Our Huazhou Wonders

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2011-11-03T14:24:00.001-04:00

Dear Editor,
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"In this shrewd way the train-boy was better off than he who runs may read, for he _had_ read, and could _shout_ while running: All about the big battle! So he sold his papers in short order." (c) Glen vni5589

Swinging Into Spring

2009-04-05T21:31:00.007-04:00

Mom called me at work on Friday to let me know that she and Grumpy had dropped off a swing set to kick off spring break! We'd hope to get it together in time for the girls to see it Friday evening but it took a little longer than expected (the slide was put together by shop light around 10:00 pm). Mom wanted to see the girls faces when they saw it for the first time so she came by on her way to work and had the first swing.
They really did swing sun up to sundown -you can see the sun coming up behind them in the first few pictures and the sun setting on their faces in the last few. They LOVE this thing!
Mary Clare is about to fall asleep right in the seat here. She did agree to come in and eat some macaroni cheese before collapsing into the top bunk with Margaret Rose. I didn't hear one single giggle after they got into bed!
They wanted to swing before leaving for the Palm Sunday Mass but finally agreed to wait until they got home.

THANK YOU POPO & GRUMPY!!!

Catching Up

2009-03-25T12:14:00.009-04:00

Well once again it's been a while since I've been here. I am an awful blogger and am just in awe of all those folks who manage to post regularly. Anyway here is a review of the last month or so.

These pictures are from Sunday morning. Mary Clare loved this blue ballerina dress and just had to twirl it to church. I think she's been taking modeling lessons from her big sister.

Kid-tested. Mother-approved. And a way to teach geometry. Mary Clare enjoys making shapes on her spoon with Kix before eating them. This one's a flower. She also made a triangle, rectangle and a square.

St. Patrick's day 2009

Margaret Rose came home from school on the 16th telling us she needed some leprechaun clothes or the leprechauns would bite her!? We're a little confused over the biting thing. Maybe she got the words pinch and bite confused or maybe there's a new St. Paddy's day tradition that we don't know about. Anyway, thanks to the lesson learned from the groundhog day

debacle :-), Margaret Rose had the perfect ensemble and was a happy, happy girl. Mary Clare kept insisting that leprechauns were just fiction but changed her mind when she woke up to find a glittery green leprechaun trail that led to a shamrock colored bag of goodies. She and Margaret Rose were sitting on the floor in the kitchen looking through their treats when Mary Clare announced , "Well Margaret Rose, I guess you were right. There really are leprechauns!"

She's happier than she looks here- I promise! The flash just kept making her blink.

At school I read Jamie O'Rourk and the Irish Potato for story time and Mary Clare filled everyone in on who St. Patrick was. Remember that MC likes to share the Bible story from the night before with her class each morning so she was all too happy to extend that and tell them that St. Patrick was a good man of the church who was a priest just like her Father Lyon. Since Mary Clare has to wear a uniform at my school (she loves it) we got her some festive head gear to sport in the car on the way to and from school. Since the shamrocks blinked she christened them "glowinators".

Once home the girls did some posing and playing in the yard.

Margaret Rose's after school program is wonderful. They keep the children active and do some creative things with them. They had a talent show on Friday afternoon and taught the children who didn't want to perform an individual talent several songs and dances so that everyone could take part. Mary Clare and I had to fly up the road to get there on time but we were so glad we did. Margaret Rose's group performed the Tootie-Tot and a really funny song about peanut butter and then Margaret Rose joined the bigger kids in a line dance. She was precious!! We were all so proud especially little sister. MC kept saying, "That's my sister! Go Margaret Rose!"

Miss Margaret is hardly going to have any teeth left. She lost 2 in one week!

Here's Princess Fluffypuff the Princess of Puffs making her throne. Actually I think she's dressed her horse Lucky up as a princess too and is preparing for a coronation.

Our local Adoptive Families Group went ice skating one Sunday afternoon. The girls, who have never been before, insisted that they knew how. MC said, "I can do it! I watched Max & Ruby." Okay. I fully expected them to try for 10 minutes or so and then give up in frustration but my girls persevered and had a fabulous time. By the end they both could skate a little by themselves and had to be dragged off the ice. Margaret Rose got lots of compliments from some of the bigger girl skaters there. They said she did a wonderful job and skated better than they did their first times. They made 2 new "China girl" friends too!

We had another no-snow snow day on March 2. All weekend the forecasters predicted 3-6 inches for our area. Most districts had cancelled school by 5:00 Sunday afternoon. Around 9:00 pm dry air pushed into the area and the snow event fizzled. Luckily we'd kept the girls from hearing anything about the possibility of the white stuff so they ended up being happy just to have an extra day to play. We spent most of the snowday cooking. We made pico de gallo and guacamole and then put them in a 7 layer dip. Then we cooked onions, peppers and mushrooms and made quesadillas. The girls LOVE to cook so they had a blast. Now I have to preface the following pictures with the note that we seldom drink. Nothing against it- we just don't. We might buy a few bottles of beaujolais nouveau each year to have during the Christmas season but that's basically it and the girls rarely watch TV. So I was more than just a little surprised to come into the kitchen and find my baby girl sucking a lime and licking salt off her hand. Now unless Max & Ruby or Caillou have taken to doing tequila shots I have no idea where she got the idea but she was quick to assert , "This is sooooo GOOD!" with a huge grin. I keep imagining my wild child in college and it's a little scary :-)

My party girl looks like she's been in a brawl thanks to fall into the guinea pig cage.

Margaret Rose's class made hats to celebrate Read Across America day. I think she likes her new knot dress better. She sure got a ton of compliments on it. When we went for her IEP meeting, the school secretary just went on and on about the dress. She thought it made MR look like Heidi!

The girls are interested in so many things! Tonight they wanted to learn how to write music notes.

Even though it was still February we had some gorgeous spring-like weather and used one afternoon of it for an inaugural playground visit. The new play structure is really wonderful and the girls enjoyed themselves.

After doing some research we knew that our friend Moose the guinea pig needed a much larger cage. Lee brought home the materials and the girls and I spent a little over an hour one Sunday afternoon building the cube and coroplast cage. They worked hard and did a lot of the measuring, cutting and taping themselves. I was proud of them and Moose showed his appreciation for all the new space by entertaining them with an evening of squeals and popcorn jumps.

Mary Clare had to make sure it was comfortable enough for her little friend.

Influenza B

2009-02-28T21:58:00.003-05:00

I hope I can catch up with some blog posts tomorrow but for now here's what's been keeping us busy. Lee and Mary Clare came down with it on Valentine's Day. We were in Boone and I thought MC probably had a sinus infection so I brought her home since Lee and Margaret Rose had an obligation that kept them in North Carolina until Monday afternoon. MC had a miserable night on Sunday with vomiting and a high fever. We were at the pediatricians office early on Monday where they did a nasal swab and diagnosed her with the flu. All of us (except Lee who can't take them) had a flu shot but the doctor said they'd not been very effective this year with the strains that turned out to be prevalent. He was great though and wrote all of us prescriptions-tamiflu for MC and relenza for the rest of us. The relenza was suppose to treat Lee since he obviously also had the flu and keep MR and me from getting it. I don't think Lee got the medicine in time to do him any good but it did help me as I only had a mild case and Margaret Rose never got it at all.
Mary Clare was in bed all week and only started to perk up on Friday afternoon. It took us almost that long to figure out that the tamiflu was giving her terrible psychological side effects. We attributed her outbursts and night terrors to the illness but as she improved physically the symptoms didn't go away. We finally realized that an hour or so after giving her the medicine she'd meltdown and lash out at us over nothing. She was inconsolable during the episodes. The same thing happened with the night dose. She'd take the medicine, go to bed and then "wake up" about an hour later totally incoherent and terrified. Hopefully there will be another medicine that she can take when she gets the flu again.
We spent last week trying to catch up on sleep, work and chores. Lee still has a cough to rival Camille and it is wearing him out. It is 64 degrees tonight and we are all ready for spring despite the fact that our forecast calls for 1-2 inches of wet snow tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T06:30:00.002-05:00

Margaret Rose got to wear the twirly skirt outfit that PoPo made for the girls to school yesterday. She said everyone LOVED it! Thanks PoPo!!!!!!!!!!

More Moose

2009-02-10T23:20:00.001-05:00

The History of Moose

Right after Christmas Margaret Rose brought home a library book about guinea pigs. I found it in her bookbag and thought it was an odd choice. Margaret Rose likes the idea of animals but isn't usually to fond of the real things. They slobber you know and get your clothes dirty and some smell bad. We decided she must have selected the book because it had a pretty Asian girl on the front holding the guinea pig but we asked her and she said she liked that pet and wanted one. So we read that book and some more books about guinea pigs and talked about how you take care of one and what all they needed and finally said that we would seriously consider getting one a little closer to summer. Mary Clare, ever Miss Contrary, said she did not want a guinea pig but that she did want a hamster. We told her we were sorry but that we would not be getting a hamster. She sulked.

