Gingerbread Sweetness

I should be ashamed that I haven't been here since Summer... but well, life happens. Sometimes you need a break and that's just how it goes. I missed this place! But, I can't make any promises I will be a regular visitor again so just bare with me.

In the meantime... here are some pretty sweet picture to enjoy! I had a bit of fun with my girls this morning! They are growing up way to fast and this holiday season has been lots of fun already! Can't wait for more!!

Happy 5th Birthday, Jaelyn!

 

 

Though you are growing up fast, I still think of you as the little girl I instantly fell in love with who came to us, scared, wide-eyed and dazed. You were only 15 months old actually. I'm sure you couldn't wrap your head around exactly what was going on and who all these strange people were surrounding you. You quickly adjusted however, and have long since accepted all of the love, caring & understanding you get from everyone who meets you.

 

 

5! You will be entering Kindergarten shortly there after and attending for an entire day of school. I have no doubt you will love school as you are always asking the how's, why's and when's. You are a little sponge ready to soak up as much information as you can.

 

 

In the past year, you have grown right before my eyes, maturing more with each day. You brought up the word adoption to me, much to my delightful surprise. You were laying on the couch with me, your sister already in bed and your mind must have been in overdrive as you looked at me and simply asked "Mommy, what does the word adoption mean?" After my initial shock & gasp, I thought to myself.. "Ok, I guess we are having this discussion now then." I always feared exactly how I would approach that topic with you so thank you sweetheart, for making it easy for me. I explained it to you the best way I knew how. Not only were you ok with it, after telling you how special you were because you were adopted you said "That is just so cool!". Again, thank you. Now when asked how we became your Mommy & Daddy you are very proud to say "I was adopted, isn't that cool!?" and I beam. Your curiosity on the subject has even made you ask about a few babies you've seen.. "Do you think they were adopted, too?" I can tell you will share this with your sister when it comes time for her to understand it and you will help to make her see just how very cool it is.  

 

 

There are times I look at you and think,  when in the world did she grow up? You are such a beautiful girl with a smile that can light up the room. When you giggle and laugh at even the silliest things, my world is brighter.

 

 

I love you very much!

 

 

An Interview with Abbie

I pretty much had to do this since I interview her sister... she rather insisted. So, here are HER answers! haha.

What is your name?
Abbie

How old are you?
3

What is your favorite color?
Purple & Pink

What is your favorite toy?
Jaelyn's Bear

What is your favorite fruit?
A carrot & an apple

What is your favorite tv show?
Higglytown Heroe's

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?
Macaroni & Cheese

What is your favorite outfit?
The flower shirt I'm wearing

What is your favorite game?
Blue's Clues (again, no idea we even had a game)

What is your favorite snack?
Mommy ... haha, ok then.

What is your favorite animal?
Mommy (giggles, giggles, giggles)

Favorite song?
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Favorite book?
Backyardigans

Who is your best friend?
Jaelyn  (this caused me to go awwwww)

Favorite cereal?
Cheerios

Favorite thing to do outside?
Slide on the slide

Favorite drink?
Sunny D

Favorite holiday?
Halloween

What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
Macaroni & Cheese

What do you want for dinner on your birthday?
Cupcakes

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A Doctor

What was the best thing you did this Summer?
Going to Sesame Street!!!

What grade will you be in this year?
Hmmm.... none.

What do you want for your birthday?
A telephone that has a sound with buttons (last week it was a guitar)..

Too funny!!!
 

An Interview with Jaelyn

Jaelyn is turning 5 tomorrow. Ahh!

So, we sat down & had a little interview...

 

What is your name?

Umm, Jaelyn.

 

How old are you?

4 but only 1 more day until my actual birthday when I will be 5.

 

What is your favorite color?

Pink

 

What is your favorite toy?

The Lamb (she came with La La Loopsy doll)

 

What is your favorite fruit?

Apple

 

What is your favorite tv show?

After some hard thinking.....    Blue's Clues (we don't even watch this really)

 

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?

Sandwiches

 

What is your favorite outfit?

Doggy Shirt

 

What is your favorite game?

Pet Pad (on the Leap Pad)

 

What is your favorite snack?

Fishies

 

What is your favorite animal?

An Elephant

 

Favorite song?

ABC's

 

Favorite book?

The Pooh one..

 

Who is your best friend?'

Nate

 

Favorite cereal?

Captain Crunch

 

Favorite thing to do outside?

Go on the swing

 

Favorite drink?

Milk

 

Favorite holiday?

Halloween

 

What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

A Pop-Tart

 

What do you want for dinner on your birthday?

Pizza!

 

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A fireman

 

What was the best thing you did this Summer?

When I got to play

 

What grade will you be in this year?

Kindergarten

 

What do you want for your birthday?

A Hamster

 

hehehehe... super cute! :)

Laurie & Devyn

You may remember me taking pictures for my good friend, Gina back in December? Her two little girls are ADORABLE! I had such fun with them!

Well, I recently go to take more pictures for her.. yay! I had such a blast, lol. I'm telling you it is SO much more easier to take pictures of other peoples kids, haha. I just say "Let them do as they wish & I will capture it" whereas with mine, I am more like.. "SIT down! No, DO THIS!" and I wind up bribing them with candy? ha!

Anyways.. Thank you Gina for letting me capture Devyn & Laurie's personalities! :)

Jaelyn's Pre-K Graduation

I did a quick post about Jaelyn graduating Pre-K here. But here are a few more pictures and a little background on the day. 

