other photo, the girls had been looking through their nature books and comparing the different animals. Then I overheard them start to tell each other 'scarey' stories based on the pictures. It was quite funny to hear their imaginations go wild as they tried to outdo each other in the scariness factor.

The Joy of Being 3!

Don't you wish you were 3 again? When it was completely okay to wear a bookmark (handmade by Andy) as a headband, a Canadian lanyard, a dress, and rainboots (unfortunately you cannot see them in the photo)? The models in Vogue have nothing on my girls.

Sesame Place

This is such a delayed posting~We actually went a couple of weekends ago). Thanks to Grandma for such a great outing! We had planned to go in Sept. to avoid the crazy summer crowds, then the weather turned cool and rainy. What to do, what to do. We hummed and hawed, then finally decided to take our chances and go. It turned out to be a wonderful, dry, albeit chilly for being in the water, day.

Alette was surprisingly brave-her first choice of the day was to ride the roller coaster. She LOVED it! So of course, I had to go on two more times for the other two girls....and then the teacups, and then the swings, and then....I was feeling rather dizzy by the end of the day. Abria loved the roller coaster but freaked out on the moonbounce and ropes. Imagine trying to descend the rope canopy with a freaked out 3 year old clinging to your chest...The girls all had a great time in the water despite the cool weather. Both Grandma and I sacrificed ourselves and took them down the tubes-then opted to supervise their play from a drier location.

What a great way to end the summer!

A Beautiful End of Summer Day

There is nothing better than taking a break in the middle of the day for a splash in the fountain! This is my favorite time of year-the weather is great and it is so nice to get outside without sweating up a storm. The fountain at Whitman Park is still operating, much to our delight. It's hard to pull them away-usually it takes the promise of a pretzel to lure them from the water.

I'm not doing school

Abria is still adament that she is not going to do school this year....but happily joins us for whatever art project we have going on. Which is basically what school looks like when you are 3.

First Day of First Grade!

Despite Abria's brilliance (I'm her mom and allowed to say such things) she is not starting first grade. In fact, she has emphatically stated that she is not doing school at all this year. Despite her initial protest, she has happily joined us for stories, our homeschool co-op, our science class and even sat through a couple of Alette's geography lessons.



This picture looks like a set-up. After all, since we homeschool, where on earth would we go on our first day of school. We actually had to drive our foster daughter to Pre-K for her first day, then came back to start our school day.



Alette's first day! Our daughter has sprouted-There are times I catch myself looking at her in amazement....how did the past five years go so quickly?

How Much Are Those Nectarines?

Abria and the girls loved the spraypark, and the weather was perfect for getting wet. Unfortunately I forgot to pack dry clothes so we all went home rather soggy.



The girls were directed to pick the reddest nectarines-a concept completely lost on an excited group of girls. They threw in whatever fruit they could reach...I felt rather bad but discreetly removed some of the worst looking ones.



Neither Miss Z, nor Ganiyah had taken a hayride before-everyone squealed in delight at every bump, turn and twist. The lady driving the tractor was badgered with about a million questions....which she was oh so patient about answering.




So, the nectarines were only 1.69/lb but we also had to pay for the ride to the orchard, then of course, we picked corn. The play area was 1/2 price (with a paid hayride), drinks were $2 each...I felt like I was NYC, not south Jersey. Was it worth it? Absolutely, we all had a great time. I wish I could say that the nectarines taste much better than those in the grocery store, alas, they are merely okay.

A week with Ganiyah

Ganiyah has been a wonderful friend to the girls since the moment she was born and we are always delighted to have her over. Her daycare was closed for the week so we happily included her in our week's activities. The girls had a great time dressing up and performing their dances/songs for me. What Alette and Abria lack in talent, they made up for in creativity and enthusiasm. I've been going through some old pictures and couldn't resist posting this one of Ganiyah and Abria.

Missing NC already....

I really want to take the girls to the beach one more time before we buckle down to school and busier schedules. However, the outerbanks spoiled us! As glad as I am to live close (relatively) to Ocean City, it is a pale comparison to NC. So I am reliving by browsing and organizing pictures. This is from our last day-by this point the girls were very comfortable in the water and clearly having a blast! Even Xander was delighted to be a part of the group jumping-his initial foray into the water caused him to freeze. Just a few more swim days....

Go to the pool, go to the beach...repeat....

Sand, water, and lots of free time. It is the perfect holiday mix. It is so interesting to see the progress the girls make each year. This year Alette easily leapt into the pool and the ocean and by the week's end was happily ducking her head under the waves. This was also the week that suddenly Alette decided she was ready for a shower....a HUGE leap forward for her. Although she still needs/wants me near, it means that the sand actually got rinsed from her hair every night. Of course, once Abria saw her big sister in the shower, she too wanted to take one. That was much less successful. She stood plastered against the wall, slightly overwhelmed by all the water and as a result, was very happy to return to taking baths. However, Abria easily overcame her hesitation by the beach. She loved running into and out of the waves, over and over and over again. True to her nature, Abria wasn't much into jumping the waves but instead prefered to sit on the sand between the wave action.
Miss Z was also able to make the trip with us. It was a huge deal for her and she was initially terrified of the ocean. However, when she saw the girls frolicking and screaming in delight her desire to join in overwhelmed her fear. She definitely had to be coaxed each day back into the pool and the waves but made huge strides in overcoming her initial fright.