About 2 weeks ago one of the ladies that works in Margaret Rose's after school program approached Lee and asked if we would be interested in having her daughter's guinea pig as she had found out that her college housing for next year will only allow fish. Lee teaches her daugher, Megan, and thinks very highly of the girl and her family and told the mom that he would have to ask me first but that he knew what I would say. I think I was suppose to get the hint that I was not to show up with a puppy (which is what MC REALLY wants)without consulting him -point made, point taken. Well he and I talked for a second and decided that if the guinea pig wasn't too old (remember MC and her death obsession) that we would very much like to have him. Lee told Megan that whenever she decided to let him go we would take him. It would have been fine with us if she waited until the fall but Friday she asked Lee to come and get 6 month old Moose on Monday. We decided to tell the girls they were getting a surprise but not to mention the pig because, of course, MC would just fuss and say she didn't want one. I knew once she saw him she'd be smitten and she was.

Mary Clare and I had to stay in town today and do some book shopping for our school so she got to spend some time with Moose this morning. Margaret Rose was so concerned about him before going to school. She feed him his pellets and asked who would take care of him today while we were gone. She still does not want to hold him but will pet him gently. Mary Clare just wants to hold him and rock him. She croons to him and says "It's okay little guy. Nutting will hurt you." She told him she would rock him to sleep (I'm sure he was thrilled). Poor Moose doesn't know what to make of my little people but he is curious and very tame. Megan must have spent a lot of time with him. I was sure he would stay in his hidey-hole for days but he comes right out and wants to know what we're all doing and if we have any food.

Mary Clare typed his name and is trying to teach him how to read. She checked out books from the library to read to him- "He will like dese. They have guinea pig characters." We spent nearly 4 hours in the book warehouse today and MC was PERFECT. She sat on top of the roll-cart "criss-cross applesauce" and read the entire time. The ladies there were so impressed with her and kept giving her books to take home. She asked intelligent questions and would periodically spot a book we have read, identify the title and give the ladies a synopsis and review. Oh how I wish she were that well behaved all the time. At the end when she really began to get antsy (and who could blame her- I was ready to get out of there myself) I told her we could go for junk if she could hold it together for a few more minutes. As we were checking out the ladies were complimenting her and she said, "Thank you. I was good and now I am going to get junk." M&Ms are her junk of choice.

My sweeties!

Poor Margaret! Right after this picture was taken we went outside to play. The girls teeter-tottered for awhile. All of a sudden I heard MC yelling, "Margaret has hurt her butt!" Margaret was limping and said, "I need to check my butt." Well okay. You just never know with MR. She makes a big deal about little injuries fairly often but MC did come running back outside saying, "Mama! Help! Margaret's butt is bleeding." There was a little scratch and some blood and a great deal of drama. MC kept reassuring MR- "It's okay Margaret. I'll be the nurse. I'm a butt expert. You need a butt band-aid." And then I watched my little sweetie climb from the top of the toilet, on to the sink and stand on her tippy toes to reach her hand up to the top of the medicine cabinet (not the top shelf) where we keep the off limits stuff like fingernail polish and band-aids. So much for us thinking we had her fooled. I'm pleased to report that thanks to the attention of the hiney expert, Margaret Rose's butt has made a full recovery.

Mary Clare asked, "May I please take Moose's photograph?" MR is usually our picture taker and she showed MC how to use the real camera (scary). This is one of her nearly one hundred pics of Moose - he must have thought here was one heck of a lightening storm

Moose's Valentine

Meet Moose

2009-02-09T23:03:00.000-05:00

The girls are decorating the windows while waiting on Baba to bring home their big surprise! On Friday we found out that we'd be getting a new family member and that he would arrive today.
The girls guessed all weekend but never came up with a guinea pig. They were so surprised!!!

Mary Clare is already head over heels in love with her "little fuzz ball."

The Circus Comes to School

2009-02-09T21:24:00.000-05:00

Our school hosted a small family circus that our kids could attend with $2.00 and 2 good behavior cards. It was actually a lot of fun! Mary Clare had a great time and I, of course, just loved watching her laugh while eating her blue cotton candy.

Flipflops in February!

2009-02-09T14:24:00.000-05:00

Our dear friend Angi called this morning and suggested a zoo trip. MC summed the weather up best with , "It's such a pleasant day. Isn't it a pleasant day mama?" It was gorgeous. The high of 37 we saw Wednesday was flipped to a high of 73 today. No humidity and plenty of sunshine- not something we see often in our neck of the woods.

Anna Lin and Maggie Rose

(Anna Lin and her family are the only ones allowed to call her that. She LOVES it coming from them - the rest of us get "the look".

Anna Lin has always been very sweet to Mary Clare even when MC didn't fall in to line behind the little general. When Anna Lin first got home from China she gave 2 year old MC a sound verbal thrashing in Mandarin for taking off her shoes at a restaurant. It was hilarious! MC of course ignored her.

Margaret Rose is busy growing out her bangs. She is so proud to have hair!
My Odd Duck- the other girls are such social creatures, holding hands and laughing from exhibit to exhibit. MC does her own thing. She lingers, asks question after question, makes up stories about the animals, pretend to be the animals. She never seems uncomfortable on her own but I've noticed it more and more in social situations. As one professional put it - "Some people march to a different drummer. Mary Clare just has a whole percussion section."

A WATER FOUNTAIN! A WATER FOUNTAIN!!! Such joy in the simple things!

I love how Margaret Rose is helping Anna Lin hold back her ponytail! Margaret Rose adores Anna Lin!

Come on up Maggie Rose!

Wait a minute! Where did her come from??? Looks like Mary Clare's been recruiting for that baby brother she wants. This little guy was so sweet. He just went right up to the girls and joined in. His mom was Asian so I guess they looked like home to him. I really am surprised MC didn't try and take him home.

II really have to get a large lawn sculpture or a large rock for the yard. Apparently they provide endless hours of entertainment. We could hardly tear them away from this poor tortoise.

Everybody slid forward and nearly crushed tiny Autumn!

The animals are cool but a trip to the zoo is not complete without the requisite blue drink.

I love it when she smiles!!!!!!!!!

Sunday afternoon was even more "pleasant" and the girls played outside for several hours. Gotta love flipflops in February! Excuse the mess.

Good Things To Come

2009-02-05T22:52:00.003-05:00

One afternoon in late fall we discovered that the city had come and removed all the playground equipment from the park on the next block. My girls loved that park even though the equipment was old -I played on it old. We were very afraid that the property was going to become the spot for several houses but our neighbor assured us that the park was just getting a facelift. Mary Clare had taken to asking for me to drive home that way at least twice a week so we could see if the new equipment had arrived. Yesterday the long wait ended. It's not finished yet but definitely has real potential. Now if they'd just bring back the swings...

Just had to include this pic of my sweet Margaret Rose- love the light!

Groundhog Day Blues

2009-02-02T22:02:00.004-05:00

Mama & Popo really dropped the ball on this one folks. When Margaret Rose got up this morning I gave her the clothes she was wearing today and began to finish folding MC's uniforms. I heard her ask from the other room, "Is red for Groundhog's Day?" I asked what she meant and she further inquired if what I had given her were "groundhog day clothes." Well, uh, no. MR: "Where are my groundhog day clothes?" Me:"Well the skirt has some hearts on it. I thought you could wear your clothes with hearts since it's February and Valentine's Day is soon." MR(shocked and slightly put out): "I don't have groundhog day clothes????!!!!"
We'll do better next year.
Tomorrow is Margaret Rose's 100th day of school and it was back to the kitchen for 100 more molasses cookies. I'm beginning to feel like that man in the Dunkin Doughnuts commercial - time to make the doughnuts. I tried to talk her into making 14 cookies that look like the number 100 (cute idea from a teacher at my school) but she, of course, needed cookies just like Mary Clare.

The Adventures of Bella & Miss Fluffypuff

2009-02-01T22:00:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow's forecast would indicate that the groundhog will surely see his shadow ushering in 6 more weeks of winter, so we took full advantage of the warm afternoon to play outside. The girls spent several hours in their playhouse, on the teeter-totter and in the sandbox. Once back inside Mary Clare found a fandex of dog breeds that prompted them to turn into the bichon twins aka Bella & Miss Fluffypuff. Margaret Rose enjoys a set of reading recovery books that features 2 bichon frises named Bella and Rosie. MR loves the name Bella and so that is her puppy persona. I'm sure no one is surprised that MC thought Rosie was way too pedestrian a dog name for her and so she christened herself Miss Fluffypuff. Their play this afternoon consisted of taking each other for walks, doing dog tricks and a brief trip to the groomers when it was determined that Bella just wasn't quite fluffy enough. At one point the girls decided that they must be dog royalty and insisted on a coronation ceremony hence the headgear in the photo below.
Friday night Lee took the girls to visit Pa & Grandma. They were treated to Mystery Hill on Saturday and it sounds like they had a lot of fun. MC reported that there were lots of "strange mysteries at Mystery Hill." They both liked the bubble exhibit the best. They are also talking about something to do with their shadows but we haven't quite figured that one out yet. Lee had them back home by 8:30 last night. They were wired and when I told them they could "camp" on the living room floor they went bananas. MC declared that they were going to stay up and have "crazy fun" and fall over when they were ready to sleep and that's pretty much what they did.

