Saturday fun

It was a lovely day today and DH ended up having to work all day so the kids and I headed off to the zoo and then to a splash park. Both kids loved seeing the animals, Emma especially since it's still pretty new to her. The funniest thing was when a peacock walked up to us and Thomas made these funny bird-like sounds and the peacock talked right back, loudly too - the look on the kids' faces was priceless!lol Since it was a hot day, after walking in the heat for a few hours at the zoo, we headed for a water splash park. Emma adores water but she's never been a big fan of splash parks - she doesn't like the water coming at her. Anyhow, she kept asking Thomas to pick her up and between him carrying her through various water features and me and him holding her hand and running together through water, she got over her fear pretty quickly and next thing you knew, she was right there with Thomas going down the giant water slides.

Don't mess with Emma!

Pool fun!

Here's Emma playing in the pool. This child loves water! She's going to start swimming lessons next week.

BTW, I am still planning on moving the blog. I've just decided to move to another provider and I'm trying to figure out their way of doing things before moving. With all the end of school year stuff going on, I just haven't had much time to sit down and figure it out... but I will... in time!

Puddles!

We had another one of those thunder, lightning, heavy rains and wind storms last night... funny how they come and go so quickly. After the storm, the humidity had disappeared and it was a lovely evening, well, except for the downed power lines that left us without electricity for a few hours and the fallen tree limbs blocking the streets which didn't allow us to drive too far out of the neighbourhood! So, what was left to do other than go walk around and jump through a few puddles!! The quality of these pictures is awful since I just had my mini pocked sized camera, but you can still tell from her height off the ground that Emma puddle jumped quite exuberantly!lol She even got Thomas into it and between the two of them, they got me nice and wet too. And see, Crocs do come in handy sometimes!lol

"Hair" we go again!

Emma joined our family in late 2005. Here we are, June 2007, and she has NEVER had a haircut, not even a trim. Her hair is getting really long and straggly so the time has really come to do something about it. I have no vision whatsoever with these things - any input? Bangs or not? I know I don't want her hair short, but that's about it... what do you see working well given the shape of her face?

Decisions, decisions...

Last year for my birthday, DH bought me this gorgeous necklace with 3 hanging gems. A few weeks ago, one of the gems went missing so I brought the necklace back to the store. They told me they can't fix it but are happy to replace it. Now, my dilemma is that since I got the necklace last year, another similar necklace has become available and I just can't decide if I want to replace the necklace with the exact one I had or choose the new model. I love the way my original necklace has the 3 hanging stones, but I love the colour of the 5 stones together... so, which would you pick? (and both is not an option!lol)

Real Estate

We've been seriously house hunting for about 6 months now - serious as opposed to me just going to open houses because I enjoy them!!lol A few days ago, our agent calls me and tells me she's found THE house and the selling agent is there now, can I run down to take a look. Sure, why not! A friend who is equally into real estate was visiting so off we go, me and my 2nd opinion! The house, oh my, it is gorgeous!! It's all I could want. It has DH's library and my big back yard, not to mention gorgeous, gorgeus, gorgeous, from the old original wood trim and leaded glass windows to the state of the art kitchen with a huge walk in pantry. It even has a 3rd floor loft...oh, I could so see it as MY space.

Well, of course things aren't that simple. Real estate is crazy here with most houses being sold above asking price. DH and I keep 2 amounts in our heads when in comes to buying a house. The first is how much we'd LIKE to spend, the 2nd is how much we're WILLING to spend. The 2nd amount is somewhat higher than the first, while still allowing us to eat more than Kraft Dinner for years to come. Anyhow, after this whirlwind tour, I call my agent and tell her I agree, the house is gorgeous (my friend agrees). Ah, but the dream house has a nightmare price!! The price is about 20% above our WILLING price which means it is not affordable. After I tell the agent that yes, it's lovely, it would be a dream to live there, but sorry, we can't afford it, she lets it drop. Then yesterday, she calls. She tells me she's been tossing and turning over this one and if this is my dream house, she thinks we should go for it (keep in mind that DH hasn't even seen this house yet!!!lol Since it's way out of the price range, I haven't bothered to take him to see it, see, I am a reasonable gal!lol) I was telling DH about this last night, it's just so funny to me. It's not like she called up and said hey, I've got money to spare, I'll cover that extra 20%, so you go for it. Really, I know she wants her commision, but we're the ones going to be stuck with that huge mortgage. It just struck me so funny that she'd call and say we should just "go for it"... without a concern in the world... oh, wait, she doesn't have a concern in the world, her name wouldn't be on the mortgage!!!lol So now we sit and cross our fingers that not only will this house not sell for asking or above asking price, but in the next few weeks the seller will decide to drastically slash the price... dream on!!lol So, the search continues, but perhaps the agent will no longer suggest I rush out to see beautiful homes we have no intention of buying!lol

