Speaking of favorite pictures

Here's maggie, probably about 7 years old. I love this picture.

The Mummy

Last thanksgiving Sally ran out of the room and said she was going to go dress up like a mummy.  So here's what we saw a few minutes later, Sally's version of a mummy ... (also quite possibly my favorite picture ever)

Baby Molly

So ... Baby Molly came to town this summer.  She came in April and then again in July.  I don't know which trip these pictures are from, but you get the idea ... Molly comes to town and we dress her up and take pictures.  Molly did not take kindly to the crown.  Molly did take kindly to Sally, Holly and Sally's friends who all vie for her attention.  When Molly is here she's the most popular girl in town and Sally is soooo proud to show off her cousin.  Maggie was gone when they came, I think she was in Florida in April and during their July visit she was away at camp.  

Millard Falls

Tony and Sally and Holly have been taking Saturday morning hikes out to Millard Falls lately.  It's a gorgeous 2 mile long hike through the woods that ends at a waterfall.  Along the way is a big rock to slide down and a meandering creek to cross.  I pack a 'surprise' for them to eat when they reach the falls, although Sally usually tells me what the 'surprise' should be.  Today it was chocolate pudding.  

The Fort Party

We're making plans for Maggie's 12th birthday (we think we're going to rent an RV and take a bunch of her friends camping at the beach for the weekend - it's a little bit of an insane idea, the image of Tony driving a 30 foot RV up the coast is a bit of a stretch, but we'll keep you posted.) Anyway, with that day drawing near, I thought I should probably post pictures from her 11th birthday party, which was a fort building party.  We gathered a bunch of random materials - pvc pipe, x-mas lights, animal print fabric, toilet seats, barbie doll, etc - and split the group into 2 teams, each with a pile of stuff that they had to use to build their fort.  There were rules - each fort had to have a door, a window, a mascot and a useful function.  It was amazing to see what they came up with!  One boy, Alex, put the toilet seat around his neck and was that team's mascot, named Potty Mouth.  Hilarious.  

Picture Day

It was Picture Day at Walden last Friday and we got a few pictures of the girls before school.  They looked gorgeous!  

Driving the boat

This year at the lake, Grandpa Jim let all the little girls - Sally, Elizabeth, Annie and Payton - drive the boat.  They were so excited and so ... fast.  They got a few turns and at first they were a little tentative, speeding up slowly (except for Elizabeth who gunned it the whole time having learned her speed lessons from her mom).  But after a few turns they were all speeding around the lake, doing zig zag turns and probably causing other boaters to mutter under their breath, "who the hell's driving that boat? A 5 year old?"  Um ... yes, actually.  Even cute Payton took a turn(with her big sister's help, of course).  Next year the little girls will probably be old enough to go tubing with the big kids!

The Bracelet of Hate

We went to Legoland a few weeks ago.  Maggie's a little old but Sally's the perfect age and we were in San Diego for the weekend so we thought it would be a good way to spend a Saturday.  The night before I went down to the hotel concierge to buy tickets and they said they sold 'move to the front of the line' bracelets.  They only sold 75 of these a day and all you had to do was flash it and you could instantly get on the ride.  Now, I know how to spend money.  A penny pincher I'm not.  But even to me, the cost of these magic bracelets seemed crazy.  But so did standing in line for 45 minutes on a hot summer day.  I hemmed and hawed for a few seconds, made a few thousand rationalizations in my head, decided that the elitist message I would be teaching my kids could be counteracted somehow ... okay fine I bought them, whatever.  We get to the park and split up. I take Sally and Tony takes Maggie to ride the roller coasters, we agree to meet for lunch.  Well ... Sally and I float through the park like a couple of movie stars.We flash our magic bracelets and gain access to the wonders of the helicopter rides, the jousting, the driving school, you name it we did it, sometimes twice, cause you know, why not, there's no wait.  And yes, I did feel a little bit like a jerk as I breezed on past the sweating, waiting families, but I'd just smile and say excuse me,  I was the idiot after all, at least they'd be able to pay their mortgage that month.  Anyway, Sally and I floated to  lunch on our cloud of entitlement and what we met up with was the miserable faces of Tony and Maggie.  Yeah they rode the roller coasters as often as they liked, but the fun was ruined by the hateful glares they got from the 'regular people'.  Maggie dubbed the armband the Bracelet of Hate and an important lesson about elitism was learned that day.  Sally and I are elitists and Maggie and Tony are just plain folks.  They can visit our castle any time they'd like ...  Here's a picture taken on the first and only ride the four of us went on together, the boat ride down the fairy tale river.  