100th Day of PreK

2009-01-29T21:10:00.003-05:00

Our school celebrates the 100th day of school tomorrow. When Mary Clare's class comes to the library I'll read them Wolf's Chicken Stew and the we'll have some cookies - 100 cookies! With just a little bit of help Mary Clare made 100 molasses cookies for the event and they turned out lovely!

Mary Clare also had to fill a small bag with 100 items. Big sister to the rescue! While MC baked, Margaret Rose counted out kisses, ten rows of ten, and then filled little sister's bag. On the 100th day of school it's particularly nice to have a big sister who can count 100 items!

The girls spent the afternoon with PoPo and Grumpy and were treated to dinner at IHOP. They were so excited this morning anticipating their visit. MC actually danced into the dining room and told MR, "I'll see you dis afternoon at PoPo's! I'll meet you dare Margaret!" Then she went and strongly reminded Baba that his job was to drop off Margaret Rose at PoPo's house.

Dumpling Day

2009-01-26T22:13:00.005-05:00

It was dumpling making day at our house! Mary Clare has wanted to make dumplings for months now and I finally got a vegetarian recipe and we gave it a try.

Margaret Rose and Baba stopped by our local Chinese place for the rest of the holiday meal but got home in time for MR to make a few dumplings.

The girls decorated a little - you know how they like things to be festive.

The dumplings turned out fine. The girls really enjoyed them.

A thumbs up from Margaret Rose!

One of Lee's students brought the girls homemade Cantonese sweets. Oh my but they were wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And yes there's been a costume change. I really wish I had a dime for everytime these girls change clothes. After dinner and cleanup we gave the girls the traditional red envelopes with lucky money. Margaret Rose begged to take hers to school tomorrow for show and share.

Before bed MC insisted that they had to eat an orange for good luck.

Lee reports that while waiting for the Chinese food tonight Margaret Rose told him she wanted him to stay 44 and not get old like Pa. She said she didn't want him to die. Mary Clare is still worrying about death as well although her fear as lessened a bit. Although totally developmentally appropriate, Margaret Rose's statement surprised me. She is just so sunny, so happy go lucky and never appears to worry about anything. MC is our worrier- she despairs over fields of cut trees, dead insects and the rotisserie chickens at grocery stores. Do their mothers miss them? Are they in heaven? Shopping is such a pleasure with our Nibblet :-)

Margaret Rose brought home her second report card tonight. She got lots of wonderful comments about what a lovely child she is and what a joy she is to teach and she is improving academically. She is still, however, well behind her peers and we are moving forward with out plans to retain her in first grade. Her teacher agrees with our desire and we are hopeful that we won't have a replay of last year when her first school refused to let her have one more year of kindergarten.

Happy Year of the Ox

2009-01-24T22:35:00.013-05:00

I know it's 2 days early but the art museum in town sponsored a family event for Chinese New Year this morning. The girls spent a lot of time last night trying on their Chinese clothes. Okay, to tell the truth, Margaret Rose tried on about 20 outfits and Mary Clare found a blue one and was done. They were excited about going this morning and were disappointed when Baba had to go to work. He got a desperate call from a colleague this morning at 7:05 and was out the door to give the SAT to 7th graders 5 minutes later. We worked together and got everyone ready including Rose & Tweetsie and got there when the festivities were just starting. They got their cheeks painted first. Margaret Rose chose a flower and Mary Clare a chinese character.

Then they practiced their calligraphy.

We looked at the China exhibit and Mary Clare was intrigued with the sculptures of the earth spirit tomb guardians. She was full of questions and demanded that I read all of the information next to each exhibit. Margaret Rose was mesmerized by the man playing a traditional Chinese instrument. The music was really beautiful and she told him "xie xie" as we were leaving- such a sweet child. Then came the best part of their day- the dragon and lion dances!

When the dances were over Margaret Rose turned to me and said, "That was awesome!" We will definitely be taking the girls to Tennessee this summer for the Chinese acrobat day.

Here are the girls, Tweetsie & Rose taking a rest and hiding from a particularly scary piece of "art" that only had one eye and frightened the bejeezus out of Mary Clare.

Outside the girls amused themselves by posing under and arch.

Then they decided to reenact the Lion Dance.

Margaret Rose took a break while Mary Clare amused us with some sort of tap dance. It resembled that dance the frog does in the Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Margaret Rose who is a self proclaimed "very good finder" spotted a stage and the show continued with Mary Clare dancing and Margaret being the audience and then both girls dancing. They had fun and I so enjoyed watching them enjoy each other and the day!

Train Picnic

2009-01-20T23:02:00.002-05:00

After playing outside this morning and a movie by the fire before lunch, the girls played all afternoon with their toys. Here we find the trains from the Island of Sodor enjoying a picnic lunch with the lovely minature food Aa-Aa provided Barbie at Christmas.

Winter Weather our Way

2009-01-20T15:43:00.000-05:00

I am so glad I didn't have to go to school today. I wouldn't have missed the girls' excitement for anything. I woke up around 5:00, saw no snow and went back to sleep. At 8:02 we heard shrieking from the girls' room and Mary Clare screaming, "Baba! Baba! It snowed! It snowed! I didnt' know it could snow in __________ (insert our town here)! They were surprised to find mama still home and were ready to go play in it immediately. I was prepared for them to be disappointed as MC wanted to make snow angels and snowballs and there was just barely a dusting. "We can still have fun!" she declared and they did!

"Let's go on a family snow walk!"

"Are you sure they (the snowflakes) are all different? They all look the same!"

Happy Snow Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weekend at home

2009-01-19T23:24:00.000-05:00

Since we all have Monday off, we usually go to the mountains this weekend but decided that it was just entirely too cold to go this year. We hadn't mentioned the trip to the girls so they didn't know it was a possibility and were quite happy to stay home and enjoy being what Lee and I call "free-range" children all weekend. Saturday night we roasted our hotdogs and marshmallows in the fireplace which thrilled them. And yes that is Bruce the tree still up by the fireplace. Eventually all the Christmas decorations will be replaced with Chinese decorations for the lunar new year.
Today the forecast started looking a little iffy in our area and by 7:00 pm school had been cancelled for Lee and Margaret Rose. We decided to leave Mary Clare at home with them tomorrow and we told MR to go and tell her. We just had to laugh when we heard Margaret Rose shout, "Mary Clare! We don't have to go to school anymore!" The girls both thought I was going to work this morning but our district (about 45 minutes south of here) cancelled classes around 10:30 so our 3 day family weekend just became 4.

We had so much fun Saturday that we made pizza and ate in the den again on Sunday.

Just A Weekend With The Girls

2009-01-11T22:01:00.000-05:00

Margaret Rose brought home a coffee filter snowflake earlier in the week and it really caught Mary Clare's fancy so Saturday morning while she was waiting for MR to wake up she asked for some filters and the scissors. Margaret Rose joined her and by the time breakfast was ready there was at least an inch of snow in our living room.

The girls gave Lee another opportunity to make fun of those of us who spend so much time worrying over what the perfect present for the girls might be. They spent the afternoon playing with a cardboard box and the trashcan lid. In case you're wondering the picture below is of pit crew Margaret Rose and Mary Clare in a racecar.

The obsession with bosoms continues. Mary Clare made herself a pair with some Christmas bows. Over Christmas they cracked themselves up making up bosom jokes.

Before you can go out and play you need a little help from your sister.

Mary Clare came to me and said they wanted to be cheerleaders. We had to find the costumes and I remembered that my mom's sister, Aunt Billie, had just sent pompoms for Christmas. They were upset that their tummy's showed and I'd have been too if I thought they were going out that way but I wasn't about to buy new costumes for a phase that might just last an afternoon. We looked up some cheerleaders online and they saw some tummy's showing and decided it must be okay. MC did want to know if Miss Joyce showed her tummy when she was a USC cheerleader in the 50s!

Margaret Rose's outfit was a handmedown from a good friend and MC's was a home-coming gift. Here she is with Miss Anita modeling the outfit right after unwrapping it in 2005. We really believe in getting a lot of wear out of our gifts!!! Thanks Anita!!!!!!!!!

The Feast of the Epiphany

2009-01-06T21:43:00.000-05:00

We celebrated the epiphany tonight. The wisemen and camels had already made their way to baby Jesus in our creche since the girls just couldn't wait for all the figures to adore the baby Jesus and arrived on Christmas eve. Still they know from our story reading what the epiphany celebrates.There were presents of course- matching shirts and jeans in blue and pink. The outfits were a little over the top for my taste but the girls liked them.

A thank you hug for Baba from his sweet Margaret Rose

Is this for us? Those aren't our names. Read it Baba!

For Tweetsie & Rose????? Mary Clare said, "Is it for us too? 'Cause we're real."

Get with it Tweetsie- rip that paper!

It's a sled for Rose & Tweetsie!

