Saturday, August 29, 2009

Pool Party! - Rachel Turns 7 years old - !!

Big sister, Rachel, turns 7 years old, so we celebrated at the pool with pizza, cake and friends.
Happy Birthday, Rachel!!
























































































Sunday, August 23, 2009

Summer Fun at Central Park


Met some friends at Central Park who have also adopted from China, enjoyed the fountain, got soaking wet, had a picnic. What a great way to spend a Sunday summer afternoon!









Thursday, August 20, 2009

Sarah's English is coming along quite nicely

Each day, Sarah is adding new words to her vocabulary--Words for today! IN-N-OUT burger. Yep, that's our California girls!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!!!

When Sarah decided to put her hair in tails all over her head, I couldn't help but remember Rachel doing the same thing when she was 3 years old. Too cute!!









Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Visit from the Cianciolo's

My sister and family were able to get out to CA and arrived 3 days after Angela, Andy and the girls left to return to England.
I was thrilled to have my sister come visit and the girls were able to spend time with their cousins, Anthony James, Caitlyn, and Corynn which meant lots of hugs, squeals and extra attention. It was a great visit and we hated to see them leave, but thankful for the time we had together.








































Saturday, August 15, 2009

Hike to Mt. Diablo

Our church went on a hike on Mt. Diablo today. We learned about different types of trees, animals and many other tidbits of information that you can only know and learn about when you watch, listen and take your time walking. At the end of our hike we all enjoyed a picnic lunch before heading back down. Thanks Al, you are a wealth of information.








































Friday, August 14, 2009

Older teaching the younger about baking, life, etc. and the circle continues

Since we’ve been home the girls and I have had the opportunity to do a bit of baking. As I stood back, watched and listened, Rachel read the instructions to Sarah, showing her how to measure, break eggs, giving her lots of pointers, wash your hands, well (or Mom won't let you in the kitchen), I was reminded of the many times Rachel and I baked together and I thought “what am I doing”, the kitchen is going to be a mess, she’s going to be a mess. But someone wise once told me that as we teach our children, they in turn will teach others and the younger the better, while they are still interested in learning. So, I smile and am reminded of the messes we made back then, but how beautiful it is to see Rachel teaching Sarah.


(October 2005-Rachel 3 years old)













Tuesday, August 11, 2009

How Sisters Solve a Problem

So what do you do when both of you want to wear the same flipflops and there's only one pair?--that's right, you trade, and both get to wear one!

(This didn't work for long, but thought it was quite clever in how they worked it out), at least temporary.





Sunday, August 9, 2009

Visit from Aunt Angela, Uncle Andy, Lauren & Sarah

Here are some photos from Sarah and Rachel’s cousins from England, who arrived and stayed with us about a week after we came home from China. They were great doing crafts, taking the girls to the pool, making pizzas and keeping the girls occupied so I could regroup and recoup from our three week trip to China. Thanks Aunt Angela, Uncle Andy, Lauren and Sarah—you were great!!
Emma, Rachel’s best friend also came over to swim, ride the dolphin, meet Sarah and posed with Rachel as mermaids. (How cute are they?)


















































































































































Thursday, August 6, 2009

Been with us forever

This was one of those moments, I never want to forget so decided the best way to remember was to write down what Rachel said today.

After pumping gas, I get back in the car, and Rachel says, "it feels like Sarah's been with us forever". WOW, priceless!