The China Girls

Every summer we get together with about 16 families that we travelled with to China in 2004.  Many of our girls were from the same orphanage, and some even shared cribs.  In many ways I feel these people are extended family.  Last year we went camping near Santa Barbara and the girls spent the weekend down by the creek catching frogs and roly poly's. This year we went to the Madonna Inn near San Luis Obispo and the girls swam in the hotel pool ALL DAY.  Seriously. From 10 am til 10 at night.  There were some art projects thrown in there but mostly it was pool time.  The parents went in too, or sat around the pool eating and drinking, and as always, marveling over the beautiful girls that came into our lives march 8, 2004 in China.  I will try to post about that trip and that day at some point but for now I'll say 2 things about the magic of our reunion weekends, which Sally calls the China Girls weekends.  First there is Mei Mei.  Mei Mei and Sally shared a crib their first year and they share a connection with one another that makes you know that they 'remember'.  They just gravitate toward each other from the minute we get to the reunion and are inseparable.  It doesn't hurt that Mei Mei's mom Amy is our best friend from the trip, as kind and generous a person as you'll ever meet, and that her big sister Emma is a favorite of my kids.  In China Maggie was 7 and Emma was 3, but Maggie and Emma got very close and we all just love her.   

The other thing I wanted to mention about our China Girl weekends happened this year. Of course she knows her story about being adopted from China and that all the other girls were adopted from China too, but this year she finally 'got it.' She  kept running up to us all weekend, all excited, "Hey mom, guess what?!  Roxy's Chinese too!!"  or "guess what?  Jade's from China too! " And then she'd jump back in the pool for more swimming with her China Girls. 

 The picture on top is from this year's reunion.  It's Emma, Sally and Mei Mei.  The one on the bottom is from last year and it's Sally, Emma and Mei Mei(wardrobe for all girls courtesy of Sally's suitcase). 

Goodbye Suzuki, no more Manners

We've decided to discontinue violin lessons for you guys this year.  Maggie has taken suzuki for 5 years and is moving on to the guitar.  Sally has taken for 2 years and is going to start piano.  We're a little bit sad about this, but mostly we feel the change is good and was a long time coming.  We started Maggie in lessons because I've always liked violin (I'm a failed violinist myself) and Mag's cousins, Henry and Sam study violin and I saw some of their early concerts and was really impressed.  Maggie has an excellent ear for music and always impressed her teacher Julie with how quickly she'd pick things up.  Sally started going to Maggie's lessons with me soon after she came home from China and would bring her own makeshift violin and 'play' it during Maggie's lessons.  It was a pink fuzzy flamingo slipper and a chopstick.  (sooo cute, I wish I had a picture of that). Julie saw Sally's passion and told us to start her in lessons. But Maggie has such a good singing voice, I think she'll really like writing and performing her own music and Sally LOVES piano and is excited to start. They're both instruments that you can play your whole life.  The mention of Manners in the blog title refers to the woman who ran the suzuki program in Pasadena. She was very 'old school', yelled at Tony about wearing a baseball cap inside and was fairly humorless in recitals.  We had a bit of fun around the house joking about how we were always a big disappointment to Manners.  So, we're sorry Miss Manners, but I bet you won't miss us ...