The Day Before School Starts

2009-01-04T21:25:00.000-05:00

School starts tomorrow- January 5th- the last day of Christmas. I did one last Christmas photo shoot after church today and tonight we'll once again read the story of Hashmakaka the old, complaining, arthritic camel from the book The Last Straw. We have had a wonderful two weeks together and it will be hard to go back to the routine. Still I am so blessed to have a job that allows be so much time with my family! I know the girls will miss each other. They have friends at their school but as silly as it sounds they just "get" each other better than anyone else.

A Visit To Miss Edith

2009-01-02T21:13:00.000-05:00

We went to visit Lee's grandmother today. The girls were very sweet to her and she to them.

They both enjoyed playing with the electronics in the bed and chair.

Happy New Year!!!!!!

2009-01-02T20:44:00.000-05:00

The girls spent the day with Pa & Grandma but before dropping them off we promised them a surprise for New Year's Eve. We picked them up and went to Tanglewood for the light show. They kept trying to guess the surprise on the ride down the mountain and actually did guess that it was decorations and wow were there decorations! We all loved it and will probably make it our New Year's Eve tradition. The only downside was that you don't come out at Tanglewood where you drive in. We were really lost and finally made it back to the main road by sheer luck. We had a wonderful dinner at the Mexican restruant we frequent when we're down that way and then headed back up the mountain for a New Year's Eve toast of cider.

We hope you all have a wonderful 2009 full of fun, love, joy health and happiness!

Christmas at Pa's & Grandma's House

2009-01-02T18:29:00.000-05:00

The girls enjoyed another round of present opening with Pa & Grandma and were very happy to find a Christmas tree at their house. "It's important to be festive, you know." Both girls were thrilled with Mary Clare's Wack-A-Mole Tower.

Margaret Rose unwrapped a beautiful doll.

Mary Clare demonstrated her wacking technique and then turned the mallet into a banjo and sang I've Been Working on the Railroad- just like the Hopper & Porter show at Tweetsie.

Cool! A basket ball goal!

Teamwork!

Cold? I don't feel cold! Let's play!

We'll play better in Pa's cap!

Margaret, you be the coach!

We're Off To See The Wizard

2008-12-27T21:41:00.001-05:00

The bitty twins have been christened Tweetsie ("It is the most perfect name, you know.") & Rose. No one is too surprised by the choices. Margaret Rose just adores Rose and feels a bit sorry for Tweetsie as he is not loved quite as much. Mary Clare will play with him some but reminds us when we mention that his feelings might be hurt that he is not real, duh. Mary Clare makes her own fun with yet another stocking stuffer- this one is acutally Margaret's. Guess how I can tell.
Margaret Rose is preparing Rose's breakfast. Rose likes cereal just like MR. MR does have a few doubts about the twins' shoes however. She found paper down in a pair and told Lee that she didn't think the elves made them but that they were bought at a store instead. Lee's a quick thinker and reminded her of the Elves and the Shoemaker story and so they decided that Santa's elves got the shoes from the shoemaker elves. Magic still intact!

Here we are on our way to the marionette theatre's production of The Wizard of Oz. It was the girls' favorite book this summer and Lee ended up reading it several times. They especially enjoy Robert Sabuda's popup version. The show was adapted from the Baum book and so the girls had a distinct advantage in following the plotline. They spoke up several times and were able to inform those around us that the wizard was just a "humbug", that those funny looking puppets popping out of the floor were hammerheads and that Quadling country is where Glinda lives. We were very proud of our little bookworms. They have never seen the movie as right now the blue tarantula story in Max & Ruby scares them. I don't think they are quite ready for that nasty old witch.

Someone needs to have a word with Santa about leaving fragile objects like those punch-balloons. Mary Clare's popped and we thought the tears would never end. Luckily Baba remembered the stash of chocolate covered cherries and cheered his girl right up.

The Wonders and the twins enjoy a bedtime story. We wanted photographic evidence that Mary Clare actually plays with Tweetsie who is seen here in precious Panda pajamas.

Christmas Day in Review

2008-12-26T23:39:00.001-05:00

We'd promised to hold the girls at bay until 8:00 especially since Aa-Aa had to drive nearly an hour to get here. It turned out not to be so hard since they slept until 7:30. Mary Clare was very disappointed and worried that Santa had not been there since she didn't see anything under the tree in the living room. We'd told her the night before that Santa always leaves the presents next to the small tree in the den since that's where the fireplace is but she wanted her way and thought Santa would comply. We'd put off showering as their beds are opposite the bathroom wall so Mom and Grumpy got to keep them occupied while we cleaned up. My mother's relationship with the girls always amazes me. She was and is a fantastic mother to me and is even a more perfect PoPo. She took the girls to their room to play and I swear she could have kept them their entertained all day. We actually had to go drag them out to eat breakfast. At that point they really wanted to get to what Santa had left them but the fresh cherries and blueberries that Aa-Aa brought were enough of a temptation to get them to the table.

Chipmonk cheeks
Baba finally carried the girls into the den where there Santa gifts awaited. Like last year they both just stood there for a few minutes with these looks of wonder on their faces and then MC started breathing again and just kept saying, "I always wanted one! I always wanted one!"

How does Santa do it?

Quiet out there! We're about to do our show!

A minor costume adjustment

The girls loved their stocking loot- punch balloons pink for MR, blue for MC

Pez dispensers. When I went to get them for lunch today I found them working on a new show and when asked if they were hungry MC said, "No thanks, we had pez."

Small, musical tops- again pink & blue

Yoyos- and you guessed it, pink & blue

Time for a puppet show. We had lots of fun with their puppets and they were kind enough to let me participate.

Since Aa-Aa doesn't like to see herself in bloggyland this is a picture of MC's precious feet. She's sitting on Aa-Aa's lap while Aa-Aa reads Mary Clare's new joke book to her. I think she was coerced into reading all the jokes. We're just glad that Santa provided new material for our little comedian.

Margaret Rose LOVED the new clogs Mary Clare gave her! They had fur and jewels on them!

Margaret Rose picked out a chocolate Santa for Mary Clare.

The new Christmas bear from PoPo allowed to wear MR's new shoes.

The girls both got cow jumping over the moon ornaments from June- one of the cowettes. Up the road from where we stay in the mountains is a cow pasture and the cows routinely end up lined up in something that resembled a Rockette kick line. Years before we had the girls Lee and I made a song that we sing to the tune of Mr. Sandman.

We're the cowettes.

We'll entertain you.

We give rich creamy milk and we moo.

We've got an udderly fantastic show-

just watch our hooves and our tails go.

Swish, swish, swish

The girls thought this was hilarious, promptly learned it and demanded more verses. So this summer we sang the original verse followed by

Meet the cowettes.

This one is June.

She can jump right over the moon.

Here's another -

her name is Shannon.

We load her up and fire her from a cannon.

Kaboom!
MC has already asked if she can have a Shannon ornament next year. Any ideas?

Fuzzy slippers for the girls- pink and blue

And the pink and blue theme continues with matching fleece outfits.

And here is our Mary Clare who liked hers so much she stripped off and put it all on. We were all reminded of her second Christmas with us when she unwrapped a Winnie-the-Pooh potty and promptly pulled off her diaper, lifted her dress and sat down.

Margaret Rose helped PoPo open the necklace we had made for her. We hope she likes it as much as we did.

Christmas joy!

Aa-Aa made Barbie closets and stocked them full of gorgeous clothes! She also gave her 2 beautiful Asian Barbies, some great furniture and the most amazing Asian miniature food.

Santa left those bitty twins almost as many clothes as the girls have. The thing is it was Willie elf's job to put the clothes under the tree and he must have gotten distracted. The girls found those little clothes packages all over the house - in the fridge, outside in their wagon, under their pillows and I think I've spied another set behind the toilet but they haven't seen them yet. Here's MC who just unwrapped the fleece outfits that were left in the fridge. She said, "Oh I love this! I'm going to put it on right now." Lee and I shared a silent moment of triumph as we thought she was going to go and play with the little boy doll that was left especially for her. She had other plans. That's a stuffed cat that PoPo gave her.

We had a lovely Christmas day. The girls enjoyed absolutely everything they received! Often they had to be spurred on to open the next item because they just wanted to play with what they'd unwrapped. Who can blame them? Our evening ended with the traditional Christmas cupcakes- frosting for Mary Clare, cake for Margaret Rose.

Santa has left the building!

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T23:48:00.000-05:00

I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year.
-Charles Dickens

We wish all of you the happiest of Christmases and the most joyous of new years!

Down Comes Good Ole Santa Claus

2008-12-25T03:43:00.001-05:00

Santa and Willie elf have been here and I can't wait to see the faces of our Huazhou wonders in a few hours. Hopefully we'll be able to hold them off long enough for Aa-Aa and PoPo to get here. It is such a blessing to make Christmas for our girls- I hope their day is as magical as they make everyday for me.

The Day & Night Before Christmas

2008-12-24T22:36:00.000-05:00

Baba makes us Christmas tree pancakes-syrup for Margaret Rose, no syrup for Mary Clare just the way we like it.

