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!!

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...

 

What? It's May?/Adoption-type Question

Seriously, when did this happen. How did it get to be MAY already? Holy Moses! This month is such a great month for me though (yes, I am being a little selfish!). There is Mother's Day, yippee! The one year anniversary of our adoption, yippee and my birthday, yippee! So yeah, exciting stuff! Hubby better be out shopping a ton (haha, just kidding!). 

We have been somewhat busy around here, hence my lack of posts. I really need to sometimes take a step back. I want to 'take back' my blog so to speak. I get so tied up in making daily post & joining in with others and linking up that I get exhausted with it. This blog is mine for me to blog about my family and capture moments with my camera to share. So, you might not be seeing to much more linking up but just plain & simple posts from here on out! Besides, I want something to share with my daughters someday so its not about how great my pictures look, what I did on Tuesday, who I linked up with. It's about having something to look back on & smile! 

Recently Jaelyn's teacher sent a note home that we were to send in a baby picture. I admit, I panicked a little. Jaelyn's baby pictures for me start at 16 months when she was brought to us. I can easily access some baby pictures of her but here is my question to some of you readers (please, please, please tell me what you think! I want to hear it!)... should I print out some of those baby pictures (yes, I have them saved) or should I go ahead and send in a picture of when her life with us began at 16/17 months? Technically that is still a 'baby' to me. What do you think? The word adoption floats around our house and we have several books that I sometimes read to the girls but it's not a deep discussion as of yet because well, I'm not sure at 3 & 4 they will fully comprehend it. So, it is more or less and introduction right now. Anyways, should I send the baby pictures (say 4 months old) or send the others?  

If you are an adoptive Mom, I'd love to hear more about when & how you approached this topic with your children. I have no fears of telling them, at all. I just want to do it delicately and at the right time.

And because I think you need to see their cute faces.. some recent iPhone pics!

Easter: Part 2

We had a lovely time at my Mom & Dad's this year. She actually has a very nice backyard in her little Over 55 community! The kids cooperated with some pictures because they knew soon after they would get some good food & get to find eggs, lol! 

The sun was BRIGHT! We didn't fuss too much, just happy to get them all to stand nicely & smile!  

The Girls.. with their "the sun is really in my eyes" smiles. ha!  

Sassy with their hands on their hips!

The Boys!

My Niece & Nephews... such cuties. ♥

The weather has been GORGEOUS here lately so I've really been getting the 'big girl' camera out instead of just my iPhone and taking some pictures. I will post some later in the week probably.

YAY for nice weather!!!