Happy Forever Family Day, Rachel

Every year on her special Forever Day, Rachel adds an ornament that I purchased in China when I was adopting her. Here are pictures of Rachel with her tree throughout the years.

December 1, 2003

December 1, 2004

December 1, 2005

December 1, 2006

December 1, 2007

December 1, 2008

December 1, 2009 (much taller than her tree now!)

Dear Rachel,

Holding you for the first time on December 1, 2002 changed my life forever.  Not only did you make me a mother, you taught me many things.  You taught me how to really love somebody.  You taught me how to laugh when I feel like crying.  You taught me to dance to music of any kind.  You taught me to smile and enjoy life's journey.  You taught me what it means to be a mother and give of myself; my time, my money, and my love to another person.

I love you more than you will ever understand until you have a child of your own.  I am so blessed to be your mother.

(I just deleted the slideshow from Thanksgiving weekend so the sound wouldn't interfere with this video.  Enjoy!)

Thanksgiving Report

Doesn't she look cute in her turkey hat that she made in kindergarten??We had a great time with our cousins Thanksgiving weekend.  This was the only dinner picture I took.  I thought he was so cute with his huge turkey leg.
The kids dissected owl pellets.  Thank-you to Erin Joy's teacher who gave us a few left over pellets.
We had a wonderful time at the Point Defiance Zoo the day after Thanksgiving.  I can't believe I left my camera behind so I have no pictures to share.  A lot of great pictures were taken and I'm waiting for my cousins to send me some.  I'll share when I get them.

After the zoo, we saw an amazing light display in Spanaway.  Check out this video.

We went to the Children's museum on Saturday and enjoyed many activities.  We really enjoyed a fabulous production of the Nutcracker by a marionette puppetry group.  It was amazing.  We also enjoyed visiting with Santa and several craft projects.  Our local children's museum is fantastic.

Here is a Santa picture and you can watch the slideshow if you want to see more pictures from the museum.

Our New Holiday Tradition?

I thought it would be fun to start the tradition of The Elf on the Shelf.  

The elf is sent by Santa Claus at Thanksgiving time to watch the behavior of children.  He reports naughty and nice behavior to Santa each night and finds a new place to hide.  How fun it is for children to discover his new hiding place every day.  How fun for children to imagine him returning to the North Pole and communicating with Santa.  Right???

Wrong.

While we were at church on Sunday, Santa left us a package just inside the door.  Rachel and Erin Joy were so excited to open it.  They loved the elf.  They loved listening to the book that came with the elf.  They loved choosing a name for the elf and registering the name online.  Herman Joseph Cuckoo (I wanted Herman, Rachel wanted Joseph, and Erin Joy wanted Cuckoo so our elf has three names) was meant to be a welcomed part of our household.  Or so it seemed.

Until....he left that night to report back to Santa and returned the next day hiding near a lamp.  When Rachel saw him the next morning, she starting screaming and running around the house.  "It's a scary elf!  He's staring at me!  Make him go away! He's going to pop out and eat me!"  She was terrified of cute little Hermy Joe.  Cute little Hermy Joe that just the night before she was so excited about.

Rachel's paranoia got Erin Joy going.  At bed time, not only was Rachel in a panic about going to sleep and having bad dreams about elves, Erin Joy cried and cried because she was scared of the elf.  

Sheesh...this is supposed to be a fun tradition.  I even started it a little early than Thanksgiving because I was so excited.  

What does poor Herman Joseph Cuckoo think?  I wonder what he reported to Santa last night?

He is going to try one more time and hope that my children aren't terrified of him.  He is sitting nicely on a shelf this time.  He is trying very hard to be a friendly elf and not scare my children.

If he continues to scare my children, he will have to return to the North Pole and try again another year I suppose.  Shucks.  So much for our new holiday tradition!

Rachel says that she is scared of his eyes because "they are looking at me all the time, Mom."

What do you think?  Do you think Herman looks scary???

UPDATE:  The girls are no longer scared of Herman.  Phew!  The tradition will live on.

Rachel's Program

Rachel did a great job performing with her fellow second graders.

Enjoy!

Singing Girls

I'm glad singing helps them with their vacuuming chore although they vacuumed the same spot over and over and didn't finish the rest of the house before they started playing:)

This is why we need to go to more ball games:



This was a song that Erin Joy sang with her kindergarten class for our school's Veterans Day assembly. She doesn't remember it very well, but it is still cute.

Beautiful Children

What do all these beautiful children have in common?