Our best friends come to play- 3 princesses and their puppy. We ate stuffed shells, corn and steamed veggies for lunch on our Christmas dishes. Then we got ready for Christmas Eve Mass. Baba went on a last minute search for black tights while Mama played beauty shop and fixed our hair- curls for Margaret Rose, braids for Mary Clare. PoPo and Grumpy came to church with us. We were good, well okay, Margaret Rose was good and Mary Clare was, well, Mary Clare.

St. Nicholas entertained us after Mass and gave out chocolate money-yum!

Our dresses match the jacket we got our PoPo in China last year. We LOVE our PoPo!!!!!!!!!

We visited the creche after Mass. Margaret Rose loves the baby Jesus and Mary Clare decides he needs a night-night kiss.

Time to go home and put baby Jesus in the manger and get ready for Santa Claus.

First things first- we have to put the star on our tree. Margaret Rose holds it.

Up goes Mary Clare.

Here's the star!Hold on to that star, Mary Clare!

A little to the right little sister!
Cookies for Santa and that mischievous Willie Elf. He REALLY likes cookies!

Let's put the reindeer food out. Here's the magic flying pellets. Do we have enough carrots? Yep- there are nine just in case Rudolph comes!

Hanging our stockings by the chimney with care.

Let's leave a thank you note for Santa! Time to sing Away In A Manger and put the baby Jesus in his bed.

Oh shoot! We can't wait for Epiphany. Bring on those camels and wisemen!

I love thee Lord Jesus

look down from the sky

and stay by my crade

til morning is nigh.

A Visit To St. Nicholas

2008-12-22T21:59:00.000-05:00

Well we won't be making this mistake again but we waited until today to make our official knee-sitting, request-making, picture-taking visit to Santa at the mall. OMG! The line to Santa wasn't quite an hour but it took nearly 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot!!!! The girls were excellent and MC even tried to cooperate with the picture taking. Luckily there were no surprise requests - MR still wants a pretty doll and MC still wants a new Thomas set with snow. Santa's got it covered! This was MR's first time in french braids and they looked adorable on her. Next year we're making the official visit as soon as the leftover stuffing is stuffed into the fridge.

Merriment & Mayhem

2008-12-21T21:51:00.000-05:00

Today was one of the 2 Sundays of the year when our church joins the 8:00 Mass and the 10:30 Mass into one 9:30 service. We got home early and the girls started in on crafts. After working together to make a foam train Mary Clare announced that we had to string popcorn because "everybody does it." Huh? Well I guess everyone in the hundred acre woods does it and that's good enough for her. Lee popped a huge bowl and the girls strung popcorn and cranberries for the tree that sits by the fireplace. It's name is Bruce - I don't know why but that's what MC calls it. Lee made some yummy potato and leek soup for lunch and our neighbor brought cornbread cakes. Aa-Aa, whose visits are nearly anticipated as much as Santa Claus's, arrived with Christmas puppets. The girls took the white fur from the puppet kits and a Santa hat and decorated Aa-Aa as that jolly old elf. I actually got some great pictures of them sitting on "Santa's" lap but will respect Aa-Aa's wishes to not be on the blog. Still if tomorrow's mall Santa sessions goes poorly she might just end up on the Christmas card. My mom and Steve came over after work and brought the girls some fun Christmas books, ornaments and a plate and a cup just for Santa's cookies and milk. MC was asked repeatedly to put down the cup, refused, dropped the cup and it broke. There were many tears but little remorse and MC was sent to her room for the rest of the night.

Deck Your Toilets

2008-12-18T22:54:00.000-05:00

We headed out into the country for our annual pre-Christmas dinner with good friends and their grandson. Mary Clare has adored J since they went to Tweetsie together when she was 2. They can go months without seeing each other and just fall right back into buddy mode the moment they meet up and once Margaret Rose came home she was immediately accepted and the twosome became a threesome. We knew we were in trouble when we pulled into the driveway and the girls started in on how Miss Alice had decorated her outside. We've really dropped the ball on the decorating this year - I just don't know where the time has gone. Miss Alice and Mr. Mike have a log house and it is just the perfect backdrop for their decorations. We knew just how slack we'd been howevver when Mary Clare went to the bathroom and reported with a huge, disappointed sigh, "Even Miss Alice's bathroom is festive!!!"
The girls loved giving J his present. Mary Clare went to the store with me today to pick it out and was the most perfect child. When offered a toy to play with while I browsed she told the clerk, "No thank you. I cannot touch anything." She stayed right with me the entire time in this gorgeous toy store and never once asked for a thing. She was completely focused on finding the perfect gift for her friend and finally decided on adding to J's ever growing arsenal with a marshmallow shooting bow and arrow. Then she asked if we could go to the grocery store and buy some ammunition. We ended up picking out the wrong size marshmallows as the box didn't say which size to get and the ones pictures looked large to me. J was a really good sport about our mistake. He's a terrific little boy!

Snow Day!

2008-12-16T21:26:00.000-05:00

The last time it snowed in our neck of the woods was 2001 so we decided to make pajama day even more festive by making snow for the kids at school today. The snow machine was something we used for theatre some years back and truthfully is a little lame but the children loved it. The last picture is our Mary Clare and her 2 best girlfriends. The three of them have their own little reading group with the school's wonderful curriculum coordinator. Mary Clare says reading with Mrs. M is the best part of the day.

Coming Home & A Surprise from PoPo

2008-12-13T23:45:00.000-05:00

Our Polar Express trip was so much fun we almost hated to come home this morning. The girls woke Baba up with tickles and then had one more turn in the swing before we started the long drive down the mountain. PoPo provided a holiday present to make coming home less disappointing- a Max & Ruby Christmas DVD. Obviously the girls LOVE Max & Ruby!!!! Thank you PoPo!!!!!!!!

Polar Express

2008-12-13T21:25:00.000-05:00

This is our 3rd year riding the Polar Express and once again we had a wonderful journey to the "North Pole" to pick up Santa. Mary Clare had a bad time at the beginning of the trip and I was afraid we weren't going to make it but she rebounded nicely and recovered her good manners. This trip is so special to us for lots of reasons but especially because it was on the train in 2006 that we made the decision to adopt our Margaret Rose.

We read some Christmas stories while waiting to depart.

Mary Clare refusing to be cooperative.

We have always had enthusiastic talent on our cars. I have heard other people say that there attendants grumbled and were not very merry but ours have always been good. This years' were superb!

Snacks! Mary Clare did NOT spill hot chocolate this year - yeah for our big girl!

Margaret Rose just loved his girl! She was so upbeat and made our trip even more special.

Air Saxophone!

Time to read the story.

This man is Mary Clare's favorite person! She was not very fond of Santa when she was 2 years old but spent the entire train trip outrageously flirting with "Mr. Conductor." He was so sweet to her.

And now 2 years later she still adores him!

Watching for Santa!

Yeah! We're going to sing!

Oh goody! The 12 Days of Christmas.

5 Golden Rings

2 Turtle Doves

And a partridge in a pear tree

Now lets sing while holding our noses?!

Here comes Santa Claus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells!

SNOW!

2008-12-13T14:05:00.001-05:00

Last night we drove up to the mountains for our annual Polar Express trip. We stopped at McAlisters for some yummy soup and made it to our destination around 10:30. While the girls were sleeping Lee and I thought we saw some flurries as we got closer to Cherokee. This morning we decided to take the girls for a ride up toward Tennessee and were thrilled to find snow! The girls just think their Baba is amazing that he found snow and HUGE icicles for them. Here are a few pictures- for the complete set (and it's a BIG one) go here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/huazhouwonders/sets/72157612480235559/

Heart Act To Follow

2008-12-08T22:34:00.001-05:00

This is the name of the award Margaret Rose received at school today. Once a month they recognize a student from each room who exemplies positive character traits. Regardless of Margaret Rose's academic difficulties, all her teachers think she is a wonderful student. She is kind and compassionate and oh so very cheerful. She is such a blessing to our family! There are times when I just despair that she had to wait 5 whole years for one of her own. She obviously wanted one. Her teachers tell us that in every thing she writes and says her love for her family and her gratefulness to have one just shine through. She is truly the sweetest child I've ever encountered. Her thoughtfulness shows in many ways but none more than in the love she shows for her naughty little sister. I think about her coming home from school on her first Halloween and immediately sitting in the floor to divide her candy so that Mary Clare could have some. I remember her finding her first Easter basket and screaming for Mary Clare to come so that she could give her the Pixie Stixs out of it not knowing that Mary Clare had some of her own. And I think about them racing to the table or the car or to PoPo and how Margaret Rose will always stop when she's ahead and hold out her hand for Mary Clare so that "we both can win." We are so blessed to have her as our daughter and sister. We love you Margaret Rose!!!!

You've Got Mail

2008-12-08T21:50:00.000-05:00

Like most kids, ours LOVE getting mail and PoPo never disappoints!

Braveheart

2008-12-08T18:10:00.001-05:00

I was taking inventory in the refrigerator for Lee who was at the grocery store when I heard giggles coming from the bathroom. And like every good mother when I found her like this I ran not for a washcloth but for the camera. On a positive note she has now learned to read the word "washable".

