Double Happiness

Four Sweeties!

Pete and Lori and their daughters, Chloe and Pearl, came to visit two years ago but all the kids were bashful and not so interested in playing together or in posing for pics.  But they sure were cute anyway, huh!  (click image for a larger view) 

Well the cuteness hasn't changed but their attitude sure has!  Now, they're all about having fun now and they had loads of it - even during this photo shoot for the mamarazzi and paparazzi!  Afterwards, they splashed in the pool for two hours then took the fun indoors (did I mention that it was HOT outside?  Whooooboy.... it was a scorcher!)  The daddies supervised the action in the playroom while the mommies disappeared into the office to play with the photo editing software.  Great photos and fun with friends and we were sorry there wasn't more time.    I'm drooling over Light Room and I really really want it for my birthday next month!  

Friends helping friends

Click the image above to visit Kris's blog and see more photos of adorable little Ellis Gao Mei!  They're having a fund raiser and the prizes are pretty cool and the money they raise is going to help them bring this sweet baby girl home!    I'm so excited for them! 

As you know, we recently transitioned our girls to big beds so we're left with two beautiful cribs/toddler beds.  For sentimental reasons, I just have to keep one but in exchange for any size donation to Ellis's fund, I'm willing to give away the other to a family reading this blog who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Heck, we'll even deliver!   The crib is from the Isabella collection by Babi Italia and you can see it on their site here:  http://www.babiitalia.com/html/lifestyle.html. 

Ours is white.  It's used, folks, but it's been lovingly used and it was new when we bought it for $500+ back in 2006.  The toddler bed rail is included (with some little teeth marks - courtesy of Madeline).  This is a really pretty crib and it's very well made and has plenty of life left in it.  Simmon's Kids mattress is also included.  If you want the crib, email me or leave a comment.  

Do you have your 2009 calendar yet?

This is Gwen modeling our new 2009 calendar.  She's not an YiYang girl but her friend Suzanne is. 

Here's what YiYang Daddy, Jeff, had to say about this calendar:

"It is that time of year again where YOU & your ENTIRE family NEED new calendars for next year. You know you do! So instead of purchasing the “Puppy” calendar or the sexy Firefighters for your mother-in-law, go buy a calendar that helps kids in need!

All of the proceeds from this calendar go directly to help kiddos that are in the two orphanages in YiYang Hunan China. Suzanne is from the Childrens Welfare Institute in YiYang. If you buy a calendar this month, September, then it will go to help two things. A Daddy’s Challange for Half the Sky and to the YiYang Fund just mark your donation for both!"

You can read all about it on Jeff's blog here:  http://blog.jeffstitt.com/?p=86.  If you want to buy a calendar, contact him at the email under the picture above (or on his blog).   

Sacramento

We had SO much fun in Sacramento this weekend and we're grateful to David and Susan for extending the invitation to us to join their travel group's reunion picnic.  The China adoption community is a wonderfully warm place and the people we met (or met again) this weekend are some of the nicest we've had the pleasure to know!  And could the kids be any more adorable?    Seriously, the park, the weather, the food, the friendly conversation -- it couldn't possibly have been better.

More pictures on flickr:

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Adoptive Families Picnic in the Park

Thanks to Salsa Mom (who organized everything) 72 of us got together this weekend to eat donuts, show off our cute kids, ride a train and soak up some warm South Bay Sunshine at a park in Los Gatos.

Here are some pics from the day.

(clickj image for a larger view)

It was wonderful to see so many friends (some old and some new).  Most of these families have blogs.  How many faces do you recognize in the picture on the lower left?  (no fair answering if you were there!).

Weekend with Robin, Landon & Abby

Saturday - August 2, 2008

Robin and I first met, on line, two years ago while we were waiting to adopt our 2nd daughters.  She is such a nice person and she's incredibly talented.  It was really exciting to finally coordinate our schedules so she could spend the whole weekend with us! (We hope the WHOLE family can come next time!)

Naturally, we had to go to Gilroy Gardens.  It's inexpensive and fun and it really is beautiful!  We never get tired to going there even though we seem to go every week during the Spring, Summer and early Fall.

We did the usual stuff:  The singing vegetable show, the goldfish, firetruck, race car and spinning drum rides.  The Balloon ride and Carousel.  As always, the kids loved it!  It's impossible to see everything in one day so we decided in advance to do it over two days.  Around 2:00 PM, we all headed back to our (matching) mini-vans, plugged my home address into our matching Garmin Navigation Systems, strapped our kids into our matching Britax Marathon car seats, and arrived back home just in time for nap.