Friends

Sally with Jamie on the trampoline and Sally with Isabella and Jamie at a backyard bbq the weekend before Maggie went to camp in June.  We borrowed a projector and some speakers and showed movies outside and made s'mores. The first picture of Maggie and her friends was taken at the  6th grade graduation for Walden.  They were in 5th grade in the picture so it's their turn next year.  The other picture of Maggie and her friends was taken one day when they were hanging out.  They put someone(I think it's Natalie) in the jog stroller with a wig over her face and a sign that said "I'm a dork" to see how people would react when they walked by.  (people thought it was funny).  I just realized that both pictures involve putting signs on your head. Hmmm.

Alessandra

After our lake vacation this year, Sally and I stopped at Kim, Mauro and Alessandra's house in Milwaukee and spent the afternoon.  I'm so glad we did.  Kim and I have been friends since high school, we are both founding members of 'The 5"(Me, Kim, Mary, Missy and Lisa) and have always had a special connection.  We've always 'gotten' one another. And that's how it is with Alessandra and Sally.  They were instant friends when they met at Christmas and when we saw them in August they picked up right where they left off.  Not even a second of shyness, we walked in and Alessandra gave Sally a curious George doll and Sally said let's go to your room and play.  And then Kim and I had a glass of wine and talked and for hours while the girls played.  We're sad we live so far away.  We're trying to plan a 'girls weekend' for later this year.

Run Maggie run

So we ran a 10k.  Well walk/ran a 10k.  Here's what happened - Nike had a challenge and grey's entered a team. The idea was to walk/run as many miles during the month of august as possible and the team with the most miles at the end won $10,000 to give to charity.  The challenge was capped of with a 10k downtown on the last day.  Tony and I spent much of August walking.  On the treadmill at work, around the block, in the house, anywhere and everywhere because we were neck and neck with Desperate Housewives.  Somewhere along the way we recruited Maggie to join us at the 10k, figuring we'd walk the whole thing.  Well, when we got down there and were standing at the start line with 12,000 other runners, it became clear that we'd have to run or get trampled.  And I could tell Maggie was nervous.  She had on walking shoes and hadn't trained.  We said she could drop out at any time along the route, but she persevered and DID IT!  We had a blast and were starving at the end.  We had the best yogurt and granola at the finish line, then came home and scarfed down a pizza.  Oh, and we beat Desperate.

And you are 5

Sally my Sally, you are 5. You are sweet and fun and love your kitty, Fern and your dog Holly. You like drawing and playing with your dolls. You have a vivid imagination and can spend hours creating worlds with your dollhouse. You started kindergarten this year and are in Stephanie's class. You seem to like it so far. Your best friends are Isabella and Jamie. From the minute you wake up in the morning, you're a joy. You always want someone to snuggle with while you watch your shows. Usually you and Fern and Holly cuddle up together on the bed and watch cartoons. You only wear skirts and occasionally jeans. Never dresses. You're growing your hair out and like to wear headbands to keep it out of your face. You call them crowns. You are my second, my baby, my Sally.

You are 11

Maggie. You are 11 as I start this blog, actually only a few months from 12. I'm sorry I didn't start it earlier but I'll attempt to write down things I remember from when you were younger. You are an exceptional kid. Smart, funny in a dry sarcastic way, calm, unflappable, a girl who marches to her own beat. Just tonight we were in Barnes and Noble looking for a book for you(you are ALWAYS running out of books) and I suggested a popular vampire series. You refused. You knew it was popular and that seemed to be a turn off. You are a vegetarian in a family of carnivores and you accept the microwave mommy meals I always seem to serve you happily. You love your friends Luly and Madeline and love school. This is a big year, 6th grade. You're the oldest in the school which means you plan the assemblies, mentor a younger class and just generally rule the school. You are gorgeous, with wavy blond hair that you wear pulled back and that you hate to comb. You're my first baby, my Maggie, and I love you madly.

Maggie and Sally

A journal for you guys.  Because dad and I are so bad at taking pictures and writing down your milestones ... this is our attempt to do better.