We Love A Parade

2008-12-07T22:33:00.002-05:00

After Mass today the girls hurried to give their wagon a wash and then had the wonderful idea to "decoration it". Baba took them to the store for shiny garland and battery powered lights and I brought home some cute little tinkly bells. Our town had its annual lighted parade tonight and we live near enough to the parade route that we decided to pull the girls down in the wagon. Had we known how unbelievably cold it would be by the end of the parade I fear we wouldn't have been so jolly about this idea. The girls really did enjoy the parade although their favorite part was probably the hot chocolate. Mary Clare was determined to collect as much candy as possible without actually leaving the confines of her one Baba open sleigh. Margaret Rose took waving and calling "Merry Christmas" to the participants so seriously that her hands were nearly frozen by the time it was over. They're already asking when it will be parade time again!

December 6- The Feast of St. Nicholas

2008-12-06T21:50:00.000-05:00

The morning started with a trip to The Fresh Market to peruse its lovely holiday confections. This was what we decided on for the girls' surprise for learning the advent hymn. They loved looking at all the scrumptious candy but were also giddy at the sight of all the gorgeous fruits and vegetables. As I had the camera with me, Lee said he felt a bit like we were "Ma, Pa and the youngins see the big city".
It is a beautiful store and as we all know - it's all about presentation. Margaret Rose decided on a round, little Santa purse that holds mints and Mary Clare finally chose this large, divided box of red and green sweets.
It was suppose to be tree decorating night at our house. We'd invited friends and PoPo. The girls were determined to cut down a tree this year and since a trip to Boone is out we headed out to one of the local farms and see what we could find. Last years trip ended in us choosing a precut fraiser fir as the cut your own choices made Charlie Brown's tree look fabulous. We all enjoyed the farm we chose this year and will likely go back next year. We had a hayride and then spent entirely too much time (this would be Lee's opionion- he's been know to get out of the car, point to the first tree that comes in sight and go home with it) deciding on the perfect tree. We ended up with a white pine which I think is very difficult to decorate but the girls liked it.
When we got home I went into the attic to get a few more boxes of decorations down. I picked up a heavy bag that had lights in it and went to go down the steps when the bottom fell out of the bag. Mary Clare was coming out of her room and headed right under the ladder so I shrieked which startled Lee who in trying to get out of the bathroom door pulled the door over his foot almost removing the entire toenail on his big toe. It was a real mess. Needless to say we cancelled the tree trimming and tended to the injured. I worried the girls would be disappointed but they hardly seemed to notice since Baba provided an opportunity for injury gawking and first aide. Oh how they love a band-aide and Lee's toe with it's barely hanging on nail certainly gave them the chance to try out all types of guaze and tape. Who knows when the tree will get done?!

Love Your Guests Along The Way

2008-12-04T21:39:00.001-05:00

We chose People Look East to be our devotional hymn during Advent this year. We're only singing the first verse but it adds a lovely touch to the scriptures and candle lighting. Without thinking about it I said the girls could have a surprise if they learned the words and of course by the next morning Mary Clare could sing it with just a little twist.
The lyrics:
People Look East the time is near
of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as your are able
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People look east and sing today
Love the guest is on the way.

MC's singing is spot on at first but then she veers just a little off course. She sings
...trim the harp and set the table.
People look east and sing today
Love your guests along the way.

Still worthy of a surprise in my book and maybe we all need to be reminded to love our guests a little more.

On a slightly more alarming note, shortly after taking the above picture MC leaned over to blow out the candle and in her words "insinderated" her bangs. Thank goodness she wasn't burned badly and it's not terribly noticable. I wonder if this counts as being "on fire for the Lord"? ;-)

Advent Calendars

2008-12-01T21:17:00.001-05:00

Last Wednesday it occurred to me that I hadn't ordered the girls' advent calendars and I went into a mini-panic as I realized we'd need them today. I called Lee and asked him to go by one of the 3 church supply stores near him and see if they had any left. He and Margaret Rose went by the Catholic Shoppe and although the clerk was vacuuming she was kind enough to let them in and help. She started naming the kinds of calendars she had and when she mentioned stickers Margaret Rose was sold. When they went up to pay Lee said, "Oh I guess I better get one for each child." He said the clerk's face just fell and she told him, "I'm so sorry but I don't have many of these left. How many children do you have?" Obviously our 2 child family is not the norm.

The First Sunday in Advent

2008-11-30T20:19:00.002-05:00

It was advent wreath making Sunday at church. The girls got a little help from Miss Sally and made 2 very fine wreaths. We brought one home to use for our daily devotions and sent one home to a dear friend. Mary Clare and I made fudge in the afternoon - I think she enjoyed it!

Pizza! Pizza!

2008-11-29T23:33:00.000-05:00

Ever since Mary Clare's class went on a fieldtrip to the local pizzaria, she has been eager to make our own at home. The chefs really got into measuring, sifiting, kneading, spreading, sprinkling and finally eating.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T23:21:00.000-05:00

We have so very much to be thankful for and our 2 Huazhou wonders are at the top of our list! After yesterday's festivities we had a quiet day. This morning the girls reenacted the Mayflower voyage using a laundry basket as the ship and a blue towel for the ocean (the ocean came after an admonishment to quit dragging the basket all over the floors). We ate leftovers and spent the afternoon on our local riverwalk. We have decided not to go to Boone for the weekend. Everyone is tired and neither of us wants to take the 2 car trip that would be involved if we cut our Christmas tree. Don't know where the tree will come from but we've got a little while to worry about that.

The Only Turkeys At Our House Are Made Out of Pumpkins

2008-11-26T19:19:00.001-05:00

The morning started early and our Margaret Rose greeted it with her usual cheerfulness. She came in about 6:00am to find Lee and I busy sweeping, dusting, etc. She gave us that beautiful smile of hers and a cheery "good morning" and then went and got her own little broom and dust pan and asked so sweetly, "May I clean please?" She is so her Baba's girl! Miss Grumpy pants got up about an hour and a half later her usual a.m. self- need I say more? She and I are soooo much alike - poor thing.

PoPo has to work tomorrow so we invited Aa-Aa and Sylvia to come and share the Thanksgiving meal a day early. The girls were so excited to have everyone together! PoPo got very nervous when we let them loose with the hammer but they worked hard on the decorations and did a great job of putting their Hearthsong turkeys together. Mary Clare donned her chef's apparel and helped cook the sweet potatoes while Margaret Rose made personalized placemats. Aa-Aa brought the cutest paper bag puppet kits that the girls adored! They made one to decorate everyone's chair. We had a wonderful time day!!!

It's Official

2008-11-22T21:25:00.003-05:00

The holiday season has begun. This afternoon the city put up the Christmas lights on the electric poles. Our Huazhou Wonders were ecstatic!! And they made some poor guy's day - they rushed outside Mary Clare still in her pjs and Margaret Rose in her can-can girl dress and shouted,

"Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Thank you! Thank you!" and then serenaded him with Deck The Halls (this season's favorite). The man just grinned all over himself and wished them a merry Christmas too! At least if he had to work on a Saturday he knows he was appreciated.

Ruby's Wish

2008-11-19T22:24:00.000-05:00

It was 1st grade book character dress-up day at Margaret Rose's school and she chose to go as Ruby from Shirin Yim Bridge's Ruby's Wish. She was so excited to wear her beautiful Chinese clothes, her Chinese shoes with roses on them and her hair in 2 knots like the character in the book. We kept getting notes home about how the children really had to know the book and we got very nervous about MR's day. She has a difficult time retelling a story- any story short or long, complicated or simple. She just doesn't have those skills yet and we did not want her embarrassed in front of her peers. We'd been practicing telling the basic point of the story - Ruby wanted to go to college and girls were not sent to school in Ruby's day- for days and Margaret still had a difficult time remembering. I sent an email to her teacher who sent a lovely, reassuring note back stating that she would not allow MR to be embarrassed and that she would help her with the book. Margaret Rose had a fine day dressed as Ruby and we are very grateful for her compassionate teacher who reported that in the end MR actually was able to tell the class that Ruby wanted to go to college and only boys could go. Way to go Ruby and Miss Margaret Rose! The rest of the pictures are of after school at our house - a can-can girl and a dragon doing "homework". Our girls LOVE Halloween but as you can tell other than the trick-or-treating it isn't much different than a regular day at our house.

That's Entertainment

2008-11-17T21:39:00.000-05:00

Baba and the girls watching Bugs Bunny on YouTube... in Chinese.

The Things We Do For Love

2008-11-01T22:41:00.001-04:00

As I've mentioned before our girls, especially Mary Clare, thinks that men dressed up as women are the funniest thing ever. I've attributed this to all the time they spend with their Baba watching an old British comedy in which the characters are often shown in fancy dress. Recently MC discovered the movie Mrs. Doubtfire and ever since has been determined that her Grumpy was going to dress as Mrs. Doubtfire for Halloween. And,as you can see, he did his best. Mrs Doubtfire even had trick-or-treat goodies in her handbag! I know very few men who would put on women's clothes, undergarments and makeup to make a 4 year old happy. Oh the things we do for love!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T23:26:00.000-04:00

MC was suppose to dress as what she wants to be when she grows up for PreK today so of course she wore her train engineer outfit. After school our friends were kind enough to let us be their neighborhood crashers again this year. The girls had an excellent time trick-or-treating and like last year will still be enjoying Halloween candy on Valentine's Day. MC insisted on trick-or-treating in her "skellybones" costume while MR wore her can-can girl dress, Anna Lin went as a beautiful princess with unbelievably lovely curls and Miss Autumn enjoyed her first Halloween as a feathery witch. Miss Angi warmed them all up with hot chocolate after the trick-or-treating.

