Piggie Tails!

I know you are shocked at 2 posts in 2 days, but we had warmer weather here today and it made me long for spring and summer. With this longing came the desire for Claire to have pig tails. Well, after trying this out, she was ready for an impromptu photo-shoot. Here is a collage of Claire showing-off her new do and posing with some "rock-band" style poses.

A New Star!

Laura has had a very busy and exciting week. She was allowed to be in the high school's production called Silhouettes of Broadway. They basically took a stroll through time and gave the audience a look at Broadway through the years. Laura was a little girl in Meredith Wilson's "The Music Man". As you can see from the pictures she played a normal little girl from the period for the song "Trouble" and after that she raced backstage to change into an Indian costume to perform with the "famous" Mayor's wife. She absolutely loved every minute of it. She loved the practices, the 4:45 AM dress rehearsal to be on the news, the 8 shows and the friendships she formed. I think she may have formed a love for the theatre that won't soon fade. She and Claire have always been able from the age of 2 to sit through an entire video of "Oklahoma", or "The Music Man". This past summer I took Laura to see "Wicked" on stage and ever since then you can hear both she and Claire walking around the house belting out tunes from the CD. As a family we all went to see the "Lion King" when it came within driving distance. Claire went to see the 3 hour show 3 times and sat perfectly still the whole time unless you count the fact that she was singing along with Elfaba and Glinda during the scenes from "Wicked"! She may have sang a few notes from "Hairspray" too. I was also told that during her 3rd trip to the show that she was heard singing "Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ," over and over again. Of course this was during "Jesus Christ Superstar". I guess she didn't quite get the superstar word so she just kept singing what she heard. Here are some pictures of Laura on her final day of the musical. The one picture is of her with her favorite star, Elfaba. This girl was an amazing singer. She gave me chills each and every performance. I can definitely see her going places.

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!

For Valentine's Day

In honor of Valentine's Day, I am posting a video of the song from The West Side Story that was sung at our wedding when James and I lit our unity candle. I love this song and this scene from the movie. At our wedding, my brother and sister sang the song. It was beautiful.

CNY Collage

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

Dancing With Cinderella

For anyone who has a daughter, wants a daughter, or is a daughter, you need to see this video. It is all about cherishing each and every moment with our children. The artist is Steven Curtis Chapman who has 6 children. His youngest 3 are adopted from China and he is a huge advocate of adoption. The song's title is "Cinderella".