That can't be right!!!

One of Thomas' friends had a birthday party today after school. The friend's mother asked if she could just take Thomas home with her from school and he'd go to the party place with her and his friend. I agreed that he'd go with them and I'd pick him up. This was a newly opened kids' party place which we'd never been to. I checked the address on the invitation before leaving home to get Thomas. I get a great parking spot right in front of the given address. I put money in the meter and head to the party place. I'm standing in front of the address on the invite (or as I remember it anyhow) and there's a problem - it's a cigar store!! I know kids are sophisticated these days but I'm pretty sure the party isn't being held in a cigar store/lounge!!lolol I'm starting to panic a bit and calling Directory Assistance when I see another parent from Thomas' class... apparently, it's not that I recalled the address incorrectly, it's that the address is wrong! The other parent tells me he's got the invitation in his car which has the phone number to the party place so we head down the block to his car - as we reach his car, we notice a new sign with the name of the party place - the birthday boy's mother had put the last two digits as 99 instead of 69... thank goodness we haven't reached the point where 9 year olds are having parties in cigar lounges!!lolol

What are you doing mommy?

Nobody, but nobody in this house can have food while Emma doesn't and not expect her to come and ever so kindly offer to "share"!!

E: Mommy, what are you having?
M: A piece of cake.
E: Yummy, yummy cake, can I have cake?
M: You've already had your cake.
E: Can I have more?
Me: No.
E: Okay, I will share with you. (such a generous child!)

Finally time to move...

In the next week or two, I'll be closing down this blog and replacing it with a new one. I'd like a little more anonymity. The one thing I regret in creating this blog was using the kids' names in the title. As far as I know, there's no way to change that (I know I can change the actual name but if the address of the blog has the kids' names in it, it's not getting me any further!lol) other than creating a new blog. Of course, when I created this blog so family and friends could follow us on our adoption trip, I didn't expect it would still be around over a year and a half later! Since I don't want this blog linked to the new one, if you'd like the new address, please e-mail me at the address listed on the right side of this blog or leave a comment. Oh, and since I completely lack imagination, any suggestions as to how to refer to Thomas and Emma in the new blog greatly appreciated!!lol Thanks everyone!

P.S.: For those of you wondering why your comments are not showing up on this post, because most comments include a private email address, I've opted not to publish them as I thought some of you might not want your email addresses published - but I have saved all comments. :-)

This is what I call fun!

We had some heavy rains this afternoon and by evening, things had cleared. I wanted a little fresh air so Emma and I headed out for a walk through the neighbourhood. She asked if she could jump in the puddles and she thought she must have heard wrong when I told her YES!lol She kept saying "really mommy, I can jump in the puddle"... really Emma, you can jump in the puddle. She kept getting ready to jump in and looking over at me and saying "you're not tricking?"lol I figured after our walk she was heading for the bathtub anyhow and her sneakers would have time to dry overnight, so why not!! Let me tell you, she hit every single puddle she found in the half hour or so we were out... she had the best time ever and the dirty clothes and wet sneakers were worth the ear to ear grin on her face! Unfortunately, the camera stayed at home on this outing!

What to do on a rainy day...

Gary was off to work for a few hours this morning so it was just the kids and me. It's unfortunately a cold and rainy day so no easy morning spent at the park. Thomas had mentioned wanting to get a particular book (we never say no to books) so I thought a trip to the bookstore might pass a bit of the morning. Well, we ended up picking up a couple of books for Thomas, a couple of sticker books for Emma, a book for me and then we went to the coffee shop and settled in with drinks and snacks and the kids and I read/did stickers for an hour... actually quite a relaxing outing!

