Abby's birthday weekend!

Happy 2nd Birthday

Abigail Eileen

Our little baby is the apple of all of our eyes. She is very funny and keeps us amused by singing and dancing non stop. She has mastered the "hokey pokey "and quickly progressed to "shuffle, ball step" which she picked up by watching sissy's tap classes.

The newest thing is to crawl around and act like a kitty. She kneads her paws into my shoulders and purs her head against my chest saying "meow." She loves Noah (too bad for him) and loves to sing bible songs with "Noah" in them.

To celebrate, the girls met at the library for a "Toddler Sock Hop." Abby did more watching than dancing although the same couldn't be said for Margaret! Afterward, we went to a little Italian cafe and had some appetizers. The waitstaff came out and sang "Happy Birthday" to her and she enjoyed the attention...especially when they delivered a huge cup of ice cream!

On the way home, she fell asleep in the car, and as planned; Patrick and I met up, switched cars and he took the birthday beauty home for a nap. I took the big kids to a living history program in a neighboring town about "suffragettes" in honor of Women's History Month. It was excellent and the historical interpreter did a great job of engaging the children- especially AP who was the only young man in the audience. At the end, we all signed a petition in support of women's right to vote and she pinned a yellow rose on AP to show that he was a defender of the cause (I told him I would not give him dinner otherwise). He tried to play it cool at first, but I think he enjoyed it more than he wanted to let on...

When we got home, Abby was awake and rearing to go, so Patrick headed out again with the kids to our local museum for a "Call to Arms" Revolutionary War reenactment. The kids were "mustered" and taught how to handle their weapons, made to march, etc. The girls pounded corn (which they loved) and I got to stay home (Ahh- peace and quiet) and and get presents wrapped and the house decorated (which I loved).

Later, when everyone returned, we celebrated with a big spaghetti dinner and an adorable little princess cake. Abby was so excited to see the decorations, cake and presents, she was shrieking and jumping around with her hand over her mouth, "Oooohh!" Unfortunately, she ate a ton of frosting and had a huge sugar rush that seemed to last ALL NIGHT LONG! She kept getting out of bed when I tried to get her to sleep and she was up almost every hour after that. you wouldn't know it today though, she is on the go!

Thank you God for our littlest munchkin!

May Your Angels always protect her

and may she be countlessly blessed every day of her life.

Abby is almost 2!

Hard to believe... I don't even want to think about it, but our little munchkin is almost two years old. She cracks us all up daily. The new thing is self imposed time outs. She does something naughty and then declares she is going to time out. Recently, while we were planting our Christmas trees outside, she threw dirt at me and then gave herself a time out by facing the shed. When I asked if I could take her picture in time out, she hammed it up and stuck out her bottom lip and agreed. As soon as I snapped it, she turned and declared, "I see, I see" so she could get a glimpse of what she looked like while doing time... too funny.

Assorted March pictures

Abby and Margaret took their babies to Pets Mart on Sunday with Patrick so that I could get some school work done. She is headed there again today on a field trip with her babysitter. Miss Jennifer's MOPS group (with about 5 toddlers) is meeting there to see the animals and headed to Chick-Fil-A to play and have lunch.

Friday was the Fun Fair at school. The whole family came to help out. I was in charge of the "Clown Toss" and Margaret helped pick up the beanbags and distribute prizes. Abby got her nails painted and was thrilled with all the little prizes.

Bubby watched Abby that day and helped with the big kids after school since I had to work until 8:30 pm. Long day for us all! Bubby and Abby played dolls, playdough, ran errands and went to Country Cookin' for dinner.

Celebrating Patrick's big 4-0 with the kids.

Abby assisted Patrick in mixing the salt dough for his volcano project. He got to "explode" his volcano at school. He is taking guitar after school and chess club. This week soccer season started and next week he starts archery club. Busy, busy, busy.

Margaret's weather project this year was on Blizzards. She read a whole book and then wrote some facts in her own words. She drew a picture and covered it with cotton balls. Then she put wax paper over the whole poster and painted it with white-out. She got an A+!

It's her last week of dance. I am investigating horse back riding lessons for the spring.

Spaghetti is a favorite...but don't forget the cheese!

Abby and Pops during a recent visit.

AP went to 4-H winter camp a few weekends ago. There he is down in front. He had a great time and is looking forward to the summer camp.

Speaking on Capital Hill

In 2006 we received an "Angels in Adoption" award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. We were nominated by Congressman Eric Cantor and we got to go to DC and accept the award with the children on Capital Hill. It was a real honor. Last week CCAI e-mailed to see if we'd be willing to come back and represent other "Angels" who have adopted internationally at a panel discussion with senators and representatives who have been newly elected to serve on the 111th congress. They wanted us to share our story and tell the congressmen what legislative priorities we think they should focus on in regards to foster care and adoption issues.

