Hats On!

This weeks FFFF's topic is hats! Most people know that keeping a hat on a little one is usually not an easy feat. There are the occasional ones that just like hats. My Connor did. But, for most, those adorable hats that match the outfits get thrown on the floor. I have included 4 pictures of my girls in hats. The 2 most recent pictures where they are in matching hats are from where I just had their picture made and the hats are from Hanna Andersson. Laura is dressed for Halloween in the princess picture with her Bitty Baby. The picture was taken in 2006 and her costume and doll are from American Girl.
Claire's other picture is from October 2007 at her 3rd birthday party. She really liked this hat and wore it for most of the day.
To see more cute kids in hats head on over to Lissa's.

Motion!

We are back this week for Loving Lydia's Family Fun Foto Challenge. I had meant to participate last week but we were knocked out due to the flu. It is really bad when both parents are sick. The inmates were running the asylum around here for a few days! Laura succumbed too, but thanks to Tamiflu she barely noticed she was even sick. She was most upset about missing rehearsals for the high school's musical that she has a small part in. It opens next week and she is a bundle of excitement. So, on to our pictures of motion. You may notice that I don't post a lot of pictures of my boys on the blog, but that is only at their request. They are 15 and almost 13 and I guess they think it isn't cool. More pictures of Laura and Claire and all of these are in motion! They have such a great time together. The fairy pictures are from the summer and the big slide is from Claire's birthday party. In the one picture of Claire in her Christmas dress she is trying out some new Dora roller skates. The latest are of Claire "playing" Guitar Hero at Chase's birthday party and the one picture is of Claire at our local children's museum with our FCC group celebrating CNY. Now, go on over to Lissa's and see other cute kiddos in motion!

Chinese New Year!

We had a wonderful time celebrating the Chinese New Year. We welcomed in the Year of the Rat and said "good-bye" to Connor's and my year, the year of the Pig. As Claire says, "Daddy is a rat." She of course means in the astrological sense! The rest of our family is made up of a rooster, a rabbit and one little monkey! We started off our New Year by getting the girls all dressed up and going out with our dear friends to P. F. Changs for some delicious Chinese food. It is a little disappointing that no one there seemed to know that it was the CNY. The girls had their lanterns that really lit up. We had our dumplings, long noodles and since we were at PFC's, we had yummy dessert! On Sunday we got together with our local Families with Children from China and watched a beautiful Chinese dance troupe. They were performing at a Children's Theatre. They were so lovely and talented. Afterwards we went out with a few families for more Chinese food. Again, the food was great, but being with other adoptive families and spending time with their lovely children was the best. The greatest part was walking around the Children's Museum before the performance and recognizing people from their blogs! I saw four children that I "knew" from their family's blogs. Claire was recognized several times too. Blogging really does help us become closer and meet up with other families. Here is my participation in Lissa's FFF. Thanks Lissa for doing this! If you want to check out other families CNY activities, here is the link. http://lovinglydia.typepad.com/loving_lydia/2008/02/ffff-68-cny.html

Mommy, Read me a Story!

This week's Family Fun Foto Friday is Storytime! Claire loves books and she loves being read to. She listens as Laura reads her Reading assignment every night. Sometimes she will just sit and study the pictures and tell herself a story to go along with the illustrations. The book in the pictures above was one of Claire's gifts for her one year Gotcha Anniversary in December. We love this book and its illustrations. Now, if Mommy could just get through it without crying.

Bling Baby!

This is my second time participating in the Family Fun Foto from Loving Lydia. This week it is all about the bling. And, isn't it all about the bling with girls? Claire loves bling, dress-up clothes, and all things girly. Laura also likes dressing up, but she is a little, (not a lot) less girly than Claire. Claire's favorite color is pink and Laura's is blue. You may wonder then why Claire got the blue Jasmine outfit and Laura got the pink one...well, that's what was left at the clearance sale! I went to the Disney Store after Halloween and I got 7 costumes for just over $100. (I had a 15% off coupon in addition to the sale.) One of the costumes was originally $80! Claire gets up in the morning and wears up to seven different costumes a day. It's tough being a princess!

Time in a Bottle

Over at Loving Lydia, Lissa is doing a great challenge this week called Then and Now. This is my first time participating! The picture on the left was three days after we received Claire. She truly is a joyful child. :)