A Family Affair

When it comes time for the school dances and the kids get all dressed up, we always go down to their house for the picture-taking festivities.

My sister took several photos with her camera (you can see them here), but I took a few of my own and wanted to share them. An added bonus was that our girls were already dressed for church that night.

Abby in front of "The Trees." How long will it be before she's dressed for a fancy dance? Too soon, I'm sure.
Favorite cousin "Belle" - ready for her Senior Prom

Love this one!
Mom and Dad are so proud of their girl!!
Even Billy got to have his picture taken!!

Trike-A-Thon Take Two

May 1st was the annual Trike-A-Thon at Abby's pre-school. They learn about bike safety in the weeks leading up to the event. Abby had a lot of fun riding her bike around the parking lot at her school.

Last year, the weather was cold! But, thankfully, this year was a bit warmer! No coats this time.

Abby is listening to her teacher talk about watching for cars in driveways. I am always cautioning Abby about this on our street, so it's good to have some reinforcement.
Mrs. R explains how to get off your bike and walk it across a street.
Look both ways before crossing the railroad tracks!
Helmet safety is number one. So we got one for Sarah. It looks so big on her little head.
She looks much cuter without it! And since she's only in a stroller, it's ok.
I love spring-time when the flowers and trees are in bloom! This tree is especially beautiful. Sarah likes the petals floating down.
Bye-bye! Now that we know the bicycle safety rules, you'll be seeing us biking around town!

Spring Projects

Here's the rundown on the projects we've tackled in our house this spring.

The bathroom: put in a new tub and shower walls, new sub-floor, a few new walls and painted the whole thing.

Here are the walls all ready to be painted. Billy did an excellent job!!

My faithful painting helper - priming the walls.
We also had to paint the ceiling; it was hazardous to my hair.
Then when it was all painted, I decided I didn't like the color. It was too light. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it. Even Abby said, "I told you it was too light." My sister had a gallon of blue that she was going to use in her kids' room (the top smear) so we mixed the two together and came up with the bottom color.
Here is how it turned out. The lighting in the bathroom and the flash of the camera makes it look weird, but I really like the color (finally) and am ready to stop painting! I got the shower curtain at Target and the towels are green and the rugs are purple. Pretty colorful!
We still need to have the tile installed, but I'm happy my part is done!

The Girls New Room (formerly the office)

This is what it used to look like: plain walls with flag border, bare floor (we got rid of the hideous, yellow, stained carpet a year or so ago), desks, book shelves and lots of important papers junk.

I scraped the wall border using a steamer (it did not want to come off) and then painted the walls. Abby wanted blue and I chose the shade.We both love it. I even painted all the trim and a built-in shelf in the corner. I love how the blue makes the white trim stand out.

This is after the carpet pad went in.
The girls are watching the carpet guys work.
Here it is with the furniture moved in and some things on the wall. Those two paintings I bought in China. They go perfect! Now I just need some window treatments - very definitely NOT my specialty. Any ideas anyone?
Here is another view. This big wall needs something.
The closet after a re-design in shelving. Sarah has more than enough clothes to last her through the summer and beyond. We had saved all Abby's things and then she got more at the shower. I think she could wear something different everyday and not run out. And all of their shoes aren't even put away in this picture.
The New Office (formerly the guest room, originally the nursery for Abby)

Here it is when we had it for our nursery (2006). Before we adopted Abby, we totally remodeled this room to be the nursery; ripped everything out down to the studs - ceiling to floor. So we really loved it as a nursery. Then when Abby moved out of the crib to a big bed, we gave her a new room, too. I was thinking we needed to keep the nursery intact a little longer. We put the crib in the attic and put up the guest bed, but did not redecorate anything. To make it into the new office, I stripped the Boyd's Bears wall border (that came off like a dream!) and painted the top half with some of my sister's left-over dining room paint. We kept the red cause I like it! And the curtains stayed cause they match!!! :)
I found some cute border online and my sister helped me put that up.
Hang up the presidents and we're good to go. This room is cozy (read small), but I love it!
Are you bored yet? One more room to go.

Remember Abby's "Fancy Nancy" room?

We had added the crib to this room so the girls could be together. It was a tight fit, but Abby wanted her sister in her room. The baby dresser/changing table was still in the guest room.
I had some purple paint left over from when I did it before and gave it a nice clean coat. I had to cover up all the footprints on the wall by Abby's bed. My sister gave me a puple bed set she was going to send to Goodwill. Again, I need some sort of window treatment and to hang some random pictures on the wall. I guess I need to hurry, because our first guests for this room will be showing up on Tuesday!

Billy walked into our bedroom the other day and said, "This room needs something." I think I'll hand HIM the wall paper steamer and the paint roller!!

Girls Tea Party

Last month, the girls and I were invited to a Tea Party. It was hosted by one of my fellow international adoptive moms. We get together about once a month with about five or six families who have also adopted.

The table was set so pretty!
Abby tries her tea.
Me and my girlies
Nicole and her daughter Courtney
Heidi and Mia
Stacy and Maya
Gena (the hostess with the mostess) with Angela and Lauren
All of us together!
The food was also amazing! Too bad I didn't get a picture of it. Gena worked for days fixing everything just right. We had egg salad sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, fruit, ham and asparagus rolls (awesome!), cheese and for dessert chocolate covered strawberries and other pastries that I couldn't eat. It was beautiful.

Has It Really Been A Month?

...since I last posted?

We have been busy, busy, busy around here!

Before the bathroom was complete, I started on the next project which was moving the girls into a bigger room. So that required cleaning out the office, scraping wall paper border, taking down the guest room bed, moving office furniture into a much smaller room (former guest room), painting half of that room, painting the former office - now the girls room, getting carpet installed, moving the girls furniture, installing shelving in their closet, freshening up the guest room paint (former girls room), setting up the guest room furniture, cleaning all the ceiling fans upstairs, painting the bathroom, putting up the cabinet and trim in the bathroom, re-painting the bathroom (first color was too light), and re-organizing all the closets into their new rooms. All the while still trying to keep clean clothes in the drawers and food on the table. Whew! I'm tired!!!

Pictures will follow, I promise. Once I organize them a little with "before" and "after".

Here are a few of the girls over the past month or so.

They LOVE to play in baskets!


Cute sunglasses from a friend.
Pink butterfly... both these cute sunglasses were broken within hours by my intense little girl.
A warm spring day in April.
Not even all the leaves were out yet.
These cute little chairs were made by my Grandfather and I played with them when I was little. We also have the table to go with them. Somehow, Sarah can fit her little diapered hiney in them. (I'm going to try to use the word "little" one more time in this little paragraph.)
Cousin "Belle" came over for a visit. We don't get to see her nearly enough. She's so busy with her senior year in high school, but we love it when she pops in to say "hi!"

These pictures should satisfy my twelve faithful readers for a few more days until I can get another post together.