Introducing Miss Ruby & Miss Sapphire!

2008-10-30T22:23:00.000-04:00

We are usually encouraging at least one of our children to keep their dress down and to quit showing off her panties but as MC put it, "PoPo made us fancy drawers so we get to show everybody!" We did Boo at the Zoo tonight and the girls debuted their can-can girl costumes. Miss Ruby even did a little show for the zoo crowd - yikes! We can already picture her as a teenager and it is a little scary! It was really chilly but our wonders refused sweaters until after it was dark and no one could see the dresses anymore. The girls got lots of candy and I was pleased to hear several people remark on how cute the can-can girls were - I was afraid they'd be mistaken for street walkers! We warmed up in the 3-D theater and by the fire pit. Miss Ruby's favorite part of the night was her costume; Miss Sapphire's was the marshmallows! We were reminded of Mary Clare's first trip to Boo at the Zoo in 2005 when she was still dealing with oral aversion and instead of actually eating candy spent the night walking around picking up the used candy wrappers. Things had changed by 2006 when she couldn't wait to get back to the car with her haul and declared loudly, "Let's eat da chocat!"

Sister Love

2008-10-29T21:19:00.002-04:00

I had a meeting in town yesterday so Mary Clare stayed home. We all 3 got to pick up Margaret Rose from school and the sister reunion was just too sweet for words. Margaret Rose jumped up from the group she was playing with and came running to meet Mary Clare. They hugged and hugged and Margaret Rose picked up little sister and twirled her around. They truly do adore each other. They get along so well that when they do have a sister spat it's really startling. The last time they got into a snit about something I told them that they couldn't play together any more that day and you'd have thought I threw away all their toys such tears and pleading I heard. I have no idea how long this sister love will last but I know the girls will always be blessed to have each other.

Jack -o-lanterns

2008-10-28T21:54:00.000-04:00

Tonight was carving night and the girls hauled in the pumpkins that we'd been keeping out in the yard. They went out to get them together but it appears that Mary Clare left all the heavy lifting to her sister. Miss Amy sent the girls these great carving tools and with a little help from Baba they were able to do their on pumpkins. They were SO EXCITED!

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace...

2008-10-28T21:42:00.007-04:00

as I have seen in one autumnal face.
-John Donne
The girls and I went to North Carolina this weekend. A tragedy in our church family kept Lee at home but the girls had looked forward to the trip for 2 weeks and I really hated to disappoint them. They shut Tweetsie Railroad down with Pa and Grandma on Saturday and then the three of us had some fall fun on Sunday afternoon. They had the best time playing in the leaves! I love the pictures of Mary Clare with leaves all through her ponytails. She looks likes some mischievous wood sprite and she certainly has the personality to match. Margaret Rose was determined to make the biggest pile of leaves she possibly could and bury her little sister in them.

Mary Clare is just an animal magnet. They follow her everywhere. This cute little thing refused to go back to its owner preferring our Nibblet. It even headed down the trail with us when we were leaving. We had to stop and let its owners come and get it. MC really wants a dog of her own. Margaret Rose is fond of the idea of a dog but is not fond of slobber or dog hair. Lee picked the girls up at PoPo's house last week and found MC playing with mom's maltese Sadie and MR playing with a stuffed maltese.

Aargh!

2008-10-23T21:23:00.002-04:00

Our school held a family fun literacy night with a pirate theme. Mary Clare was soooo excited and behaved wonderfully all night!

She loved helping decorate. She had to listen to each shell. The ones below were her favorites. She said she could hear the ocean in one and mermaids in the other.

You never know where you're going to find treasure...we sure found ours in China.

Our State Fair...

2008-10-10T21:07:00.002-04:00

It is Fair season in our neck of the woods and the Huazhou girls are all about things that spin, jerk, fly and generally go very, very fast. Mary Clare has wanted to ride the Dragon roller-coaster since last year so it was the very first thing we did. They were both too short to ride alone so Lee and I went with them. Mary Clare cracked me up by instructing me in the fine art of coaster riding. "You do it like this, Mama!" she shrieked while throwing her hands up in the air. The girls rode and rode and rode and on occasion so did we. I even rode the big ferris wheel although I have to admit to having a few moments of panic. We do much better when Lee does the height things and I do the spinning ones. We ate junk- french fries and elephant ears and tons of lemonaide. The girls received lots of compliments and lots of the "are they twins" questions. They LOVE to match and ask for clothes alike but Margaret Rose gets annoyed with the twins question. "I am 6!" she declares as politely as possible, "She is 4!"

Hey look! Another roller coaster! Let's go!

We were up waaaay past our bedtime but had a fantastic time!

Fun on the Farm

2008-10-05T21:41:00.008-04:00

MC and MR start their day by feeding Dilly-bird honey bunches of oats- yum! Then it was off to Country Adventures with our local Adoptive Families group. There were 115 people there this year and it was understandably chaotic. The girls still managed to have a great time though.

This is Mary Clare's favorite part of the farm- the donkey. She met her first donkey when she was 2 and it was love at first site. She looks forward to giving this one a good brushing every year.

Miss Angi helped the girls pick just the right pumpkin.

After our yearly pose on the pumpkin wagon it was back on the hay ride down to the pond for the cookout of hotdogs (veggie dogs for us) and marshmallows.

Happy Autumn!

Friday Frolic

2008-10-03T21:14:00.000-04:00

Mary Clare came tearing across the school yard this afternoon with this pink twirly thing. She'd used her blue buck card to get it for Margaret Rose (she has a blue one that somebody gave her last year) and couldn't wait to get home and give it to her. The girls and Baba had a good time making noise and spinning.

Margaret Rose's afternoon was made when she got a picture of her Huazhou friend in the mail. This is a very special girl and no matter how much of MR's China past she forgets, she ALWAYS remembers AhTzo!

County Fair

2008-10-02T19:11:00.000-04:00

There was no way that Margaret Rose could miss the fair in the town I work in since Mary Clare got to go with her class. So it was back to the fair grounds on Thursday evening and this time we were joined by our good friends Alice and Mike and their wonderful grandson. It was the perfect evening with a gorgeous sky, moderate temperatures and no crowds.
Margare Rose loved the slide so much she had to go back and do it again.

But this was her favorite ride. She LOVES to swing (she actually thinks we moved her to her new school because it has swings) and these were like flying. At the end of the evening we let them choose one last thing to ride and the girls wanted this.

On Tuesday Margaret Rose looked at the picture of MC on this ride and got all excited because she told us -these are Chinese bees!! Huh? Then she pointed out that they are holding up 2 fingers like practically everyone in China does when they get their picture taken so they must be Chinese. Makes perfect sense to me.

Watch those ponytails fly!

A blue snowcone and a red one- perfect fair food.

Good night! Yeah, right! With all that sugar?????????

Mary Clare Goes To The Fair

2008-09-30T18:45:00.001-04:00

Mary Clare's class went to the county fair today. We pass the fair grounds every morning and Mary Clare has been squealing with anticipation as each ride and exhibit went up. It rained most of the morning and I was afraid the trip would be cancelled but her teachers braved the rain and were rewarded with the sun coming out shortly after arriving. Nana Pearl came and filled in for me so that I could go with her class and I was so glad I didn't miss it. Just her reaction to her first school bus ride was priceless. She was bouncing in the seat shrieking, "This is fun! This is so much fun!"
Margaret Rose made an interesting observation about these bees - can you guess? I'll save her description for Thursday when Lee brings her down and we all go to the fair together.

Mary Clare's teacher asked her if she wanted to carry the bag of cotton candy that she'd gotten for the class. I advised against it. You can see how much Mary Clare LOVES cotton candy.
Covered in chocolate literally head to toe on the way home from school
Miss Kitty- PoPo made her a cat costume just because and she loves it!
"Kitty's nap on top of the couch. you know." She's a method actor. And apparently she's so convincing that she can even fool the neighbor dog. Rudi freaked out when she went to say "meow" to Miss Etta.
She had a costume malfunction and needed a tail adjustment.

Haircuts

2008-09-28T21:26:00.003-04:00

Hey! The girls actually have eyebrows- I'd forgotten. Pa & Grandma took them to Miss Debbie's on Saturday morning for haircuts. I think they both look very nice! Then they donned their rainboots and spent a soggy day at Tweetsie Railroad. Mary Clare has missed her train friend and Margaret Rose was keen to get another look at those can-can girls so she can make sure her Halloween costume is just right. (Don't tell her that we're taking the easy way out and have purchased can-can like dresses from of all places Wally World. They are really High School Musical dresses but one is blue and one is red as requested by our saloon girls. PoPo is making the fancy underwear and feathered head gear.) From the sounds of things the girls had a fabulous time and Pa & Grandma deserve an award (and a long rest) for sloshing around with our Huazhou wonders all day.

