Super Buddies

Dear Henny, 
I am so glad that you have such great friends in Sylvie, Etienne and Keegan.  You had a great time playing at the house the other day.  Love that you have such long time buds.

Love, Mama

Scary Tarantula, Sweetie Kitty

Dear Henny and Hazel Pants, 
I'll keep this short because the pictures far out weight the text I could clack away.  Halloween! this year was a collaborative effort between me and you Henny and it was awesome.  The past three years we gave you choices of what you wanted to be... year 1 you were a hot dog, year 2 you were Chewbacca, and year 3 you were an impressive Yoda with a hand made light saber replica thanks to your dad and last year you were a lit up Robot.  Well, this year you wanted to be a tarantula.  You and I sat down in the kitchen with your notebook.  While I listened to your description I sketched and you made adjustments as needed.  We made a list of materials needed and upon review you wrote in "cursive" the parts we had forgotten.  We selected our fabric easily but the search for eyeballs proved more of a problem.  At the last minute, just after settling on google eyes you were searching through some discount Halloween bins and found some Styrofoam eyes on sticks and a bag of eyes and asked if I thought they would work. UH! Yeah!  They were perfect!  

I worked a couple of days cutting and sewing the parts and then we constructed the hat together.  It all turned out so spooky and hairy!  

You impressed your friends at school.  They gathered around you to poke and ask questions.  

The children's museum gave you lots of attention too.  You and Hazel did your first haunted house with us, Bahboo and cousin Tony.  

We were able to trick or treat with our buddies again this year, a fun tradition.  

Bahboo, Krispie and Currie joined us.  The weather was beautiful and Hazel looked cuddly sweet in the kitty cat outfit that Henry picked out. 
 
 Hazelita, you sat with Daddy and shook candy in both hands, got all yellow from a baggie of cheese balls and waved and said hi to random trick or treaters.  

I can't wait to see what you choose to be next year.  And...here are the pictures.

I love my little ghoulies!   Love, Mama

P.S.  I always have standards for the Halloween outfits. They must keep you warm, not cover your face and be comfortable and flexible...after this year, I have to add it must light weight.  The weight of all of those legs and the big back slowed you down and wore you out early.  haha

Annual IAC Picnic 2013

Dear Kidlets, 
Well, it goes without saying that this year's picnic was not as eventful and fun as last year.  I mean jeeze! It is hard to to top linking up with a woman looking to make a plan for their baby and matching a week or so later.  So the 4 of us were there last year, only Hazelita was still growin' warm and snug inside of Wendy!  So grateful for the opportunity to be your mama.  This was a great picnic, complete with lots of playground time, your best buds the twinks, and a big sugary Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cake.  We had a great time laughing at the kids watching the animal show, hanging back with hesitance at first then crowding in for a closer look by the end.

The presenter from Silly Safari's was sensational with the kids keeping them engaged the entire time.  The twinks got to handle the gator!  

Henny, you were able so feed a kinkajou a fruity snack but was not down with silly guy making kinkajou's tail a mustache on your face!   

Nick, Hazel's birth sib, got to touch a giant, powerful looking owl! So much fun!  We enjoyed visiting with WW! and the McKeon's too.  There were many new families and newly waiting families there this year, which made it very exciting and you quickly found several new kids to play with. 

WW gave Hazel lots of snuggle and kisses but we need to visit soon as we didn't get to talk to each other a lot and I missed that part.  

 

So grateful to see everyone, to the Independent Adoption Center and for the difference a year makes.

Love, Mama 

Buddy Round Up!

Dear Henny (and sleeping Hazel), 
You both may not know it yet but you've been getting to grow up with the most amazing kids and adults around you.  Henry, in the same time period as your adoption three other families adopted too (and later 4 when Nissy and Jim adopted their daughter).  It has been a giant blessing in our lives to have these families a part of ours (as well as Doug and Peter who's journey to parenthood took different paths and concluded with a decision to not to become parents.)  Without these ladies Mommy would be much more wack-a-doo.  We can all now say we've met at least once a month for the last several years and more accurately in recent years it has been at least once a week. You do not tolerate long stretches with out your buddies.  Soon you will all be on a preschool schedule of Tuesday and Thursday and I see Wednesday becoming our regular play date.  Last week we met up at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis.  We all have passes so when the power went out and we had to leave early we didn't sweat that we basically watched you guys load and unload fake rocks in the Egyptian for an hour and a half while we chit chatted.  This week we met up at the park and for lunch.  

