FFF - Silly

Today's Favorite Foto Friday theme is "Silly". We're doing a little sticker chart thing with the girls, and when they get their chart filled, they get to pick a fun place to go. The first time they picked "Fun Depot" - a sort of kiddie arcade where you play little games, and earn points that can be traded in for stuff at the end. You can spend tons of money and walk away with a handful of trinkets, but they think it's just the greatest. Here's a picture of them acting silly with one of the trinkets they "bought".



For more silly foto fun, see Sarah's blog. Have a good weekend!

FFF (Late) - Fake-out!

Well, I'm a little late...the Favorite Foto Friday theme is Fake-out. I couldn't resist getting in on this one - I just had a hard time choosing from the THOUSANDS of them that I have!

I have everything from the "not enough" fake smile...


...to the "too much" fake smile...




Claire, the master of fake smiles...


But this one has to be my favorite - we were right in the middle of an after-bath meltdown, and I wanted to record it for posterity, when Mia flashed this beautiful smile...


I still don't have any takers on the Pass It On gifts...leave me a comment if you'd like a gift this year.

For more fake smiles, see Sarah's blog.

Pass It On (2)

Okay, so there's still time to get in on this and get a gift this year. This will be an exclusive handmade item by me... My creative juices are starting to flow, just thinking about it, so someone better sign up, or I might have to send a reciprocal gift to Kristi, just to give me an excuse to make this one item that I've been needing motivation to get started on!

Pass It On...

I saw this on Kristi's blog, and I thought it sounded like so much fun. This is how it works...the first 3 people to leave a comment on this will receive a gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch...you knew there would be didn't you? Post this on your blog, then come back and leave a comment telling me you're in. Fun, huh? Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are a few pictures of the girls this week getting ready for Valentine's Day.


It amazes me how much Mia is learning. I wrote out a list of the kids' names in her classroom, and she copied them all. We put her Valentines (Dora ones, of course) in a bag in her backpack for the party yesterday. This morning she pulled the bag out of her backpack and brought it to me. Apparently she couldn't find them when party-time came. She switched back and forth between two backpacks this week, so maybe they were in the wrong one --- who knows.



We made brownies for Claire's class party, and cookies for Mia's. I tried something new - I let them paint on the frosting. It makes a thinner coat, and hardens nicely so the cookies don't stick together in the container. Well, a few cookies in, we discovered that our paintbrushes were shedding. We kept those cookies at home - hey, I don't mind a few brush bristles for the pleasure of a sugar cookie with frosting!




Happy Valentine's Day!

FFF - Love!

Today's FFF theme is Love. Here's a photo from last weekend of Claire and Mia in a loving moment.

For more FFF Love posts, visit Sarah's blog.
Have a great Valentine's weekend!

We're nearly done!

Guess what came in the mail yesterday?


As soon as our post-placement visits were done, we started the name change process. Got that done, and her Certificate of Foreign Birth, and immediately headed to the Social Security office. Will all of the paperwork ever be done? I keep thinking I'm almost done, but now I think I need to file a G-884 to get our original documents back from USCIS. Maybe I've waited too long - who knows. But I am wondering what was in that mystery sealed packet we had to turn over at the Atlanta airport. And I may need to apply for a new Certificate of Citizenship with her changed name. Hope not.

Anyway, the SS# was what I've been waiting for. I had TurboTax all filled out, just waiting on that number. I plugged it in, and e-filed last night. Can't wait to get that tax credit!

Sheep!

Last Saturday afternoon we went to some friends' farm. Their sheep are having lambs left and right. Several were born earlier in the week, one was born just a couple of hours before we were there, and two were born right after we left --- I hope we didn't scare that mommy sheep into labor!

My sister has sheep, and I can see why she likes them so much. I just fell in love with them. They are so sweet, gentle and helpless!


Their little faces are so cute! Here are a bunch of pictures, in no particular order. They also have a horse that the girls enjoyed petting. He looked like he was about to go to sleep as we loved on him!











I like the little grin on this one's face...

Goofy things they say

We have both ends of the spectrum when it comes to eating at our house. Claire will eat everything in sight, and we have to force her to stop. Mia will hardly eat anything, and we have to force her to stay in her seat and eat. One time she'll like something, and the next time she won't. It makes it a real challenge, and much food is thrown out. Sometimes she says she doesn't like something, even though she's never tried it. When I make her try it, she actually likes it. One thing she's tried and never liked is yogurt. Claire and I both like plain yogurt, and we mix a little jam with it. It's as precious as gold to me, and I get really aggravated if I have to throw any out. The other day I found a bowl of it sitting by Mia's abandoned breakfast plate. Come to find out, she had asked Claire for some, and Claire dished it out for her. I put Mia in her chair and told her not to get up until the breakfast was eaten, including the yogurt. Soon she came to the top of the stairs and looked down at where I was sorting laundry. I asked if she was finished, and she said yes. I said, "Mia, remember this day, and don't EVER ask for yogurt again." I saw just the faintest grin, and she said, "But Mommy, it was really, really GOOD!" Silly girl.

Claire and I have these rambling conversations. One night we were talking about the cat, and somehow got to the subject of neutering cats ---
Claire - "Why?"
Mom - "So they won't make kittens"
Claire - "Boys make kittens?"
Mom -"Yes, they don't have them, but it takes a boy and a girl to make a baby"
Claire - "Can you make a baby?"
Mom - "No, I never could"
Claire - "Did you try?"
Mom - "Yes, we tried for years"
Claire - "Is that why you look so old and tired?"
Mom - "No, I'm just old and tired."

FFF - Melt

The Favorite Foto Friday theme for today is "Melt". Since we've only had a dusting of snow lately, I don't really have any good recent melting pictures, but I found these from when Claire was 3. This was during those wonderful days when I took one day a week off work. I told her if she'd help me clean the house, she could have a Fudgsicle. Boy, she worked like a trooper all morning!




For more FFF pix, see Sarah's blog. Have a good weekend!