The Joy of Cooking

2008-09-26T21:42:00.000-04:00

Mary Clare adores her Nana Pearl and was determined to help with the cake we were making for her dinner party. Obviously cooking is just way too much fun!

Once Upon A Time

2008-09-22T21:19:00.002-04:00

After dinner tonight the girls disappeared into their room. After awhile things got quiet and I went in to check on them as silence is often a sure sign of impending disaster. Instead of their usual wild girls antics, I found them "reading" Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and Cinderella. They were the 2 books from last nights bedtime stories and the girls were really doing a good job retelling the story to each other. Margaret Rose remembered lots of details and lots of the wording from the stories. The Cinderella is the classic story that involves the fairy godmother turning a rat into a coachman and lizards into footmen. I got the video camera and recorded a bit but had to leave before they were finished with Cinderella. Of course the camera was off for the funniest line of the evening. As I walked out the room I heard Mary Clare "read" - "and then the fairy godmudder said go git you some iguanas." I bet iguanas would make some really fancy footmen!

The girls finished the evening with a scrub in the tub. Bathing suits were for some reason required.

BFsF at the Zoo

2008-09-21T19:26:00.007-04:00

I See The Moon

2008-09-14T22:59:00.000-04:00

Okay, so we really probably need to learn a Chinese song for Mid-Autumn festival but this year Mary Clare's old favorite worked nicely once again. We started our celebration with dinner from the Teapot. Then we went out to light our lanterns and stroll down the street singing "I See The Moon" much to the amusement of our neighbors. One of them greeted the girls with "Oh! Is it Moon Festival already?" We met her in the same spot last year and I guess you don't forget 2 little sweeties in Chinese clothes singing to the moon. We finished up the evening by reading Round Is A Mooncake and then Margaret Rose and Baba enjoyed eating the mooncakes. Mary Clare and I just like the idea of the mooncake and the festive box they come in :-) The girls keep their crayons in the mooncake tin from 2 years ago.

This was our 4th time observing Mid-Autumn festival. The first time was in Guangzhou in 2005. Then we took baby Mary Clare out to the park next to the White Swan and celebrated with the locals and our travel group. Our wonderful guide XiXi gave each family a lantern to light in the park that night. We still have ours in Mary Clare's memory box.

Saturday At Home

2008-09-14T10:17:00.005-04:00

We had big plans to meet friends and head out for an FCC event at a park about 45 minutes away. The gas situation caused both of our families to rethink that plan and we ended up staying at home. The girls made the best of the situation and entertained themselves. Margaret Rose spent nearly 2 hours working on a large color by number project and Mary Clare built playground equipment for the blue monkey she got at the school Blue Mart on Friday. These children are easily entertained and I really need to remember that when I start that Christmas shopping :-)
Margaret Rose loves all kinds of art. She drew this picture this afternoon. She says this is Mary Clare driving the train and that she, Lee and I are riding it with our friend Anna Lin and her parents.

Go Monkey Go!

Happy Adoption Day!

2008-09-11T23:00:00.001-04:00

Hip, hip, hip hooray! We celebrated three years with Mary Clare today! She loves the song "Happy Adoption Day!" and so that's what we call today even if the adoption wasn't official until the 12th. I planned to take the day off and keep her home from PreK but changed my mind after I missed almost a week with my back to school kidney stone experience. I'm actually glad we went on to school together. So many people there waited and prayed for this blessing with us that I was glad to share the day and her with them. Mary Clare danced into school singing the adoption day song. She hugged her Nana Pearl and after picking out 2 books for me to read to her class when they came to the library for storytime she went off to class. I heard she told everyone she saw that it was a special day because it was her 'doption day. When her class came to the library she wasn't with them. She'd "made a bad choice" and had to stay behind and clean up something she had scribbled on when she got angry. Her teacher and assistant were kind and when she did better later in the day they brought the children back. We read Over The Moon by Karen Katz & I Love You Like Crazy Cakes. Mary Clare shared pictures from our first meeting and laughed when she told everyone, "I look like my Baba. I was just bald." Then we had cupcakes. Her Godmother and I ate lunch with her later on. Thursday is chicken day in the cafeteria and Mary Clare spent most of the time bemoaning the fate of the chickens. She kept eyeing the kid across from her and finally said, "Those are it's bones you know. They used to be on it's inside." We've gone over and over about how everyone makes different choices when it comes to food and how talking about someone elses choices in front of them is rude. Obviously that lesson hasn't sunk in yet as my tiny vigilante vegetarian was hard at work trying to make converts.

Mary Clare loves her Nana Pearl!

Mary Clare got to choose dinner and she picked -surprise, surprise- macaroni cheese. I told her we had to have something to go with it and she asked for fake chicken nuggets. PoPo and Grumpy passed on the dinner but came for cake and the pinata. Doesn't every little Chinese girl want to have macaroni cheese and a pinata for their Adoption Day party? Oh well, her day- her choice.

The girls had a great time with the pinata and the presents and of course shared everything. Mary Clare asked for a Tow Mater toy and we got a Lightning to go with it and we all had a ball playing with them. Mary Clare was just gleeful most of the night!

Without prompting Margaret Rose said, "You are my best friend.

Happy Adoption Day Mary Clare. I love you!" Oh how we love these girls!

PoPo brought new fairy wings and fairy slippers, wands and crowns and...

a "Deluxe Beauty Kit" just like in Ruby's Beauty Shop!

as ordered- a Tow Mater that goes backward

Bibbidi-Bobbidi- Happy Adoption Day to you!

One Girl Peaceful and Safe

I still cannot belive that I get to be this child's mother. No one could have ever explained to me that on September 11th at 3:00 in the afternoon a total stranger would walk into a room and hand me my heart. She came to us with no tears but instead a sort of bemused curiosity. Knowing her now they way we do, knowing how hard transition is for her, I can't even begin to understand how difficult that day must have been. You wake up one morning, get put in this big box with wheels with 7 other little girls, ride forever, have these strange plastic things strapped to your feet and all of sudden find yourself in the arms of these odd looking people who talk funny and keep trying to taste you. I can still see her on Lee's shoulder walking on to Shamian Island ( busses weren't allowed on the island that afternoon) blowing raspberries to everyone that passed. She is still that funny, curious little girl and has grown to be clever and caring, loving, devoted, stubborn as the day is long, and oh so joyful. Everyone that meets her remarks on how she lives BIG- the good and the bad! Mary Clare vibrates with energy, she shines, she sparkles and by the grace of our heavenly Father she is ours. We are blessed beyond measure.

Back at the White Swan on our Gotcha Day in 2005
2006
2007 with big sister Margaret Rose
2008- Margaret Rose wanted to take the picture for us after studying our first Gotcha Day pic. We think she did a great job!

Take Heed

2008-09-06T17:38:00.006-04:00

If you are the person who told our Nibblet that she can't be a train engineer because she is a girl, we'd appreciate it if you'd keep your narrow-minded, gender biased, antiquated, inaccurate opinions to yourself. A quick trip to the computer and a google later she has been reassured that not only can a girl drive a train but they have been doing so for well over 100 years. Hooray for Miss Ida Hewitt, the first female train engineer, who ran a locomotive on the Cairo branch line in West Virginia - a narrow gauge connection of the Baltimore and Ohio lines in the late 1800s. Miss Mary Clare's fondest desire is to drive her beloved Tweetsie :-)

On a lighter note, the girls decided that Doug the Dragon - guardian of the Guangdong empresses, slayer of bad dreams, brave defender of the Imperial Bedroom-needed a makeover. Thanks to watching way too much "Are You Being Served" with their Baba, our house is now host to South Carolina's only cross-dressing dragon. Poor Doug- it's hard to run off those bad dreams in heels.

A Fine Adventure

2008-09-03T21:57:00.005-04:00

Baba and Margaret Rose called on their way home from the grocery to tell me they had picked up an extra passenger. Seems they had spotted a turtle attempting to cross a busy highway and had stopped to rescue it. Mary Clare couldn't wait for them to get home so she could see. She suggested we make it some clothes while we waited on them and was a little upset when I told her that we couldn't keep it for a pet. Her Godmother has a pet turtle amongst other things with fur and feathers and MC really wants a pet. MC petted Mr. Turtle gently and ooh-ed and ah-ed over it while her sister made disgusted faces and passed on her turn to touch it. Mr. Turtle hung out in the tub while we ate supper and then we loaded him up in a box and set out for the woods by the river to release him. Margaret Rose did finally agree to help carry the box after we convinced her that he was entirely too short to reach up and nip her fingers through the handles. Mr. Turtle proved quite the disappointment when he refused to come out of his shell before we had to leave for home but Mary Clare still declared it a "fine adventure" and Margaret Rose decided that she and Baba were just like the Wonder Pets.

On the way home we passed a church that had a large steeple bell outside on the lawn. Mary Clare was very excited and exclaimed, "Wow! Dat's a very big Taco Bell!"