Off to the farm we go!

It was a lovely warm day today so we decided to take the kids to a little neighbourhood farm to see the animals - both of them really love all animals.

Thomas

A new little friend... raccoons are really kind of cute when they're not tearing apart your garbage cans!lol

Thomas - who was most excited about seeing a black and white cat and a raccoon at the farm (neither one of which is officially part of the farm!) Gee, we have 2 black and white cats and a whole slew of raccoons in our back yard, we could lounge in our back yard and see both, we don't need to drive 30 minutes to a farm!

Thomas trying to show Emma how to make the funny faces he's gotten so good at doing when I'm trying to take pictures of him!

Emma's new friend - I think he needs a better dental care program!lol

Emma and Rebecca

Emma and Rebecca met for a playdate at a park this morning. Here are a few closeups that I thought were really cute. The girls are so sweet together. They interact so well and play so nicely. :-)

Seville

Gary just got back from a week's trip in Seville, Spain. It looks like a pretty and historical city. While he's definitely not the photographer in the family, I handed him a pocked sized Canon and asked him to at least take a few pics. He did and here are a few nice pics from Seville. The pics are of a colourful building in the old part of the city, what is apparently Christopher Columbus' tomb and a pic in an old shipyard - amazing architecture!

This and that...

Here's a picture of the kids from a birthday party they attended yesterday. I wasn't sure how Emma would respond to her first encounter with a clown, but she handled it with aplomb... one little girl at the party refused to come into the room while the clown was there but our Emma took it all in stride and even went up to help the clown with a trick!

Yesterday was the first day in about a week that we got out and about. Emma has been sick with a high fever, reaching 105.5 at one point! I've never seen a fever that high before! This is when I really hate that we don't know anything about her family's health history. The doctor thought she most likely had a virus that would pass in a few days, but he still had us bring her in for strep, blood and urine tests. And would you believe that through the whole thing, she lay on the exam table, holding my hand and singing... not a tear in sight - well, I was close to tears but she was fine!lol Sometimes I worry that she's a little too tough... Anyhow, the fever broke after a few days and while she was pretty much a limp rag for a couple more days, she was finally back to her old self yesterday. She loved the birthday party and we went to friends' for a swim and hot tub - Emma and Thomas both loved the hot tub...really, what's not to like!

Too cute for pictures!

A few weeks ago, M3 posted a "swimsuit edition" post where she linked to a variety of swimsuits she was thinking of getting for the girls. Well, I just fell in love with one of the suits and had to order it. Emma wore it today to her swim class - simply too cute for words!! I won't post the pics here but if you want to see, leave a comment or e-mail me. I know a lot of members of the adoption community are into ladybugs - I'm not one of them, but if you are, you might like this little number I found on the same site as Emma's suit.

Mother's Day Relaxation

We actually celebrated yesterday with family so today just the 4 of us got to hang out. In between grocery shopping, Sunday school and swim lessons, I got to sit back and relax a bit. I ordered these great pillows at Restoration Hardware so I set up my outdoor sitting area which is one of my fave places to relax. I then got a book and a blanket and got comfy on my swing for an hour of reading... ah, there's not much better than that

New wheels!!

I got a new van this week (yeah, I know, I know, but it's so convenient for carpool, especially those automatic doors and rear hatch!) but I'm not talking about my new wheels, look at the little number Emma picked up yesterday!!

Day trip!

Carolyn, Rebecca, Emma and I took a road trip to visit Samantha and Jade today. It was so wonderful to see them again - it had been over 6 months since we'd last seen them. The girls had a blast - and the destruction in Sam's house is proof - sorry about the mess Sam! It was just so wonderful to see the girls together, they played so nicely. It was a great day.

Look at those 3 little faces and tell me they don't spell trouble!!lol

Jade having a snack.

Rebecca, Emma and Jade visiting with one of Jade's cats.

Emma and Rebecca running down the driveway... love the speed - look at Emma's ponytail flying in the wind!lol

Rebecca getting ready to race her cart down the driveway.

Potentially a pretty pic of Emma if I can Photoshop the runny nose and food on her chin!lol