So yesterday, I got everyone "dolled up" and we headed into the nation's capital. Patrick's dad ("Pops") met us at Union Station for a quick lunch and then we walked to the Capital Building. We had so much stuff packed into the stroller it was ridiculous. But we needed it all- Abby soaked through her dress and tights before we even got there and the event lasted over two hours, so I am very glad I had the kids pack bags with activities.

We brought a CD of pictures to share and wrote up a script detailing our personal road to adoption. We put the final touches on our speech yesterday morning and we decided that I would be the one to deliver it, since it gave details about the miscarriages and cancer and all... the last part of the testimony was our stance on the right to life. That all babies; wanted or unwanted should have the chance to live. It was an unexpected opportunity for us to speak to congress and we feel that protecting life is at the heart of the matter. Patrick gave copies of our story and legislative priorities to everyone, including representatives from the White House.

The kids behaved really well. Abby was a hoot. She was dancing and singing and had plenty of trips up to the vegetable dip table. Her language grows daily... "how about that one," "no other one" was what she kept saying about the food trays.

One highlight was that I got to take the kids pictures with John McCain who made a quick appearance at the meeting. AP's eyes light up when he walked in the room, since he had a big project on the presidential election this fall.

We got home about 10:00 pm. It was a long day and lots of work... but a neat chance to see how laws are made. We hope we helped make a difference!

Snow and Science Projects

Woke up to about 4 inches of snow Monday and no school. Patrick left for work and I ended up juggling five kids (the neighbors showed up!) in the yard sledding. Wish I had the energy to enjoy life more... keeping them all warm, dry and OUTSIDE was a lot of work. I had to wrestle many pairs of boots on and hunt down dry mittens so many times I was ready to quit! Any way, here are some pics of the kids enjoying themselves... and then not.

Celebrating Patrick's Big 4-0!

I surprised Patrick and took him on a progressive lunch in our town yesterday for his 40th birthday. AP went to 4-H Winter camp on Friday night and my mom came up to watch Abby. Mrs. Bower (my library clerk) came and got Margaret for the day and all of a sudden- we were kid free for the FIRST time in TWO Years!!!

I told him we were going to celebrate Top Chef style and we headed out at 11:00 am to start the eating. Our town is lucky to have several high end gourmet restaurants in the historic area. First we went to "It's About Thyme" which is a French cafe where we've always dreamed of dining. We shared Seafood Bisque and rosemary foccacia bread, a corned beef and cabbage pastry puff, and crawdad raviolis with two sauces. We sat in the front window and enjoyed the food and ambiance.

Then we walked a block to Knackles, (which isn't fancy, but is famous in this area for it's delicious baked goods) and bought some cupcakes for the kids for Tuesday's dessert.

We stopped at a country store and got a new flag pole for our porch and then figured since it had been about 45 minutes from our first lunch, that we should eat again. This time we tried "Foti's" which was more formal than "It's About Thyme." The waiter refolded my napkin when I left for the bathroom. At both restaurants the somellier, owner and head chef visited our table; it was neat. Of course, we didn't want to admit we were eating twice! We ordered root vegetable soup which was topped with pine nuts and apple spears. It was fantastic. We also split a pizza topped with duck coq au vin and sun dried tomatoes. Yummy!

After our second lunch, we walked to "The Frenchman's Corner" to fill a ballotin with Neuhaus chocolates. The chocolates are kept under glass and you get to hand pick which ones you'd like. Patrick picked a chocolate truffle with butter cream with chocolate chips. I picked a "pagode with coffee ganache and gianduja" (whatever that is- it just looked pretty!)

From there we walked to "Tea, Lace and Roses" Victorian Tea Parlour for our grand finale. I ordered the Raspberry Rooibos, which is a naturally decaffeinated brew from South Africa. Patrick ordered Cream Earl Grey. As you can see from the pictures, they have a dress up room where you can choose a hat, jewelry and accessories, which I forced Patrick to don and he begrudginglycomplied (just for the picture).

We shared a sampling of desserts which included a wonderful warm mixed berry tart, a brownie, a lemon ball, a key lime pie tort, scones, and a delicious almond pound cake. The only thing we skipped all day was a goat cheese filled fig, which we packed up to bring home to AP!

We were stuffed and satisfied and didn't think we could eat again for the rest of the day. By 6 pm, we changed our minds... but it was a wonderful day and we enjoyed playing tourists (sans children) in our own town.

Happy 40th Birthday, hon!