She attends the morning class at her school so at 9:00am they put on a little program about crayons. It was super cute. She was the orange crayon... and what a cute crayon she was. The play was all about how unique & different each crayon is but when they work together, they can create something beautiful. Adorable! 

Here she is "stepping  up" to Kindergarten... yay! Her teacher said very nice things about her and bragged about how much she loved to read. *so proud!*

After her little play, we went back to her class for some refreshments, sandwiches & cake! Yum!

I am very proud! I know she will do just fine in Kindergarten. I can't believe it! When did she grow up so fast??

With Nana & Mom-Mom

With her friends Eliza & Allie

What a cutie....

YAY! I'm a big girl now!!!

Congratulations my little sweet!! ♥

Sesame Place: Day 2!

After a very pleasant night's sleep, we were up & ready to go by 8:00 for DAY 2!!! Besides, we had breakfast with Elmo & Friends.. woohoo!

This was so cute. You were assigned a table for your family, which I loved.. no hunting & fighting for a table with little ones. We found our table and immediately went to visit with the star! Elmo!!!

We had a yummy, yummy breakfast and then of course a few more characters came to visit us at the table... Zoe & The Count.. and Big Bird was there too, yay! I'm so glad we did this, it was nice to be in the park a little earlier and we got to see a few characters we hadn't seen in the park yet.

After breakfast we tackled the roller coaster. Oh. My. I asked the girls over and over.. are you sure? and beings we just had breakfast.. oh dear. But they insisted so up we went. I rode with Abbie, Chris rode with Jaelyn. The first DROP.. Abbie was like.. "NO NO NO.. I don't like!" .. I felt so bad! She was almost in tears but made it through the whole thing. Jaelyn, however was screaming with her hands in the air.. WOHOOO, Let's GO AGAIN!! Oh how very different they are, haha! Sorry, no pictures... but here is what the roller coaster looks like so you have an idea...

We made our way around the park a little longer... watched a few of the shows that we missed the day before and had lunch.

After lunch we were off to the water parks... Sorry, no pictures of that because hey, my iPhone is not yet waterproof! The girls had fun though, we sat in the little pool wave pool area for a while so they could jump waves & cool off. They didn't go down to many water slides themselves, still a bit small for that but we did go down the GIANT slide with all of us in one big tube, how fun!

Finally around 4-ish.. the girls were getting tired & cranky and well, so were we. So we headed out, got changed & dried off and headed home.

We had such a wonderful time though! I am SO happy we went and if this is a trial run for the big park down in Florida with the Mouse, I'd say that trip isn't far off... hopefully. I hope we get to visit Sesame Place again this year, I am sure the girls will enjoy it just as much!

Thank you for a great time, Sesame!!

Sesame Place

Sunny days.... chasing the clouds away... (now that will be in your head for the rest of this post, huh?)..

Just a couple short weeks ago, we had our very first family of four adventure! We went to Sesame Place located in Langhorne, Pa.  What a fun, fun, FUN time we had! I'm not sure who was more excited, the girls or myself, haha!

We went up on a Thursday - the entire way up the girls kept asking if we were there yet. It was only about an hour drive, impatient much? When we finally arrived, I thought they might burst at the seams!

The park is super cute. There are many, many water rides but we wanted to wait to do the water stuff till later or the next day. So off we went to the dry area of the park...

 YAY! We are finally HERE!!!!

On the steps of 123 Sesame Street.. Abbie is doing a little happy dance.

This was the first ride of the day. A carousel, of course!

(most pictures are with my iPhone.. I just didn't want to lug around my big girl camera and the iPhone fits so nicely in a pocket!)

More rides.. some of these made my stomach have butterflies!
Most of these are pictured with Daddy but rest assured, I went on them too... usually, the FIRST time! Just couldn't take pictures of that, lol!

These tea cups SPUN around so fast! I went on the first time, made Daddy go the next! WHEW!

I think we saw just about every character there was to see! The girls RAN to them like they were their best friends! I was so happy there was no being scared or shy. They happily gave hugs & posed like rockstars!

Bert & Ernie and SUPER Grover!!

The Count!

and.. Abby Cadabby (who is my favorite!!)

Does this guy need an introduction?  COOOOOOOOOKKKIIEEEEE!!!

We left the park mid-afternoon to go grab some lunch. We refused to pay the money in the park for a simple hot dog & burger (sorry Sesame!). Sitting at lunch though, the clouds grew dark and the skies opened! Good thing we were inside... it stormed like crazy! Sesame Place does this really cool thing where if it rains more than 1 hour on the day you have a ticket, they give you a "Sunny Day" ticket replacement to come back. So we were secretly hoping for at least an hour of showers. Well, it ended up raining for about 3 hours.. Boooo! The park closed at 6 on Thursday and it was 5:00.. we made a quick decision to go back to the park for the last hour, the showers were almost gone and we had to get our Sunny Day ticket anyways. When we got there, it was practically empty. I guess everyone had their fair share & left because we saw maybe 10 people? Jackpot! We got to see a few more characters with no line, of course and even dance in the street with Bert & Ernie. WOOHOO!

We made it back to our hotel, bathed, relaxed and both girls (and almost Mommy & Daddy) were out by 8:30, snoozing! By the way.. I think we need room darkening shades in their bedroom, they didn't make a peep until about 8:00am the next morning.

Stay tuned for Day 2...