Keegan and Etienne dancing

A great time running in the field, throwing rocks and playing on the playground makes for a sleepy Peep at bedtime.  I love seeing how much you all care for each other.  

You had to bring granola bars for everyone

Zombie babies

Even if you scare Keegan by playing too rough or Sylvie bonks you in the head with a stick or Etienne sits up at the lunch table with a ring on his forehead from leaning on his straw or Lily runs away from you to play with her new girlfriends she made on the playground you're all still buds.  

Next week we plan on having movie afternoon at our house complete with popcorn and juice.  We can't wait!
Love, Mama

Friends, Friends, Come Out to Play!

Dear Hensry, 
We are so fortunate!  Seriously!  For all sorts of reasons, simple and beyond.  Today I was reminded once again for the good fortune we were dealt when we decided on adoption at about the same moment as five other families in our town.  I would never have imagined I would have found such great friends that I really enjoy spending time with despite/because of our diverse interests and personalities.  It was clearly meant to be, as are each of our tots running around together and playing meant to be in our families.  We try to get together at least once a week and if it is a good week we make it more.  A couple of weeks ago we went to the Children's Museum together, last week we enjoyed Brook and Lily's large yard and animals, and today we owned Olcott Park.  I seriously love these women and kids.  I never feel judged and always feel like I have a mommy team back up.  Which is good because today you fell about 6-7 feet from the top of the jungle gym and Mommy Heather was on it!  
It was a suburb way to spend a new springs VERY windy day.  This time the kids pooped out way before the moms.  I love that you have a fun play group to grow up with.  I love that I have a fun play group too.  I look forward to many more fun play dates with the kids and moms.



Love, Mama

Trick or Treat it is!

Dear Peep, 
You are a trick or treat champion.  You had the opportunity to wear your costume and ask for candy four times this year.  First you dressed for the IU Frat/Sorority trick or treat, then school, then the mall and finally Doug and Peter's neighborhood.  Continuing our Star Wars theme of last year's Chewbacca this year you were a very convincing Yoda!  We gathered the parts of your costume from garage sales, thrift stores, Walmart sweat pants and turtle neck, hardware stores and the fabric store.  I made the robes myself.  The hat came from a garage sale 2 years ago.  The feet came from a thrift store.  The belt I made and daddy made the custom to spec prop light saber to hang off of it.  The light saber was quite impressive.  

Complete with its own illuminated red button it looked pretty tuff hanging from your belt.  Of course, we also purchased a light saber that telescopes out and glows green!   You were great!  At the mall you and Devo really wanted to eat the candy more than collect it, and let me just publicly point out the worse mall candy came from the actually candy store. 

They handed out generic flavored tootsie rolls, the type you can't get the wrapper off of because it is hard, old and gooey.  On the street you followed with us great!  People loved your costume, exclaiming, "YODA!"  

You were gracious, minus one incident where a lady gave you a green piece of candy and you told her you wanted blue and threw yourself on her front steps screaming.  To be fair that was at the end of the evening and you were getting tired.  You came back around when it was time to hang out with the kids at Doug and Peter's house. 

While I was admiring their top notch, beautiful remodel you played with the other 4 toddlers.  Banging out on the piano (poor piano), feeding Etienne chex mix or stuffing your mouth with a brownie when it came time to go you didn't really want to.  

You hid in their coat closet.  It is wonderful experiencing Halloween all over again.  On the way home we stopped by Krispie and Curries and got some play doh and hugs. 

We love getting you together a costume, seeing you be a kid and watching all of our babies from the adoption group grow up together.  Perfect!