While the kids slept, I showed Robin some FotoFusion and PaintShop Pro tips and tricks on the computer.  Then she pulled out her amazing collection of face paints and we woke up our kids and started painting!  (For the record, Robin did all the paining while I watched and tried to learn) 

Maddy wanted to be a tiger and was soooooo incredibly cute as she kept growling her precious "rooaaarrr" at us the whole time she was being painted.  She tried to look dangerous and worked really hard to stay in character and not crack a smile but it was so hard for her not to smile since she was absolutely THRILLED to be wearing this super fun face paint!  She couldn't help but grin just a little bit!  Here are our favorite pictures of our little Tigress:

Abby wanted her face painted too so her mommy painted the pretty butterfly over her eye.  Robin is so good at this and I watched in wide-eyed wonder as she transformed Maddy and Gwen.    I don't know if I'll ever be able to do this but I'm going to beef up my pitiful little paint supplies and give it a try one of these days.  Maybe even one day soon! 

Here are the kids playing in the backyard.  They started out a little bit shy but quickly came to be best friends.   

When it was time for bed, Gwen and Abby wanted to sleep together so we tried that for an hour or two but all they did was talk and giggle and play and it wasn't looking like sleep was going to be on their agenda.  At about 10:00 PM, we split them up and they finally drifted off to sleep.

We have another busy day planned for tomorrow!

Sunday - August 3, 2008

The first words out of Gwen's mouth this morning was "Where's my baby Abby?"  While Maddy got her face repainted (as a tiger again), Gwen sat with Abby patiently coloring.  This is very uncharacteristic of Gwen in so many ways!  First of all, she's not a "nurturer" and she's not really into pretending to be a mommy and she doesn't usually have the patience to sit and color.  But this morning, she was all of those things -- to Abby.

Robin painted each of the kids while I packed snacks and loaded the van for another day at Gilroy Gardens.  I think Madeline would be happy to have tiger stripes on her face every single day and Robin makes it look so easy!  She painted Maddy then Landon then Abby (see picture below).  Gwen was the only hold-out and she NEVER wants her face painted but today she made an exception and let me paint some swirlies on her cheek.  She was so pretty!

But just look at Abigail (below)!   This little sweetie is the most precious child I've ever met!  She's teeny tiny but incredibly independent.  I watched her do things I never thought a child her age could do and she was quick to flash me a smile that melted my heart.  After just two days with Abigail Grace, I have to confess that I'm in love with her and I'm not alone:  Gwen spent the whole day with Abby and never let her out of her sight.  She rode every ride with her and probably would have gone home with her if we'd let her!  Tonight, after everyone left, Gwen wanted me to write Abby's name on her Magna-Doodle (she sleeps with one).    I wrote "Abby" and Gwen touched the letters with her finger then looked up at me and said "I love Abby."    I believe her because that little sweet puppy-girl is incredibly easy to love! 

Here are some pics of the kids today:

Robin, we're thrilled that you took time to hang out with us this weekend!  Thank you so much!  We're all looking forward to another visit real soon!

More Gilroy Gardens fun

Everyone who reads this blog even sporadically knows that Gilroy Gardens is one of our favorite places to go -- and we go there often.  This time, it was especially fun because we met up with a bunch of our China adoption friends:  Jamie & Casey, Jeanine and Brynn, Becky & Emma, Lisa & Cameron & Grace, Mary-Mia & Rose & Marie, and Friends In Waiting: Lisa and Kayce.

This was our first time meeting Lisa even though we've followed her Tate-R-Bug blog for a while.  One of the very best things about blogs is the ability to get to know some really wonderful people and actually meet some of them in real life!   I consider myself richly blessed to have friends such as these.   

More fun at (yep, you guessed it!) Gilroy Gardens again tomorrow when Robin comes to visit for the weekend!

Casey's birthday party

24 Hours of Double Happiness!

Shanny at Bless Your Heart is hosting something cool called "PhoBloDays" (Photo Bloggy Days).  Here's the deal:  Everyone is supposed to post routine life pics taken every hour or two over the course of 24 hours.  I really looked forward to this but actually forgot about it when the day arrived.  Then I read about it on a friend's blog and grabbed my camera and got busy!

Our 24 hour period covers 8:30 PM Friday night to 8:30 PM Saturday night. 

Here it is in all its glory!  It might not be terribly exciting but it's our life and we're loving every minute! Well, most of them.  Enjoy! 

(click image to enlarge)

Catherine in California!

                         (Can't read the text?  Click image for full size view)

Catherine (of Catherine's Chatter) visited her Bloggy friends this week and squeezed out some time to meet up with us too!  Maddy took to her immediately last year and was just as quick to leap into her arms this year.  She's usually much more discriminating so that just goes to show you how sincerely friendly Catherine is! 

Yesterday, we all met up at the pool and splashed around for a few hours.   Maddy wanted to jump into the pool and had her choice of being caught by Mommy or by "Cath-rin".  She picked Catherine every time!

Also present were the uber adorable Salsa Twinkies, Rose and Marie (see photo above).  Gosh, as cliche as it might sound, they're REALLY are just as sweet as they are cute! 

It's exciting to imagine that this time next year Catherine will finally have her precious little Hannah!  We can hardly wait to see her and her baby together and hope they can travel this direction again soon!