Union Station

Cute as a button.

I did not tell her to pose that way. It was all Hannah.

We took the kids to Union Station so Hayden could see the trains. Little did we know that he would be petrified because of the size of them. We thought he would love them since he is so enthralled with Thomas the Train. We tried to put him on the engines and he just cried and cried. The girls however loved it and we got some great photos.

Camping at North Fork

We went camping with some friends and had a blast. They saved a spot for us and we joined them for a couple of days. When we pulled up they had reserved us a parking space and then made us a sign for our tent. I must say our tent received a lot of attention. All that seems to be missing is the picket fence and some window boxes! After getting back both Joe and I agree that we are too old for tent camping!

Elainea's Kindergarten Graduation

She did it!

Not only did she do it, she nailed it! When Elainea started the year she was in the 30th percentile. They figured it was because of being in an orphanage. Then she started school and had Spainish thrown at her. She finished the year in the 90th percentile. YOU GO GIRL! Do not get me wrong I would have been proud of her anyway, but I am so proud to see that she is flourishing. She is so excited to start going to a full day of school next year. Lets hope for a fast summer!

Stevens Graduation

My nephew graduated from High School and I did his senior pictures. I thought I would post a few.

Easter 2011 (cont.)

Easter 2011

Time is like the wind, it lifts the light and leaves the heavy. ~Doménico Cieri Estrada

So much time has gone by since I have posted last. Hayden had his tonsils out, Hannah got braces and Elainea is now reading. Wow! It is amazing how so much can change in four months. We just celebrated Easter and we are all pretty exhausted. When school is in we are pretty much in a rut of work, dinner, homework and bed during the week, and try to get the house in order on the weekend. I wonder what next school year will bring when Elainea will be going full days and Hannah starts the fourth grade. I am worried about her progress this year. I was so hoping we could get her up to standards with her schoolwork. The girl can not focus for more than five minutes on any task.

I thought I would share some pictures of the kids on Easter. I do not even know if anyone still looks at this blog or not, but I will maintain just in case...

Thanksgiving Day!

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. ~ GB Stern.

Well today I wanted to start some new Thanksgiving traditions in our family. I wanted to create something that was uniquely ours so our children would remember our holidays together. We started with our Thanksgiving tree. We drew a tree on a big strip of paper. I am going to transfer it to poster board and hung it on a door. We then cut out leaves and wrote on them what we are thankful for. Here is what we wrote:
Joe: The ability to provide.
Pam: My Faith
Hannah: Shelter, Food and Love
Elainea: My Family
Hayden: Frucks (Trucks)

We then sat around our candlelit table with our best linens and dishes and ate tacos with cold duck. We toated to each of our gratitudes. We laughed and had a wonderful time.