They were all adopted internationally by single mothers. They are also all very beautiful and very loved:)

I really enjoy getting together with other single adoptive mothers and my girls always have a blast playing with their friends. Thanks for a great afternoon of fun!

Pacific Science Center

We had a great time at the Pacific Science Center yesterday.  I really wanted to see Disney's A Christmas Carol 3D IMax movie that was showing at the science center and yesterday was the perfect day to do it (Veterans Day...no school...)  Rachel doesn't do well with IMax and 3D.  She really didn't want to go.  I'm glad some friends agreed to go with us.  I watched the movie alone while they played with the girls, then they watched the movie while I played with the girls.

I'm very glad my girls didn't see it.  It would have really scared them.  I loved it, however, and I'm very glad I got to see it:)

Here are a few pictures and a silly show from our day's adventures:

Pilgrim Report

Rachel has to do a report on pilgrims.  Her grandma and grandpa just returned from visiting Plymouth Plantation.  We used their pictures for her report.  I helped her gather information from the internet and organize pictures.  This seriously took us all afternoon.  It became my project more than her project, but we both learned a lot.  I thought it was fun and interesting.  

Dinner and Dancing

We enjoyed watching Rachel dance at a local mall yesterday. She did a great job. I'm sad Erin Joy's class didn't get to dance. Maybe next time...

After dancing, we enjoyed a yummy dinner in Chinatown with our cousins.  We had one of my favorites...hot pot.  So yummy and so fun!  We were especially glad to see our cousins because we haven't seen them since summer.  They did great with their chopsticks:)

After dinner, our cousin, the photographer, took a great picture of us with the Seattle skyline in the background.  This will be our Christmas card picture for sure. 

Mayflower Report

This is just a silly picture of Rachel and has nothing to do with the rest of this post.

I have always thought it was exciting to be related to John Howland who fell off the Mayflower and was rescued.  He was a servant to John Carver.  John Carver didn't have any children, therefore, he had no descendants.  John Howland married Elizabeth Tilley when she was almost 16 years old and he was at least ten years older.  They had 11 children, 10 of which survived and had children of their own.  A lot of people are descendants of John and Elizabeth Howland, but I still think it is fun.  

My parents recently returned from a trip to Plymouth to celebrate Thanksgiving (the first Thanksgiving was in October).  They took a lot of pictures.  I am excited to hear more about their adventures.  They talked with the actors playing John and Elizabeth and said that they were always in character and never left 1627.  

Rachel had to do a little project on the Mayflower.  Next week she gets to do a project on the pilgrims and the following week a project on the Wamanoag tribe.  I'm having a lot of fun with her projects too.  

Here is her Mayflower report:

Mad Scientist

The only things I have ever had my students dissect are lima bean seeds and flowers. Dissecting animals makes me squeamish. I'm glad Erin Joy has a teacher who is not as squeamish as I am and definitely braver than I am to take on dissection with young children.   

Erin Joy attends public school 2 days a week and a private homeschool 2 days a week.  She goes to daycare on the fifth day.  It is a crazy, confusing schedule, but she is managing just fine.  Our district is trying to save money by providing all day kindergarten every other day.  I was very concerned about Erin Joy retaining information by going to school so infrequently.  She has come so far with her speech and with her academic learning that I was afraid she would really fall behind attending school just a few days a week.  I am so grateful that an amazing certified teacher has chosen to stay home and homeschool her own children this year.  She has graciously allowed Erin Joy to attend her class on the days that she isn't in public kindergarten.  I thought about just homeschooling her every day, but she receives speech services through the public school and I love having her in the same building I work in so I can see her once in awhile.  Erin Joy really enjoys both private school and public school.  She is doing well in both schools this year.  Phew:)  

Anyway, here are some great pictures that her home school teacher took.  Isn't she a cute scientist!  I love the pink goggles.  

Halloween

We had a wonderful Halloween. We enjoyed a carnival at the church last Tuesday and some of the pictures in the movie are from the church's Harvest Carnival.

Today, we started the day by watching a fun performance of "Snow White" by the Storybook Theater. We then went to the Imagine Children's Museum. The girls had a great time making disappearing ghost poop, ooey gooey gak, Frankenstein boxes, and bubbling magic potions. We then ended the day by trick or treating in town, going to the school's harvest carnival, and another church's harvest carnival.

It was a great day! We hope you enjoy yet another little movie (we know Grandma and Grandpa will watch at least...not sure if anybody really watches these, but my kids enjoy them).